The Health & Wellness of Green

Over the past few weeks, I found myself traveling to several annual conferences focused on corporate “green” initiatives - including Sustainable Brands ’10 in Monterey (Patrick, Local Planet's founder was there, as well) and the LOHAS Forum in Boulder.   At LOHAS this year, I was working with Mohawk Industries, Healthy Child Healthy World and Activeion to present a panel which would educate our audience on the topic of toxicity in the home.  

I find my messages on sustainability to be shifting. That shift is really more of a focus as I have grown in my understanding of a greater issue we face today which makes conservation and environmentalism more relevant to the average American. And this shift is more than a trend or even a mega-trend. It is a movement. A conscious uncovering of a truth which corporations and businesses big and small are beginning to comprehend as a further retooling of all we make and all we do in the world today.

Locally, Atlanta has many citizens who are advancing the clean & healthy lifestyle.  Just look at the growing organic farming businesses around metro-Atlanta and the dozens of Farmer’s Markets which have emerged in our city over the past several years.  There is no doubt that putting fresh, clean and pesticide free vegetables and fruits into our bodies is a certain way to decrease our risk of environmental cancer.  The U.S. government’s 240-page report, published online in May of this year by the President’s Cancer Panel, says the proportion of cancer cases caused by environmental exposures has been “grossly underestimated.” It warns of “grievous harm” from chemicals and other hazards, and cites “a growing body of evidence linking environmental exposures to cancer.”  From my friends at Burt’s Bees, I recently learned that the three leading culprits are paraben, oxybenzone or phthalates.

Many fear we could look back on these last 60 years and the period in which we began to poison ourselves with toxic chemicals which caused epidemic increases in cancer, ADHD, allergies, autism and obesity (among many other health concerns). Chemical Body Burden studies conducted by the Environmental Working Group, have revealed that we all carry a low level of chemicals in our body from the moment we are created in our mother’s womb to the present. These chemicals have increased over time so that a child born today is exposed to a myriad of toxins – far greater than our grandmothers.

Now the good news! There is a revolution occurring – the return of consumer insight to the health and wellness of our personal care products which is leading our corporations to reformulate products. This move is away from the creation of products with toxic chemicals and toward a more mindful development of our chemistry.

And there is a local revolution beginning in Atlanta.  I know of several leaders in the healthy personal care product space, but one in particular who comes to mind is Aviary Organic Beauty Collective, owned and run by Amy Leavell Bransford.    Located in the Old Fourth Ward district of Atlanta, Aviary is dedicated to providing not only organic products in the spa, but also helping to influence their customers and hopefully the cosmetic industry.   Bransford and her team understand that “beauty is not, in fact, skin deep: that the way we look and feel is deeply and directly influenced by the lives we lead.”   I love their choice of words here as it reminds me of the Skin Deep Database created by the Environmental Working Group.

At Aviary, many healthy and organic personal care products are being used  (such as such as Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, Juice Beauty, and Organic Colour Systems) - all this truly makes Bransford a visionary in that she is dedicated to growing the awareness and use of healthy and safe personal care products.  As we all look for ways we can shift our lives to more sustainable and ultimately healthy choices, frequenting establishments such as Aviary, who create and sell these types of products help to grow the organics industry.  While today, not everyone has access to an Aviary in their neighborhood, I maintain a vision of how supporting women like Bransford in their success can ultimately shift an industry.  Just look at the work of Anita Roddick (The Body Shop) or Horst Rechelbacher (Aveda).  Their products are now mainstream - but they are just the beginning and new leaders in the field are begin to develop even better products which would not dare use paraben, oxybenzone or phthalates in their chemistry.

Perhaps more than a few of you are reading this entry from work or home where it might encourage you to carry some of this knowledge into your job and to your family and shift the decisions we make every day which can influence and effect the products and services we put out into the world.  I suggest you take one product out of your bathroom a week, look at the ingredients on the label and educate yourself on the safety of the chemicals being used. It could save your life or that of your children.  The best resources are Environmental Working Group and the Skin Deep Database.  Remember the the three leading culprits: paraben, oxybenzone or phthalates, look for these on the labels when you shop and then, begin to replace those personal care products with products such as those used and carried by Aviary.