Aroma-Zone is a green workshop which specializes in natural ingredients (hydrolats, vegetable butters, essential oils). People can buy their how–to kits to make their own green cosmetics. Aroma-Zone also offers “cosmetic workshops”, from Tuesdays to Saturdays, in small groups of 5 to 6 people. The price is EUR 25 for one hour. The shop is a goldmine of good products : soaps, lip balms, massage oils, colognes, body milks…etc…

Open from Tuesdays to Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p. m., Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sundays from 10:30 a. m. to 1:30 p.m.(during the opening hours of the rue Mouffetard market).

Aroma-Zone
1, rue de l’Arbalète
75005 Paris
France
T. : +33.(0)1.43.36.82.24
boutique.paris@aroma-zone.com

Announced for spring 2010, the Bluecar is a little jewel, full of green innovations that will certainly start a revolution in the world of cars. Urban chic, this 5 doors car is definitely made for the city. Respecting the environment, she has a roof equipped with a solar panel, vegetal leather seats and a bodywork designed by Pininfarina, the famous  designer. On top of it all, the Bluecar allows you to live in an quieter urban environment : she drives silently!
But you’d better hurry up : you can’t buy the Bluecar, you can only rent it, for EUR 30 a month. The waiting list is surely going to be long for all those who like green and technological innovations!

You are green, and you’d like your pet to become green too without having to spend too much money?
Here are some advice and tricks to become a eco friendly and responsible master for your animal!

His food
Buy terrines, kibbles and biscuits with natural and green ingredients and no additives or conservatives. Change his food over a period of 8 to 10 days by mixing new and old ingredients.

His cleanliness
Respecting the skin quality of your animal also means respecting the environment, by using shampoos and other cleaning products with no parabens and neutral ph. Use a large variety of products depending on the color, the race and the fur of your animal. Use large cans, preferably, they’re greener and cheaper. His excrements are also a problem ( especially in cities), so they need to be picked up. That’s when recyclable bags come in handy! They disintagrate over a period of 10 to 45 days, depending on the compost. You can even be more radical by flushing the content in the toilets.

His health
Treatments against fleas, against itching etc…can start allergies. You can now buy a green version of them, such as the treatment against parasites, with no insecticide. Plants can also be a good way of healing your dog, with phytotherapy. To go even further you can take him to see an homeopath vet!

His look
For everything regarding accessories, such as collars or leashes , look for eco friendly and hypoallergenic materials such as hemp or bamboo. If you like leather, choose a vegetal tanning with a nickel buckle.

His bed
The best thing for him to lie on would be a soft rug made in eco friendly material

His leasures
To play with him, use soft toys in green cotton or very resistant toys made from recycled plastic bottles. An old tennis ball can also do the trick.

Shopping selection :
- natural bamboo leash 3 positions : EUR 22,60
- hemp collar Peace and Flowers : EUR 24,95
- ball Ecolo Dog : EUR 14,20
- bags Vert de ville : EUR 4,99 for 50 bags

Now you dog has all the chances to be a fashionable, 100% green animal from head to toe in 2010!
You can also read the book “Eco Dog”, by Corbett Marshall et Jim Deskevich (Chronicle Books), to learn how to make green, balanced dishes at home and find fitness advice.

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Opened since the beginning of January, this new kind of fast food is a good compromise between urban consumption and ecofriendly policy. The food is prepared every morning in the restaurant’s kitchen (so the food is really fresh), and made only with organic and/or fair trade products. So between two appointments, the customers can discover black quinoa, pink rice or fonio (an cereal from West Africa). The Quinoe staff has thought about everything : the fast food decoration is ecofriendly (natural paints, vegetal based organic ink, sorting of recyclables) so we can sip on a sweet ginger-baobab juice. On top of that, Quinoe is also a fair trade grocery store, offering products labeled Max Havelaar, and recipe books (so you can impress your mother in law next time you invite her over for a family meal). You have the choice between two formulas : one at EUR 12 ( 1 course with a drink and dessert) or the one at EUR 11, 50 with a big salad, a drink and dessert. In the evening, the place becomes an ecofriendly bar, between 6 and 9 p.m.That a good alternive for our urban stressed out consumer society!

Copyright: Edouard Pecheteau

Quinoé
59, rue des Mathurins
75008 Paris
France
T. : 01.40.06.91.04

Copyright: Edouard Pecheteau

For those wishing to voice their ideas in ecology, one solution: the contest Be Green Film Festival. The goal is simple: participants realize a short film of 3 minutes maximum, and put it directly online on the festival website. Directed by using a mobile phone or a camera, these films are required to address one of the following themes: biodiversity, water, waste, global warming, energy, transport, or habitat. A selection is then performed within thirty films, which is submitted to a jury of professionals (media, artists, political or scientific).
The results of this unique competition will be provided on Thursday, February 18th, at Studio RTL.

The Chrismas tree is no longer king of the forests but king of the cities ! Indeed, the big trend nowadays is to give a second life to the beautiful Christmas tree who filled the whole family with wonder during Chrismas break. Every year, Parisians are invited to leave their Christmas trees in specific compartments in the parks and gardens of the city.27 000 Christmas trees have therefore been collected this year. They will then be crushed to be transformed in mulching that will be laid down at the bottom of the trees. Parisians beat their record this year : last year the city only collected 15 000 trees, and 20 800 in 2008.The Christmas tree still has great days ahead!

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The winter Olympic Games have just started in Canada, and already Whistler is all the media talk about. This little ski resort is about 120 miles away from Vancouver and deserves a “green” medal for being an example in ecology. Ken Melamed, the city mayor, declared that “the event must be as neutral as possible in terms of carbon dioxide production”. This statement comes with many ecofriendly actions : the Olympic village will only count 220 apartments, there’s a quota of only 8000 spectators admitted in the trials arrival area, all the housing locations for athletes are built in green materials (The floors are made in bamboo, the veeners for the facades are in cedar. The parking lots of the new complex will be reserved only for staff and athletes. The only way to go to the ski resort is by coach.

The mayor of Whistler has really decided to protect the beautiful mountains of his dear British Colombia, which seems to be in real danger. Indeed, with the global warming, nearly 13 millions of hectares of ponderosa pine forests were destroyed by the dendrochton, a really harmful beetle. So far, the Vancouver Olympics are the greenest in history.

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Prof Klaus Lackner presented is solution for global warming : synthetic trees. Accord to a report published by the British Institute of Advanced Mechanics (ImechE), 1 tree could save 90 000 tons of carbon dioxine a year, the equivalent of the carbon dioxine emissions of more than 20  000 cars!
The idea is simple : synthetic trees filter the carbon dioxine the same way real trees do. Once treated, this concentrated gas could be stored at the bottom of the oceans. But this “quick fix” isn’t really one. Scientists would like that, first of all, the citizens of each country realize how much carbon dioxine they produce and do everything they can to reduce it. Each synthetic tree would cost the slight amount of EUR 13 000.
Apparently governments are not ready to make such an investment. Those trees could, among other things, allow us to gain time in order to find alternate sources of energy, other than the fossil energies we rely on today. Let’s not forget that the 2003 NYC black  out showed us how fragile our way of life is, depending so much on energy. Only one question remains : Is it really safe to store up this gas in the ocean? Nobody can answer that today.

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The 2Moss spa is a special place, totally dedicated to hair care. It is a mix between the classic hair salon and a ecofriendly place, using a brand of certified organic products. Created by Elyane Moschoc, this unique place is intended both for men and women. The women’s space has a boudoir look alike decoration, while the men’s space has more of an Art deco vibe. Don’t wait to go green and pamper your hair at the same time this winter!

Opened from Tuesday to Sat. from 11 a.m. to to 7 p.m.

2Moss
5, square de l’Opéra Louis Jouvet
75009 Paris
France
T. : +33.(0)1.44.56.03.66
contact@2moss.fr

I can’t wait  any longer to thank all those who have helped me to prepare my trip to South America and allowed me to bring two or three ecofriendly and pratical things in my backpack.
Thanks to Ecologie-shop for the Freeloader Pro and the quick loader, to Lush for their fresh handmade cosmetics that are good for me but don’t pollute the planet.
Finally I’d like to thank Serge from Greenty, Sylvie from Mon Soin du Visage, Aaron from 1GreenProduct, Nadège from LaBlondeEcolo, Sathees from the Litchi Bar, and Eric from Biovie who have sent me their encouragements and who have promised me to follow my trip very carefully on Ecolo-info who will relay my adventures during those 50 days.

Hasta pronto!

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