Special April Workshop Preview

Here is a preview of the FIVE Wednesday evening workshops we'll be offering at All Shades of Green in honor of Earth Month.  The best news?  We're offering them on a donation basis (20.00 suggested).

Here's the line-up:

The Sustainable Kitchen

Wednesday, April 2nd
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.


The Non-Toxic Home
Wednesday, April 9th
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.


Saving Energy Saves Money: A Guide to Green Home Energy and Rebates
Wednesday, April 16th
7:00 to 9:00 p.m.


How to Live Water-Wise in L.A.
Wednesday, April 23rd
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.


Composting and Recycling
Taught by John Lyons of The Woven Garden
Wednesday, April 30th
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.


All Shades is also hosting its signature Saturday workshop:

Passion for the Planet! A Complete Guide to Going Green in L.A.
Saturday, April 19th
10:00 a.m. to noon
Price: $20.00
Teachers: $15.00
Students: $10.00

To pre-register or for more information on any of the workshops, please call (323) 665-7454 or email creativegreen@hotmail.com

Simple Shoes For Spring

All Shades has a great selection of spring clothing on its racks, including Simple shoes.

One employee favorite is the women's Toe Stir (82.00).

Simple is making a real difference by producing shoes that leave a much smaller footprint.

Let us demonstrate:

the Toe Stir is made without any animal byproducts.  Instead, it contains natural, good stuff like hemp, bamboo, latex (rubber) and coconut.  Not only that, this shoe practices the second R (reuse)--it's got 100% post-consumer paper pulp and the outsole is made from recycled tires.  If only we could all trade in our tires for a good pair of walking shoes!

We hope you'll come in and check out our selection of shoes that will put some spring in your step, without the environmental footprint. (We also have last season's women's Campers for sale.)

The Scoop on LEDs versus CFLs

CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) have gotten a lot of attention over the last couple of years as a simple way to save yourself from emitting more than your share of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And, while it is absolutely true that they are much more efficient than conventional incandescent bulbs, the real superstar of light bulbs just may be the LED (light emitting diode).

We’ve all seen them on digital clocks and large, outdoor screens, but LEDs are now popular options for strands of colored holiday lights as well as regular, run of the mill light bulbs for your home.

Whole cities are making the switch to LEDs to save 40 – 70 % of the energy a city uses for lighting street lamps, parking lots and the like through the LED City program. 

How does this work?

LED technology is totally unique in that it doesn’t waste energy creating heat like other bulbs. All its energy goes to the main attraction—light. (If you want to read about the science behind LEDs, refer to this article at How Stuff Works.)

These facts might help:

• A 60 watt incandescent bulb lasts 1500 hours; a CFL lasts 10,000; and a 2 watt LED finishes in first place lasting 60,000 hours!

• LEDs do not contain mercury like CFLs, making end of life disposal safer.

• LEDs contain no filament so they’re extremely durable and will last for years upon years.

• LEDs can save you 80% on your energy bill.

• Batteries powering an LED gadget will last 10-15 times longer than if run on an incandescent bulb.
(from Eartheasy.com) 

Put another way, to get 60,000 hours out of a 60 watt incandescent bulb, you’d have to replace it over and over again at a cost of $40.21. To save those replacements, you can use just one 2 watt LED that could cost you less, at $34.95.

So, while LEDS are a significant investment up front, they are energy powerhouses over the long haul.

Come into All Shades to learn more and to get an LED bulb that works for you (from 31.99-55.00).

Transportation Workshop This Wednesday

All Shades has the pleasure of hosting a workshop led by Rick Risemberg of Bicycle Fixation this Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m.

Come and learn how easy it is to get around your city on your own power or with the help of public transit--even if your city is as vast and busy as Los Angeles!

The workshop will cover equipment, clothing, techniques and attitudes that make all-weather bicycling not only practical, but pleasurable.  Free yourself from obesity, stress, high fuel prices and boredom, and the planet from sprawl and pollution.  

If you've been considering commuting one day a week to work or ditching your four wheel drive altogether, this one evening can put you on the road in a totally new, earth and life-friendly way.

Sustainable Transportation Using Bicycles and Public Transportation with Rick Risemberg

Wednesday, March 26th.

7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

General: $15.00

Teachers: 25% off

Students: 50% off.

@ All Shades of Green

3038 Rowena Avenue

Los Angeles 90039

To pre-register or for more information, please call (323) 665 - 7454 or email creativegreen@hotmail.com.

You can learn more about Bicycle Fixation, a resource all about cycling in Los Angeles, here.

And, check out their blog here.

Spring Cleaning: Laundry

In honor of the official start of spring, the All Shades of Green staff thought we'd tell you about a product we're nuts about:

Maggie's Soap Nuts.

What are soap nuts?  They're the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry tree.  Each nut contains saponin, a natural cleanser released when the nut gets wet.  People in South East Asia used to clean their clothes with soap nuts for thousands of years, long before Tide hit the scene.

The beauty of Maggie's Soap Nuts is that they're totally natural, sans artificial fragrances and chemicals that can irritate our skin and airways and eventually wash out to sea, polluting waterways and the ocean.  And, one tree produces literally hundreds of kilos of nuts every year that fall to the ground, begging to be collected and put to good use.

All you do is put some soap nuts in the cotton sack provided, throw it in your washing machine, and go about laundry business as usual, naturally.

You can learn more about the history and cultural significance of soap nuts in India and Ayurvedic medicine here.

And, stop by the store and pick up some soap nuts for truly fresh spring laundry (11.00 for 16-20 loads; 19.99 for 36 loads; 36.00 for 200 loads).

Happy spring!

Smart Power Strip

Energy month continues at All Shades of Green and we have another gadget for you that will go the distance in being green and saving green.

The Smart Power Strip has gotten a lot of attention lately, for good reason. 

 

With any power strip, you can click off the power being sucked by so-called vampires, appliances that drain energy even when not in use.  But remembering or having the time to do that can be tough.

The Smart Strip senses which devices are not being used all on its own (that's why it's smart!) and cuts off their power automatically, no clicking off on your part required.

So, you can plug your computer into the "control" outlet and if it's being used, all related devices plugged into the other outlets--printer, fax, lamp even--will have electricity flowing to them.  But the moment you stop using your computer, the strip cuts off the flow of electricity to it along with all those other peripheral devices.

You can get up to go to lunch and your energy supply takes a lunch break, too. 

 

This is a very helpful tool for places besides the office, too.  Anywhere that has a bunch of stuff plugged in could benefit from a Smart Strip like the kitchen counter or that corner of the living room with the T.V., DVD, cable box, and stereo all plugged in.

We've got Smart Strips with seven outlets in the store now (34.99).

Green Drinks at All Shades Thursday Night

 L.A.'s Green Drinks are events where environmentally-minded folks mix in different parts of the city on different Thursday evenings.

The Hollywood/Silver Lake Green Drinks is going to be at our store this 

Thursday, March 20 at 7:00 p.m.

We hope to see you there to mix up some drinks and conversation.

Home Energy Savings

As it's energy month as All Shades of Green, we want to help give you all the tools you need to conserve energy and make a difference in your home.

One important way is to know the facts about your energy use and your contribution to our collective emissions.

A useful tool is the Home Energy Saver, an online audit calculator sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and Energy Star.

There, you can enter your zipcode and detailed information about your utility bills, home features, and typical usage in order to find out how much energy you're using as well as what you can do to get those numbers down.

They also have this page of low or no-cost home conservation tips.

And, we're having another energy-themed workshop this Saturday meant to help you along the path to ultimate energy know-how.

Please come and join us as Deborah Tull walks homeowners through steps to conserve electricity and natural gas while maximizing opportunities for rebates.

Saving Energy Saves Money: A Guide to Green Home Energy and Rebates

Saturday, March 22nd

10:00 a.m. to noon

Price: $20.00

Teachers: $15.00

Students: $10.00

@ All Shades of Green

3038 Rowena Avenue

Los Angeles 90039

To pre-register or for more information, please call (323) 665 - 7454.

Liza's Compassionate Listening Retreat

Liza, owner extraordinaire of All Shades of Green, is at Israel's Arava Institute for Environmental Studies where she's studying sustainability and peace issues.

Last week, she went on a compassionate listening retreat where she and her classmates stayed in the Arava desert exercising deep, nonjudgemental listening with the help of facilitators.  This was an especially meaningful experience as the students are a mix of Palestinians, Israelis, and Americans. 

They also held a drum circle with Darbukas, Middle Eastern hand drums.

You can find out more about the work of the Compassionate Listening Project here.

Kill-A-Watt

As it's energy month at All Shades, here is another home gadget that will help you conserve energy and live consciously.

The electricity meters for my apartment building happen to be right outside my front door, so, I can obsessively track my consumption and compare it with my neighbors anytime.  But as for individual appliances in my home, I have no idea which ones are the worst offenders or how much juice they're using on a given day.

Enter the Kill-A-Watt.

All you do is plug this handy gizmo into any appliance and its LED screen will tell you how many kilowatt hours that appliance is using, in a minute, in an hour, in a month.  

It's a great tool for helping you get the facts about how much electricity your machines are burning up.  You can find out if they're vampires (appliances that use juice even when they're off) and make decisions about things like whether or not to replace your current, dusty fridge with a shiny, new energy star model and whether investing in a power strip in a given room will save both energy and money.

We've got these little gadgets in the store now (39.95) to help you get a handle on the electricity coursing through your home.

We've Got Press!

your daily thread, a new, conscious-living city guide for Los Angeles featured All Shades of Green in a recent article.

You can see what they had to say here.

Solar Cookers

Sure, you could use a solar cooker for a camping trip, but for those of us in sun-lavished parts of the world, a sun-powered oven could come in handy nearly every dinner time.  

Solar Cookers International has been manufacturing solar ovens for over two decades, and their work goes way beyond selling a cooking alternative that is clean, convenient, and completely non-polluting.  

In fact, this non-profit has provided solar cookers for 30,000 families in Africa who would otherwise have to travel by foot to look for firewood, sometimes over dangerous terrain.

You can learn more about the work Solar Cookers International does here.

And to support the cause and experiment with a new way to cook culinary delights, you can purchase your own solar cooker at All Shades of Green.

We have a basic cooker (only 30.00) as well as a whole kit and kaboodle with the cooker, roasting pan, cookbook, and water pasteurization indicator (70.00).

Barbecues will never be the same!

Solar Cooking Workshop This Saturday

All You Need to Know About Harvesting Energy From the Sun Workshop

When: Saturday, March 15th, 9:30 a.m. to noon

Where: All Shades of Green

             3038 Rowena Avenue

             Los Angeles, CA 90039

Price: $20.00

Teachers: $15.00

Students: $10.00

To pre-register or for more information, please call (323) 665-7454.

Our very own seasoned Sustainability Coach, Deborah Tull (check her out in Yogi Times here) and Amanda Bramble, Director of the Ampersand Sustainable Living Center will show you how to take advantage of spring and summer sunny skies.  

Even if you're to not yet ready to install solar panels, there are plenty of ways to harness solar energy in your everyday life.  The workshop will explore:

Solar cooking techniques with solar cookers and ovens

solar water heaters

and

passive solar home heating and cooling techniques.

Workshop attendees will have a chance to learn the ins and outs of solar cookers and to purchase one at a 5% discount.

We hope to see you Saturday!

 

Welcome To the All Shades of Green Blog

All Shades of Green opened its doors in September 2007 to be a meaningful resource for Angelenos who want to "go green" from head to toe, kitchen to garden, and home to office.

What We Offer:

All Shades is a RETAIL STORE with stocked with organic cotton, hemp, and bamboo clothing, shoes, and accessories; home decor; kitchen and cleaning products; baby clothes, toys, and essentials; eco-friendly bath linens; gardening resources; books; shopping totes and water bottles; stationary; natural body products; and more.

It is calm, inviting and deliberately designed with bamboo floors and shelves, non-toxic paint, and an exquisite eco-resin panel.

All Shades is a DESIGN CENTER that can help you remodel your home with innovative, sustainable materials and rethink your yard with ecologically-friendly landscaping plans.

All Shades is a place for community EDUCATION.  Our staff sustainability coach teaches workshops on relevant green living topics to empower you on the path to a life in line with your principles.

Come visit us or make a consultation appointment at (323) 665-7454.

Owner Liza Shtromberg

Liza is a well-known member of the Los Feliz/Silver Lake community where she has been designing jewelry for 20 years.

Last year, she turned her eclectic boutique on Rowena, Island LS, into All Shades of Green, a store that demonstrates her commitment to environmental awareness, practice and harmony.

Now, she is studying at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, a groundbreaking school where Jewish, Arab and American students study together on a kibbutz in an atmosphere of peace and cooperation, looking for sustainable answers to environmental problems.

This summer she will bring back all that she's learned there -- from conflict mediation to sustainable development -- to make a difference in Los Angeles.