Celebrate Green Blog

We are so excited about our Celebrate Green! shop.

From the moment we started Green Halloween in 2006, people have been telling us, “We love the idea of choosing items that are better for our families and the planet. What are they and where do we get them?”

Over the last four years, the market in eco-friendLIER and health-IER goods has exploded, but now the problem for people who want to purchase greener products is: How do we know that what we buy actually is eco-friendlier.

If you’ve ever hunted for say, sustainable jewelry, you’ve no doubt run into a couple of challenges:

1. It can take some digging to figure out whether a product is really sustainable or not and

2. no product is 100% sustainable when you take into consideration not only what it’s made from, but its packaging, shipping and other factors important to us like how people who make it are treated.

Unfortunately, there are no widely accepted definitions for terms like “green” and “sustainable.” These days, Greenwashing, appears to be as prevalent as mosquitoes in a swamp.

When you also weigh issues like local vs. Fair Trade, it’s not an easy task to find products that greenies can feel good about purchasing. The fact is, there simply is no one, perfect answer.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Which is why we decided to open the Celebrate Green! shop at OpenSky.

We have the opportunity to choose items we love, ensure that they meet our expectations in terms of sustainability (keeping in mind as above, that no product/company/person is perfect), spread the word with videos and reviews, and support companies (mostly small, entrepreneurial ventures), that are working to institute eco-practices in their businesses.

We vet every item. For the most part, we try them out (tasting is rough, let us tell you). But more importantly, we look into the company, ask about materials, packaging and how the business is moving toward sustainable practices.

We also encourage them to do more. If their product meets our criteria for basic sustainability, but for instance, the packaging does not, we may still choose to carry the item. Our hope and expectation is that the owner will continue to work toward sustainability.

If you like Celebrate Green!, we think you’ll find lots of great choices in our shop. Please pay a visit today. And if you want to know about special deals, be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.