I know that I always feel guilty when I order something online and it arrives wrapped in bubble wrap, covered with Styrofoam, filled with Styrofoam peanuts, and placed in a box ten times larger than needed.

Even though we can’t tell companies to go easy on their packaging procedures, we can do our part by placing items we send ourselves in more environmentally friendly products. Globe Guard packaging has now made this possible, offering a line of green corrugated and sustainable packaging materials available to consumers in the U.S.

Globe Guard® corrugated boxes are made from 100% post consumer waste material – far exceeding the recycled content of ordinary shipping boxes. Globe Guard® also offers mailers, shipping labels, stretch films, packaging papers, box sealing tapes and packaging dispensers.

To find out more about evironmentally friendly packaging, please visit Globe Guard’s industry leading blog, Inside Sustainable Packaging.

Residents of Spokane, Washington are having a dirty time of it with their dishes. Since July of 2008, dishwasher detergents containing phosphates have been banned in Spokane County – a ban that will go statewide in July 2010. However, residents are smuggling in less eco-friendly dishwater detergents from neighboring areas, because they say the phosphate-free detergents just don’t do the job.

The ban applies to the sale of phosphate detergent, not its use or possession, so those who smuggle are not in any legal trouble.

The smugglers are traveling to nearby Idaho to get their mits on brands like Cascade and Electrasol, as opposed to the brands now only sold in Spokane County such as Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe’s.

There must be a solution to this eco-friendly cleaning products problem – either people have to sacrifice their squeaky clean dishes, or someone’s gotta make a better product.

Although celebrity fashion lines have been more “miss” than “hit,” Pamela Anderson is taking a whack at it – green style.

Anderson is teaming up with fashion designer Richie Rich for a line of environmentally-friendly fashion.

The line named “Muse” will be vegan and feature leather-free shoes and casual clothes, including hooded tops, skirts and swimwear.

“I really don’t like to wear clothes. I would rather go naked. But I love Richie’s designs, so I agreed to be part of Muse,” Anderson said.

Muse by Pamela Anderson and Richie Rich will debut this summer.

So when we, the Sustainability Ninjas decided to start doing product reviews, the first product that came to mind was Pink Solution. My mother-in-law swears by the stuff and I’d always wanted to try it. The Pink Solution people were nice enough to send us a sample of their products, which could not have arrived at a more appropriate time. Firstly, with a baby on the way we’ve been trying to sell our one-bedroom condo and have been having regular open houses. Regular open houses means regular (nightmare) cleanings of our place – and being pregnant, I’ve been starting to worry about the chemicals, like ammonia, in the cleaners we’d been using and was looking to switch over to a safer product like Pink Solution, a natural enzyme cleaner. So we were lucky enough to have the Pink Solution arrive just in time for a major clean.

Now you might think I’m stretching the truth for effect, but I kid you not, a few minutes later we got another package in the mail full of baby clothes I’d gotten at my baby shower while visiting my mother. We noticed immediately that the box was wet with some sort of oily substance. Now, my mother is an awesome lady and all, but she has this terrible habit of being a royal space cadet and had decided to include a bottle of liquid vitamin supplements for my dog that had fish oil as the prime ingredient. Naturally, she (bless her heart) hadn’t closed the lid properly and the supplement – which must hold the title for the greasiest, rankest substance ever invented – ended up spilling out and coating almost everything. When we opened the box, the stench of fish almost knocked us off our feet. Even the clothes that weren’t saturated in the greasy oil still reeked of fish.

And so it was clear: Pink Solution was seriously going to be put to the test.

For the clothes that were stained with the bright yellow fluid, we treated them first with the Pink Solution Laundry Bar, which is apparently six times stronger than Pink Solution and contains Borax. We then threw all the clothes in the bathtub, ran warm water and mixed it with Pink Solution. We let it all soak for a half-hour or so, and let’s put it this way: words can’t explain how thrilled I was to put the clothes up to my nose after they’d been soaking and not smell fish. The bright yellow stains had also disappeared. And thus, it was official. Pink Solution saved our baby from spending her first few months of life smelling like a rotting piece of halibut.

We were so excited that I decided to try out the third product they’d sent us, Mother’s Choice, a non-toxic, organic and bio-degradable oven cleaner. Now I am embarrassed to admit it that we are among the annoying people whose smoke alarm goes off during every oven use, due to the burned crusties on the bottom we’ve been too lazy to clean. However with little effort, Mother’s Choice removed the baked-on oven grime and rust stains that had been there for years.

Reading the instructions, the thing that is most impressive about this environmentally-friendly cleaning product is that you don’t have to worry. Pink Solution contains no harmful chemicals, and is non-caustic. If our dog were to lick an area that had been cleaned with Pink Solution, it would be harmless. (Apparently, some people use it to clean their cats.) Your kid could basically eat the paste and you wouldn’t be frantically calling poison control. And the fact that it works better than those hardcore ammonia and bleach-based products – well, that’s the bonus.

I just realized that this post kind of sounds like an infomercial and I suddenly sound a hell of a lot like Tony Little. Now those of you who may think my raving is shrouded in some sort of Pink Solution advertising deal, I honestly can’t say enough good stuff about this product and there is no Pink Solution sponsorship or endorsement shenanigans going on here. All they did was send us a sample of their product, and, well, it ended up saving us about $500 worth of baby clothes we would have otherwise had to toss out.

To get your hands on their product, head to the Pink Solution website to order online in the U.S. and Canada. Or, check this link out if you are interested in learning how to stop rusting on metal surfaces and moving parts.

One of the most important factors in making your home more energy efficient, and therefore cutting your energy bill bin half, is having your house properly insulated. Thoughtfully ans sustainably designed homes that utilize insulation, thermal mass design and sustainable energy alternatives, such as solar panels, can save some homeowners up to 50% on their yearly energy consumption.

There are lots of great, green alternatives when looking for home insulation. See if you can find ceiling insulation made from sustainable materials, such as Goldenfleece wool insulation. All natural wool fibre has great insulating properties, with the CSIRO claiming, “wool insulation performs better because of it’s ability to rapidly absorb moisture from the air.”

A company called Bonded Logic has developed an eco-friendly insulation that is made from 85% post-industrial recycled denim leftover from the manufacturing of blue jeans. This scrap material is collected and layered into panels and then treated with a solution that acts as a fire retardant, mold, mildew and pest blocker. This eco-friendly insulation is a zero-waste product since it requires very little energy to make and uses materials that were likely headed for a landfill.

There are also many do-it-yourself add-ons you can consider during the colder months to conserve heat and save money on those energy bills. Seal draughts with door snakes or utilize thicker curtains on your windows to keep out the cold air. If you live in a particularly cold climate, installing and maintaining your caulking and weatherstripping is an easy and affordable way to keep heat in, and energy costs low. In one bedroom apartments, direct your heat with the use of room dividers.

Properly designed and well installed insulation is a key factor for an energy-efficient home. With a recently heightened awareness of the global economic recession and of the importance of reducing our carbon footprint, eco-friendly insulation will be one of the ways homeowners upgrade to ensure their home meets these new eco standards, and, as an added bonus, save them money during these difficult times in our economy.

If you’ve experienced some bad luck courtesy of Mother Nature, there may be some environmentally friendly hope that will help you pick up the pieces. A home insurance company is offering owners of destroyed or damaged homes a chance to rebuild with green materials, without breaking the bank while doing so.

Chubb Group of Insurance Companies will pay to rebuild using environmentally friendly materials, low-impact processes and ultra-efficient heating and cooling technology after an insured loss. Chubb will pay the difference between rebuilding the house as it was and rebuilding “green,” up to the amount of GreenWise insurance purchased.

Providing insurance to this growing sector is a means to support the development of the alternative energy marketplace,” said Peter Thompson, vice president, Chubb & Son, and worldwide energy manager for Chubb Commercial Insurance. “With this initiative, we will gain a deeper understanding of the industry and identify new product needs for the array of businesses involved with or affected by renewable energy.”

Policyholders can purchase 10 percent to 100 percent of the insured value of the home, while other insurers typically provide only up to 10 percent of the dwelling limit for “green” coverage.

We all use ‘em – some of us a little too much, but we can’t live without them. You know what I’m talking about. Those wicked little pieces of plastic, which, after they expire get cut up and tossed in a landfill. And now, with the massive credit crunch might going down, many companies have rendered several of your credit cards useless. On a large scale – that equates to millions of plastic cards being thrown out, taking thousands of years to degrade while polluting natural resources like water and soil.

However, the good people over at Discover have found a new way to make money off us without destroying the environment while doing so.

Discover announced the launch of a biodegradable Discover Card option, made of biodegradable PVC, a substance that allows 99 percent of the card plastic to be safely absorbed when exposed to landfill conditions. The company also offered card holders an additional opportunity to help the environment by enrolling in paperless statements.

Now a credit card may seem like too small a piece of plastic to worry about, but with 1.5 billion cards in use in the United States, well, that’s a lot of plastic to throw into our landfills.

A Discover spokesperson says, “We are well pleased with the interest we’ve seen from consumers and our cardmembers about the biodegradable card.”

Last week in Manhattan, Green Depot opened it’s doors to the public. Starting as a national supplier of green building and living materials based in Brooklyn, the new 3,500 square feet store is the customer focussed retail store of the same company. Green Depot is attempting to answer the one-stop shopping needs of the growing number os consumers who are demanding more eco-friendly paint, insulation, woodworking materials, cleaning supplies, flooring and more.

Eco-friendly building materials availability, energy efficient appliances and lighting, and non-toxic products are emerging as major priorities for new home owners and builders, and companies like Green Depot aims to satisfy the growing demands for sustainable lifestyles.

Are you buying green? If so, then you’re among the 82% of consumers who are also opting for eco-friendly products. Even with the economy tanking, a new study  by Green Seal and EnviroMedia Social Marketing and conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, shows that people are spending the extra cash to have a product that’s better for the environment.

“This research suggests that consumers are buying green products second only to participating in recycling,” said Arthur Weissman, Ph.D., Green Seal’s President and CEO. “This increased consumer demand sends a signal to manufacturers to produce products that are truly green.”

Hopefully this study will prompt companies into making their products more eco-friendly. It’s what the people want – and often, they are unsure whether they are getting it. The study also revealed that about one in three consumers say they don’t know how to tell if green product claims are true.

Popular Science’s “Best of What’s New” Award in green tech innovation for their eco-friendly drywall called EcoRock. EcoRock requires 80 percent less energy to produce and cuts CO2 output by 90 percent in comparison to traditional gypsum-based drywall. These reductions in energy and CO2 are won by getting rid of heaters, dryers, calcining and burning of fossil fuels. The material congeals without heat and no mining is necessary in its production. It uses 85 percent recycled content and is itself fully recyclable.

Gypsum drywall factories produce about 20 billion pounds of greenhouse gases a year.