Sustainability is the practice of avoiding sucking up natural resources to maintain Mama Earth’s important ecological balance. This also means taking care of planet and people, making sure our complete ecosystem (you included!) has access to what it needs to thrive. Unfortunately, we’re not doing such a great job.

As energy prices continue to skyrocket, we’re all looking for ways to save money on our monthly bills. And the environmentalists among us are also looking to decrease our dependency on brown energy, like natural gas. Enter the sun.

You’ve no doubt seen solar panels lining rooftops and otherwise empty fields. And while there’s a hefty initial investment involved, solar panels might be the planet-friendly solution you’ve been looking for.

With so many brands making “green” promises—and most of them charging an arm and a leg for their stuff—it’s tough to know what’s worth it and what’s not. We’ve got you covered. Here are our top 7 favorite sustainable brands.

For the meat-eaters out there (like us), it can be hard to imagine a life without our favorite meals: hamburgers, steaks, and fried chicken. But here’s the thing: Eating meat isn’t all that great for our bodies or for our planet.

We spend so. much. time in our indoor spaces—cooking, eating, sleeping, relaxing, working, and *cough* the bedroom stuff. Often, our homes are places to escape the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

Your home should be an oasis—a sanctuary where you can find peace and calm whenever you need it. If that’s not how your home feels right now, It’s time to take it back, one step at a time!

Like most folks, we’ve found ourselves spending the last couple of years in reflection mode. Over and over again, we sat down, got super serious, and asked ourselves, “What really matters to us?”

The more we thought about it—and the more the world around us kept changing—we kept coming back to this: Connection.

Like many things we do as human beings, remodeling can wreak havoc on the planet.

It turns out lots of stuff in our homes is pretty toxic. For example, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are chemicals found in almost everything we use to build and maintain our homes.

Spring cleaning is upon us. And if you’re anything like us, you’re pretty much dreading it.

Whether it’s actually doing the tasks at hand or the planning and prep you hate the most, spring cleaning and maintenance can be a real buzzkill. 

For the planning-isn’t-really-my-thing folks out there, this blog is def for you.

If you’re anything like us, you get stuck in this all-or-nothing mentality when it comes to sustainability. Either you’re 100% zero-waste or what’s the point, right?

But the truth is, even tiny swaps can make a big impact on our environment.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, home insurance claims are relatively rare–only 5 in 100 homes each year. But if you’re among the unlucky 5%, life can get massively complicated. Navigating the homeowner’s insurance claim process is long, difficult, and stressful.

These tips will help you help your insurance company.

Colorado’s high altitude presents some unique planting challenges. But we think it’s worth a shot, especially since it’s good for us and Mama Earth.

After the holiday season it can be tricky to know exactly what to do next. The tree’s not going to just stay there the whole year, right? Sooooo… how in the world do you get rid of a Christmas tree?

The short answer? You recycle it.

New Year’s resolutions are A-W-F-U-L. We feel the pressure to become this new, more evolved person just because we’re flipping over the calendar. 

By February 27, when we’ve gone back to our old ways, we beat ourselves up and totally call it quits. Then, what do we do the next year? Yup… we do it all over again.

This year let’s ditch the resolutions. Let’s try intentions instead.

Connection is something we could all use a little (or a lot!) more of. That’s one of the reasons we L-O-V-E the holiday season. From November to January, we’re all warm and fuzzy thinking about all the opportunities to live, laugh, love (sorry) with our friends and family. 

But, let’s be honest. Sometimes holiday connection feels just a tad… forced.

As it turns out, the holidays aren’t that great for Mama Earth.  For example, we pitch 25% more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day than any other time of year. That’s 25 million tons of garbage.

Everything is more expensive nowadays. But during the holidays, we try to ignore the sticker price, don’t we? After all, we want our friends and family to have all the things.

But then January rolls around and we get our first credit card statement of the new year… which prompts us to add “stick to a budget” to our list of New Year’s resolutions. Again.

Here are 10 Ways to Save Over the Holidays.

Since many of us will soon be bellying up to an overflowing Thanksgiving table, we decided this would be the perfect time to both express gratitude for all that delicious food—and pay homage to the planet that produced it. And there’s no better way to do that than to make our celebrations a little more sustainable.

Life can get really tough sometimes. We feel like circus performers trying to juggle work, family, friends, hobbies, sleep, health, that thing someone asked you to do last week, and more. All at the same time.

It’s a lot to deal with, and most of it is stuff we can’t just … stop doing. So instead, we have to learn to cope with it. Mindfulness meditation can help.

So, first the bad news… Heating and cooling your home is pretty sucky for the environment. Our HVACs release a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, especially if they’re not in tip-top shape. And all that CO2 contributes to air pollution and climate change.

Basically, the more we use our HVACs, the more we’ll need our HVACs in the subsequent hot and cold extremes caused by our climate crisis.

Plant parent is the new dog mom. And thanks to millennials all over the world, the gardening industry is now worth billions of dollars.

Houseplants are great for the aesthetic, obviously. They’re fun to care for, make beautiful Instagram content, and add a little bit of spice to your interior design. And, if you’re like most people, one of your reasons for having a houseplant or two is that they supposedly clean your air for you.

We know, we know… Arbor Day seems like just another obscure holiday—like National Bowtie Day or Cheese Pizza Day. But it’s actually a big-deal environmental celebration.