Greenwashing and How to Avoid It

With the increased focus worldwide on taking better care of our planet and preserving our natural resources, marketing campaigns have started to focus on sustainability as a selling point in many fields. This is an awesome move if the company really is an active advocate for preserving water, energy and the like; however, many times companies toss a green marketing claim to consumers based on little to no actual action. Customers who fall for these claims and purchase advertised products from companies who aren't actually green are doing little to help save our planet and, in reality, may be unwillingly doing more harm than good. We call this "greenwashing."

Fortunately, greenwashing is a villain that can be stopped relatively easily if consumers are careful and pay close attention to products they purchase. The most accurate way to avoid being greenwashed is to properly research "green" products before purchasing. If your favorite detergent company has just launched a green cleaner, take the time to check facts about what exactly makes this new detergent qualify as green.

On this same note, avoiding greenwashing is about more than just ensuring that you buy holistic products. The idea behind going green requires that we do everything in our power to reduce the carbon footprint each of us leaves on the world. In this way, we can directly save many of the non-renewable resources we're currently flying through. That said, even if a product really is "green" on the consumer side, if the company is required to use more energy and produce more waste in order to create the product, perhaps promoting its production isn't the best thing for our planet. Just like you research your products, research the companies who make them. Are they really following a green initiative or just trying to make a buck off the good efforts of others?

I'm very happy to see the overwhelming number of new environmentally friendly options on the market, but remember the reason for these products. If we aren't actually conserving the earth's resources, perhaps these campaigns are less "green" and more "greenwash."

by Anjie Cho


Q&A Sunday: Front Door and the Six Killings

What do you do when the front door faces your six killings direction?

Soy K., Pinole, CA

Hi Soy!

Thank you for asking this very interesting question. As you may (or may not) know, I’m a BTB Feng Shui practitioner. BTB is one of the many many schools of feng shui. This question is for a classical feng shui expert, so I consulted my good friend Beth Grace, who also does our yearly Chinese Zodiac readings. You can check the 2018 readings here

By the way, I also incorporate classical feng shui here and there in my own life, but my expertise is in BTB feng shui. And in regards to advising others, my teachers have said a beginner (like someone who’s read a book) may know just enough to be dangerous. Of course, it's beneficial to try techniques out and see how they work for yourself. For instance, in BTB and in Buddhism, you are encouraged to experience and work with all the dharma teachings. Keep what works, discard what doesn’t. But when teaching others, your karma mixes with theirs… and it’s a big responsibility! So with that, I am so pleased to share what Beth offers us.

Beth reminds us that in all the schools of feng shui (she’s been educated in quite a few!), the front door to your home is very important. We want the qi, or life energy, coming into our home to be positive, which is good feng shui. Liu sha is translated into English as the “six killings”. Beth says the meaning is “distorted in translation”. The English word “kill” or “killing” provokes fear in us. Instead, Beth and I wish to reconsider this fear-based way of looking at the world. The six killings is not about anyone being killed, but about six negative activities that can be brought on: lawsuits, bodily injury, need for surgery, robbery, scandals and adultery. Of course these are still undesirables, so what to do? I quote Beth: “All is not lost; we have tools!”

In classical feng shui, there are eight directions, four are positive and four are negative. The six killings is one of the negative directions. Beth tells us that each sector, for instance the North, is divided further into three sub-sectors, North 1, North 2, and North 3. An experienced feng shui practitioner can determine which sector the front door actually falls into. Your door may not be in a problematic area.

But if you do find out the door is still in the six killings direction, you can further fine tune your feng shui with Xuan Kong Da Gua, which divides your floor plan into the 64 hexagrams. There are smaller sectors and with this technique, if required, you can change, tilt and/or alter the front door to welcome better energy into your home (and life) based on your personal astrology. For example you can match your personal hexagram(s) to your front door. 

That said, with this fine tuning, I cannot emphasize enough that it’s very important to engage an experienced feng shui consultant for something as specific as this. Be careful!

And many, many, many thanks to the beautiful and wonderful Beth Grace for sharing her knowledge and expertise with us! Be sure to check out her website; she has a great monthly newsletter with Chinese Astrology predictions every month. I highly recommend you sign up! Don't forget to check out your Chinese Zodiac for the Year of the Earth Dog, also thanks to Beth!

by Anjie Cho 


Thanks for reading our "Q&A Sunday".  We will be answering questions submitted by our readers. Click here to submit any Feng Shui or Green Design questions!


How to Arrange a Compact Teen Bedroom

featured this month on Houzz by Eva Byrne

A teen bedroom is a place of refuge, a private retreat from family life. You’ll need to provide somewhere to sleep, somewhere to study and somewhere to store clothes. With clever planning, you can accommodate these needs in even the tiniest of spaces. Think in terms of a ship’s cabin to squeeze the most out of every available centimetre.

When planning your family home, it’ll do no harm to think ahead to this stage from the outset, so radiators and wardrobes are in the best spots for the optimum teen layout.

Max the make-up

A teen girl will always appreciate even the tiniest of dressing tables. Your bathroom will thank you, too, with one less demand on its use.

Slip a narrow table within the run of wardrobes, perhaps near the window to maximise that all-important light. Add strong artificial light for night-time use, and, of course, a large mirror. A drawer beneath the dressing table would be handy for lotions and potions.

...read full article


Banner 17.jpg