April Blog Carnival: Green for Earth Day!

I'm so excited, this is my first time hosting a blog carnival--yep, that means I thought of the topics, so even though I've been morning sick and not posting much, you betcha I'm gonna manage to get this post written!!!

Since April 22 is Earth Day... Let's Go Green!
1) What is green in your shop? (this can be something literally green in color, or something eco-friendly) -OR-
2) What do you do (or what can you do!) to make your etsy business or home a little bit greener?

I'm going to touch on both topics actually.
I carry a lot of eco-friendly products!

My main items are cloth diapers, menstrual pads, nursing pads, and wetbags, but I also make fabric gift bags.

As for my business practices, it starts with the fact that I've diversified my stock in order to make better use of my materials. I started out making diapers for my own baby, and then using the smaller pieces of fabric from between the diapers to make pads to sell. After I had enough diapers for my son I started selling diapers too. Then I figured out that I could make nursing pads with the smaller scraps, and what can I say, I hate to waste fabric, so I love that I'm able to make so many things from the same materials! It's not just green, it's also very economical--and the savings for me in materials cost is something that I'm able to pass on to my customers, and they seem to appreciate it too. ☺
Another thing I do is that I use mostly recycled packaging for my products. Fabric goods are not fragile, so I don't need to pad them very much. I also prefer to avoid boxes because they are heavier to mail (since my products are lightweight, I was literally paying to ship the box, not the product!). I often re-use envelopes that I have received items in, but I also use plain brown packing paper, as well as cereal boxes turned inside out. I decorate my packages with some awesome rubber stamps that I also got on etsy, and they are green and cute! Recycling saves me on packaging costs, and using the lightweight options of paper or cereal boxes saves on shipping costs, all of which translates to low shipping costs for my customers as well. ☺

Honestly, all the products that I sell (the diapers, menstrual pads, gift bags, etc) are things that I used for my family before I ever thought of selling them. So yeah, I guess we're a bunch of hippies out here. On the other hand, it's so economical to be green, and if being green can save some green, doesn't it sound like something we should all try?!