Israeli clothing company Bagir outfits about 1 in 6 UK men. A fraction of those men are set to become more chic with Bagir’s Eco-Gir, a suit made from 100% recycled materials, 30 PET plastic bottles. The company is also set to become the first in the world to label its products with a carbon […]
“I can’t wear that! It’s SOO last season.” Instead of trying to eternally keeping up with the Hiltons why not create you own fashion? Well, now you can! Project Dlaat (Project Pumpkin) is an environmental-social project. Its purpose is to promote recycling by providing second-hand clothing and channels the proceeds to different social purposes.
We here at Green Prophet are all about writing about the environment, and so we were very excited when an ‘environmental writing residency’ opportunity cropped up and landed on the desk today, and eager to share this with our readers. An organisation based in Minnesota, USA is giving writers and artists the chance to stay […]
Cardboard solutions upcycle wasted materials into portable cradle. So being an ecomum, buying new furniture for my daughter is not really my style, but when something like an EcoCradle comes along I am seriously tempted and definitely recommend this as the eco-guilt-free solution for parents or grandparents who would like to buy new furniture. To […]
They’re up, then they’re down. Up, then down. The story with the billboards along the Tel Aviv Ayalon Highway is a bit of a yo yo. That’s why we excited to hear about Naomi’s Abu YoYo (meaning piggyback ride) company which is designing goods from billboard waste. Check out her kitchen accessories for drying dishes, […]
Every morning I feel oneness with nature and my creator when I go to my green city garden just outside my front door in Tel Aviv. There I watch my passion fruit vine grow with tenacity; every morning I check its small tendrils racing to catch the sun while it reaches out to clasp any […]
For some reason my mother always hated hanging plants. And clutter. And collecting things. And although I admire her from here to the moon and back – and learned a great deal from her as well, especially in the taste department – it took one Israeli design student to question her authority. Well, not really […]
Eco-Mom Sophie started the debate on cloth diapers (or nappies as she calls them – it must be a UK thing). She continues her argument for why parents should switch over to cloth. Stinky khaki buckets aside, her arguments are in favor of making this earth a little bit greener. “The Cloth Nappy Reigns” It […]
It once happened that a farmer was removing stones from his field and putting them onto a public thoroughfare. There was a certain pious person who challenged the farmer: “Why are you taking stones from what is not yours and putting them onto what belongs to you?” The farmer just laughed.
One of my fondest memories of my childhood is going out to explore the new world the day after a big snow. I can still remember vividly how the snow would hang off the trees, the pristine white fields so bright that they blind you if you look at them directly. I always felt […]
Jerusalem art students tried their luck recently at weaning Israelis off their addiction to plastic bags at the city’s Machane Yehuda market.Green Prophet recently reported on ‘Plastic for Free’ phenomenon of nylon-binging in Israeli shops, so it’s welcome news that their new shopping bags are not only eco-friendly (made from cloth instead of plastic), they’re […]
Our readers have also been asking about organic gardening during the shmita (or Sabbatical) year in the land of Israel. Are there any loopholes around the halacha? What does shmitta mean? We love the idea of shmitta. The biblically ordained one year out of seven when the land is left to lie fallow (this applies […]
It’s hardly surprising that “Survivor” is a hit: who doesn’t come home from work and immediately hunger to watch white trash in bikini tops hurling bleeped insults at each other over a picturesque campfire? Is it just us? Anyway, it turns out that “Survivor” is not just the last refuge of the dregs of every […]
We’ve been to visit the straw bale legends Bill and Athena Stein in Arizona. Israelis are getting into their own groove building with strawbale. Watch the time-lapsed video and the creation of a straw bale geodesic dome, at Kibbutz Lotan in the Arava Valley. Lately, we are of the notion that it’s more green to […]
Israelis, as the saying goes, are like a cactus fruit, because they are prickly on the outside but sweet in the middle. We kind of think Israelis are like bamboo too: strong as steel but soft and smooth. (If you are into eco-chic, you’ll know why we are talking about bamboo.) Thanks to Designist Dream, […]
This recently published book’s full title is ‘A Crack in the Earth: A Journey up Israel’s Rift Valley,’ and it is just that; in 2004 Jerusalem-based writer and translator Haim Watzman took 2 weeks to travel up the Jordan Valley from Eilat in the south to Kiryat Shmonah in the far north, meeting a wide […]
“Gie me a spark o’ natures fire, thats a’ the learning I desire: Then, tho’ I drudge thro’ dub an’ mire at pleugh or cart, my muse, tho’ hamely in attire, may touch my heart.” Israel’s small but distinguished Scottish community may well be nursing hangovers and sore throats this week, after celebrating the anniversary […]
Natalie Portman has taken up design… big deal! Another hot actress designing clothes… This actually is a big deal. Sizzling its way through all the hottest fashion blogs is the actress’s Vegan footwear! In previous posts we talked about a skirt that can save your life (Yael Mer’s evacuation skirt), a patch that can save your […]
We bumped into Neta’s blog “bobilina” by accident and have been so charmed by her unique hand-made creations, often done with the help of recycled materials and socks (like the creature pictured above).When we lived in Tel Aviv there was always such a bounty of neat fabrics – both at the pedestrian mall on Nachalat […]
(Cross-posted on the Jew and the Carrot.)Although Israel has grown into a modern post-industrial economy, the country still has strong agrarian roots, most famously, the agricultural socialist community of the kibbutz.So it’s no surprise that the relatively minor Jewish festival of Tu B’shvat, which starts tonight, has been growing in importance. In recent years Tu […]
Throughout history when a great event happened people would reset their calendar. When a new king became ruler the year would start again with one. Similarly, that is why we are in the year 2008 Anno Domini, Latin for: in the year of our Lord, referring to the birth of Jesus. In the Jewish calendar, […]
“There are four heads of the year… on the fifteenth of Shvat for the trees…” Mishna, Tractate Rosh Hashana, 1:1 As our home revolves around the Sun, the Jewish calendar is circular as well. How does one year have four beginnings? A circle does not have any beginning, nor does it have an end. Wherever […]
Micheal Reynolds is a true visionary of a sustainable way forward for humanity, housed in buildings that use throwaway materials and don’t need external power or sewage systems. ‘Food, Energy, and Sewage’ is his mantra, and getting them or getting rid of them without reliance on the National Grid system is his pre-occupation. Thankfully, Reynolds, […]
I recently had the opportunity to interview poet laureate and known environmental activist Robert Hass (full interview is here).Hass was in Israel for the “Poetic Natures” conference in Tel Aviv last week, and while he was here he explored some of Israel’s unique environmental features.Among many topics, Hass spoke about the environmental parallels between Israel […]
In Judaism it is traditional to make blessings. In fact sometimes it can feel, for the initiated, that one makes blessings for everything! It can be inconvenient, however, I believe that what lies behind, is the true nature of what it means to be green.
