A useful new website on all things enviro-friendly recently launched, giving Netizens the Google of “greening” anything, from cellphones to baby food. GreenYour.com is building one of the most comprehensive libraries of environmental info on the Web.
Digital Journal — Let’s say you want to learn how to find nontoxic insect repellent for this upcoming camping season. Or maybe you want to buy eco-friendly lingerie. Now there’s a nifty search engine available free to anyone hunting for environmental info on consumer products.
GreenYour.com provides more than 500 tips on greenifying your home, business and consumer lifestyle. In addition, the site recommends around 2,000 products within the advice-heavy Web pages.
Apart from the usual suspects (air conditioning, cars, cleaning products), the site’s subject area veers into the wonderfully unusual. Example: find out the best “green dating” practices by inputting “dating” into the search bar, and read details on seven tips, such as “Buy organic flowers” and “Use a green online dating service.” Yes, sites like
Green Singles actually exist.
New York-based GreenYour.com began when parent company GreenOrder, a sustainability management consultancy, noticed people becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of clear information on what they can do at a lifestyle level to help Mother Earth.
Mateo Bueno, director of marketing and strategy for GreenYour, told DigitalJournal.com in an interview: “We saw an opportunity to create a comprehensive, easy-to-use search tool to let people fill in the blank for anything they sought to green, from their spring break to their backyard.”
The site’s tips pages aren't just quick bullet-point advice tidbits. A “Facts” tab for each subject provides sourced information, glossaries and external links. And as Bueno noted, the site features comprehensive guidance on how to get the eco-friendly task done and what to consider before buying the recommended products. Bueno added that the products listed on the site are vetted by the editorial board, so no company can “buy their way” on to the site. Rather, they have to meet GreenYour’s strict green criteria.
Courtesy of GreenYour.com GreenYour.com lets you input search terms to learn how to "greenify" any aspect of your consumer lifestyle.
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More than 20 environmental writers have offered their expertise on the various subjects on GreenYour.com but the site is seeking to expand in a very Web 2.0 way: its open-source platform allows members to add new content around their particular areas of interest. So if you got some suggestions for the “green toothbrush” section, you can easily add your own insight. The site’s editor will look over every user-submitted submission for accuracy before posting it live on the page.
“We want to find writers who can add value to the site,” Bueno said, citing the example of an interested writer who contacted GreenYour editors to inquire about penning a feature on green weddings. She may be paid for her work, too.
For the casual user who wants to learn how to greenify their everyday life, GreenYour.com is a wonderful addition to the already crowded marketplace of eco-friendly sites. The site’s simplicity is its strength – typing in search terms saves time that would’ve been spent scouring through subjects areas and Ctrl-finding a specific word. So for self-education about enviro-friendly cat litter, just type “litter” into the search term. But while you can find out how to green your mouthwash, wine and jewelry, the results for “condom” and “divorce” came up empty. I know, those are some unusual searches, but is too far-fetched to imagine some saucy eco-friendly sex? Or a way to end holy matrimony without all those tree-killing papers to sign?
Still in its infancy, GreenYour has bold ambitions set for the future. “We seek to be a destination site where people turn to use our search to get the green answer to anything,” Bueno said. “We also want to be a marketplace for the leading green products and the leading green filter for what is best for people and the planet.”
For information on how to contribute to GreenYour.com, check this link.
