My City is Greener than Your City

My city is greener than your city, na na na-na na! It's no secret here at the Mountains of the Moon office that I'm incredibly immature, but all taunting aside, Sustain Lane came out with their annual list of the greenest cities in the U.S. today, and our home-sweet-home Chicago was not only ranked number 4, but also the number 1 greenest city not on the west coast! You go Chi-town!

To establish the rankings, Sustain Lane researched the 50 largest U.S. Cities and evaluated them on 16 categories of sustainability. See where your city ranks right here.

But before you do that, just so we can brag for a moment, check out these eco-wonderful Chicago facts, courtesy of the folks at Sustainable Lane:

When environmental officials send you a several-pages-long "Bird Agenda" for their city, you know they've got all their little eco-ducks in a row. Long-serving Mayor Richard Daley is committed to making Chicago a healthy and attractive place for all creatures great and small, and for residents and visitors alike. The mayor has had greening on his mind since he first entered office in 1989, implementing progressive and sometimes controversial measures. He's planted about a half-million trees, removed traffic lanes in favor of green medians and bulldozed a downtown airport, putting in its place a 100-acre park. Under the mayor's leadership, Chicago has become known as the "Green Roofs City," with carbon-sequestering vegetation covering more than 4.5 million square feet of rooftop. In September of 2008, Mayor Daley took his commitment to combating global warming a step further: he released an aggressive carbon emissions-cutting plan that includes changing city building codes, installing huge solar panels on municipal properties, and retrofitting low-cost housing complexes to reduce water and energy use.

Not bad, if we do say so ourselves.

Also of note is Chicago's official fashion week, Fashion Focus, which this year includes the Museum of Sustainable Style (MoSS), which features clothing, accessories and furniture that "inspire and respond to current form and function necessities, without compromising our environmental abilities to meet future needs." MoSS runs October 2nd through 5th at Brickermade Studio in Fulton Market. Mountains of the Moon's Sophie Pants and Brooke Top are among that designs that were chosen by a juried panel to be on display.

Now if we can just figure out this traffic congestion thing...

xoxo,
melissa

Vote Mountains of the Moon for Green Business of the Year!

Well kids, you did it! Good ole' Mountains of the Moon Eco.Fashion received enough nominations to get us a spot among ten green businesses in the running for Co-op America's Green Business of the Year! This is actually the third year in the row that we've made it to the final ten, and let me tell you, we've been pretty giddy at the office today. We'd be even giddier (is that a word?) if we won, so pretty, pretty please (with organic raw sugar top), take just a second and vote for us right here. We're lucky #7: Mountains of the Moon.

Co-op America states that this award is "a celebration of the leaders of the green economy, and a challenge to corporate America to follow their path. Green Businesses are companies that work to help – not hurt – people, communities, and the planet."

We like to think that we are all of these things (and are proud to dedicate ourselves to these business practices every single day), while also making sure you look absolutely fashionable and gorrrrrrrgeous. In fact, we've been committed to running an earth/human/animal-friendly business since back when I was creating recycled clothing from a rundown sewing machine propped up on a cardboard box in my dorm room at college. The green movement is huge right now, and we are thrilled that the state of the environment is (FINALLY) gaining such widespread attention. But we're also proud that this is a cause that has motivated our designs and business model since day one - well before it became "the thing to do."

If you have any questions about our company, feel free to e-mail us at customerservice@mountainsofthemoon.com. And don't forget to vote for us. Here's the link again, just in case you don't feel like scroll up: Vote for Mountains of the Moon!

With Love & Gratitude,

melissa

Win a $100 Gift Certificate to Mountains of the Moon!

Did we get your attention? Good. 'Cuz (yes, with a 'z') we weren't kidding. Here's the haps: To celebrate the launch of our fall line (we have already started adding new fall styles and colors to the website, with more to come; See previous blog post), every $40 you spend at Mountains of the Moon between now and September 17th will automatically get you one entry in our raffle to win a $100 Gift Certificate to use on our website any time you want. If you spend $40, you get one entry. Spend $80, you get two entries. $120, three entires. And so on! The winner will be contacted on or around September 18th, and will be announced in our next newsletter. So head over to our eco-fabulous website right now! This very minute! (We just LOVE being bossy).

You can also view our hot-off-the-presses September Newsletter right here.

Kisses,

m.

Fall into Autumn... The Eco-Conscious Way

Early September is a very busy time at Mountains of the Moon. Not only are we rushing to finish up our spring collection designs so we can get line sheets sent to stores for spring pre-ordering (yes, it's already next spring in the fashion world!), we're up to our knees in tagging, organizing, folding and boxing up all of the fall orders that our stores placed back in May. (Side note: unlike most traditional clothing lines, we refuse to bag each garment and use brand new boxes when shipping. Waste = bad. We reuse boxes and although we fold very nicely, we skip those wasteful plastic bags). And of course, we're working hard to get these new fall designs on the website for all of you.

We've already starting adding a new color here, a new style there on the Mountains of the Moon website, but our goal is to have all of it up for your viewing/shopping pleasure in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, the sneak peak photo above shows the Sophie Pants in black (55% hemp, 45% tencel, bamboo button, low-impact dyed) with the Brooke Top in shitake (55% hemp, 45% organic cotton, low-impact dyed). I haven't taken my Sophie Pants off in days, by the way. And I'm proud of it.

Your resident sales rep/high school teacher,
Morgan

Sexy = A Man in Climate Neutral Fashion

Let's admit it ladies... As much as we fashionistas can appreciate a boy with a sense of high fashion style, there's nothing quite as sexy as a man in a good ole' t-shirt. My boyfriend works for a band, so over the years, he has accumulated an awful lot of t-shirts that have been given to him on the road. Thankfully, some of them are even (oh so soft) 100% organic cotton. But as attractive as a well-fitting, stylish organic cotton tee is in my eyes, it's when he walks in the room sporting his climate neutral t-shirt that my heart really starts pounding.

Perhaps that made some of you laugh out loud (or gag). "Climate neutral" isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind for most of us when we think of turn-ons. But trust me, knowing that he not only looks good, but also that his t-shirt was produced without creating a carbon footprint, makes him absolutely irresistible.

In addition to our trademark sustainable fashion line, the ladies at Mountains of the Moon also have what we like to call our "eco-side project," which consists of a few unique t-shirts that we buy from other righteous companies and then print with our original artwork. I can't even begin to express the joy I felt a few months back when I found a company who creates a blank tee that is not only organic and fair trade, but that is also manufactured solely using renewable green energy from wind and solar power. We bought those babies up, printed them with our best-selling "Eco Warrior" design, and trust me, I made sure my boyfriend threw one on, immediately. Hot. Very hot. I think I even salivated.

So all you dudes out there, the next time you want to impress a lady with some old suit, try a stylish, eco-friendly t-shirt instead, and see what happens... Take it a step further with one that is not only organic, but climate neutral. Even if you don't get any lovin' from the girl, you can strut your stuff knowing that Mother Earth thinks you are incredibly eco-sexy.


xoxo,
Your favorite man-in-a-climate-neutral-tee-lover,
melissa

P.S. Want your very own organic, climate neutral, and deliciously eco-sexy "Eco-Warrior" tee? Here you go.