In December 2006, Mayor Bloomberg challenged New Yorkers to generate ideas for achieving a more sustainable future.  The response was overwhelming and the result is the most sweeping plan to enhance New York’s urban environment in the city’s modern history. The plan focuses on five key components – land, air, water, energy and transportation – all of them interdependent.  Ultimately, the objective is for every New Yorker to breathe the cleanest air of any city in America, to drink the purest water, to use energy in the most efficient way possible, and to fund and expand the city’s transportation network on an unprecedented scale.  If you’re looking for a place to get a cup of organic java, if you’ve been searching for a green dry cleaner in your neighborhood, or if you want to close the deal on a green apartment or co-op, you should look for Greenopia, the definitive guide for an ecofriendly lifestyle. This precious book helps you find where to eat, shop and live green every day. The Greenopia New York City guide features more than thirteen hundred of the most eco-friendly businesses, services and organizations in the city – from day spas to banking services, dry cleaners, and alternative energy contractors. The book is not a paid directory so the listed businesses must meet certain standards in order to be included.  Eating green, for example, is very important, it’s not just about personal health and nutrition, but it has a deeper meaning that’s linked to the complexities of a product’s life cycle. Among some of the best restaurants in the city that have received great reviews and make the city proud the guide lists, Alfred Portale’s Gotham Bar and Grill and Lidia Bastianich’s Del Posto, not only both places serve many organic, seasonal, ingredients, but also participate in biodiesel recycling and composting programs. Other restaurants that are mentioned are Elettaria, Craft, Blue Hill, and Gramercy Tavern.Apparently, Italy is the leading country in Europe that is producing and consuming the most organic products. The press reports that an increasing number of consumers prefer to spend a bit more to get the freshest and purest goods. Once you switch from conventional food to organic, the pesticides (malathion and chlorpyrifos) that we find in everyday food products disappear. Not only eating organic is healthier, but it also brings you back to the authentic flavor of the product itself.

But going organic doesn’t relate to food only; why not consider an eco-friendly vacation?

Tourists who visit Santa Barbara, CA, happily face the Santa Barbara Car Free Project where all fun activities are performed without a car…this leaves space to wonderful trips by bicycle, on foot, and other unique endeavors such as whale watching. And fashion? Green fashion is a part of the growing design philosophy and trend of sustainability, whose goal is to create a system that can be supported indefinitely in terms of environmentalism, economics, and social responsibility. Fashion designers are reducing impacts at the source by making a conscious decision to use more environmentally friendly materials and socially responsible methods in clothing production. Now we can also luxuriate in the huge universe of sustainable, eco-friendly, green jewelry is out there waiting to be discovered by you. “Diamonds Are Forever” but avoid the blood variety (whose illicit trade finances violent conflicts, often fought by children, in African countries like Sierra

Leone), and opt for certified conflict-free diamonds, instead. The United Nations, seventy-one countries, and most relevant NGOs have adopted the Kimberley Process Certification System to certify that each diamond exported by signatory countries is from a conflict-free source.

We at A Taste of Chic are strong supporters of green living and we believe that everyone can make a difference taking small steps that will add up to giant leaps.