Simply White toothpaste provides daily whitening, cavity protection and fresh breath all in one. Its effective formula  combines three naturally sourced silicas that combine to gently remove surface stains. Simply White, like all Tom’s of Maine products, has no artificial preservatives, animal ingredients or animal testing.

 ”We know that over time the original white of your smile can fade,” said Ellen Saksen, oral care associate brand manager at Tom’s of Maine. “We carefully crafted Simply White to gently bring back the natural beauty of your smile and to offer a whitening alternative to products that rely on bleaching. We hope this natural option gives people the confident smile they want backed by our rigorous testing and the acceptance of the American Dental Association.”

 Simply White is available at retailers and online in Clean Mint and Sweet Mint flavors. The suggested retail price for new Tom’s of Maine Simply White toothpaste is $4.99 for a 4.7 oz tube. The product with the ADA Seal of Acceptance will begin arriving in stores this July.

Led by Keep California Beautiful (KCB), McDonald’s, California Electronic Asset Recovery (CEAR) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) the Great American Cleanup™ campaign in California will offer residents a chance to dispose of their electronic waste more easily throughout Sacramento and parts of the Bay Area. CEAR will provide the receptacles and McDonald’s will provide the locations—13 in all. An additional collection site will be at the Capitol.

“Californians like their electronics, but it comes with a cost,” said KCB Executive Director Christine Flowers. “We need to use less, reuse more and recycle these items, as well as other materials, responsibly.” CEAR and McDonald’s cite a commitment to California as being the prime motivator in their involvement in the clean up. “Electronics recycling is our business but California is our home,” said Kristin DiLallo Sherrill, director of marketing and new business for CEAR. “We live here; we work here. We want to do our part to make sure California is clean and sustainable.”

“As members of our local communities, McDonald’s franchisees throughout California are proud to partner with Keep California Beautiful for the Great American Cleanup as part of our ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship,” said Jason Goldblatt, KCB board member and McDonald’s franchise owner. McDonald’s also handed out leaflets to customers prior to today’s clean up to educate them about litter, recycling and the e-waste collection.

In addition to being a visual blight in our communities, litter is a significant financial problem in our state. Caltrans spends an estimated $50 million a year on litter abatement and trash collection programs.

“Caltrans is committed to a clean and litter-free California, but we can’t do it alone. Everyone should think about what happens when they toss trash out of their vehicles onto our highways,” said Caltrans Director Cindy McKim. “Litter costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year to clean up—money that could be better spent on transportation projects.”

Litter on our streets and highways can be dangerous and deadly, which is why California Highway Patrol is emphasizing enforcement of litter laws today.

“We take this issue seriously,” said CHP Valley Division Chief Steve Lerwill. “We want to remind drivers that debris is dangerous, and if you’re caught littering or your load isn’t properly covered and secured, you could face a stiff fine.”

While recycling collection and legal enforcement are important, agency leaders hope the messages resonate long after the event.

“Earth Day is an opportunity for each of us to celebrate California’s natural beauty,” said Mark Leary, acting director of CalRecycle. “Today we pledge to make our state a cleaner place to live, not just on April 22, but every single day.”

Representatives from the private sector said they also are serious about trash, especially when so much of it can be reused or can become different products.

“Many plastics are readily recyclable. Simply put, plastics are a valuable resource. Too valuable to waste,” said Sherri McCarthy, manager, State Affairs, Western Region for the American Chemistry Council, a trade association that includes many of the nation’s leading plastics makers. “These items don’t belong in landfills or discarded in our waterways. They belong in the recycle bin.”

Also during the Sacramento event, art work from the “Junk and Gunk” art contest was highlighted. Local students used materials collected during “Creek Week,” which is a week dedicated to cleaning up the area’s waterways, to create the art. Likewise, Bakersfield students were also honored for their unique artwork created from recycled and reused materials for the 2011 Green Arts Competition for the Greater Bakersfield Green Expo.

And finally, event organizers awarded the “Waste Not, Want Not” trophy to the students from Arvin Union School District and Santa Barbara Home Based Partnership for respectively winning their division of the Waste Minimization competition during the 2010 California K-12 Schools Recycling Challenge, a competition and benchmarking tool for K-12 school recycling programs to promote waste reduction activities to their school communities.

“These students designed and created extraordinary works of art from very ordinary materials, proving the value of recycling and reusing,” said Leonard Robinson, acting director of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. “I appreciate the efforts of all the students who competed in both art competitions and the recycling challenge, but the real winner was our environment.”

“2011 is the year to lower your carbon footprint! By incorporating a few small changes into your everyday routine, you have the power to make a difference,” says P. Allen Smith, award-winning garden designer and regular lifestyle contributor on NBC’s The TODAY Show.

“This Earth Day, challenge yourself to make a few simple changes. Here are 6 easy tips to implement into your everyday routine”:

Clean green. Stop buying household cleaners that are potentially toxic to both you and the environment. Read labels for specific, eco-friendly ingredients that also perform effectively, including grain alcohol instead of toxic butyl cellosolve (commonly found in carpet cleaner and some window cleaners as a solvent) and coconut or other plant oils rather than petroleum commonly used in detergents.

Purchase biodegradable trash bags. Conventional plastic garbage bags can take years to decompose in landfills, but biodegradable kitchen garbage bags like the ones offered from Biobag will compost easily in the landfill. If you can’t find biodegradable bags, you can also purchase recycled bags like those from Seventh Generation.

Save a tree, use less paper. You can buy “tree-free” post-consumer recycled paper for everything from greeting cards to paper towels. Emerald’s eco-friendly paper products are 70% tree-free, made from Bagasse (the fibrous leftovers of sugar cane processing).

Yes, even tableware can be green. Cover your table with beautifully made natural table linens and napkins and serve food in beautifully designed bamboo bowls. If you want to skip dishwashing, opt for recycled plastic plates and cutlery like the sets from GreenHome.com. Who knew being eco-friendly could look so good?

Eat local and organic food when you can. When you can, support your local farmers, eat in season, and choose organic products. Avoid purchasing pre-prepared, frozen foods, and make them yourself, at home; many meals are made to be frozen and reheated without any loss in taste or quality, so there’s no reason to thaw and rehydrate frozen and dehydrated foods when you can skip these steps and buy and cook fresh. Your environment and your body will thank you.

Don’t stop with your veggies and cleansers, think as far as the cocktail hour and make green changes. For example, if you are a tequila fan, swap out your “house” brand for a “green” brand like Casa Noble ultra premium tequila which is green and sustainable. And, of course, always drink in moderation.

Conduct an energy assessment. Whether you are living in an older house or a more modern space, an energy audit can determine the efficiency of a home’s heating and cooling systems. Learn where your house is leaking energy, and then fix the problem. Your pocketbook will thank you!

Be green from the ground up! Every great green space begins with eco-friendly flooring. Chip’s favorites? Rapidly renewable bamboo floors and revolutionary SmartStrand carpet. Mohawk’s strand-woven bamboo is the perfect blend of exotic beauty and supreme durability. In fact, it’s twice as hard as domestic oak. And SmartStrand, made from renewable resources (corn sugar!), also has unmatched stain protection engineered right into the fibers.

Pick a soothing color palette. The trend of sharply contrasting accent walls is slowly fading away. Instead, select a calming dark beige, grey or blue paint that is nontoxic and contains no, or low volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Say yes to vintage furniture. Flea markets and rummage sales are the perfect places to snag antique chairs, tables and couches. Give pieces a fresh, new look by reupholstering with organic linen or fabric made from recycled yarn.

Spend time enjoying your serene space – not cleaning it. Skip upholstery and throws made of fussy silks and velvets in favor of comfortable, organic cotton.

Mohawk is the largest recycler in the flooring industry, diverting more than 3 billion pounds of pre- and post-consumer waste from landfills each year. More than 500 Mohawk products currently contain recycled material. From recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles into EverStrand carpeting to transforming corn sugar into SmartStrand® with DuPont™ Sorona® carpeting and dismantled buildings into hardwood flooring and more, Mohawk is committed to offering environmentally responsible, stylish products. To learn more, visit www.MohawkFlooring.com.

In celebration of Earth Day and beyond, people around the globe can help “plant a future” and help restore critically endangered rain forests of South America and Indonesia through new fundraising products launched worldwide by Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP). The new Hello Green Tomorrow products available in more than 50 countries include a sleek reusable aluminum water bottle sold by Avon only in the U.S.

Beginning mid-April, Avon will sell the fundraising aluminum Hello Green Tomorrow Water Bottle in the U.S. to raise funds to help limit deforestation and restore devastated tropical forests. Avon will contribute all proceeds from the Hello Green Tomorrow Water Bottle to The Nature Conservancy for continuing efforts in the Atlantic Rainforest in South America and to World Wildlife Fund for their reforestation projects in Indonesia (Borneo and Sumatra).

A comprehensive website hellogreentomorrow.com will also be refreshed as of mid-April, offering green tips, information, a blog and opportunities to share ideas on personal environmental action.

The Hello Green Tomorrow Water Bottle is available through Avon’s woman-to-woman network of Avon Sales Representatives beginning on April 15 in the U.S. One week later – on Earth Day, April 22 – the bottle will be available online at hellogreentomorrow.com and avon.com.

“Avon celebrates its 125th anniversary this year; and there is no better time for us to look forward and take action to help ‘plant a future’ through Hello Green Tomorrow,” stated Avon Chairman and CEO Andrea Jung. “Giving back to society and the environment is stated in the principles on which Avon was founded in 1886; and today we bring this to life by empowering a global women’s environmental movement to nurture nature. Avon’s strength is mobilizing people to make a difference, as we have done with breast cancer and domestic violence, and now on the issue of deforestation. I am enormously proud of these meaningful efforts and I believe we can make a significant impact.”

In its mission to help end deforestation, Avon is focusing the Hello Green Tomorrow fundraising program on restoration of vital tropical forests. These forests serve as the lungs of our planet, helping clean the air of pollutants and mitigating climate change, while supporting an extraordinary diversity of plants and animals and providing water for millions of people. Among the tropical forests worldwide, South America’s Atlantic Rainforest and the forests of Indonesia (Borneo and Sumatra) are among the most devastated and critically important to restore.

“Of all the places WWF works, the rate of destruction in Borneo and Sumatra defies the imagination,” said WWF President and CEO Carter Roberts. “Devising a solution equal to the weight of humanity’s pressure on this rich place will take persistence, creativity and collaboration. We are grateful for the support and leadership of partners like Avon who realize we all have an important role to play in meeting this challenge.”

“With support from Avon, The Nature Conservancy has made significant progress in restoring Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered and biologically diverse forests in the world,” said Mark Tercek, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “The Atlantic Forest is home to tens of thousands of plant and animal species – many found nowhere else on Earth – and it is the source of drinking water for 70 percent of Brazil’s population. It is critical that we save the Atlantic Forest for both people and nature.”

The 2011 Hello Green Tomorrow Water Bottle will be available starting April 15 in the U.S. Other Hello Green Tomorrow products worldwide will include a T-shirt created by a leading fashion designer in Brazil, a cosmetic case in Venezuela and various styles of reusable shopping bags throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and Latin America. For more information about Hello Green Tomorrow visit www.hellogreentomorrow.com.

This year’s efforts build on the inaugural Avon Hello Green Tomorrow program, which was Avon’s first-ever global mobilization for environmental stewardship. The program launched in March 2010 with a direct donation of $1 million from Avon followed by global fundraising that generated $1.1 million more. The $2.1 million was awarded in 2010 to The Nature Conservancy to help restore the Atlantic Rainforest.

Naya, a brand of beautiful, comfortable women’s shoes that leave a softer footprint on the earth, will mark its one-year anniversary with the tree planting initiative. By the completion of this year, the Naya brand will have planted a total of 10,000 trees with Plant-It 2020, which serves areas in North America, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. The brand previously partnered with Plant-It 2020 by planting 5,000 indigenous trees in 2010.

“We at Naya are committed to finding ways to help preserve our planet through our selection of materials as well as our mission to give back. We know women want beautiful, comfortable shoes that leave a softer footprint on our earth, and seek opportunities to do something good for the planet. Our partnership with Nordstrom for Earth Day gives customers a way to do just that by replenishing trees around the globe,” said Naya Vice President Pat Hogan.

The trees planted through Plant-It 2020 are placed in non-harvest locations on public land, and are protected by contract from being cut down. Plant-It 2020 selects trees with a high survival rate and if a maintenance plan is needed, one is set in place before the trees are planted.

Naya shoes utilize materials that are gentler on the planet, such as vegetable-tanned leathers and linings, natural cork and natural or recycled content fabrics. The footwear is available at Nordstrom and Nordstrom.com as well as many other retailers nationwide and in more than 20 countries within Asia, Australia and North America, including but not limited to: Canada, Germany, Greece, Japan and the United Arab Emirates. Visit NayaShoes.com to view the line and find a complete list of retailers. Interact with Naya on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NayaShoes) and Twitter (@NayaShoes).

1) Make sure you have adequate recycling bins in your home and that everyone in your family knows about which stuff goes in what bin. Make it easy for your kids and color-code the bins! Blue for paper, red for glass, green for plastic, etc.

2) Clean up after those frequent spills and messes the green way. Shop for greener household cleaning products – brands such as Simple Green and Method are great. Old-fashioned household remedies like vinegar, lemon and baking soda also do the trick!

3) Bring your children to a local farmer’s market and pick out plants to have in the house together. Literally green! Pretty plants help improve the flow of oxygen in your home.

4) Substitute some of your kids’ pre-packaged snacks to organic fruits/veggies

5) Shop local and take your family to a local farmer’s market to help pick out locally grown food and plan a meal together.

6) Clean out and organize your closets so you don’t end up with duplicates and get more use out of what you have. Do you need really need six spatulas? Or how about those 10 pairs of jeans you have stacked in your closet? If you or your children have outgrown clothes, donate them to those in need. Gives true meaning to ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!’

7) When cleaning out and organizing your closets and cupboards, take a look at what you keep. Ask yourself “Am I buying things that I can buy a greener alternative to?” Believe it or not, there is most likely a greener alternative to almost everything in your home. Try Bamboo chopping blocks or 100% organic cotton sheets!

Look at where and how the products you purchase are manufactured.

9) Purchase a container for e-waste. Don’t dump old batteries in trash and instead use the container and once full, bring to a domestic recycling center. Make sure your family does the same!

10) Buy lightbulbs that are low-fluorescent.

11) IMPORTANT!: Thinking of home improvement? Ask your contractor/vendor what they do to go green? This goes for any service you or your family use – many businesses nowadays have green alternatives that you may not even know about! Ask away!

For more than 30 years, SK-II has touched the lives of millions of women around the world by helping them to “Live Clear” through the miracle of crystal clear skin. Now with the launch of the SK-II Clear for Life project, the brand is connecting women in need across Asia to a source of clear drinking water, so that they in turn can help empower their communities.

The SK-II Clear for Life project was inspired by Global Ambassador, Cate Blanchett’s donation of 3 million liters of clear, purified drinking water to Asian communities in honor of SK-II’s 30th anniversary. For its inaugural year, the SK-II Clear for Life project has pledged a donation of 30 million liters of water through a partnership with Procter & Gamble’s Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW) Program.

“Clear for life is an initiative to help people whose futures are being dominated by simple, basic problems. It helps the people in Asia who experience water shortages or are forced to consume contaminated water. Please share the word and tell your friends. Thank you for your support.” Cate Blanchett, Global SK-II Ambassador

Beginning March 31st, US consumers can contribute to the cause by visiting the SK-II Clear for Life website and clicking to ‘Share The Word.’ For every ‘click to share’ on social media websites, SK-II will donate 1 liter of water to communities in need; no product purchase necessary.

Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in countries that suffer from water shortages(1). Furthermore, one in eight people have no access to clean, clear drinking water. This adds up to one billion people in the world today(2), and this number is expected to double in just 15 years.

Something as simple as turning on the tap for many of us takes women in disadvantaged communities a 3.7-mile-hike in conditions that threaten their very lives and rob them of a chance at education, employment and a better, safer life.

SK-II has learned that connecting women in developing regions to a source of clear, safe water transforms their lives and empowers them to change the destiny of their community. Clear, safe water can help women to focus on protecting, nourishing and educating their families. This very precious gift of nature is so fundamental that without it, other resources and support simply doesn’t have as great of an impact on their lives.

The technology at the heart of this is PUR™ Purifier of Water. Taking the form of a sachet of powdered mixture that acts as a ‘dirt magnet’ when it is mixed in water, PUR™ removes pollutants and cysts and kills bacteria and viruses in contaminated water, turning water clear, safe and drinkable in minutes.

“The goal of all our cause efforts is to bring the transformative power of a crystal clear life, one filled with hope, harmony and optimism, to the lives of our loyal users, celebrities and the communities we serve,” says Joanne Crewes, Vice President and General Manager, Global SK-II.

 So far, I have tried the Moisturizing Shampoo with sunflower seed extract and the Natural Hand Soap with mint and green tea extract.  The shampoo has a nice nutty scent and left my hair nice and soft, and the hand soap has an incredible scent.  My husband is a big fan of both the Sensitive Body Wash and Lotion with Aloe.  He has sensitive skin, and has found that they both make his skin feel soft.  We will definitely try more of these products.

 All products have:

• Strong efficacy
• Clean, Fresh and Natural Scents
• 90% Natural Ingredients

 All products don’t have: 

• Parabens
• Sulfates
• Animal by products
• Pesticides
• Phthalates
• EDTA
• Petroleum or Petroleum By-Products
• Mineral Oil
• Synthetic Fragrance

 In-Kind recently introduced 30 products that range in price from $3.99 to $12.99, which is at least 20% less expensive than comparable brands.  You can find In-Kind products at Vons, Safeway, Pavilions, Dominick’s and other stores in the Safeway chain.

Bamjamz® offers a fresh lifestyle approach that redefines the bridge between loungewear, sleepwear and sportswear.  The brand picks up on design trends found in the latest active lifestyle clothing, including: fitted athletic styling, flat locked seams, longer length on tops, medium front rises, longer back rises, and a gusset in the crotch for extra comfort. The line is the ultimate in luxury lounge and sleepwear – it has the amazing soft feel of bamboo fabric, and is designed to be lived in. Every item in the line includes the signature ‘sweet dreamz’ tape and panda logo details giving a hit of fun to all the pieces.

The Bamjamz® sleep system features a mix and match collection of fashion-forward tops and bottoms embellished with hip, sexy and sophisticated prints, all set on a rich black fabric.  Signature styles in the collection include sleep leggings, strappy tunics, and the long hoodie, all made from the same amazing bamboo fabric, and already becoming the hottest trend ensemble in lounge and sleepwear.

The brand was created to redefine the concept of lounge and sleepwear through fun, comfortable and stylish designs that are fashioned to fit the lifestyle of today’s modern woman – urban, active and spiritual.  Bamjamz® delivers a new dimension in natural comfort and performance, with premium bamboo fabrics that are luxuriously soft.  Their signature bamboo stretch blend fabric keeps you dry and comfortable, thanks to its natural wicking and temperature management feature.