"Going Green" could mean different things to different people. Some people care more about the habitats in Antartica or in the jungle. Some people love to be in nature and live on roots and berries. Others of us just want to do small things to help our little part of the planet be less toxic.

I am one of those people. I like the products I use to be free of things I can't pronounce, and warning labels, and smells I don't recognize. I don't want to worry that my vitamins are doing nothing for me except going right thru me, a waste of my time and energy.

I needed to find out more for myself on what "going green" meant to other people. 

Here is another person's experience -

Gradually, we began to see that everything we do affects everything else, that we live in a closed ecological system. By the 1990s, Americans started demanding safer, saner choices -- food raised without pesticides and herbicides, products that are organic. "Green" came along just in the past few years as a sort of shorthand for things that don't hurt you or the world you live in. It went from someone else's problem -- "those polluters" -- to our own.

... doctors have begun to acknowledge that our homes can make us sick, that they can often be filled with invisible poisons and toxic air. The seemingly benign products with which we wash our clothes and dishes and teeth and floors can shorten our lives. Even the things we buy to eat can put those we love at risk of disease.

...When you think about how difficult life was for your grandmother, it's hard not to be thankful for how much easier and convenient life is now. But hold the thanks. By failing to understand the hidden costs -- economic, social, environmental, and, yes, physical -- of the way we live our lives, we've put ourselves, our families, and our planet in grave danger.

I hear you. You're saying, "Look, I'm just one person; how can I possibly make a difference? No way can I save the planet."

True enough. But you can protect and save your family. And by doing so you can reduce the impact of everything you do on that small part of the planet over which you have some control, about which you have some real choices.That's what this book is about: having choices. And with each small, quiet, incremental better choice you make, you make your own corner of the globe a safer, healthier, more sustainable place.

-- from Sloan Barnett's book "Green Goes with Everything"

So how can YOU make small changes that will help your little part of the planet?

Start with your home. Take our the toxic chemical based products that have been convenient and familiar but have had "warning" and "caution" labels on them. If we are going to have to call a doctor just for inhaling this product, is it really safe to have in our homes? Do you want your baby crawling on a floor that has just been bleached or sprayed with a chemical cleaner? What about all those "wonderful" anti-bacterial hand cleaners that we have given our kindergarteners to take to school that contain triclosan? Check out this article that LISTS all the products triclosan is in and why it is so unsafe - its amazing that even Phisoderm is on this list! I have personally used this cleanser and had no idea that it had triclosan in it. And the Girl Scout study is very revealing....

www.grinningplanet.com article

Why have we become so dependent on cleaners and products that contain these toxic ingredients? Why can't we rely strictly on Mother Nature's plant and mineral compounds to effectively clean our houses?

Well it turns out we can, and we should. There has been a lot of "going green" press in the last couple of years...but it is more than just a fad. It is absolutely necessary for us to do some simple things that will help our health dramatically. There are some things we should do that are obvious - get rid of the cleaners that have warning labels on them. Don't store old paint in your house in unventilated areas. Don't use plastic in the microwave.Dr. Oz talks on Oprah about these and other ways to clean up your home and keep it clean -

Many of you have seen "natural" and "green" products in the last year or two in Whole Foods and other stores that cater to people who care about the environment and want to have a greener, healthier lifestyle. Organic fruits and veggies, products made from soy and other alternative proteins. That is a great beginning and Sloan advocates this in her book. She only serves her family organic produce and meats. Companies like Stonybrook Farms and Amy's show us that it is very possible to eat organic food that tastes good and is good for you. It costs a little more money but is your health worth it?

But beyond this - what supplements can you take to get the proper amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet? No one can eat 8-9 servings a day, and we miss out on the trace minerals and other nutrients when we eat from a can or frozen. Most people understand the need to take a daily multi-vitamin and other supplements.

But which ones work? How do you know that your vitamin is doing what it is supposed to do? I don't know about you, but if I am taking the extra step of buying and taking that vitamin daily, I want to make sure it is making a difference in my health. I also want to detox my body and perhaps drink protein shakes that will aid me in weight loss, because I need to lose a few pounds along with many other Americans. We have relied on fast food for far too long, and even salads have fattening dressings and who knows what else on them?

I agree with Oprah and Dr. Oz and Sloan Barnett - and millions of others in the past 50 years - that have found their answer in Shaklee nutrition.

Shaklee was founded in 1956 by Dr. Forrest Shaklee, Fifty years ago, during the era of synthetic fabrics, processed food and TV dinners, an Oakland chiropractor started a company to sell natural products to improve people's health. Even earlier, in 1915, before the concept of vitamins was widely understood, Dr. Forrest Shaklee had invented something called Vitalized Minerals. 

Shaklee Corporation, the company he founded, still operates in Pleasanton, CA, selling over 200 all natural organic vitamins and other nutritional supplements, natural makeup and biodegradable cleaning products.

So who is Dr. Shaklee and why was he considered a "visionary"?

Here is a small excerpt from a book written about him -

Chiropractor Dr. Forrest Shaklee founded the company that bears his name in Oakland in 1956 at age 61. He traveled throughout California with his two sons in a Plymouth station wagon, selling his products. Two decades later, Shaklee saw his business become a Fortune 500 company.

During his life, he played golf with Thomas Edison, met Harvey Firestone (of the tire company) and Henry Ford, was friends with Williams Jennings Bryan and flew with Charles Lindbergh in a plane called Spirit of Unrest. He also corresponded with Casimir Funk, the Pole who coined the term "vitamin" in 1912 (three years before Shaklee introduced "vitalized" minerals called Vita-Lea), and created headlines in 1919 as one of the first doctors in Iowa to make house calls by airplane (a two-passenger Curtis).

Shaklee had his own radio show on which he often spoke about conservation. He designed a forerunner of the modern recreational vehicle, which he called a "touring home." He cultivated "Dr. Shaklee's experimental garden" on the roof of his office building, consisting of organic vegetables and greenery grown in sea sand. The sand was fertilized with his vitalized minerals.

The good doctor recommended a diet of whole wheat bread, vegetables, fish, white meat of chicken, no sugar and no fats. Egg yolks were restricted, while egg whites were permissible.

Source: "When Nature Speaks: The Life of Forrest C. Shaklee Sr,," Shaklee Corp.

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And here is an excerpt on the history of how these visionary products came together in the early years of the company -

In 1955, Shaklee resolved to combine his motivational philosophy with his years of experience as a nutritionist. Together with his two sons, Forrest Jr. and Raleigh, he founded Shaklee Products, which was officially launched in 1956. Drawing on talents they had developed in their previous careers, Forrest Jr. handled the accounting and managed the day-to-day operations of the company, while Raleigh, a former insurance salesman, took charge of marketing operations. Their father directed research and development. The company's first product was a protein-lecithin supplement of Dr. Shaklee's own invention, which they sold under the name Pro-Lecin Nibblers. Later in 1956, it added Herb-lax, a herbal laxative. The next year, it introduced Vita-Lea, a multivitamin, multimineral supplement in tablet form that would quickly become one of the company's mainstays.

Dr. Shaklee's concept of 'thoughtsmanship' entered Shaklee Products' operations through its sales force. Rather than hire a permanent sales staff, the company decided from the outset to recruit independent contractors and offer them a series of lucrative incentives that would reward them in proportion to the sales that they generated. It was a system that one loyal Shaklee saleswoman later described as 'unstructured' and requiring highly self-motivated participants--a system that was wholly in keeping with Dr. Shaklee's belief in self-motivation and his own persuasive powers. In their first attempt to recruit a sales force, the Shaklees placed an ad in the Oakland Tribune asking interested readers to attend an introductory meeting. Six people answered, and all six signed on as distributors.

-- From an article on Answers.com about Shaklee Corporation --

So Dr. Shaklee spent his life creating these products that we now use from Shaklee.

Plenty of companies claim that their products work. But Shaklee proves it - again and again through their 100 scientific papers, peer review journals, the $250 million invested in clinical testing, research and development. You see it in the 2007 Landmark Study conducted in collaboration with researchers from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health that showed that people who took Shaklee supplements had markedly better health than those who took other brands of multivitamins. And you see proof in the 54 gold medals won by Shaklee powered world class athletes, the hardy souls that climb Mt. Everest, the man who powered the Daedalus flight across the sea 72 miles without stopping his pedaling once to take a breath. All powered by Shaklee nutrition.

Click here to see some more Shaklee milestones

Dr. Shaklee passed away in 1985 at the age of 91. He was greatly missed.

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So who is the next visionary to take Shaklee to the next level?

Roger Barnett - the husband of Sloane Barnett, whose book I introduced to you in the beginning of this hub :)

"Barnett became chairman and CEO of Shaklee in 2004 when his family investment company, Activated Holdings, and a private equity firm, Ripplewood Holdings, acquired 81 percent of Shaklee from its previous owner, Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical of Japan, for about $310 million.

Barnett, who is 42, is an accomplished executive. A graduate of Yale, Yale Law and Harvard Business School, he made his money by running two successful companies - Arcade Ltd., best known for creating the scent strips in magazines and packaging, and an Internet startup called beauty.com. He's got an interesting family background, too - his father Victor Barnett was once chairman of Burberry, the British-based luxury clothier, and his mother, Helaine Barnett, spent nearly 40 years as a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society of New York, providing legal services to the poor.

He's on a mission to combine profit and purpose. One reason he bought Shaklee, Barnett told me, is because the company has the potential to make money and make a difference in the world as well. The company's natural products, he says, are good for consumers and for the planet, and its direct-selling business model gives thousands of distributors the opportunity to become successful entrepreneurs."

--- excerpted from a Fortune article "Green before Green was Cool" --

And they are - making a difference with the 750,000 reps in Shaklee now. Making a difference with Dr. Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, who became the Global Ambassador in 2006 for the "A Million Trees - A Million Dreams" environmental campaign that raises awareness of global climate change and initiates efforts to plant trees in North America and Africa. Making a difference in its leadership in off-setting carbon emissions in its World Headquarters and in creating renewable energy in Africa.

Would you like to join us?