While you and your family may be committed to taking your eco-friendly lifestyle on the road this summer, it is nice to bring home a memento of your travels. But too often the only options seem to be a plastic, made in china chatzky that is destined for the bottom of the drawer. Before dishing out your hard earned dollars for a t-shirt or snow globe, consider making your souvenir collecting part of your vacation itinerary with these simple ideas:

Breathe new life into half used school notebooks by tearing out and recycling used paper and renaming the item a “Travel Log” . Equip kids with a glue stick, tape, pens and markers and challenge them to record their summer adventure. A bottle cap, hotel room key, or ticket stub adhered to the pages with a description of the “who, what, where” of the item is much more meaningful than any high priced gift shop offering.

Still finding empty baby food jars around the house? Turn them into a conversation piece post-vacation. While traveling, invite children to take a small handful of sand from the beach, a rock from a hike through the mountains or an acorn from a camping trip in the forest. Once home, label jars with date and location, fill with treasures, then display for the whole family to enjoy.

Mail yourself a postcard! On the back of a postcard write specific things about the day’s events that could be considered “inside jokes”. Did Dad insist on taking at least ten pictures at every stop? Did Mom refuse to use the less than savory restrooms available and “hold it in for miles”? Did brother find out what escargot really are after he tasted them? Skip the weather update and focus on the family’s idiosyncrasies. After all, it’s the details that make each family, and their vacations, so memorable.

>> Check out "Opinion: Small Living Makes Giant Strides" for more green living options

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Here is an interesting fact; according to Nielsen Research approximately 598 million pounds of candy are bought in the US during the Halloween season. Now that's a lot of candy! Greenopia, in its mission to educate consumers, has recently updated their "Greenest Candy Maker Ratings" just in the nick of time! Because if you're like me, one of the purchasers of all that candy, you can easily get spooked when trying to make the "greener" choice this Halloween! For chocolate lovers,Theo Chocolate and Endangered Species Chocolate lead the pack in earning 4 out of 4 leafs. This year Endangered Species Chocolate is offeringbite-sized, individually wrapped, all-natural chocolate treats available in bulk-perfect for Halloween distribution. YummyEarth, a Greenopia 3 leafer, is offering Organic Lollipops and Organic Gummy Bears for Halloween. They are sold in family size bags that are very popular and selling out fast! Cadbury, (the only major candy company to earn any leafs) earned 2 -up from last year. Their score increased due to their committed effort to environmental sourcing of 50% of their chocolate. "We were surprised about the lack of environmental progress and transparency by some of the top brands," said Doug Mazeffa, Greenopia's Research Director, "The major brand who stood out in a positive way was Cadbury." Alas, while the other big brand candy companies like Mars, Nestle and Hershey's have made improvements, they have not made the same commitment to sourcing as Cadbury and ultimately just fell short of achieving a one-leaf score in Greenopia's Rating. So this year, when facing the dangers of buying candy for Halloween, keep some of Greenopia's Picks in your goody bag. Greenopia's Candy Picks: CHOCOLATE HALLOWEEN TREATS - Endangered Species Chocolate - All natural chocolate treats, available in bulk (144ct) and in a variety of flavors, gluten-free and kosher. BUG BITES- Endangered Species Chocolate-Each chocolate square contains a fun and educational insect trading card. ORGANIC GUMMY BEARS - YummyEarth - Less than 90 calories and a full 100% Vitamin C per .9oz snack pack. Comes in Pomegranate Pucker, Sour Apple Tart, and Strawberry Smash. ORGANIC HALLOWEEN LOLIPOPS - YummyEarth - 60 pops to a variety bag. Flavors include: Pomegranate Pucker, Too Berry Blueberry, Mango Tango, Strawberry Smash, Googly Grape, Very Very Cherry, Sour Apple Tart, Wet Face Watermelon

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As the summer fades our thoughts turn to back to school shopping. New clothes, shoes and backpacks, become the focus. Greenopia has some great choices on where to shop for greening your fall wardrobe and your back to school needs. The 4 Leafer- Patagonia, is a Greenopia top pick! In addition to shoes, clothes and outerwear for men, woman and children, they have a great new line of Day Packs that are just right for lugging schoolbooks or a laptop around. The Refugio, Atacama and Chacabuco Packs are ergonomically designed and come in super color combinations. Something you might not know is that in addition to performing the many tasks required to run a successful outdoor clothing company, Patagonia employees are helping to create a new national park. Employees have traveled in groups of six to Chilean Patagonia - the company's namesake - to spend three weeks digging out fence posts, rolling up wire and removing nonnative plants. Each day pack in the new line is named after and inspired by the national park Patagonia is working to create.

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