The following 5 companies are all my favorite eco-friendly brands. These are brands that include being kind to the earth in their manifesto and take steps towards “greenifying” their processing, despite the hike in cost. Often, they supply products on or above par with their less eco-minded competitors and are definitely worth a look!

Make Mother Nature proud and check ‘em out (just make sure you have your credit card handy!):

What other earth friendly companies should we know about? Sound off below!

Nothing brightens up an ugly rainy day like bold, colorful rain boots. Especially on those icky, brooding, stormy days where going to class seems like a life or death decision. That’s where Kamik comes in!

Kamik, a Canadian footwear company, manufactures the very rain boots that make a gray day that much brighter! Not only are they beautiful, they’re also functional. They’re waterproof, have great traction, and have soft, insulated Polartec on the inside of the boots to keep your feet warm and dry, despite any wind, rain, or snow!

But the coolest part of it all is that they’re made out of completely recycled materials. Can you believe it? The boots 100% recyclable!

The way these boots are made is also amazing. Kamik uses a green hydro-generated power source that uses and reuses the water so there’s practically no waste at all! Also, Kamik has had a long-standing recycling program that rescues scraps and old boots to create fresh pairs. From start to finish, Kamik is completely and 100% eco-friendly! How many other companies can say that?!

And because we think they’re so awesome – and because it’s Earth Day! – we’re going to give one of you, our devoted readers, your very own pair of Kamik rain boots.

How do you win?

1. Leave a comment below telling us one thing you’re doing to reduce your personal carbon footprint. That’s it. You’re automatically entered if you do that.  Oh, and make sure to use your real e-mail address so we can contact you if you win.

2. Contest closes at 11:59 PM on Sunday, April 24th, 2011

3. Please note this giveaway is only open to US residents. Also please expect 4-6 weeks for delivery. For official rules and more legal mumbo-jumbo, click here.

With Earth Day happening tomorrow, we at CollegeCandy have been thinking a lot about our carbon footprint and the many ways we can reduce it. Since there are only a few of us up in here, it’s easy to make small changes that will have a big impact. Like reusing coffee cups and water bottles. And printing on both sides of the paper. And keeping the window closed when the heat or A/C is on.

See? Easy breezy.

But then we think about all our college ladies out there and the campuses you live on with thousands of other students. And all that waste. Between the electricity, food, water, and everything else college students use and toss, colleges waste a lot. Just think of all the lights that are constantly on in every building or the cafeteria food that doesn’t get eaten at the end of the day. There are so many wasted resources on college campuses and until recently, that was just the name of the game. But in the past few years tons of colleges have found ways to combat that, reduce their carbon footprint and be more earth friendly.

Here are just a few things your college might be doing to make Mother Nature proud!

1. Bye-bye, trays!
You might have noticed that your cafeteria is devoid of lunch trays. Annoying, right? I remember when my school did it; I was furious! How on earth am I supposed to carry all the plates, bowls, and drinks without a tray? And why would they take them away in the first place? Were they trying to make my life more difficult? Answer: no. Eliminating trays cuts down on two major sources of waste in colleges: the wasted food from all of us students taking way more than we needed and all the water it takes to wash the thousands of trays daily.

2. Go carbon neutrality!
More and more colleges are signing a comprehensive agreement to go ‘carbon neutral,’ which essentially means either A) not emitting greenhouse gases or B) offsetting their greenhouse emissions through tree-planting or buying “offsets” from companies that support alternative energy projects. Greenhouse gases are slowly chipping away at our atmosphere and it’s important that we slow down this process (or eventually stop it altogether). So if you notice more trees on your campus, you can rest easy knowing your school is doing what it can to be carbon neutral…while also giving you a lovely place to study in the fall and spring!

3. Reducing energy usage!
College campuses use a lot of electricity. Just think of all the things powered by electricity: building lights, the kitchens, the computer labs, and virtually everything else on campus. However, colleges are now trying to enact rules to shut down lights and computer labs after a certain time in order to minimize energy loss. While this might put a damper on those all-nighters some students pull, computer labs use a lot of electricity that could otherwise be saved during those late hours. And who knows? Maybe helping the planet will also do wonders on your study habits and GPA.

4. Recycling bins!
This seems obvious, right? Of course everyone should recycle! But now colleges are being more aggressive about it. Most college campuses now have more recycling bins than garbage bins. Plus, a lot of colleges are now differentiating between all the different types of materials you can recycle. For instance, my own college has separate bins for paper and bottles. And since these bins are virtually everywhere on campus, most students have no problem recycling because it’s almost easier to recycle than to track down a garbage bin.

5. Public Transportation!
A lot of students have their own cars on campus because it’s just so much easier to get around when you have a car. However, campuses are making it harder to bring your car, either by charging semester fees to keep it or allowing parking passes only to upperclassmen. I know this sounds terrible in theory, but using the bus means two things: one, you’re really cutting down on your own personal carbon footprint, and two, you’re saving money! Gas prices are ridiculous. Free bus rides are heavenly things on a college budget.

6. Green housing options!
I know on several campuses, including my own, there are now green housing options. Not all of the residence halls are green, but a lot of colleges are giving students the choice to live in a green environment. I bet you’re asking yourself what the cons are of living in a green building. And there really aren’t any! Yes, you have to recycle and take shorter showers, but it’s all things that add up to reducing your carbon waste and saving the environment around you. Plus, these green buildings are always super high-tech which means they’re pretty beautiful buildings. And they’re new! It’s a wonderful housing option, if you ask me.

7. Organic gardens!
Yes. College campuses are now growing their own food. Organically! For example, Yale University has a student-run organic garden that supplies food to the campus food services, the local community, and students and faculty. Go Yale!

8. Low-water-volume bathrooms!
You might not think of it, but showers and toilets use up a lot of water. (A 10-minute shower uses 25 gallons of water!) To minimize this water waste, almost all college campuses now utilize low-water-volume showerheads, faucets, and toilets in order to cut down on the amount of waste.

9. Sustainability 101!
Not only are universities making changes to reduce their carbon footprint now, but more and more schools are offering classes and entire programs dedicated to sustainability that will allow students to continue to have an impact in the future. And that’s the most important thing because there is so much we still need to do to reduce our negative impact on the planet and who better to lead that charge than those of us learning and preparing for the real world?

And now, to call the week to a close, we have a whole weekend dedicated to patio happy hours and shopping online for new spring dresses. It’s moments like these that make me happy I have a little money store in the bank.

Ahhh, the good life. Summer is really inching closer and closer and I can already smell the burnt hot dogs in the air. But before you get wrapped up catching up on Glee (they’re airing it again tonight for the many of us who missed the last few minutes thanks to stupid American Idol) or diving into the spring dresses tab on the J. Crew website (color me guilty), take a look at the awesome week that was.

- We are wondering, if Noah can chase Allie (and hang on a Ferris Wheel to get her attention) why can’t women do the same without looking like complete creepers?

- Are sick days included in the real world?  Eh, not so much.

- We argued the reasons why women shouldn’t wait for sexy time.

- Cosmopolitan came out with a ‘Sexy Issue’ this month. Yee-haw! But after reading it, we think it should be re-named the ‘Silly Issue.’

- We discovered the sky is the limit for the Kardashian sisters. Because they are the next Patti Stanger? Oh no, please, no.

- Esquire proved that there may be hope for all men out there.

- We suggested a few new rules college campuses should adopt.

And that’s that. Now it’s time to hit the gym to prepare ourselves for bathing suit season. Or maybe we’ll just skip the whole “laying out” thing altogether and towel ourselves tan.

Especially when Green is so chic!

Functional and fashionable, products are coming out all over the place, making it easier than ever to be sustainable and stylish. With stuff like this, the “green” movement is something we can all embrace. So, in honor of Earth Day, here are eight eco-friendly products that have stolen the heart of Mother Nature this season:

8. Little Kay Gardens Pre Seeded Gift Wrap: Looking to wrap up a gift for a graduate this May? Wrapping paper has never been this environmental before. Little Kay Gardens produces a flowered gift wrap, with seeds embedded in the tissue paper. After the gift is unwrapped, the giftee can plant the paper in the ground and sprout some beautiful flowers. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving.

7. John Masters Organics: There is no better feeling than the one a good skincare product can give, leaving your face feeling fresh and clean. Throw “eco-friendly” into the mix and a winning skin product comes to the forefront. John Masters Organics skincare has won several awards including Tree Hugger.com’s  2010 “Best Of Green Award.” With over 30 products, John Masters is prided on harvesting wild-crafted ingredients that give your skin a natural and beautiful look.

6) Scott and Gabs: Heading to the grocery store? Don’t you dare leave the dorm without your Scott and Gabs reusable bags. A personal favorite of mine, Scott and Gabs is revolutionizing the reusable bag trend with cute and compacted products. Shipped in packs of four and adorned with trendy designs, these bags prove that going green and having fun are meant to be in the same sentence. Purchase your bags over at www.ScottandGabs.com and make everyone else’s groceries jealous!

5) Fashion Ethic: Finding fashion that is stylish and sustainable can leave a girl Googling for hours at a time. Especially if she doesn’t want to wear something resembling a burlap sack. Fashion Ethic is a one-stop shop, giving designers and companies with a “green” approach the spotlight (or should I say green light?) they deserve. Fashion Ethic showcases merchants with an “ethical compass,” supplying shoppers with a fashion forward sense and a lesson in social responsibility.

4) Dropps: Guilty. That’s right, I am among the thousands of college students guilty of wasting when it comes to laundry detergent. Gone are the days of lugging an economy-size bottle of detergent and washing my delicates with unnecessary loads of liquid detergent. Dropps are innovative, convenient and mindful of the environment, all at the same time. Simply drop a Dropp pac into your load of laundry and pat yourself on the back for doing your part in making a smaller carbon footprint. I swear it’s a college student’s dream.

3) The 3 Sisters: Ever think about making old toys and games from your attic a part of your daily wardrobe? Well, you don’t have to do the crafting anymore; the 3 Sisters already thought of this cool and creative concept for you! Beginning with the transforming of Dominoes into wearable art, The 3 Sisters inserts edge and ecology into every piece of jewelry, from purses made out of vinyl records to bottle cap bracelets.

2) Boho Magazine: With the spring weather comes the pleasure of planting yourself on the campus lawn with a pair of shades, your closest girlfriends and a good fashion magazine. Boho is a green fashion-lifestyle magazine daring to make a difference and change the world we live in. The first magazine to be 100% recycled, Boho inspires readers to put a spin on this world and make it prettier while doing so. Find out more about subscriptions and what lies within the binding of Boho at www.bohomag.com.

1) Leanne Marshall: So we all know and love Leanne from Project Runway (Leanne-imal, rarrr), and what could be better than celebrating Earth Day a few days late than by splurging on some pieces from Leanne’s collection, available on her website on April 25? Her products are 100% eco-friendly and 110% fabulous. Up and coming and predicted to take the fashion world by storm, Leanne Marshall is certainly on the right path to making both fellow designers and Mother Nature proud.

With Earth Day coming up (cue the Al Gore/whales/rainbows/wind technology montage) I took it upon myself to make a few Green changes in my life. I’ve swapped my regular lightbulbs for CFLs, picked up a few reusable grocery bags and started unplugging my electronics/appliances when I’m not using them. These are teensy little changes to my everyday life that are proven to have a very big impact on the planet. Go me.

I started looking around for more ideas of things I could do for the plant and came across a ton of student groups and entire universities that have dedicated themselves to Going Green. After realizing how awful my own school is when it comes to the planet (we’d be better off shipping students off to burn entire rain forests), I was totally inspired by a few colleges that have taken “Going Green” into their own hands. Seeing what these students can do makes me want to do so much more.

Evergreen State College
Evergreen State College in Washington has one of the most successful sustainable organic farms in the country.  After providing the school with food, the money from the surplus has gone on to pay for most of the farm’s equipment, including greenhouses, a cooler, and a compost shed.  The extra crops are either given to food shelters, sold, or composted.  They also use green energy in the form of wind power.  Badass.

Middlebury
A student group called MiddShift called for the school to be carbon neutral by 2016 and got the Board of Trustees behind them.  But that’s not all!  Students are consistently doing their part around campus, leading energy-saving contests in dorms, advocating for public transportation, and in 2007, they put together the Step it Up 2007 campaign, a national movement to fight climate change.

California State University
In 2009, CSU was one of the winners of the National Wildlife Federation’s Chill Out: Campus Solutions to Global Warming contest.  They won by working with SunEdison to bring solar energy to the California State University System with installations that are estimated to “cut 9,485 metric tons of carbon dioxide.”  Whoa there.

Oberlin College
Oberlin was one of the other winners of the Chill Out contest by working not only with students and faculty, but locals as well to “green” their area.  They offset 13% of their greenhouse gas emissions.  They helped save $715,000 in utility bills, and hosted light bulb exchanges (regular bulbs to CFLs) to save energy.  The Lightbulb Brigade, as they called it, cut about 6,400 tons of carbon dioxide over the life of the bulbs.  Yay!

College of the Atlantic
This Maine college is so green it only has one major: Human Ecology.  They describe Human Ecology as the “study of our relationship with our environment.”  Since they are so in touch with their relationship with the environment, they were the first college to pledge carbon neutrality in 2006.  Since they did it, 270 colleges AND COUNTING have pledged to do the same.  Who would have guessed that a tiny college in Maine would be such a trendsetter?

Did you do your part to celebrate Earth Day this year? Maybe you showered with your man to conserve water or skipped the cardboard sleeve on your Starbucks to reduce paper waste. As for me, I went to a showing of DisneyNature’s new documentary film, Earth.

If you are into the kind of documentaries that make you feel incredibly guilty for living a lifestyle full of gas guzzling cars, 30 minute hot showers and an “ignorance is bliss” attitude, then this movie is not for you! Going in, I expected a deep-voiced narrator (most-likely Morgan Freeman) to describe how keeping my laptop charger plugged in is contributing to the deaths of adorable, innocent baby polar bears, but was pleasantly surprised at the opposite.

This film didn’t make me feel like a bag of crap for living in a world of consumerism. There was no finger pointing and guilt tripping here! However, the gorgeous views from around the world (and the stories of amazing animals) did make me think twice about not recycling my Red Bull. Instead of laying it on thick about the importance of what humans can do to help the planet, the narrator takes the viewer on a trip around the globe to educate you on the things we forget even exist.

Did you know that the Rainforest makes up only 3% of our land mass, but contributes more than 50% of our Earth’s oxygen? Not only did that fact blow my mind, but it inspired me to spend a Saturday not hungover in bed, but outside planting a garden instead.

But the facts and information presented were nothing compared to the film’s photography; I have never seen ocean water so crystal clear or trees so lushly green. Imagine what it would be like to take a helicopter tour over Hawaii and you can get an idea of what watching this movie was like. I especially loved the time lapsed sequences when you could watch a flower bloom in seconds and see an entire continent turn green with growth. My mouth hung open in awe at what our planet can do!

Oh, and the animals!  Watching the baby polar bears play in the snow had my heart melting along with the ice caps; and nothing is cuter than a furry little butt (as long as it’s on an animal and not my man).

The OCD bird who was obsessed with cleaning up his nest to attract a female had me cracking up in my seat. I barely know any guys who would go to the trouble of picking up a sock, let alone scour his room to spic-and-span standards! Those “chicks” in the forest have it made! When you’re not laughing at the birds, you’ll be rooting for several animal families as they run from predators and risk their lives in search of food and shelter. After learning that elephants trek for over a month just to find a drink of water, you’ll never hear me complain about a 3 mile run again (well, maybe).

If you haven’t gone to see this film yet, I am urging you to run out and buy a ticket. This is one documentary that is anything but boring and won’t have you feeling guilty when you do have to print out that 10 page essay or go for a drive. You’ll be cracking up at the animals, mouthing “WOW” at the gorgeous sights and become inspired to do your part to keep our world as beautiful as it has always been.

Don’t forget to stay for the ending credits! You can catch a hilarious blooper of the filmmakers crashing into a tree in their hot-air balloon. High comedy, I promise!

Also, this week was the first week that, at least for a lot of the country, it actually felt like spring—which makes us (and squirrels) want to party!  So throw on that new organic cotton sundress, paint your nails hot pink, and have fun!  Plus, we all know that spring puts us in a sexy mood (you’re probably stalking your crush’s Facebook page while you read this, right?), and now we know exactly how to find that new guy.

With all the fun we’ve been having this week, it’s going to be hard to get back to writing that paper we’ve been putting off. But we must, or we may regret it later.

Where do you think your old phones go? There’s no magical cell phone farm where they go to live out their last days in a texting spree. It’s more like a industrial landfill where they sit until the end of time.

And well that’s just not great for the Earth. The amount of tech junk that’s hanging out would make Captain Planet cry.

So what can you do to help with that? Well, you could buy less stuff, but that’s not too realistic. Especially with all the cool shiz that comes out monthly (thank you, Apple!) and the short life many of our gadgets have.

So what can you do? Why recycle, of course!

While you can’t just toss your old Razr or MacBook in the recycling bin with your cardboard boxes and empty bottles, there are many recycling centers to send your used electronics to when they break down or become obsolete. Check here for a list of places local to you! Or see if your city offers the USPS recycling program.

And when it comes to many other electronics, you have many options to save Mother Earth that are simple and will probably save you money in the end.

* Instead of buying new printer cartridges just refill the ones you have.

* Print on both sides of your computer paper. Maybe not for your actual turn-in products but for your notes. Also check with your profs to see if you can turn in things electronically. Every little bit counts.

* Turn your stuff off. Game consoles burn up an obscene amount of energy. I understand wanting to leave them running but it’s better for everyone if you just turn them off and replay that level later.

* Unplug! Don’t leave everything you own plugged in at all times. Not only does it cost you extra money, but it sucks a ton of energy! When you aren’t drying your hair, unplug the dryer. When you aren’t making coffee, unplug the coffee maker. You get the idea…

You don’t have to do grand things to help make the Earth a better place. Just do a little somethin’ somethin’ with those electronics and we’ll make this planet a better (and toxin free) place.

Here are some quick and simple steps from two…er…lovely ladies on saving water and using it wisely. Once you get past the unsightly upper-lip hair and interesting makeup choices, these girls provide some useful information.

Just another easy way to give somethin’ back to Mama Earth.