Earth Day is upon us, girlfriends, and everywhere you look, women are taking steps to become more environmentally responsible. If you’re feeling green (and we don’t mean with envy), why not throw your own "Green Girlfriends Party"? GirlfriendCelebrations.com makes it easy to have  eco-friendly fun while you and your girlfriends discover some concrete ways to make a difference to the health of the planet.

Setting and Setup
If you want to be a friend to the planet, the best place to start is your own backyard. In fact, let’s make your backyard the setting for this party. It’s just the spot to allow everyone to enjoy some natural beauty. A backyard location also helps you contain the mess of any activities (see below). And, if your spring weather is as unpredictable as ours, you’ll have the house as a backup location. The atmosphere need not be fancy; less is more when you are trying to reduce waste. Paper decorations and disposable tableware simply don’t belong at this party. Try to use natural or recycled materials in decorating–vases filled with wildflowers or ferns, for example. Cloth napkins and washable dishes and glasses are definitely more in keeping with the green theme. If you must use paper, at least try to find unbleached ones with recycled content.

Invitations

You can buy "eco-friendly" paper invitations, but email is the best choice from the trees’ point of view. Evite has some lovely Earth Day themes to get you started. Of course, you could bicycle to each girlfriend’s house with a scroll hand written with soy-based ink on recycled–just kidding!

Food and Drink

Practically any menu can be adapted to the "green" theme if you select your ingredients carefully.  Look for organic foods, locally grown items, seasonally appropriate produce. Be sure to let your guests know that they are feasting on environmentally responsible fare, and tell them where to find the earth friendly ingredients. For beverages, organic beer and wine is increasingly available; though you may have to hunt a little, it would be fun to try (if cost is prohibitive, have a "tasting" by offering sample size portions). We also love the idea of serving coffee drinks made with organic and/or fairly traded (or better, direct trade) coffee. Intelligentsia and Whole Foods are good sources of these better coffee beans.

If you’d like more information on "greening" your menu, check out this article at www.treehugger.com. 

Activities For the Birds

Since we’re using "start in your own backyard" as a loose theme, let your girlfriends loose on a craft to beautify their own backyards while boosting the local eco-system. Believe it or not, attracting birds to your yard or garden is very beneficial to the environment. Birds eat aphids and other garden pests, reducing the need for chemical pesticides. And, a friendly habitat provides a home for birds that may have been ousted from their former roosts by construction or urban sprawl. We’ve located a couple of "girl-friendly" crafts that are simple and quick to complete.Click on the links for directions.

Teacup Bird Feeder: Make this really earth friendly by using "recycled" teacups you find at a garage sale or thrift store. So cute! 

Terra Cotta Bird Bath: Be sure you’re using a non-toxic sealer for the birds’ sake.

Bird houses are also fun to make and paint. You can usually find kits or plain houses at craft stores. Keep in mind, though, that brightly colored houses aren’t really very safe for the birds. They need to blend in with their environment. And leave the inside unpainted for the safety of the baby birds!

Don’t forget: Fun is a renewable resource–especially when it’s powered by girlfriends! There are many other possible activities to help your party blossom. Here are just a few ideas:

• Share what you know. Ask each girlfriend to share her own earth-friendly practices. Perhaps one knows how to build a compost pile, another is experienced with cloth diapering, and another has a great source for organic meat. Don’t have a green practice to share? Talk about your greatest challenge or perceived obstacle when it comes to living green, and allow the group to brainstorm solutions.
• Recycle those darn bags. Ask everyone to bring all their unrecycled plastic grocery bags. It will be fun to see how many you can collect. After the party, bring them to a recycling center for a dignified end. Or, donate them to a thrift store that will reuse them.
• Get crafty. If you’ve got a crafty group, spend some time making "yarn" out of those pesky plastic shopping bags. You can then knit some nifty shopping bags out of them. There are many patterns available on the web. Here is a link to one, along with instructions on cutting the bags for "yarn." Or, buy some plain canvas totes and decorate them. You may also want to try your hand at making your own environmentally friendly cleaning products–it’s easy and effective. Find advice here for making a natural cleaning kit.
• Stretch those legs! Take a hike and de-litter your neighborhood or a local park. Split into teams and award a prize to the team that picks up the most trash. Or, arrange a group bike ride to a local watering hole, museum, park, or other interesting place.
• Provide some edutainment. If you’re concerned about global warming, hold a screening of An Inconvenient Truth.  Or, find out about your local community supported agriculture (CSA) operation. Invite a local farmer to speak about opportunities to benefit from organic farming in your community. Local Harvest is a great resource.

Party Favors

Sorry, no frou-frou party favors this time girls, since we’re trying to minimize consumption. But you are allowed to give a highly reusable, or earth-friendly, gift to your gal pals, such as:

• Packet of seeds or potted plant, especially perennials or plants native to your area. 
• Compact fluourescent lightbulb 
• Reusable shopping bag. There are many on the market; Chico makes one that is reasonably priced.You could also buy some plain canvas totes at a craft store and decorate them for your girlfriends.

Last, arm your guests with useful information. For tips on what everyone can do to improve the planet’s health, try this list from the World Resources Institute. It would make a great handout (or followup email, since you are trying to save paper).

Women can and will make a difference for the planet in the coming years. Why not be part of it? We’d love to hear your suggestions on this topic. Get in touch using the comment form below.