The Green Sheep is Prince George's first store offering a selection of all natural, chemical-free products for babies and young children (and a few items for their moms). Every product you will find on this website has been carefully chosen for its thoughtfulness toward the Earth, its purity, and its practicality. Because we have hand-picked each product with these goals in mind, you can be assured that you will not find any greenwash here.

Operated by a work-at-home-mom, who has a background in Environmental Sciences, The Green Sheep opened for business in January 2010.  Our focus will be on baby things for the time being, with the goal of one day expanding to offer safe, natural products for the entire home.

In addition to sourcing the most natural products we can find, we do our best to find and stock products made by local entrepreneurs, from local materials.  Nearly all of our products are made in BC. Buying locally not only supports local communities, but also reduces the carbon footprint of the commodities in question.

The three R's are of extreme importance to The Green Sheep, as they should be for all humans.  We support the use of cloth diapers, as well as cloth menstrual pads for women.  Not only do reusable products like these save a tremendous amount of natural resources and reduce the amount of waste going to landfills, they are also healthier for our bodies.  

You will also notice that we use minimal packaging that is always reusable (and often reused already!), recyclable or compostable, or made of recycled paper.

 

There are so many reasons to "go organic".  If you are not yet sure about the benefits, read the following information about cotton, bamboo and wool, and check back here soon to learn more.

Babies, in particular, are sensitive to chemicals in their environment.  This is why we have chosen to focus on natural products for babies and young children.

According to the Organic Trade Association, cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land, and uses approximately 25% of world's insecticides, and over 10% of pesticides.  Synthetic fertilizer use is also heavy.  Conventionally grown cotton is widely considered the world's dirtiest crop.  Many hazardous materials are also added to cotton when it is converted into clothing.  Cotton produced in countries with little or no regulation of chemical usage and disposal is the worst environmentally.

Organic cotton is grown with natural fertilizers such as compost and manure, and natural pest control methods are used.  This protects our water, air and land, which in turn protects us.  Organic fabric does not have residual chemicals on it, which could cause adverse reactions in sensitive individuals. 

Most products at The Green Sheep contain only organic cotton.  However, a few products (such as our menstrual pads) do contain conventional cotton manufactured in Canada, in order to make the products more accessible financially.  As most of our products are produced by small businesses, we are able to take custom orders for those desiring 100% organic cotton.

Bamboo has recently rocketed in popularity as a "green" fibre.  We like it because bamboo is a quick growing plant that does not require pesticides or fertilizers, it adds a lot of oxygen to the atmosphere, the fabric is biodegradable and silky soft, and has many other desirable qualities. Fabrics derived from plants are always more sustainable than those made of petroleum chemicals.  

Unfortunately, the manufacture of bamboo fabric can actually cause a lot of harm to the environment.  Specifically, we must consider the processes involved in turning bamboo-the-plant into bamboo-the-super-soft-cloth.  Most bamboo fabric is actually a form of rayon, or viscose.  The standard way of producing viscose from plant fibres involves heavy usage of chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and carbon disulphide.  When pollution controls and standards are low (common in third world countries), this results in significant pollution of air and water.  

Fortunately, there are much more sustainable methods for producing viscose of bamboo, utilizing gentler chemicals and closed loop systems.  All bamboo products sold by The Green Sheep are either eco-certified to meet Oeko-Tex 100 or CUWG (formerly SKAL) standards, are manufactured in Canada, and/or are otherwise guaranteed to be from sustainable sources.  

At The Green Sheep, wool is one of our favourite fabrics.  Unfortunately, wool too can cause havoc on our environment - and on our wooly friends.  This is why we only stock wool products that are either certified organic, locally farmed by farmers who employ organic practices, or reclaimed from already-loved sweaters and blankets. For more details, refer to the write-up included on our organic mattresses page.