Well, they smell good, at least.

But take a look at the label of your favorite hand soap, shampoo, or body wash. The first listed ingredient is likely water -- followed by sodium laureth sulfate (SLES) or some closely related compound.

Sodium laureth sulfate does the heavy lifting in most of the personal cleaning products on your shelf, right down to toothpaste. It's a cheap and powerful foaming agent, and it's foam's ability to suspend dirt before it gets rinsed off which makes things clean. While concerns have been raised from time to time about sodium laureth sulfate's long-term safety, nothing has really stuck. SLES is an entrenched part of our daily lives.

It's also a detergent. While detergents are sometimes called “soaps,” there's a difference. Soaps are derived from fats; detergents are synthetic.

Read on to find out how to make the switch to natural, eco-friendly soaps.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the heat is on.

There's no doubt summer is here -- and with it, the perpetual quest to stay cool. For those of us interested in sustainability, the thought of huge summer cooling bills (and all the greenhouse emissions they cause) is enough to send a chill down the spine.

You've probably already heard the basics of summertime energy management: keep your air conditioner filters clean; make sure your weather stripping is tight; draw the drapes during the heat of the day; and avoid the use of big heat-creating appliances like ovens and ranges whenever possible. If you want a quick review of hot weather energy-saving ideas , check Lighter Footstep's Giant List of Summer Cooling Tips.

But there are other ways to keep your cool through the summer. We've rounded up five for your consideration, including several tried-and-true methods from the days before central air. Give one or two a shot, and see how they work for you.

Oh, the busy routine of green living: We worry about secondhand smoke, buy low VOC-paint to reduce exposure to offgassing, support clean air legislation, and do what we can to reduce the toxins in our food and water.
Then we retire for the night to a nest of powerful chemicals and allergens.

You'll spend about a third of your life in bed. For most of us, however, the bedroom is one of our least healthy living spaces. The main problem is this: mattresses and bedding materials are frequently treated with a family of flame-retardant chemicals known as PBDE (polybrominated diphenyl ether ). Health groups have been concerned about the cumulative effects of PBDEs on the human body for almost a decade, and certain varieties are already banned in places like the European Union.

If you're chemically sensitive -- or if the idea of chronic exposure to PBDE is causing you to lose sleep -- replacing your mattress might be a good place to start.

At last week's Sustainable Business Council event here in LA, the topic was health and wellness. As a cool bonus at the event, the organization brought in Green Bliss, a mobile eco-spa, to provide free treatments. It was then that I realized just how much is going on in this industry.

Of course, the signs have been around for awhile. It seems that I'm constantly meeting people who are starting new organic soap or skincare lines. And at the LOHAS Conference in April, an entire section was dedicated specifically to the booming green spa industry.

But it looks like I'm behind the curve on this one, though talking with the Green Bliss folks last week was enlightening. They reminded me that every ingredient in a particular product would be absorbed through the skin or nails -- eeks! They also pointed out that many products, like nail polish, were developed decades ago. Science has come a long way since then, and we're all more knowledgeable about what we put in, and on, our bodies so we should take the time to educate ourselves. And, you can't rely on labels that tout a product as "natural" or "organic" if you have to read the ingredients.

Bottled water is healthy water -- right?

That's what the marketers would have us believe. Just look at the labels or the bottled water ads: deep, pristine pools of spring water; majestic alpine peaks; healthy, active people gulping down icy bottled water between biking in the park and a trip to the yoga studio.

In reality, bottled water is just water. That fact isn't stopping people from buying a lot of it. Estimates variously place worldwide bottled water sales at between $50 and $100 billion each year, with the market expanding at the startling annual rate of 7 percent.

Bottled water is big business. But in terms of sustainability, bottled water is a dry well. It's costly, wasteful, and distracts from the brass ring of public health: the construction and maintenance of safe municipal water systems.

Want some solid reasons to kick the bottled water habit? We've rounded up five to get you started.