How to vote with your dollars? Seek out stores that are doing the right thing. In October, H&M topped WalMart as the world’s biggest buyer of organic cotton. Who knew?

In November, ZARA, the world’s largest fashion retailer made a public commitment to phase out toxic chemicals, and Greenpeace’s “detox fashion” campaign was a deciding factor. Personally, I am loving their tagline: “Toxic is so last season.” Ha!

You can find organic cotton at Target and each year H&M rolls out a “Conscious Couture”collection made entirely from sustainable materials like hemp and recycled PET. Nordstrom’s and Macy’s sell eco-clothing, as do Bloomingdale’s and Barney’s.

And yes, these retailers might be stocking up on sustainable designs just in time for Earth Day each year. But consider the big picture. Even if it’s just marketing: If H&M’s Spring collection sells out in a matter of days, more eco-fashion is soon to follow. And maybe, just maybe, one day their entire multi-billion dollar business will stock only organic cotton items. We can dream, right?

Oh, and BYOB, baby! There’s a plastic bag cemetery the size of two Texases floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Say no to those oh-so-pretty shopping bags (paper and plastic) and fold up a reusable bag to stash in your purse instead. (Just make sure it’s big enough for that dress and a pair of shoes.)

Planning to eco-shop? Consider that:

• Organic cotton is just as soft and durable as conventional, but it doesn’t require two-thirds of a pound of pesticide to make one pair of jeans.  According to the EPA, five of the top nine pesticides used in conventional cotton production in the United States (including cyanide, propargite, and trifluralin) are known cancer-causing chemicals. That should keep you buying organic!
• Bamboo is the world’s fastest-growing plant. Bamboo fabric is sustainably grown, completely biodegradable, naturally pest- and insect-resistant, absorbs 400 percent more greenhouse gases, and produces 35 percent more oxygen than trees (say that 10 times fast and we’ll give you a quarter). Especially when it’s mechanically—rather than chemically—processed, bamboo is a great fabric to seek out.
• Hemp is naturally insect-resistant, anti-microbial, and requires no herbicides, pesticides or chemical fertilizers to produce. Think about this: If the 1.4 billion t-shirts sold in American each year were replaced with hemp tees, the energy savings would equal 3.5 billion gigajoules and the water savings would equal 1.3 trillion gallons—enough water for half the U.S. population for an entire year.

You’ve heard about the impact new clothing has on the environment—that you can tell next season’s hot color by looking at the rivers in Mexico and China, where  global fashion brands use hazardous chemicals and dyes to make clothes.

But everyone has to shop once in a while, right? Here’s a quick tip to remember, the next time you go shopping. Add another question to those that we women usually ask ourselves before purchasing:

1. “Do I like it?”
2. “Can I afford it?”
3. “Does it look good on me?” (Or, the converse, “Does this make me look fat?”)
4. “Is it sustainable?” According to a definition by the United National General Assembly in 1987, this means that “meets the needs of the present, without undermining future generations to meet their needs.”

If you can say yes to all four, then buy away! If not, give yourself some time to think about whether you really need something—or just want it. Because you wouldn’t want to cheat on your closet, right?

Going shopping? Before you hit the mall think about this: The average American generates 11.8 million tons of textile waste—10 pounds for every person—every year. That’s four million tons of solid waste every year, or four percent of the content of our landfills, just from the materials that we throw out!

But don’t despair; there are eco-friendly solutions for an ecoista shopaholic. Think vintage, environmentally-friendly fabrics and—the newest trend to hit the eco-fashion scene—swapping.

But let’s back up a minute: Aside from not trashing your clothes and adding to the landfill, why is shopping sustainably important?

First off, most clothing is made of cotton, which is one of the most heavily sprayed crops in the world, accounting for 25 percent of the world’s insecticides and 10 percent of its pesticides. To put this in perspective, toss a pound of flour in a measuring cup: It takes an astounding one-third of a pound of pesticide to make one t-shirt and two-thirds to make a pair of jeans.

Far worse are the synthetic options made from petrochemicals like nylon and polyester: Nylon manufacture creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide, while polyester demands large amounts of water for cooling, along with lubricants, which can become a source of contamination. And both processes are energy-hungry, leaving ecoistas to label them unsustainable on more than one count.

We need to change the way we think about buying clothes. Just say no to disposable fashion made from cheap and unsustainable fabrics, and think about creating a long-term relationship with your closet! Avoid hook-ups and one-night-stands—Think about clothing purchases as things that you want to live with for a long, long time. That doesn’t mean wearing things that are out of style. It simply means being more conscious of what we buy—and working with what we’ve got.

There are a lot of words being thrown around when it comes to green fashion. But green isn’t a label or a certification; it’s a state of mind that, to me, means a product is sustainably produced using environmentally and socially conscious means.

According to a definition by the United National General Assembly in 1987,“sustainability” means that something “meets the needs of the present, without undermining future generations to meet their needs.”

But when it comes to your closet, “green” can mean different things to different people:

• Fair trade is the sustainable business practice of manufacturing goods in economically disadvantaged areas in order to alleviate poverty, reduce inequality and provide opportunities for farmers and artisans.
• Vegan products contain no animal materials, but they aren’t organic unless they say so.
• USDA Certified Organic and EcoCert products contain at least 95 percent organically grown materials; the latter is certified by an independent European agency, not the USDA.
• The word organic simply means it comes from formerly living—i.e. plant or animal—material; it certainly doesn’t mean “good for you.” If you want to get technical, “organic” is defined by the Random House Dictionary as “noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.” Think oil. Organic, yes. USDA certified organic, no.