Doing Her Part

Henderson local Tiffany Parks has made a habit of taking her friends' garbage home with her. Not for after-dinner snacks or social security numbers, either. Parks can't bear to see a bottle go unrecycled. Nor can she stand the thought of wearing sweatshop-produced clothing or buying fast fashion when she knows it will expire within a few wears.

It all explains why Parks, whose retail resume includes a stint as a Neiman Marcus personal shopper, started her eco-friendly Web site, weartheearth.com. Wear the Earth sells clothing for men, women, kids and infants. Featured fashion designers include Jonano, a brand that coined the term ecoKashmere, and Ideo, a French label Parks discovered while at the MAGIC trade show. Bed and bath products, handbags and other gift items are also sold. Everything on the Web site upholds the same standard. It's made using an Earth-friendly process through sustainable living practices. Translation: No animals or humans are harmed in the production process.

"Everyone has their green lines," Parks says. "But are they against sweatshops?"

The way she sees it, buying the 100 percent organic cotton T-shirt with a cute green message slapped across the bust doesn't cut it. She needs to know not a single child was exploited so she could wear that shirt. She needs to have confidence in the integrity of the store that sells the shirt. So many cash register prerequisites don't make for swift shopping at the nearest mall, which led to her Web site. Parks hopes to reach out to the man who cared about the environment long before celebrities decided it was cool, as well as the young college student trying to get used to the idea of recycling.

It's quite the leap from Parks' former days as a UNLV student when she stomped out lit cigarettes with no regard for their disposal and picked up a new clubbing outfit every weekend. The change came the same time her daughter Zoe Murphy did. Bringing a new life into the world caused the 37-year-old to take a look around. The more she looked, the more she became concerned.

Today, 5-year-old Zoe can't listen to Dr. Seuss' "The Lorax" without bursting into tears. Dropping paper and plastic in the recycling bin is as much a treat as pushing the floor button in an elevator for her. Likewise, she tugs her mother's sleeve and interrupts a conversation, not to find out if they can go to McDonald's but to ask when she gets to see Disney's newly released "Earth" film.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. So long as the apples are pesticide-free and the tree isn't chopped down, Parks is just fine with that.

"If we don't change how we live," she says, "then we won't have anything left."