Often accused of doing just about anything to preserve the planet long before going green hit the mainstream radar, Kim Carlson is an eco-chic lifestyle expert, eco-savvy entrepreneur, and green business author. Kim practices what she preaches. (Except she doesn't really preach, she enthuses.) As the "EarthSmart Consumer" on television, host of the national radio program, "Livin' The Green Life" and the regular guest writer for many blogs and national magazines, Carlson educates the public on the pleasures of a planet-friendly lifestyle, exploring the nitty gritty of topics from stylish organic entertaining to nontoxic gardening and eco-golf.

She has been featured in Self, Health, Shape, Real Simple, Natural Health, Cooking Light, Bride & Groom, Experience Life, and Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine. Carlson's EarthSmart Consumer Quiz – designed for consumers to discover how green their lifestyle is or can be – has become a buzzed-about benchmark of green living. Look for it on her website at www.EarthSmartConsumer.com (see if you can pass all 3 levels of the quiz).

When she is not living green, she is working green as an eco-preneur. Carlson is the Founder of five successful companies that use earth-friendliness as their driving force. Her 2009 book, "Green Your Work: Boost Your Bottom Line While Reducing Your Eco-Footprint" is about the many advantages and challenges of being an environmentally responsible business.

Her latest venture is the Certified Sustainable EarthSmart Consumer seal of approval, a retail product certification program devised in collaboration with the country's leading scientists, academics and environmentalists, which ensures that the products we buy won't hurt people or the planet.