XMWare

2026-04-20T10:01:00

(BPT) – If you are a pet parent, you know how important nutrition is to the health, well-being and longevity of your four-legged loved ones. Just like when you are deciding what to eat, you want your dogs and cats to consume food packed with high-quality proteins and sustainably and ethically sourced ingredients.

Taking a closer look at what’s actually in your pet’s bowl can make a meaningful difference. Research shows that a whole-food, natural, high-meat diet supports overall vitality, including improved energy, digestion, skin and coat health. Avoiding unnecessary fillers will ensure your pet gets the nutrients and nutrition they need, just as nature intended.

Often, this is where pet parents’ research ends. However, it doesn’t matter what’s in your pet’s food if you don’t know where the food comes from. This means having full transparency into how ingredients are grown, the way animals are raised, and what happens to the ingredients at every stage. A farm-to-bowl approach ensures that what your pet is eating is not only good for them, but also good for others and the planet.

Raising the bar on transparent sourcing

Brands in the pet food industry are raising the bar by clearly outlining where their ingredients come from and how they are made. One company in particular, Natural Pet Food Group (NPFG), the New Zealand-based company behind the K9 Natural and Feline Natural brands, are focused on doing things differently by committing to only using high quality ingredients from vetted sources, earning them B Corporation Certification. In doing so, it became just one of three pet food companies in New Zealand to attain this certification.

Certified B Corporations go beyond typical industry practices to meet verified international standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency, achieved through a rigorous assessment across governance, workers, community, the environment and customers.

Rooted in New Zealand’s strong agricultural and seafood sectors, K9 Natural and Feline Natural’s whole-food ingredients are ethically sourced and traceable. By partnering with local farmers and fisheries that share a commitment to animal welfare, sustainability and ingredient integrity, the brand offers pet nutrition you can trust.

“Before we partner with new suppliers, we get into the details,” said Natural Pet Food Group CEO Brett Henshaw. “How animals are farmed, where fish comes from, how it’s caught, how suppliers look after their people. There’s real substance behind our sourcing, and this achievement reflects the strength of our long-standing partnerships with farmers and seafood suppliers across New Zealand and beyond.”

Almost all the ingredients that go into both K9 Natural and Feline Natural pet food products are sourced in New Zealand from grass-fed, free-range and pasture-raised animals, cage-free chicken, sustainable seafood and fertile soil-grown vegetables. No unnecessary ingredients, fillers or additives are used.

Doing good beyond the bowl — prioritizing environmental impact

A meaningful shift has been made by pet brands, including K9 Natural and Feline Natural, to reduce their environmental impact by prioritizing not only responsibly sourced ingredients but also improving packaging and production practices. As a newly B Corp Certified brand, K9 Natural and Feline Natural demonstrates the brand’s commitment to the environment’s health by:

• Powering all its offices in New Zealand with 100% renewable energy
• Prioritizing sea freight to reduce emissions
• Increasing recycled content and removing unnecessary plastics in packaging
• Donating 8,518 kilograms of pet food to 19 food hubs in the last year
• Creating strong health and safety systems

“If we make food to help pets thrive, the way we run our business must support people, communities and the environment too,” said Henshaw. “Certification affirms the progress we’ve made and raises the bar for what great looks like in pet nutrition.”

Supporting pets, people and the planet

Ensuring your pet’s food helps them live long, high-quality lives can help others live that way, too. To learn more about K9 Natural and Feline Natural visit K9FelineNatural.com.

2026-04-20T11:05:00

(BPT) – In honor of Earth Day this year, consider making a few simple lifestyle changes that can help to reduce your carbon footprint, create less waste in landfills and use energy more efficiently. With climate headlines feeling more overwhelming by the day, it’s easy to feel like individual actions don’t matter — but they do. The good news is, even small swaps in your everyday life can make an impact, and the best time to start is now. With AI-powered tools and smart home technology consuming more electricity than ever, finding cleaner ways to meet our energy needs has never been more urgent.

Here are five ideas for living a little greener this Earth Day, and every day. Each one is good for the planet — and your wallet.

1. Opt for a solar generator

As AI data centers, smart devices and connected home systems drive electricity demand to record highs, more and more household power draw is tied to the digital world — making clean, renewable home energy solutions a smart choice for eco-conscious consumers. With extreme weather events becoming more frequent across the country — from wildfires on the West Coast to hurricanes along the Gulf Coast and ice storms in between — having a reliable solar-powered backup isn’t just a green choice. It’s a practical emergency preparedness strategy for your whole family.

Be ready to power your entire home or key appliances during an outage with a quiet, reliable and emission-free solar generator. For example, the Jackery Solar Generator 5000 Plus can harness the power of the sun to keep your refrigerator, lights, medical devices, EV charger and more going — making it a true home energy backup solution. Even better, the generator has expandable capacity thanks to a battery that can be expanded up to 60 watt-hours (Wh) to grow with your household’s needs.

By pairing the generator with Jackery SolarSaga panels to generate clean energy from the sun, you’re further reducing your reliance on the grid to lower your carbon footprint. You can even use the stored solar energy to power heavyweight appliances such as washing machines and dryers, as well as the growing fleet of AI-enabled smart home devices — and offset costs for grid power when it is at peak pricing.

Today, AI-powered home energy management systems can even work alongside solar generators to automatically optimize when you draw from stored power versus the grid, saving money and reducing emissions at the same time. For households in high-sun states like California, Texas, Arizona and Florida, the combination of solar generation and smart energy management is fast becoming one of the most searched home improvement and emergency preparedness investments of the year.

Bonus: The Jackery Solar Generator uses LiFePO4 battery chemistry for long-lasting, stable home use, designed with safety in mind for indoor environments.

2. Eat locally sourced food

The closer to home your food is grown, the less fuel is used to transport and refrigerate it. On top of that, less packaging is needed for locally grown and sold produce. You can shop at neighborhood farmers markets, or when you’re at the grocery store, look for items labeled as grown in your home state. Supporting local farms also makes an impact because smaller-scale production is likely to use beneficial farming techniques like crop rotation, composting and more efficient irrigation. This kind of slow, intentional approach to food — buying less processed, more local — is at the heart of the growing “slow living” movement, which prioritizes quality and sustainability over convenience.

Love going out to eat? Look for restaurants that have a strong farm-to-table practice featuring locally sourced food.

Bonus: Eating local, seasonal food usually tastes better! You’re eating food that’s at peak ripeness and freshness. And with grocery prices still top of mind for most households, buying seasonal and local is one of the easiest ways to eat well while spending less.

3. Minimize kitchen waste

Similarly, finding ways to reduce and reuse kitchen waste at home can also impact the environment in many positive ways, including reducing the amount of methane released by rotting foods, which is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. In a time when more people are embracing “underconsumption” — the idea of using what you already have before buying more — the zero-waste kitchen has become one of the most searched sustainable lifestyle topics online.

To cut down on kitchen waste, plan your grocery shopping and meal preparation more intentionally, and seek creative ways to use leftovers. Store produce correctly to avoid food items going bad, and try to use them quickly (or freeze if possible). When you do have kitchen scraps, they can be easily composted to help fertilize your garden, where you can grow a little of your own produce for the ultimate locally sourced food. Composting is also one of the most beginner-friendly eco swaps out there, with many cities now offering curbside compost pickup alongside regular recycling.

Pro tip: Some kitchen scraps, like the skins, peels or cut-off ends of onions, carrots and other produce, can be used to make vegetable broth. Just simmer with water and your favorite seasonings for 1-2 hours, then strain through a sieve for a tasty broth that’s better than store bought!

4. Switch to reusable bags

Whenever you’re shopping for groceries or other items, use reusable bags (like those free tote bags collecting in your closets) to significantly reduce plastic pollution and minimize the need to cut down trees to make more paper bags. This is one of the simplest examples of the “buy less, use more” mindset that’s gaining traction across sustainable lifestyle communities on social media — small, consistent habits that add up to real change over time.

Pro tip: Keep a stash of reusable bags near the front door and in your car so you’ll always have some handy.

5. Choose low-waste cleaning products

You can minimize the environmental impact of plastic by opting for products that don’t come in single-use plastic containers. Compared to using conventional cleaning products, this can help lower your carbon footprint, while reducing both plastic pollution and water pollution. Easy swaps to look for include choosing natural sponges, reusable or compostable containers, concentrated formulas like soap blocks, tablets and laundry sheets, plus cleaners that come in refillable glass spray bottles. These swaps also tend to be more cost-effective in the long run — concentrated formulas and refillable options mean you’re buying less packaging and spending less per use, which matters when household budgets are stretched.

Pro tip: Prefer a certain cleaner that only comes in plastic spray bottles? Buy a large refill bottle so you can reuse that bottle as many times as possible.

Any one of these simple steps can make a big difference. And if climate news ever starts to feel paralyzing, remember: doing something — anything — is always better than doing nothing. Start with one until it becomes a habit, then try another. You’ll feel good knowing you’re doing your part to help protect the environment.

Learn about more ways to live a lifestyle that can benefit the planet at Jackery.com.

2026-04-17T08:51:00

(BPT) – A child is scheduled for cleft surgery. The family has arranged time off work, coordinated travel, and completed all pre-operative steps, then, just days before the procedure, an insurance denial arrives.

For many cleft-affected patients and their families in the United States, this is a common occurrence. Being born with a cleft lip and/or palate brings not only medical needs, but also the added burden of navigating complex insurance barriers to access essential care. While cleft care is widely recognized by medical professionals as necessary for a child’s health, coverage decisions don’t always reflect that reality.

Clefts affect 1 in 700 births and are not resolved with a single procedure. Treatment often involves multiple surgeries over time, along with speech therapy, dental and orthodontic treatment, and psychosocial support. When any part of that care is denied or delayed, it can directly affect a child’s ability to eat, speak, hear, and build confidence.

When “medically necessary” is up for debate

Cleft-affected patients and their families can frequently find themselves in difficult conversations with insurance providers over what treatments qualify for coverage. This is especially challenging when coverage decisions conflict with a doctor’s medical recommendations.

Delays and denials often stem from misconceptions in which procedures that restore essential functions, such as eating, breathing, and speaking, are incorrectly classified as cosmetic rather than medically necessary.

“Living with a bilateral cleft lip and palate has affected how I speak, breathe, eat, and hear, but the hardest part has been the constant fight with insurance over medically necessary surgeries,” said Toni-Elizabeth Wilkerson, a member of Smile Train‘s Cleft Community Advisory Council. “I’ve even had a procedure canceled just eight hours before I was due to go into the operating room, leaving me with physical, financial, and emotional burdens.”

Stories like this are not isolated. They reflect a broader pattern of coverage delays and denials faced by cleft-affected patients and their families nationwide.

A push for change

The Ensuring Lasting Smiles Act (H.R. 3277/S.1677) aims to close this gap by requiring private insurers to cover the full range of necessary treatments for congenital anomalies such as cleft lip and palate, so doctors, not insurance companies, can determine the care children need to grow, speak, and thrive. From April 21–23, Smile Train is mobilizing to build momentum for this critical legislation by contacting legislators and raising our collective voice. We encourage everyone to #TakeAction4ELSA by reaching out to your legislator via our advocacy tool and joining our campaign kick-off event.

Every child deserves the opportunity to grow, speak, and thrive without unnecessary barriers. By working together to close gaps in coverage, we can help make that a reality for families across the country.

2026-04-17T11:59:00

(BPT) – April is all about renewal. It is when many people open the windows, deep-clean their spaces and finally tackle their closets. It is also Earth Month, which makes it a natural time to rethink how you shop, what you keep and where your old clothes go next.

According to the EPA, over 11 million tons of clothing end up in U.S. landfills every year. But here’s the good news: A style refresh can be easier on your budget and the planet.

1. Think of resale as a smarter way to shop

Refreshing your wardrobe does not have to mean starting from scratch. Resale gives shoppers access to current styles at a fraction of traditional retail prices, making it easier to update a look without stretching a budget.

That matters even more in spring, when people are often shopping for warmer-weather outfits, special events and everyday staples all at once.

2. How to give clothes a second life

Earth Month is a reminder that small changes in daily habits can add up. Choosing resale is one of those changes. Buying secondhand and reselling unwanted items helps extend the life of clothing that still has value.

Instead of treating fashion as disposable, resale keeps items moving from one closet to the next. It is a simple way to make style feel more intentional.

3. Cash out your old closet to fund your new one

A lot of people have pieces they no longer wear but have not done anything with yet. Maybe the trend passed, maybe the fit changed or maybe the item just no longer feels like you.

Local resale destinations like Plato’s Closet can turn those pieces into immediate value. Customers bring in gently used, on-trend items and get cash on the spot for what the store buys. That makes it easier to refresh your wardrobe without paying for every piece out of pocket.

4. Find styles that feel more personal

For many teens and young adults, shopping resale feels less like a routine errand and more like a treasure hunt. Inventory is always changing, which means shoppers can discover unique pieces that help them build a look that feels like their own.

That sense of discovery is part of the appeal. Whether someone is trying a new trend or figuring out their signature style, resale offers more room to experiment.

5. Do it all in one trip

One of the biggest advantages of local resale at Plato’s Closet is convenience. You can clean out your closet, sell what you no longer want and shop for new pieces at the same stop.

That makes a spring reset feel manageable. Instead of creating separate to-do lists for decluttering, selling and shopping, you can take care of all three at once.

And resale goes far beyond clothing. Opportunities include stores like Play it Again Sports, Style Encore, Once Upon A Child and Music Go Round. Every year, these brands recirculate more than 195 million items, keeping inventory fresh and creating ongoing opportunities for shoppers to buy and sell.

This Earth Month, a closet cleanout can be more than a seasonal task. It can be a smart, sustainable way to refresh your style and earn cash at the same time.