Eco Fashion Show - 12th August

Pure Design and lots of other eco fashion brands will be presenting a wide range of products at the Eco Fashion Show and Party in London next week.

Purchase some of the great eco goods on sale and take part in the auction to bid for your favourite piece

Date: Tuesday 12th August ‘08
Time: 6pm
Venue: Surya Bar - Club for Climate

To book tickets visit www.eco-fashion.co.uk and for more information about the event visit the Pure Design Blog

Pure Design guests can get a 25% discount on tickets for the show and party - Download the invitation for more details.

The event is organised by Striding Out, a networking and professional development association for social entrepreneurs.

Bryant Park: Go Green Panel Discussion

Think Green! Go Green! Stay Green!

Join a host of experts and authors for the second annual panel discussion outdoors under the 200 Plain Trees surrounding Bryant Park. The conversation will focus on the environment and how to love living the green life. Co-sponsored by The Environmental Defense Fund.

Date: Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Time: 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m.
Venue: Bryant Park, NYC

With panelists: Lori Bongiorno (Green, Greener, Greenest), Diane MacEachern (Big Green Purse), Mark Spellun (Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Plenty Magazine) and Christie Matheson (Green Chic: Saving the Earth in Style). Moderated by: Andrew H. Darrell, Environmental Defense Fund Vice President of Living Cities Program.

The event is FREE and open to the public. For updates and additional information, please visit the website at www.bryantpark.org or call 212-768-4242. The Bryant Park Reading Room located on the 42nd Street side of the park - under the trees - between the back of the NYPL & 6th Avenue. Look for the burgundy and white umbrellas. Rain Venue: Library of the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen 20 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Avenue).

declaring myself an anti-consumerist !

august is my first “no consumption month” for me - I have taken up a challenge from a book I bought so I can’t get any more stuff in august at least (I bet my husband is real happy for that).. I will however get the normal stuff to keep the household going =)

and I have a couple of IRL events to attend - but no more ebay or vintage dresses or shoes or books - Im tired of consumption and it doesn’t make me happy and what the world needs now is less consumption so people in less developed countries can afford to eat proper food again… - I will keep you posted if I can keep this up

NB: just a thought: this provokes the same feeling that i got when I became a vegetarian - it’s a little thing to do to make the world a better place…

Im not a vegetarian anymore - but maybe im the first declared anti-consumerist ? at least that I know of…

crossposted on henrietteweber.com

West Coast Green ‘08

There are so many green building conferences, expos, and tradeshows that it’s hard to keep of track of them all. For the past two years I’ve attended West Coast Green here in San Francisco, which to me, is a rather important one to go to, as they put everyone together under one roof!

The conference is still a month away yet everyone is abuzz with its keynote speaker this year, former Vice-President, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Eco-Warrior Extraordinaire Al Gore! Also not to be missed is Sarah Susanka, best selling author of the book The Not So Big House , and author David Suzuki who is also the TV host of The Nature of Things.

This year the conference has moved to the San Jose Convention Center in the heart of Silicon Valley. It will be held on September 25-27. One of the unique things that sets this conference apart from others is the “Homeowners Day” on the 27th. Most conventions are geared toward the professionals in that particular industry; West Coast Green offers a day that’s open to the public and all of the events and speakers are formatted for homeowners and their interests.

(If the price of admission is a little too steep for you there are volunteer opportunities available which give you free pass to all of its events.)

It looks to be another fun-filled, educational event. I hope to see some of you there!

Cut It for the Climate

Ever since I got married I’ve been wondering what to do with my hair. Before the wedding I left it to grow so I could wear it curled with flowers in it on the big day. For too long though I’ve been stuck in a vicious hairstyle cycle of grow it to a certain length, have it cut to a bit shorter length, neither of which I’m really happy with - on and on it goes.

Realistically I don’t have time to spend blow-drying / straightening / curling long hair nor do I have the inclination! However I am suitably vain enough to want it to look ‘nice’.

So, I’d been toying with the idea of having it much shorter than usual. Shorter hair would mean no more tying it back when I’m too busy to style it (making me feel like an 8 year old with a pony-tail) and no more getting hot and bothered with the hairdryer (my hair is thick and takes ages to dry).

Then I read an article on Victoria Everman’s blog which made me smile and concrete the decision that actually I did want short hair. You’ll have to read the whole article for yourself but Victoria says “Save time, save money, save the planet, and grow in ways you’ve never imagined - cut your hair short!“.

I’m not big on plastering my head with hair products and I usually buy organic shampoo and conditioner anyway but with shorter hair I can save water and electricity too. Basically my brunette barnet can been much greener!

Visit Victoria Everman’s blog to read: The Unspoken Global Warming Resolution: Short Hair at www.victoria-e.com

By the way, I did have my hair chopped off on Saturday and I love it. If you’re a Facebook friend you can see the new ‘do’ in my profile.

Fuzzy Logic for Green Rewards?

Yesterday I popped to our local supermarket to stock up. Usually I would avoid shopping on a Saturday at any cost but after a really busy week I realised that I wouldn’t be able to make much of the carrots, apricots and butter which was all we had in our fridge. So off I went to Sainsbury’s with my usual collection of (cotton, canvass etc) tote bags.

When I was paying at the checkout the lady on the till asked “How many bags have you recycled?” At first I thought this was polite chit-chat and wasn’t sure that I’d heard her correctly. Then she pointed to my bags and said again “How many bags have you recycled?” So I answered “3″ - which I had. Then she said “Well, you get points for not using carrier bags you see. It’s a new reward scheme” and handed me 3 mini fold-out leaflets, which turned out to be vouchers for days out to various UK attractions and theme parks. “Also, you’ve got some money off fuel on your receipt which you need to use within 7 days”.

I can see the positive side to this, really I can. And you could say that shopping at the supermarket isn’t the greenest option, I know that (I talked about this a little in my ‘Is is safe to go back to the supermarket?’ post). However, wouldn’t a really great way to reward recycling be to help customers do another green thing? So, instead of money off fuel, give money off train tickets. Instead of vouchers for theme parks give vouchers for organic treats.

Personally I don’t think that people recycle in order to get some kind of reward. Additionally there is probably some economic reason that Sainsbury’s have chosen the particular scheme that they have but to me it just feels like one step forward, two steps back. Is it just me?

Oh, by the way, the vouchers are printed on FSC paper. I thought it only fair to mention that.

A Green Day Out

Those of you in the Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire area looking for a green themed day out at the weekend might like to visit the Fold’s GreenFest on Saturday. It is being opened by Brigit Strawbridge of the ‘It’s not easy being green’ TV show and Satish Kumar will also be giving a talk. Stalls include: solar and wind generators, insulation, electric cars, bikes, carbon footprinting, composting, live music, bar, real food, films, childrens activities and lots more…

The organisers have also managed to organise shuttle buses from Worcester town centre and Malvern so there is no need to bring the car. The Fold which is a farm sounds a great place, they have a nursery, art and craft studios and an eco cafe on the site so once you have visited the greenfest you can check out the the attractions of the farm too. More details about this event and other eco days out can be found on our Green Events page here.

See you there!

Been Gone Too Long!

Hi Everyone-

I’m back after a very long break. I wasn’t on vacation or anything; just trying to finish up school and get through this wretched exam. I’ve been working on my certification in sustainable building, and can now officially say I am a Certified Sustainable Building Advisor (CSBA). This distinction was hard earned - the test was the equivalent to passing the bar exam and you only had three hours!

In addition to finishing school I had begun teaching as well at the local city college. This summer I taught a hands-on construction course to adults looking for a career change and to young students hoping to get into the trades. I’ve also been approached to pen a green building textbook!

I am happy to be back to normal (somewhat) and look forward to resuming posts on what’s going on here in the US of A as well as any and all things related to sustainable design and building as I am up to my eyebrows in it.

Ciao for now,

Arcadia Maximo, CSBA!

PS: If you have any questions or comments regarding green building please feel free to drop me a line.

an article from Time Magazine that made me happy

10 good things you can like about $4 dollar gas - go read, you’ll like it…

Searching for Ethical & Mainstream Style

I’m going to make a confession so promise not to judge me, OK?

Here goes… I love the fashion programmes on TV. There, I said it!

From ‘America’s / Britain’s Next Top Model‘ to ‘Gok’s Fashion Fix‘ and ‘The Clothes Show‘ I consider having the time to watch them a real treat and when I get the chance happily soak in all the beautiful, glittery frivolousness of them. I love the colourful fabrics, art direction of the photo shoots and the seemingly mystical techniques of accessorizing.

These days my Netvibes profile is full of feeds from fashion, style and craft blogs and every now and then I indulge in a copy of British Vogue.

Being as I’m beginning to learn dressmaking myself my interest in these things is becoming a little more than entertainment into something rather educational. Well that’s my excuse anyway.

I have to say though that so often I find a very big gap in the conversations on these TV shows and magazines. Why is no one in the mainstream talking about the ethics behind fashion? OK, so occasionally we’ll get a ‘green’ feature here and there or a dedicated show like ‘Blood Sweat and T-Shirts‘ but ethical fashion is really treated as an aside or optional extra, not a necessity.

With the recent news about Primark’s factories I was horrified to hear a young lady being interviewed on the radio saying that she didn’t care if clothes were made by children and that it’s the price tag that really matters! I guess I’ve naively thought that if people knew of the pain and suffering caused by the production of their clothes then they wouldn’t want to contribute to it but I guess I was wrong. Similarly, what about other issues such as the environmental impact of clothing production and the use of animal skins or fur?

On some of the TV shows I’ve seen them present items of clothing from particular labels that I would not buy because they’re known to sell fur or use sweatshop labour. Why aren’t these shows taking the opportunity to talk to their audience about becoming aware of how and where their clothes are made? Of course they won’t want to name and shame particular labels but how about presenting some of the green or Fairtrade options and using that as a reason to buy an outfit? Encourage the fashion show fans like me to ask questions of the high street shops, it doesn’t need to preach but at least make it an intrinsic part of the decision making like the reasons for choosing a particular cut of jacket or shape of trouser leg.

With the amount of money that goes through the mainstream fashion industry I can’t help but think that it’s not such a frivolous interest after all.

I was quite pleased to see that BBC Thread (BBC’s online ethical fashion magazine) are supporting the movement of ethical fashion into the mainstream by running a contest to find an ethical fashionista to help style a show at London Fashion Week. Oh how I’d love to have the time and experience to give it a try! Check it out at: www.bbc.co.uk/thread/stylesearch