elevision: Interview With A Treehugger
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under eCo TV | 8 Comments
Waylon Lewis of mindful life media machine, Elephant Journal, picks the brain of the biggest treehugger on the web, Graham Hill. This strikingly handsome founder of Treehugger.com gives his insights on revolutionizing the paper coffee cup, being bought by Discovery Channel, and the simple joys of watching his uber-green website’s traffic go through the roof. Ah, the joys of Google Analytics.
elevision interviews Treehugger.com’s Graham Hill from alex king on Vimeo.
Posted on July 23, 2008 |
Hives For Lives: The Sweet Side Of Giving
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Conscious Commerce, Modern Philanthropy | 1 Comment
According to the American Cancer Society, one out of two men and one out of three women will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. These are chilling statistics which have personally touched the lives of almost every person’s family in the US. Carly and Molly Houlahan were 9 and 11 years old when their grandfather died of esophageal cancer. He was their best friend. Devastated by their loss, they wondered how they could help keep other families from dealing with the horrors of cancer. Continue reading Hives For Lives: The Sweet Side Of Giving…
Posted on June 23, 2008 |
Ted Ning And The Lohasian Nation
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under Arts & Culture, Conscious Commerce | 5 Comments
Deep in the heart of Gaiam’s new corporate digs, behind the desk of a modest office amidst many modest offices, sat the Man Behind The Music,”Mr. LOHAS,” Ted Ning himself. His face was unexpectedly open and soft, his voice quiet and warm. This alleged powerhouse of a man was the kind of person you’d let look after your kids, or your money, or yourself. He appeared to be one of the new breed of executives, forgoing the old “greed is good” model of the 80’s and 90’s, for the refreshingly straightforward “good is good” model of the new millenium. Ted Ning, Director of eco-marketing giant LOHAS, was none other than a sweet and gentle guy. After realizing all this, I relaxed and sat down.
Well, first of all, what is “LOHAS” anyway, I wanted to know. Is this a Hawaiian massage technique or the name of some airport in the Pan-Pacific region? No, LOHAS stands for “Lifestyles Of Health And Sustainability.” This marketing term, originated by the Natural Marketing Institute (NMI) in the early 2000’s marked the defining of an era…or at least the defining of a very powerful demographic. NMI realized that three seemingly disparate consumer groups-spiritual folks, environmentalists, and health fanatics-had very similar purchasing patterns. Once NMI pooled the buying power of all these groups into a study of one large consumer base dubbed LOHASians, the corporate giants of America finally realized there was real money to be made in doing right by communities, wildlife and ecosystems. According to NMI, that “real money to be made” was about 209 billion dollars worth. LOHAS was designed to help companies speak the language of this newly defined group. Continue reading Ted Ning And The Lohasian Nation…
Posted on June 17, 2008 |
A Creative Citizen Is Born
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under News & Reviews | 2 Comments
When you talk to Scott Badenoch about his newly launched dot com, you get the sense that this one is going to go big time. He is smart, articulate, and self-assured as he runs you through the ways CreativeCitizen.com is going to bridge the disaggregated actions of the exploding Green Movement. Scott and partner Argam DerHartunian are driven by the mission to help everyone conserve 5 important elements: water, electricity, waste, emissions, and money. Badenoch explains his take on conservation, “No one is going to throw away their lifestyle and start wearing loin cloths and walking everywhere. It’s vital that the green movement find a place in people’s lives that saves them time, resources and money, rather than the other way around.” Continue reading A Creative Citizen Is Born…
Posted on June 12, 2008 |
Fashion Conscious
By Pippa Sorley
Filed Under Sustainable Style | Leave a Comment
I admit it. I’m a sucker when it comes to fashion. I pride myself on biking to work, buying organic food, and voting with my dollar whenever possible…but I love clothes. So what’s an eco-conscious girl to do? Most conventional retailers like Gap or Banana Republic are agonizingly limited in their eco-friendly choices. Who knows how many pounds of pesticides were used to make this cotton T-shirt or how little that Vietnamese worker was paid to sew that incredible skirt.
Until recently, when the words “eco-friendly” and “fashion” were used in the same sentence, it would conjure up images of frumpy frocks made out of hemp, or Birkenstock-clad festival goers. Environmentally and socially responsible clothes – that were also fashionable - were hard to come by, and came in limited styles, sizes and fabrics.
Today, supply has caught up with demand, and hip, urban, funky clothes – that are also consciously made – are more accessible than ever before. Businesses such as Nike and Patagonia have learned that their customers really do care about the social conditions of their manufacturing facilities, or the environmental effects of their operation. According to the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) Report on sustainable economy, one-third of U.S. consumers are willing to pay 20% more for environmentally or socially responsible products. That translates to a $226.8 billion market worldwide.
This “Conscious Consumer” market segment is driving a new economic paradigm. Mainstream, global corporations are starting to realize that unless they adopt a triple bottom line philosophy of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, they may lose their ‘loyal’ customer base. Even Walmart – the global behemoth we love to hate – has jumped on the bandwagon by preserving an acre of wildlife habitat for every developed acre of their footprint.
But I digress. Back to the most important issue at hand - fashion. Here’s a quick list of hip, functional, trend-setting clothes that will make you look fabulous while you’re “walking your talk.”
Same Underneath is an uber cool fashion company that specializes in hip clothing made out of bamboo, wool, hemp, organic cotton and recycled polyester. All of their fabrications are composed of sustainable and/or organic blends. The company’s mission is to “change the way people look at each other,” and, in line with their name, their objective is to “unite those who don’t judge others by religion, race, hobbies, color, creed, and/or sex.”
When it comes to seeding the growth in the supply and variety of sustainable fabrics, Patagonia is the true pioneer. Back when organic cotton was unfathomably expensive, the company made a bold decision: to convert their entire sportswear line to 100% organically grown cotton. Within three years, Beneficial T’s became one of the biggest users of organic cotton in the United States. They now convert roughly 500,000 pounds of organic cotton into T-shirts, tote bags and hats each year. They were also the first outdoor clothing manufacturer to use fleece made from post consumer recycled plastic soda bottles, saving some 86 million soda bottles from the trash heap.
Everybody loves funk. Thanks to Funk Divine, we can now buy hemp tees and jumpsuits that are funky, retro and ‘sweatshop-free.’ The company’s mission is clear: to use only the finest hemp and organic cotton fabrics to be found. The limited edition line evokes a modern day Egyptian glamour, the scarab logo representing ‘life’.
Sadly, Made In The USA and sweatshop-free garments are few and far between; over 93% of clothing in America is made in foreign countries. Companies like Funk Divine are breaking this paradigm. With more than a hundred boutique clothing designers based in the U.S., the awakening of the American-made fashion movement is poised for success.
Co-designed by U2 frontman Bono’s wife, Ali Hewson, and fashion designer Rogan Gregory, Edun (“nude” spelled backwards) is founded on four respects: respect for what your clothes are made of, respect for who is making them, respect for where they are made, and respect for the people who are going to put them on. The result is a fabulous, funky new line of apparel made in developing countries with environmentally friendly materials.
Posted on April 15, 2008 |
-
eCo "Friendlier" Products
