Think green
April 20, 2007 | 12:00am
It used to be that only the granola-munching, hemp-clad, Birkenstock-shod hippie types wanted to save the world one recycle bin at a time. Badly-attired and ill-equipped to handle the PR-savvy ways of large consumer companies, they barely made a blip on the radar of the average, beer-swilling Joe. Even when certain addled celebs took up the cause, like the paparazzi-wary Cameron Diaz, it seemed more of a pretense to gain the intelligent vote from the masses than an actual mission. After all, how can you be taken seriously when your attempts at environmentalism involve driving a hybrid to the Oscars? Cue the eye rolling. (Ride a bike, Cam  maybe then people would stop and notice.)
It was not until fashionable folk took the cause seriously that thinking green became fashionable. A social conscience is the new "it" thing. Naysayers, take note: Gap’s Red movement uses half the profit of their Red shirts (modeled by Bono and lots others) to fund programs in Africa for HIV/AIDS-stricken women and children. Nike White Label is a hundred percent organic, and the company promises that all apparel will be five percent organic by 2010.
And though the Red campaign turned out to be a bust (word had it that despite heavy promotion it failed to profit, due largely to the company’s wobbly brand positioning next to younger, hyped labels like H&M and Topshop), there’s hope for the world when even bottom-line-minded businessmen are turning green.
Levi’s recently launched its Engineered Jeans, made from 100- percent organic cotton. And in the coming months they’ll be rolling out their Eco Jeans, the first fully sustainable denim from a large corporation. More than the organic fabric, the waistband button was created from a coconut shell and the indigo finish provided by natural dyes. "The whole process of how the jeans are made is also organic," says Geert Peeters, vice president of Levi’s product management, to the Guardian Unlimited.
"We found more and more consumers were making product choices based on the environmental and social impact," says You Nguyen, senior VP of Levi’s in Europe, in the same publication. "They were getting interested in apparel made using sustainable production methods, but they still wanted style and quality  it was no longer either/or."
Rivet-free and just as stylish as their other engineered jeans, the Eco jeans don’t look much different from the label’s other styles. And that’s precisely their point: green-minded products don’t suffer on the style scale.
The same conundrum was at the heart of Wallpaper magazine’s exhibit on environmentally-friendly design. The magazine mulls over issues relating to contemporary design: "Can environmentally friendly design be good design? Or rather, can design that doesn’t have environmental impact as a key concern ever be considered good design?"
The exhibit certainly affirms the notion that "green" design can be great. Dubbed EcoEdit (check it out at www.wallpaper.com/ecoedit/ecoedit.html), it showcases "101 beautiful, innovative but environmentally friendly designs  from the worlds of architecture, beauty, fashion, food, packaging, product design, transport and travel  from all over the world."
Debuted online, so as to avoid the environmental cost (the fuel emissions derived from transporting designers and photographers from different publications, and the construction materials to set up and eventually take down the exhibit), the magazine presents illustrations, along with notes by each designer, on the participants’ entries.
Their approach  that ethical design makes the material more relevant  is a model one, something that small companies and individual designers have taken to heart.
Celebrated bag designer Anya Hindmarch designed a cotton bag inscribed with "I’m Not A Plastic Bag" on the front (available at www.anyahindmarch.com/newhome.aspx). Meant to remind consumers to skip plastic bags when purchasing groceries or going shopping, the bag became a mini-phenom when it hit stores in London, selling out in two hours. Worn by models and stars alike, the bag is now debuting in the US this coming May.
Hindmarch’s decision to join the green patrol wasn’t a grand one. "The bag project started two years ago when a man called David Robinson approached me," she says to the Bag Snob blog. "David  who is a very good man  runs a global social change network called We Are What We Do. They are a fantastic movement that tries to inspire people to use their everyday actions to change the world. He is very much of the belief that if everyone makes a small change and does their bit it can actually amount to making a big difference. I just loved the simplicity of that and I agree with it. The first thing that they did was publish a book, which was done in a really upbeat, worthy way, called How to Change the World for a Fiver, and it was very popular. Organizations really embraced it and gave it out to their employees. It started with 50 actions that anyone could do to help  things like ‘smile at old people because they know lots of good stuff’ and ‘turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth.’ But the first action was ‘decline plastic bags whenever possible.’"
The simple act of not using plastic bags may seem trite, but to organizations trying to build awareness among consumers it’s a big step in the right direction.
"There’s a lot to be said for plastic for sure," adds Hindmarch, "but on a recent shopping trip I refused nine plastic bags as I could put things directly into my cotton one  and that’s amazing. If it makes people rethink their behavior and perhaps makes the supermarkets rethink their solutions then it’s achieved something as far as I’m concerned."
"Did you know that there is enough petroleum in 14 plastic bags to drive a car one mile?" says Lisa Foster of 1bagatatime.com, another purveyor of reusable shopping bags available in Australia. "That’s a shocking statistic!" At two dollars a pop, each tote bag helps keep about 416 plastic bags from the trash bin.
Model and White House relative Lauren Bush (perhaps in a move to offset Uncle George’s anti-Kyoto Protocol stance) is currently shilling the Feed Bag. Made of natural burlap and cotton, the Feed bag, sold exclusively on Amazon.com, directly benefits the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP). Bush, who’s been repping the program as honorary spokesperson, has done speaking engagements in numerous countries to bring light to the plight of millions of starving children the world over. Out of the $59.95 list price, $34 goes to WFP, which can generate enough meals for child’s school lunch every day for a year.
If moving into a prefab-green house or turning vegetarian is too large a step to take, then opting for labels that take responsible and ethical steps when it comes to sourcing material and creating clothes is one easy, fashion-forward way to think green.
Now that some small labels are taking tiny steps to ensure that their product doesn’t pollute the earth, it’s our job to support them. Velvet (www.velvet-tees.com), which retails pretty jersey frocks, has been known to use lyocell, a biodegradable fiber made from wood pulp. They also recycle most of their chemical solvents, which means less pollutants.
Thegreenloop.com rounded up cool labels like Habitute and Carol Young Undesigned as part of their green lifestyle project. All merchandise sold by members of the Greenloop are sustainable, making it a great place to invest in environment-friendly products. Declares the site: "At Greenloop, the alignment of style and sustainability, of aesthetics and ethics, provide all of us with the opportunity to look good, feel good, and do good. All of the goods at Greenloop are made by conscientious companies who are committed to environmental stewardship and social responsibility."
Glam’s gone green, kiddies. If even the Oscars can turn their entire tinseled production into a green machine, then maybe it’s time to do your part for the earth. Support ethical and green companies. Don’t waste. Say no to plastic. And skip the Birkenstocks  they’re just fug. With so many great designer labels going green, there’s no reason to dress like an overage hippy.
For more information on how to live green, visit www.Treehugger.com.
It was not until fashionable folk took the cause seriously that thinking green became fashionable. A social conscience is the new "it" thing. Naysayers, take note: Gap’s Red movement uses half the profit of their Red shirts (modeled by Bono and lots others) to fund programs in Africa for HIV/AIDS-stricken women and children. Nike White Label is a hundred percent organic, and the company promises that all apparel will be five percent organic by 2010.
And though the Red campaign turned out to be a bust (word had it that despite heavy promotion it failed to profit, due largely to the company’s wobbly brand positioning next to younger, hyped labels like H&M and Topshop), there’s hope for the world when even bottom-line-minded businessmen are turning green.
"We found more and more consumers were making product choices based on the environmental and social impact," says You Nguyen, senior VP of Levi’s in Europe, in the same publication. "They were getting interested in apparel made using sustainable production methods, but they still wanted style and quality  it was no longer either/or."
Rivet-free and just as stylish as their other engineered jeans, the Eco jeans don’t look much different from the label’s other styles. And that’s precisely their point: green-minded products don’t suffer on the style scale.
The exhibit certainly affirms the notion that "green" design can be great. Dubbed EcoEdit (check it out at www.wallpaper.com/ecoedit/ecoedit.html), it showcases "101 beautiful, innovative but environmentally friendly designs  from the worlds of architecture, beauty, fashion, food, packaging, product design, transport and travel  from all over the world."
Debuted online, so as to avoid the environmental cost (the fuel emissions derived from transporting designers and photographers from different publications, and the construction materials to set up and eventually take down the exhibit), the magazine presents illustrations, along with notes by each designer, on the participants’ entries.
Their approach  that ethical design makes the material more relevant  is a model one, something that small companies and individual designers have taken to heart.
Hindmarch’s decision to join the green patrol wasn’t a grand one. "The bag project started two years ago when a man called David Robinson approached me," she says to the Bag Snob blog. "David  who is a very good man  runs a global social change network called We Are What We Do. They are a fantastic movement that tries to inspire people to use their everyday actions to change the world. He is very much of the belief that if everyone makes a small change and does their bit it can actually amount to making a big difference. I just loved the simplicity of that and I agree with it. The first thing that they did was publish a book, which was done in a really upbeat, worthy way, called How to Change the World for a Fiver, and it was very popular. Organizations really embraced it and gave it out to their employees. It started with 50 actions that anyone could do to help  things like ‘smile at old people because they know lots of good stuff’ and ‘turn off the water when you’re brushing your teeth.’ But the first action was ‘decline plastic bags whenever possible.’"
The simple act of not using plastic bags may seem trite, but to organizations trying to build awareness among consumers it’s a big step in the right direction.
"There’s a lot to be said for plastic for sure," adds Hindmarch, "but on a recent shopping trip I refused nine plastic bags as I could put things directly into my cotton one  and that’s amazing. If it makes people rethink their behavior and perhaps makes the supermarkets rethink their solutions then it’s achieved something as far as I’m concerned."
"Did you know that there is enough petroleum in 14 plastic bags to drive a car one mile?" says Lisa Foster of 1bagatatime.com, another purveyor of reusable shopping bags available in Australia. "That’s a shocking statistic!" At two dollars a pop, each tote bag helps keep about 416 plastic bags from the trash bin.
Model and White House relative Lauren Bush (perhaps in a move to offset Uncle George’s anti-Kyoto Protocol stance) is currently shilling the Feed Bag. Made of natural burlap and cotton, the Feed bag, sold exclusively on Amazon.com, directly benefits the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP). Bush, who’s been repping the program as honorary spokesperson, has done speaking engagements in numerous countries to bring light to the plight of millions of starving children the world over. Out of the $59.95 list price, $34 goes to WFP, which can generate enough meals for child’s school lunch every day for a year.
Now that some small labels are taking tiny steps to ensure that their product doesn’t pollute the earth, it’s our job to support them. Velvet (www.velvet-tees.com), which retails pretty jersey frocks, has been known to use lyocell, a biodegradable fiber made from wood pulp. They also recycle most of their chemical solvents, which means less pollutants.
Thegreenloop.com rounded up cool labels like Habitute and Carol Young Undesigned as part of their green lifestyle project. All merchandise sold by members of the Greenloop are sustainable, making it a great place to invest in environment-friendly products. Declares the site: "At Greenloop, the alignment of style and sustainability, of aesthetics and ethics, provide all of us with the opportunity to look good, feel good, and do good. All of the goods at Greenloop are made by conscientious companies who are committed to environmental stewardship and social responsibility."
Glam’s gone green, kiddies. If even the Oscars can turn their entire tinseled production into a green machine, then maybe it’s time to do your part for the earth. Support ethical and green companies. Don’t waste. Say no to plastic. And skip the Birkenstocks  they’re just fug. With so many great designer labels going green, there’s no reason to dress like an overage hippy.
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