The overflowing composting bins have been sent back to the
earth. The hemp clothing pushers have moved on. The copious free samples of
Clif Bars have sadly disappeared until next year. But the green glow from this
weekend’s San Francisco Green Festival still lingers.
Here's my take on the Best of the Green
Festival. I road-tested nearly every
booth so that you didn’t have to. Or maybe you were there too, in which case
I’d love to know what you thought sizzled or fizzled.
Kwytza ChopStick Art. Who said chopsticks were just for sushi? In one of my favorite finds of the Green Fest, Kwytza recovers
chopsticks from restaurants and turns them into works of function. Folding
baskets (they fold up), place mats, trivets, and more. Loved them. They make for some truly chopstick-fabulous
gifts. The pictures on the web site do not do these beauties justice. www.chopstickart.com
Hip & Zen. It’s
hip to be green, but how can you be green and still hip? Take your cool eco-self over to Hip & Zen
and be pleasantly surprised by their fashionable eco-friendly items. Beautiful Deborah Lindquist recycled cashmere
sweaters, cute Ecoganik fashion pieces made from organic cotton, fair trade
jewelry, and a plethora of gorgeous bags like the intricately-beaded
handcrafted African mohair purses. It’s
Neiman-Marcus meets Namaste. Almost. www.hipandzen.com
At the Hip & Zen booth, I fell hard for the chic Escama
bags made from recycled aluminum pull pop-tops. These hip metallic evening bags are hand-crocheted by a woman’s
cooperative in Brazil.
Definitely going on my Holiday Wish List.
Green Guru. Green
dudes and gear-heads. Your eco-weekend warrior wish has come true. Recycled Blow Out inner-tube wallets and inner-tube bags were flying off the shelves
because they were heavy-duty, waterproof, and downright manly. Also on display were colorful Billboard
messenger bags made from recycled highway billboards. Ridiculously eco-cool. Coming soon are recycled PET products and
gear for adventurous goddesses, i.e. females. All made in the USA in a
sustainable way. www.greenguru.com
Green To Grow. Baby
bottles that are free of toxic phthalates and free of bisphenol A (a
hormone-endocrine disrupter) for parents who want peace of mind and a healthy
baby. Very cute logo too. www.greentogrow.com
Tree-Free Paper. I am
on a hunt for the best tree-free and recycled papers and found two strong
candidates at the Green Fest. Nepalese
paper is handmade in Nepal from Lokta Bush, an evergreen shrub that grows in the mountains above 6500 feet. And Nepalese Paper was very clear that their
goods have been fair trade for 11 years, unlike some of the new “nepalese
paper” products coming on the market made by forced slave labor in Tibet by China. Beware.
It was hard to tear me away from the Green Field Paper
Company booth. They had such a fantastic
selection of beautiful eco-friendly papers including 100% post-consumer
recycled paper with embedded seeds (plant it and watch it grow), hemp paper,
and paper made from junk mail that is surprisingly pretty with specks of
color. And Holiday Cards galore. One clever and popular design said Joy on the
front with a recycled symbol for the O. The new Partridge Grow-A-Note card was
a total sell-out. Junk Mail Joy is not to be missed. Spread the eco-love this season with beautiful
green-fabulous holiday cards. Hallmark,
eat your heart out.
Side note: I learned
the disturbing fact that there is no longer a recycled paper pulp mill on the
West Coast. The paper that is recycled
in California is being sent to China for
processing. China.
On boats. To bring recycled paper costs down, we need to convert recycled paper
to useful products on local American soil.
ChicoBags. I had a blast with the
ChicoBag team who were actively promoting their ingenious ChicoBags. They fit
into your pocket, purse, or palm of your hand, and they come in their own nylon
case. The perfect solution to the Plastic Bag Ban in San Francisco going into effect on November
20. Hooray! More details coming soon
about the celebration hosted by ChicoBags at 111 Minna on the big bag day. The
famous Bag Monster will be in full costume. www.chicobag.com
I have to give a shout out to Guayaki yerba mate and Honest Tea, whose delicious organic teas kept me honest and hydrated all weekend.
Green What?
Green things that make you go huh.
First was the Save A
Snowman organization. It was pitched to
me as “we save melting snowmen and put them in an orphanage.” Huh? I
thought I was smelling snake snowman oil, but then learned that their real
mission is to educate children in a fun and creative way about global
warming. Students can adopt a snowman
(comes complete with cute pictures of a non-melted snowman) and the money goes
back to greening the school. Great! Many schools need help with greening. Kids can even go on a snowman building
fieldtrip. It’s a creative idea that
would only fly in late 2007. I still have not determined exactly where the
chilly orphanage is exactly, but this brand new organization is worth a click. www.saveasnowman.org
Next up (or down) was the paper made out of 75% Sri Lankan
elephant dung from Mr. Ellie Pooh. No
joke. The booth was packed with the
non-squeamish and the brave. Once I
stopped cracking up, I learned that this linen-like paper is helping to reposition
the endangered elephants in Sri
Lanka as economic engines, rather than
agricultural foes to be exterminated. That is a good thing. Cards,
notebooks, stationary, pretty gifts, even the popular Elephant Dung Paper Poo
Pads. You heard it here first. Dung this. www.mrelliepooh.com
Green Gurus
Hordes of people gathered on Friday to listen to wellness
pioneer Deepak Chopra on the main stage. Deepak was in rare form, wearing red rhinestone glasses and groovy
tennis shoes and clearly channeling Elton John. His words of wisdom transcended
the boundaries of mind, body, and spirit. They are one, and wellness follows.
And the boundaries of the green movement and the world peace movement. They can
be one as well. And we are all ultimately connected to each other and to all of
nature. He imagines “humanity at peace,
every person wholly nourished and actively compassionate, Mother Earth and her
atmosphere nurtured.”
One intriguing Deepak statement: "your consciousness
is your soul and vice-versa." When you feel most conscious, you are most in
touch with your soul. I think he could
be right. Ambitious scientific reductionist theories of consciousness have
always left me cold and uninspired. Meditate on that one, and get back to me.
Ohm. And visit Deepak’s new Alliance for a New Humanity.
The engaging Paul Hawken was on deck for some Blessed
Unrest. I spoke with the folks from WiserEarth afterwards. Imagine if all of the
2 million environmental organizations on the planet could connect and
collaborate. That is the wise dream of WiserEarth, and it could ultimately
turn the whole world into one giant Green Fest and save the planet.
The overflowing composting bins have been sent back to the
earth. The hemp clothing pushers have moved on. The copious free samples of
Clif Bars have sadly disappeared until next year. But the green glow from this
weekend’s San Francisco Green Festival still lingers.
At the Hip & Zen booth, I fell hard for the chic Escama
bags made from recycled aluminum pull pop-tops. These hip metallic evening bags are hand-crocheted by a woman’s
cooperative in Brazil.
Definitely going on my Holiday Wish List.
It was hard to tear me away from the Green Field Paper
Company booth. They had such a fantastic
selection of beautiful eco-friendly papers including 100% post-consumer
recycled paper with embedded seeds (plant it and watch it grow), hemp paper,
and paper made from junk mail that is surprisingly pretty with specks of
color. And Holiday Cards galore. One clever and popular design said Joy on the
front with a recycled symbol for the O. The new Partridge Grow-A-Note card was
a total sell-out. Junk Mail Joy is not to be missed. Spread the eco-love this season with beautiful
green-fabulous holiday cards. Hallmark,
eat your heart out.
First was the Save A
Snowman organization. It was pitched to
me as “we save melting snowmen and put them in an orphanage.” Huh? I
thought I was smelling snake snowman oil, but then learned that their real
mission is to educate children in a fun and creative way about global
warming. Students can adopt a snowman
(comes complete with cute pictures of a non-melted snowman) and the money goes
back to greening the school. Great! Many schools need help with greening. Kids can even go on a snowman building
fieldtrip. It’s a creative idea that
would only fly in late 2007. I still have not determined exactly where the
chilly orphanage is exactly, but this brand new organization is worth a click. www.saveasnowman.org 
The engaging Paul Hawken was on deck for some Blessed
Unrest. I spoke with the folks from WiserEarth afterwards. Imagine if all of the
2 million environmental organizations on the planet could connect and
collaborate. That is the wise dream of WiserEarth, and it could ultimately
turn the whole world into one giant Green Fest and save the planet.
Your Heart of Green is a great resource. I saw the mention of WISEREARTH.ORG and immediately join and placed a calendar event. Yes, imagine a giant network of environmental collaboration!
I'll keep checking your posts for more good ideas.
Gib Cooper
Executive Director
Bambúes de las Américas (BOTA)
Posted by: Gib Cooper | November 15, 2007 at 08:31 AM