One Dress, One Size, Less Clothing

Brooklyn based Butter by Nadia is not the first designer to come up with the concept one dress, one size, 20+ options, but she does have a beautiful product on offer. Showing 24 dress options in jersey or satin, including a satin ball gown, Nadia offers collections for Spring 09 and Bridal in a wide variety of beautiful colors and prints. Options fall to the knee, tea length or full maxi. Jersey dresses are priced at $246.00 online. All items are made in the USA. All garments are labled for environmentally responsible care.

Addressing the use phase of the garment life-cycle, this is a responsible choice. The garment can be worn a variety of ways. Imagine your closet with ONE dress that gives you 20+ styles! It is one size so your friends can borrow it, your sister can wear it too, or you can pass it on to any of your friends in a clothing swap! The care label for both fabric options is cold wash, delicate, lay flat to dry, steam if needed. Lot's of wear and little care is a good investment for your wardrobe and your future.

--till next week Restore, Refresh, Recycle, Renew.

Is eBay Green?

In the March 3rd, 2009 edition, the New York Times ran an article by Stephanie Clifford in which Alan Marks, senior vice president for global communications at eBay, declared that eBay is green. Let's take a close look at this claim.

It is true that some merchandise on eBay is second hand and it is "green" to buy pre-owned products. The down side of the purchase is that most eBay sellers are using the USPS, UPS, or FedEx Ground to ship their goods and all three providers use non-sustainable fossil fuels for their planes and trucks
Green Score: Let's call it a draw. Good on eBay sellers of used merchandise. Bad on the seller's shipping choice. (Of course it is a big fat 0 if the seller is shipping new merchandise.)

eBay has introduced a "Green Team", an internal group charged with making the company environmentally efficient.

The Green Team site involves employees and the public and encourages green behavior. eBay hopes to build a "green" community among its members.
Green Score: Good on you eBay for inclusion and community building.

The roof of the new eBay building in San Jose is covered with solar panels and they are using carbon off-sets to be carbon neutral.
Green Score: Good on you eBay for greening your buildings.

eBay does not report total emmissions, nor do they discuss in detail the environmental measures they have taken and how much they have reduced total emmissions.
Green Score: Tisk, Tisk. It's hard to evaluate your company without the details. ('Green Washing' Alert)

eBay announced its green credentials in a 5-page insert "30 Days of Green" in all April 14th editions of Hearst Magazine. Hearst Magazines do not use recycled paper, but they claim to get 70% of their paper from sustainably managed forests.
Green Score: Tisk. There are many comparable magazines using recycled papers. I'm giving only one Tisk since they are using a great deal of paper from sustainably managed forests.

The eBay partnership with Hearst Magazines goes a bit deeper. Each Hearst Magazine created 2 pages of green content and included 1 page of eBay product selections in the same issue. How this translated across the various target markets was interesting. In the NYT article, author Stephanie Clifford remarks that the Cosmo article is entitled "Sexy Ways to Go Green" which include showering with your mate to save water and lounging around your home in the nude rather than using AC, while Good Housekeeping presented "Recycling Made Simple" to a target audience 20 years older.
Green Score: Let's call it a draw - Good on Hearst and eBay for getting the word out, but is this just a simple case of 'green washing'?

Hearst's website, TheDailyGreen will be providing content for eBay's Green Team site as well.
Green Score: Let's call it a draw - Good on Hearst and eBay for getting the word out, but is this just another case of 'green washing'?

So how would you score eBay on the green scale? Chime in.

--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh, Renew

Green Hair

No this post is not about Johnny Rotten;) I know many of you have grown your hair and donated it for cancer wigs, but did you know your regular trim could help the environment? Let me introduce you to the Hair for Oil Spills program.

We all know we shampoo our hair because it gets greasy, but it took Phil McCrory, a stylist from Alabama, to make the jump and realize that hair was an efficient and abundant material for collecting and containing petroleum spills. While watching CNN coverage on the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Phil noticed the fur on the Alaskan otters completely soaked with oil. This gave him the idea that hair could be a massive absorbing material. He began testing with the hair clippings from his salon which lead to the invention of the hairmat.

Phil says - "You shampoo your hair because it gets greasy. Hair is very efficient at collecting oil out of the air, off surfaces like your skin and out of the water, even petroleum oil. Hair is adsorbant (as in "clings to" unlike absorbant which is to "soak up.") There are over 370,000 hair salons in the US and each collects about 1 pound of hair a day. Right now, most of that goes into the waste stream, but it should all be made into hairmats." (see pictures of mats used in SF Oil Spill).

According to Matter of Trust.org, "The US has over 300,000 hair salons and each cuts an average of a pound of hair per day. Salons generously pay out of pocket for postage to send their swept up hair clippings to our donated warehouse spaces. We do the fundraising for this program and outreach through placing our posters in participating salons and with the help of the press." Individuals and schools can donate human hair.

Pet hair from grooming salons (although not as effective as human hair) and used nylons can also be donated for use in the clean up process. Hair is stuffed into used nylons which are then used as booms to soak up the oil.

Phil also found that "hair is also great fertilizer with a slow nitrogen and karetin protein release. Hair prevents weed growth, snail infestation and reduces water evaporation up to 50%. Patent owners, Phil McCrory and our friends at SmartGrow, manufacture hairmats in China. These are for flower growers and farmers who use hairmat strips for commercial rows and in rounds for flower pots."

So next time you head in for a trim, take this info to your salon. What a great way to go green! A win for you and your salon owner.

--till next week restore, refresh, recycle, renew

Green With Cell Phone Envy

Go ahead, admit it. Your cell phone is your constant companion and that makes it your most visible and consistent fashion accessory. The make, style and color says a lot about you and your personal style. Now you can make a truly green statement 24/7 with the new Motorola Moto W233 Renew.

According to the Motorola website, the Renew is the first carbon free cell phone to hit the market.Through a partnership with Carbonfund.org, Motorola is offsetting the energy used to produce, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation. Through each stage of the phone's life cycle: Design & Manufacturing, Batteries, Energy Efficiency, Packaging and Recycling, Motorola has made an effort to reduce environmental harm. Examples include the use of 100% recyclable plastics with a percentage coming from recycled water bottles, a 22% reduction in package size produced with 100% post consumer recycled paper, a postage paid envelope to recycle the phone the customer is replacing and a consumer-friendly take back program at the end of the life of the phone.

You can purchase the phone directly through Motorola or the T-Mobile store. Now you can sport your Green every day. Don't you just love it when you can be green and fashionable at the same time?

--till next week restore, refresh, recycle, renew

Share on Facebook • Email this • Email the author