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From the press release:
Big Need, Small Solution? Nanotechnology and Alternative Energy

Climate change concerns, rising energy costs, and dwindling natural resources are causing people everywhere to take a closer look at the relationship between human activity and our environment. The emerging field of nanotechnology presents great promise to address these issues, but it carries a great deal of uncertainty — and perhaps its own environmental risks. More...

FreshEarthFarms.com
Farming since 2002
Lives and farms in Washington County

Talk about being a CSA farm.
We’ve been a CSA for four years, and we deliver to the Twin Cities. The thing that’s interesting about how we do things is traditional CSAs pack boxes and deliver them, but since we’re 20 min from downtown St. Paul and 30 min from downtown Minneapolis, there’s a million people within 30 minutes of the farm. The majority of people actually pick up at the farm. The places where we do have delivery we have members do the delivery for us, since they’re coming out anyway. More...

On Friday, May 2, Nau announced that "due to crisis in the capital markets" the company was unable to obtain enough funds to move forward. They did it with their typical charm, even nabbing the best headline, "Goodbye for Nau" for their press release. Through their 5% donation program, Nau donated $223,000 to non-profits in just under one year of business. That's an admirable achievement for a little company struggling to stay afloat.

I covered Nau twice before they launched, first for Ultra PDX in November 06' and later for Plenty Magazine, so this is the death of one of my pet companies. The offices were buzzing with energy back then, and the people could not have been nicer or more enthusiastic. They were heavy hitters too, coming from years of experience at places like Patagonia and Nike. So, what went wrong? At the risk of kicking Nau while it's down, I saw this coming. More...

Seattle’s winter 2008 has been too long, too gray, and too cold for this transplanted soul. But one day of sunshine can erase the memories of the drab and dreary days past and induce a euphoric state of optimism.

Saturday was just that sort of day as I left home for a romp in the Washington Arboretum Annual Plant Sale. Gazing across the lawn, I noticed a soft blurry blanket of white dandelion fluff hovering six inches above most of my lawn. As I backed out of the driveway I noticed more dandelion foam cresting over the front slope. I confess I’ve been harboring thoughts of chemical weed killers. The weed mass being so much bigger than my time and energy makes the promise of quick weed eradication tempting.  “Darn, I’ll have to deal with that as soon as I return”, I thought . More...

Here's the concept.

I love having books recommended to me. It doesn’t mean that I always like the recommended book, but it usually takes the work out of trying to decide what book to read next. 

The Estethica exhibition at London fashion week, which wrapped up its fourth season on February 13th, showcases some of the best in sustainable fashion around, with an emphasis on UK designers. The event has firmly established its reputation for raising awareness and promoting the concept of ethically-minded fashion within the industry and the public, showcasing long-established ‘green’ brands alongside emerging sustainable fashion designers. Estethica celebrates designers who choose to work with recycled materials, organic and other sustainable fibers, and those who adhere to fair trade labor standards.

This year’s exhibition was packed once again, featuring regulars like People Tree, Junky Styling, Terra Plana, Ciel and Katharine Hamnett, as well as international brands of note, like Beyond Skin, Fin, Viridis Luxe (photo at the top), Noir and Izzy Lane (one of the designers featured in the Portland Fall Fashion Week 2007 shows). Not to be forgotten, accessories lines, such as the jewelry collection of Fifi Bijoux and bag-designers Nahui Ollin, Sonya Kashmiri and Pibiones all made an positive impression. Trends spotted, courtesy of Bonnie Alter at Treehugger: “lots of greys, whites and blues (despite the fashion mag’s insistence on colours this spring), clothes are either casual or over the top and most interestingly-many designers are working with socially deprived groups to develop new skills or maintain old ones.”

Talk about cradle to cradle planning in design, I love the fact that Makepiece’s collection is designed to be composted when the outfit has been worn to pieces. Now that’s closing the loop.

Not all brands were from across the pond. San Francisco’s Del Forte Denim exhibited, as did one of our long standing favorites, Stewart+Brown.

According to Orsola de Castro, founder the UK ‘green’ label From Somewhere and co-curator of the event, “Support for the sustainable fashion movement has been incredible worldwide, but in the UK we have exceeded all expectations, with unprecedented moves toward a more ethical fashion industry. Estethica is central to this shift.” Source: Crush Communications Press Release.

Estethica has helped pave the way for similar events in the US, from growing ‘green’ exhibits at mainstream fashion trade shows like the S(eco)nd show at Pool and the Go Green Initiative at Designers & Agents, to the flurry of ‘green’ fashion weeks this past fall, including those in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and more, all vying for the title of “Greenest of Them All”. With each new ‘ultimate green fashion’ event, it becomes clear that eco-fashion is not only here to stay, but growing at an exponential rate. Designers are realizing that not only is it the right thing to do, but it is also an investment in our future, with great potential for financial reward along the way. As Matilda Lee, Green Pages Editor for The Ecologist, said, these designers “should be commended for holding fast to their principles of putting sustainability on the agenda and for valuing long term vision over short term gain - in short: for designing with the planet in mind.”

Thank you Estethica for giving us one more example of the fact that style, sustainability and smart business are not mutually exclusive. More...