sustainable style foundation*

(Cristina Sacco - Glasgow, Scotland) For those wondering how to be better shoppers in the UK, Green is the New Black, by Tamsin Blanchard (with an acompanying blog) fits the bill. It is not for those who have resolved to buy less in the new year, as Blanchard’s enthusiasm for recycled fairtrade jewelry and jeans made from organic cottom denim will have many readers holding the book in one hand and clicking around the web sites she mentions with the other. The Little Green Book section at the back compiles these sites into a long list, marking them with vintage, fair trade, recycled, organic, vegetarian, and craft symbols. Short passages from celebrities, style consultants, and models, as well as details of which celebrities wear vegan shoes all add to the chatty magazine-style tone of the book.

Blanchard’s excitement for the topic is endearing and effective, however, Green is the New Black is not without flaws. Blanchard makes a few irritating errors, such as referring to Shirley Manson as the singer of the band Rubbish instead of Garbage, and saying that apple cider vinegar is an alkali (it’s an acid, just like every other vinegar). Also, the section on skincare should have been better- researched for a number of reasons. Firstly, it fails to mention exactly which chemical ingredients are to be avoided in skin and hair care products. Secondly, the discussions of specific different skin and hair care brands is full of vague marketing language like "natural ingredients" lacking in legal and scientific value. Finally, Blanchard and her guests' passages mention brands which do sell products containing parabens and other nasty chemical preservatives against which she had previously cautioned. It's frustrating that this chapter is so substandard as there are good British skin care brands out there, and many international brands are also available here. Faults aside, this is an enjoyable read, and will certainly tempt those who love to shop and are looking to do so more responsibly this year than last.

Gradon over at Design Boston has put together an awesome list of scholarships for interior design students. IFDA, ASID, and IIDA are all there and as Gradon points out, there aren't many folks applying for them. As they say in Vegas...them's good numbers.

New Orleans natives Harry Connick, Jr. and Bradford Marsalis recently teamed up with the New Orleans Habitat for Humanity to create Musicians' Village, a community that will both provide housing to NOLA musicians affected by Katrina, as well as a focal point for teaching, sharing and preserving the rich musical tradition of the city. The project also includes the new Ellis Marsalis Center. From the website..."Another important innovation in the Musicians’ Village effort is the inclusion of the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music, named in honor of the New Orleans native and legendary jazz pianist, educator and patriarch of the Marsalis clan. Focusing on the ethnically and culturally diverse musical heritage of the city, the Center will include a 150-seat performance space with state-of-the-art lighting and sound. The Center will also support the growth of emerging New Orleans talent and music by providing classrooms, technical and administrative support, and producing the accomplishments of its students. These facilities will be available for residents of Musicians’ Village as well as artists and students citywide." From horns to hammers, here's to sweat harmonies in the 9th Ward!

I (Sean here) was the proud recipient of a Make It Right (MIR) Caputo Cap this holiday season. Made with eco-friendly materials, proceeds from the hat will help build sustainable homes in New Orleans. Brad Pitt has been doing a lot down in NOLA given his sustainable housing work with Global Green and all so I wasn't surprised to find him behind Make it Right and its Pink Project. The very hip hat is sold out now but there are still quite a few items for you environistas out there including another cap, t-shirts, and cool totebags made from recycled Pink Project materials.

Titan TV, an internet broadcast network, has a great lineup of environmental casts and resources. In their channel Titan Greens, Liza de Guia is their green go-to girl and hosts a lot of the clips under the 'Daily Greens' Title. Her most recent offering "Green Resolutions 2008" interviews folks at the NY Greendrinks Holiday Party and is quite entertaining. Lots more from Liza and other environmental content is available from Titan's main page above. Looks like Liza may be the next rockstar in environmental journalism.

Check this out...got a great green new year's resolution in mind. Record it on video and enter it into QuantumShift TV's cool new contest, Eco-Resolution Video Contest. Lots of prizes for first, second, and third place so don't pass this one up. And while you're there, make sure to check out QuantumShifts other cool stuff.

We get some cool products to review here at SSF, but I have to say...this one takes first prize. Its the Solio H1000, a hybrid device charger that takes power from multiple sources (including the sun!), holds power, and then powers multiple small devices like cell phones, iPods, etc. I'm testing it out on an extended holiday road trip to Utah and Arizona. I received a sporty orange version of the charger you see to the left...very sassy. I charged it a bit via my laptop last night but during the days I'm going full on solar with the charger up on my dashboard. Its fantastic! Its hip, its cool, its small so packs away easily in a bag (or purse) and doesn't get in the way, and it provides power any time, anywhere. All the various adapter cables are great too, this thing will charge any small device! A couple folks have seen it along the way on the dashboard (Oregon still requires attendants to pump gas for you) and they think it's way cool too. Best of all, I found a sporty little orange bag (I think it may have been a pencil or cosmetic bag) for it at a secondhand store in Sierra Vista, AZ that holds the Solio and all its accessories. Now that's sustainable style!

The gang at Eco Green Office has done it again! They've come up with at great solution for retailers wanting to use 'plastic' bags. The Biodegradable Retail Bag contain 15% post-consumer recycled content and are completely biodegradable. Go green bagger!

We just came across this very cool website, Urban Reinventors. Great look and feel plus lots of great articles on the ideas of urbanism...both positive and negative. There are beautiful images, innovative ideas, and lots of other materials on the topic, both artistic and academic. The site was recently reworked and their second issue of their online magazine adds a lot more to the mix as well.

Seattle - (Shannon) Build a house that is both sustainable and edible? It’s a greenie dream come true. I wouldn’t start packing just yet, however; these houses are more for dining on than living in.

Terry, a “multi-disciplinary” website produced by folks from the University of British Columbia, is sponsoring a gingerbread house contest with a twist: all the houses must contain at least “four identifiable, sustainable building design elements.” Not so tough, you think? Here’s the hard part – everything has to be edible. By people. Not goats.

Time is running out, and all entries must be submitted by midnight PST, December 31, 2007. The top three finishers will all get a Bake For a Change t-shirt, and of course, all entrants get bragging rights and dessert for a week.

Now for something for completely different. The Ingterra Project's new Community Change Cards are the coolest thing ever! Its all about shopping locally and sharing the benefits locally. It works kind of like a card. The magnetic strip and bar-coded card functions as a community loyalty card and is not used for payment. The customer pays with cash, check, credit or debit card. Businesses swipe or scan the community card first and then proceed as usual with the transaction. The data is sent using the existing MasterCard or Visa credit card terminal. Cards are now available in Boston and Seattle with more cities coming soon.

(Pier Paolo - Torino, Italia) The recent appointment of Seoul as World Design Capital in 2010 could be interpreted in two different ways at least. From one hand we could read the attempt to free South Korea from the stereotyped image of the ICT Nation above all. On the other hand we could consider the effort to include a lot of design Korean actions under the same umbrella named Design. In short, the attempt to boost quality and exports of Korean car district well represented by companies such as Hyundai, Kia or Daewoo, considered worldwide as the second regional business segment after IT (with two Korean pillars: Samsung and LG). And giving authoritativeness to international events such as Design Korea, founded in 2003 and now arrived at the third appointment. This event (International conference, exhibition and so on) very attractive for the international design community, has the cultural objective to put together ideas, design policies, associations, institutions, designers, critics and students. And they do it very well under the coordination of KIDP (Korean Institute of Design Promotion), the real motor of all these events.

Therefore the mayor of Seoul, Oh Se-Hoon, last October (when the city was named World Design Capital 2010) mentioned the so call “miracle on the Han river”. This is the period between Sixties and Seventies in which there was an extraordinary and rapid economic and industrial growth in Seoul, the city in which the river Han flows. So Seoul triumphed over cities such as Dubai, Singapore and Toronto and it is really worthy of this appointment beacuse of all the efforts to support a real international culture of industrial design at different levels. The Korean city and its area (which has about 20 million of inhabitants) will be for one year backstage and background of the design events. However my feeling is that Seoul is already an ICT and design international capital.

It seems that WDC nomination is going to move rapidly from cities that consider design as an instrument for transformation and social-economic change (this condition seemed to be really important at the beginning of the award WDC), to capitals already known as design or ICT cities.

In short, from an award to virtuous cities with their processes of transformations to an award to industrial districts and companies. Of course this nomination is a positive message for European cities such as Barcelona, London, Milan, they will have more chances to get this award. What about other fizzy and interesting cities such as Valencia or Gwangju?

(picture by Sergio Corsaro)

Seattle - (Shannon) Now this is seriously cool: a Power House kit that teaches about regenerative energy sources, photosynthesis, greenhouse construction, cooking with solar power, all kinds of good, green stuff. Apparently, you can even make your own chewing gum. Developed by physicist Uwe Wandrey and produced by Thames and Kosmos, this kit is a fun way to educate kids (and adults) about making wise use of resources.

According to the story in the Power House Experiment Manual, a group of people live on an island with no phone, no pool, no pets. They have only the resources nature and the island provide, so they must use what they have carefully. The kit teaches you to live sustainably: you build a model house that has solar panels, a windmill, a greenhouse, a desalination system, a solar cooker, a solar hot water tank, etc. Robinson Crusoe would have given Friday up to the cannibals in exchange for one of these kits. There are 70 experiments and 20 building projects designed to educate about the basic principles of natural energy sources. Get your kids ready either for a science fair or to survive on Gilligan's Island, or just teach them some nifty, hands-on, sustainable science as they build an electric car and make their own sauerkraut.

Some of the projects include: build a sail car and discover how wind can be harnessed by sails and wings to produce energy. Bake bread in your own solar cooker. Get energy from sunflowers. For ages 12 and up. Prices on the Internet range from $119 to $149.

We have to admit, we're suckers for reality TV shows based on actual skills. When they involve lifestyle choices, even better. When they involve hot guys cooking...well, what more could we ask for. Well, maybe one thing: mention of fresh, local, organic food. All of this takes place on Style Network's new show Hot Guys Who Cook. Now, not every hunk mentions our favorite words, but they do pop up now and then, along with lots of other little pop up trivia features on the show. Real guys (of all ages) cooking real food in their own kitchens, lots of fun. A recent episode even featured a returning war veteran with a 'Recon Rack of Lamb' recipe. So check it out when/if you get a chance. Lots of other fun shows on Style these days too, including one of our SSF favorites, Clean House, with the very fabulous Niecy Nash of Reno 911 fame and recent co-host of the EMA Awards.

Seattle - (Shannon) Have you ever walked or driven through an intersection and wondered just what happens to the traffic light when it has outlived its usefulness? No, neither had I, until recently. Cities all over the world are replacing their old-fashioned incandescent signal lights with more efficient LEDs. This is great in one way, as the LEDs require far less energy and last longer, but it's less great when you take into account that those old light lenses (the red, yellow and green glass) are ending up in landfills by the truckloads. The special glass used for traffic signal lights is complicated and costly to recycle, making dumping them a more "attractive" option. However, an enterprising company known as Greenlight Concepts has found a way to rescue the lenses and turn the situation into a win-win-win. San Francisco designer Daniel Krivens and partner Nicholas Lee had the brilliant idea of turning the discarded lamps into ... well, lamps. Genius.

And they are. Stunning in red, amber and green, these lamps are sustainable and stylish. Pendant lamps of 8" or 12" (there's even a clear version, rescued from train-traffic signals) run between $240 to $299; the 8" or 12" "bucket" versions ($90 to $120) incorporate parchment shades in the design and stand on steel legs (like the one pictured left). All the lamps emit a soft, intimate glow just perfect for creating the right atmosphere that has nothing whatsoever to do with sitting in traffic.