E a r t h H o u r 03.28.09

Light some candles for an evening of no electricity, no gas, etc.. Instead, enjoy an evening with great company, conversation, and a connection to each other and the planet. Pictionary in candlelight, anyone...?

Go Green Expo-nential

The end of January 2009 was marked by a green event that Covenant Green™ participated in. Mr. Bradford Rand (of Fashion Career Expo fame) held his Go Green Expo for the first time in Los Angeles, at the L.A. Convention Center. A meeting with Brad and his beautiful wife Melissa a few days prior to the event left a poignant place in my eco-friendly heart. The work that this fabulous couple is doing to further the green cause is admirable!

Covenant Green™ had a small corner booth. People from all walks of life came by and stopped to look, and most of all, to listen to my story as to why I quit my last job to do this eco-friendly clothing line. Photos of my baby niece aside (she's the main reason), purchases were made and happy customers walked away with a pep in their step knowing they had just made a difference for the planet and for future generations.

My eco-friendly 100% reclaimed silk dress transcended generational lines. Made from surplus silk discarded from the garment industry, I designed these landfill-rescued jewel toned luxuries into a fun and whimsical dress with a custom art of oil rigs and "Just say no" printed on them created by yours truly. The inks used to print them are PVC-free and phthalate-free, less toxic waste for the environment.

Other bestsellers included a dress with my iconic peace design at the back, and an eco-friendly tie-dye tube dress perfect for spring or summer days, depending on your geographical location. With climate change and global warming at hand, us girls might need more of these easy-to-wear eco garb, right? :)

Eco-diva and hotness actress Kelly Hu of "The Scorpion King" and "X-Men" has the eco tie-dye dress too. She helped me pick a winner for the $300 shopping spree for more fun and fab Covenant Green™ product. Thanks Kelly! Watch the talented Ms. Hu in episodes of "Army Wives"!
While meeting wonderful people who had genuine concern for the environment, I discovered the spawning of eco-clubs in our educational system. I met a retired teacher who endorsed such organizations, two eco-fabulous girls from USC involved in a sustainability committee, a grade-schooler who wanted to be President of an eco-club and start one in her class, and junior high schoolers who already have said club and were making the rounds at the Go Green Expo to increase awareness and eco-education at their school. Knowing that the next generation is conscious of their lifestyle makes my green heart happy!
I also met with a lot of families who attended the show with the desire and resolve to be responsible consumers, buying green and seeing the latest and greatest green products. The best photo I have was with a baby whose parents bought one of my Covenant Green™ infant onesie, with a custom-printed "Small Carbon Footprint" on it (the label of my future kid's line!). Their little one looked so happy when Mommy and Daddy bought it for him. He knows they are buying responsibly to make sure he grows up in a cleaner environment!





Not only did I have the privilege and pleasure to meet such great eco-consumers, but I also met fellow exhibitors and an army of eco-service providers who I plan to join forces with to help perpetuate the green movement. I had the best neighbor of all, Marc Sahara, owner of "The Inconvenient Bag", a collection of organic cotton and hemp totes custom-made with whimsical prints, the perfect alternative to "Paper or plastic?". Like his motto says, plastic is so yesterday! You can find his green goods at www.theinconvenientbag.com.

Donna Barnett is one of the green do-gooders we have and need. She is a 5-star general of the clean-air infantry division! You can find her work at www.chasingcleanair.com, advocating awareness and education to the public so that we and future generations may breathe better.

On my wish list is the environmentally-friendly beauty product line, Arbonne. Nancy Selik's booth was located in the other aisle, full of great and green Arbonne skin care regimens. Made with natural and environmentally-friendly ingredients, these are not sold in stores! You can contact Nancy for a personal consult. Please email me at info@covenantgreen.com for more details.

The next consumer show will be in April for Earth Day. Will advise as soon as it is confirmed, so please check this blog regularly for details. I also recommend reading past blogs to educate yourselves on my personal experiences in living green, so that it may inspire you to be responsible eco-consumers. Go green or go home! :-)

Plastic Un-funtastic

"The Bottom Line: Manufacturers currently aren’t required to label BPA, so there’s no way of knowing if it’s present in the plastics or cans you use. For now, the best way to reduce your exposure is to use stainless steel, glass or plastics labeled “BPA-free".”

Plastic bottles contain a chemical called bisphenol-A, or BPA, for short. Heat is a catalyst that releases this chemical that finds itself into our foods. For the complete article of these BPA blues with above quote, go to http://astrology.yahoo.com/channel/health/are-plastics-harming-your-health-4-facts-to-help-you-decide-264296/.

So, if you keep a case of water bottles in your car, better take them out! Even better, get yourself a Brita filtering pitcher or some kind of filter for your faucet, and fill up some stainless steel water bottles. I just bought a SIGG steel water bottle from Whole Foods last week. You can check out more fund designs at:

http://www.mysigg.com/
http://www.sigg.com/index.php?id=5
http://www.sigg.com/

Meantime, for those of you who have infants, Whole Foods also has BPA-free plastic bottles. Here are some I found online as well:

http://www.greentogrow.com/
http://www.gobabylife.com/products/weegobottle.html
http://www.handi-craft.com/index.shtm

If you Google BPA-free baby bottles, you can find a lot more, like at http://safemama.com/2007/11/22/bpa-free-bottle-and-sippy-cup-cheat-sheet/.

Note to self and to all of you - corn-derived plastics *melt* easily! Actress friend Kelly Hu (pictured in yours truly's Covenant Green "Made In USA" tee) bought us reusable corn-based plastic water bottles with filter top (good for 99 fill-ups), but mine wrinkled and shrunk up in the car like a man's jewels in a cold pool. Ha ha!

The World Trade Center, RECYCLED

Here's an ultimate example of recycling - a new military vessel built with 24 tons of scrap steel forged from the World Trade Center, the new USS New York. It is the fifth in a new class of warship, designed for missions th at include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.


Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in Amite Foundry and Machine, Inc., in Amite, Louisiana, to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on September 9, 2003, "Those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Captain Kevin Wensing. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."


The ship's motto? "Never Forget."

Please keep this going so everyone can see what we are made of in this country!

Venice Beach Eco-Fest

Come and join me for some fun in the sun at the Venice Beach Eco-Fest! See below flyer for details (please click on flyer to read better).

Beware of Eco Fakes!

So... I have a bone to pick with Target. In particular, with regards to Mossimo apparel at Target.

I was running out of toilet paper and other stuff so I trekked a block away to the eponymous super-store (I looove Target). As I passed one of the racks in the women's section which faced the main pathway across the registers, some colored hoodies caught my attention. Why? Because the screenprint on them looked very much like the screenprints that another label called Zooey is doing. Simple, 2-color prints, messages that had to do with the environment in simple fonts, often with an image of a butterfly silhouette, or the earth, etc. I thought Zooey, a contemporary brand, was doing exclusives for Target.

But to my surprise, as I came across the label, it wasn't Zooey. It was Mossimo.

Knock-offs happen in the garment industry all the time. This one is way too close and I'd be afraid if I were the peeps at Mossimo. And Target! But the the thing that rattled my green cage the most was the fact that these green-messaged hoodies (about 25 per color per arm of the rack) was NOT EVEN MADE OUT OF ORGANIC COTTON! It was made out of *regular* cotton. What hypocrisy!!!!! I think there should be some kind of law in the fashion world that says if you're going to preach green, you better freakin' be practicing it!!! I am sooo livid, you guys don't even understand.

As much as I love Target, I think I'm going to find someone who knows someone who works there to alert them. Either that or write to their customer service and complain. The sad reality of it is, they will probably be more concerned of the possible design counterfeiting of Zooey, but really they should be concerned more of what kind of product they are buying from hypocritical companies who want to make a buck out of the green "trend".

IT SHOULD NOT BE A TREND. IT SHOULD BE A LIFESTYLE.

Kudos for Target, though, for bringing in Rogan as a guest designer this past floorset in their designer exclusives. At least he did EVERYTHING in his line in sustainable or organic or fair trade goods. Meantime, don't buy Mossimo at Target. Write to them and complain to be more eco-responsible instead of eco-hypocritical!!!

INHALING YOUR WASTE

Gasoline is approaching the $5.00 mark *fast*. But with all the whining, what are we really doing about it? The people who own some kind of stake in oil are laughing their way to the bank, and we make excuses and *still* painstakenly take it from the behind by *still* paying for it.

So I've been arranging my meetings and errands to only a few days a week, making sure everyone's schedule is in sync by area and time to minimize as much driving as possible. I CARPOOLED with a friend to another friend's birthday party last week, and this week I WALKED with another friend to catch a movie at the new Americana at Brand, a few blocks away from where I live. It was good exercise, and it was good for my wallet not have to driven and spend money on gas.

Meantime, what's a WORSE crisis, is the garbage problem in Naples, Italy. I just heard about it a few days ago.


Apparently in 1994 a state of emergency was declared by the city, as ALL the landfills in Naples were FULL. No one really did anything about it, or could do anything about it, because the garbage business was monopolized by the Italian mafia (and who could regulate or audit them if they didn't want to get killed or something?). It has since gotten out of hand.

Out of frustration, people started dumping in the streets, like a horrible scene from a movie:

Naples trash in streets (flckr)

Naples trash in streets (Time)

For the second time the Italian army has been called to help clear the streets. Naples made a deal with Germany and is dumping the trash in Germany's landfills instead, some of which contained radioactive material. The crisis is far from over. I believe they should implement not a bandaid problem of dumping their trash to someone else's backyard, but to find ways to recycle and urge their citizens to help sort and recycle as well. Then there needs to be some kind of campaign not only about recycling, but to *live eco-responsibly* (use less disposable items, bring their own reusable totes to stores when shopping, etc.). Plastic, depending on its composition, biodegrades between HUNDREDS to THOUSANDS of years!


A friend of mine who volunteered at a junior high school carnival wrote me about some kids who dumped trash to the ground. He told them to pick it up, and they merely said, "Somebody gets paid to do that for me." THIS makes me *FURIOUS*. I wish I had millions of dollars so I could send every loiterer, especially spoiled brats, along with the disrespectful adults, to live a year in Naples living and breathing the fumes of waste. It's just utterly disgusting that people don't care. To those who have kids, beware and take responsibility now!


IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT EACH AND EVERY HUMAN BEING RETHINKS THE WAY THEY DISPOSE OF THINGS. As much as possible, before I throw something away, or use something knowing that it will be thrown away, I decide whether I can recycle the item (washing disposable chopsticks for reuse, saving junkmail envelopes to catalogue receipts or use to send my invoices), or NOT to even use it to begin with (using real plates as opposed to paper plates, carrying a big tote bag to the grocery or at the mall to put stuff that I buy into it, instead of getting plastic/paper bags from the stores). I wish people would WAKE UP AND SMELL THE TRASH before it actually becomes a problem in their own backyard.


For more, go to: Grab your freakin' garbage!