I love going to the Green Festival and look
forward to it each year. What started out as a little green trade show - what
co-founders Kevin Danaher and Alisa Gravitz call, “a party with a purpose” -
has now become the largest sustainability event in the world with shows in San
Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC and Chicago. A joint collaboration between Global Exchange and Co-op America, the Green Festivals bring together over 400
visionary green companies and organizations, 200 speakers and upwards of 50,000
guests per event. Yesterdays San Francisco festival was another testament to the
growing green sector with everyone from conservative grandmas and grandpas
whose grandkids told them they “had to go” to deep green activists patting each
other on the back, everyone was there together learning, shopping, connecting,
and exploring. What gets me excited is that it really is a celebration of the
burgeoning green economy – a new capitalism that designs for Cradle to Cradle use instead of cradle to landfill. While some may moan and groan about the fact
that it is still capitalism, it is a turn in the right direction. Ella Vicker’s designs are a great example.
Made from recycled sailcloth, her bags and accessories are durable, chic and
really functional. Having grown up sailing, she saw tons of this heavy duty
fabric going to the landfill and imagined a way to reinvent the material for more
use. An easy answer that just took a little creativity and out of the box thinking - pretty much what green design is all about. Human ingenuity. It is what gives me hope every day.