Stop Junk Mail. Be Eco Friendly. Do Good. The GreenDimes Blog

I'LL TAKE THE EARTH AND AIR

Melanie Dizon was inspired to create eco-friendly fashion brand Eairth a combination of ‘earth’ and ‘air’, during a road trip through her native Philippines.  Her own line is a mix of jeans, cotton jersey tops, dresses and bags which she customises through embroidery, cutting and slashing, to ensure each piece is unique. 

Whilst learning to surf in the Philippines, Melanie ran out of clothes and was forced to work with local t-shirts. "They're more organic chic than resort wear," she has said. "You can wear them anywhere depending on how you put them together with other pieces. No two pieces are exactly identical." With colorways of earthly tones in muted khakis, greys and blues, she uses organics sources such as indigenous barks, sedds and plants which are abundant to her local homeland.

After dropping out of Parsons with an F to her name she still managed to go on to work for established names such as Todd Oldham, Theory and BCBG.

Seems like Melanie didn't stray to far to find her own success.

BAN BABY BAN

Banner on the outside, cotton on the inside

Developing nations still make their billboard signs out of heavy material.  When the city of Sao Paulo in Brazil banned billboards, there were reams of material left as waste.  TOUCH and StraaT joined forces with a group of artisans lead by Dona Jaci in the outskirts of Sao Paulo to design and produce tote bags using the surplus material.

Starting today in New York is TOUCH NYC, a collaborative 3 day showcase of new designers who focus on handmade sustainable products which benefit the environment.  Read more here 

THE GAME OF SWAP

Exchanging ‘stuff’ is one of the most traditional engagements that man has involved himself with; the English traded spices and tea with the Indians, the Kula tribe of the Trobriand Islands gave shell necklaces to admired and respected folk in their tribes, young American boys abandoned tired baseball cards for cooler players and in some households – even wives! We get bored of what we have, choose something with more meaning, require more value or simply want to replace a possession because it is no longer needed.

Ebay caught onto this basic instinct but produced a marketplace where these ideas translated into the application of each seller to name their price and make money – afterall, this is the modern age and everything seems to have a price.  Yet access was given to an individual to decide how much value they placed on an item, rendering a primary example of how the digital arena is empowering individuals to be the purveyors of their own consumption exchange. 

Whatsmineisyours began as a reaction to the disposable fashion world existing today where consumers are continuously giving up items they have short relationships with.  Kick-started by fashionista, Judy Berger, her site still offers the buy-and-sell function, but goes one step further - you uncover clothes and furniture at a similar value and rather than dump it, swap it.  Donating a Marc Jacobs handbag to a woman in India is ridiculous and you’re only going to go out to spend more - this way you can fulfill the greedy shopper in you but recycle the goods.

Takes the idea of fair trade into another dynamic, don't you think?

CLEAR WATERS RUN STILL

Vodka is a digestif and during Polish Christmas Dinners, required to drink one shot at a time in between 12 courses of sumptuous stodgy cuisine.  It also goes well with tonic and a slice of lime.  Now despite not wanting to promote indecent living and the continued abuse of alcohol, it arrives to our attention that a new vodka has been released onto the market that is 100% organic wheat, distilled with water from the Alps region, harvested locally in the Pemonte region of Italy and with a range of benefits to the environment.  This new high-end vodka, fellow drinkers at the bar, is Purus Vodka.

Self-proclaimed to be the 'Grain of Truth', the brand's website opens with a counter clocking the minutes and seconds to Earth Day - like it already.  For the first 100,000 adults who sign up to their website, a tree is planted in your name in California, Florida and Texas.  They have partnered with American Forests, one of the organizations we previously partnered with here at TONIC when we worked on the release of our TREE T-shirt.  Even better, every aspect of the product's creation and packaging has the environment in mind; the bottle is recyclable, the paper labels are made with tree-free paper, the cork is sustainable, all the inks used for lettering is soy-based and the adhesives water-based. 

Now the only thing to worry about are those hangovers.....

TODAY'S WORD IS PLASTIC BAG

Marks & Spencers is a staple to English society like tea & scones to the Queen.  Now they’re making UK shoppers go green just like their logo, by charging them 5p (10c) for every plastic bag they request.  With 13bn plastic bags being give to UK shoppers every year, it takes up to 1,000 years for them to decay. This means damage is done every time you get a craving for their apple crumble or roast lamb oven specials. 

So now at Mars & Sparks, when you pay 5 pence for these no longer free plastic bags, all money raised goes to environmental charity, Groundwork -  an organisation investing in green spaces for local neighbourhoods.  Sir Stuart Rose, Chief Executive of the company, is aware that the biggest offenders to plastic bag usage is the food industry and is making the first steps towards ambitious environmental plans for a 2012 goal.

Back across the pond on New York’s subway street, Joshua Allen Harris has positioned plastic bag installations above the grates, periodically inflating into the ‘Air Zoo’ and the ‘Air Bear’.

So if plastic bags don’t go towards building new environments, they can go into the hands of an artist who can alter an otherwise noisy, grumpy, soiled New York space for a comic moment.

I told you it was all about balance and displacement.....