Whole Life Times: Bringing Sexy Back

April 2007 | Green Scene

Bringing Sexy Back

As a little girl, San Francisco-based eco fashion designer Kelly Barry was immaculately dressed… right down to the matching bow that her mother placed in her hair. That is until she got her hands on the family sewing machine and started deconstructing mom’s 70’s clothing, wearing her outrageous creations to high school.

Barry tucked her love for design into her back pocket when she went off to college to study her other passion: environmental science. But, she says, “instead of doing my organic chemistry homework, I would sew.” Lucky for us, Barry decided to marry her two passions, creating the sexy and sustainable fashion label Kelly B Couture (kellybcouture.com).

The line hit the runway at San Francisco Fashion week with an eye-catching spring collection that is urban, sassy, and most definitely wearable. The collection features an en vogue high-rise organic cotton and linen pencil skirt, a floor sweeping bamboo gown, and a glamorous one-piece bathing suit.

Fashionistas are pretty surprised that Barry’s line is sustainable. “Organic doesn’t ring very fashion forward,” she explains. Part of the challenge of taking green mainstream is that there still aren’t many sustainable textiles to choose from. “I do everything I can to make it sustainable while still staying fresh.” For Barry, that means taking the available sustainable fabrics and adding a little life, in the form of ruffles, bold colors, and trim.

And for the gals who buy Kelly B Couture just because it looks fabulous, Barry says, “people are going to pick up the hangtag and learn something.”
—Summer Bowen

Free to Be You and Amoeba

While the digital age has converted many music consumers to mP3 enthusiasts, a healthy number of purists still make the trek to the grand spectacle that is Amoeba Music’s neon-covered venue at Sunset and Cahuenga. Now, socially conscious shoppers have one more reason to frequent this local landmark — a brand new green program.

Amoeba has always kicked in for good causes, donating money to Hurricane Katrina victims and giving a percentage of all sales to the Rainforest Action Fund since 1990. But this September, the California chain decided to step up its efforts by expanding donations to two more charities — including the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter and Conservation International — matching customer contributions and holding weekly auctions for music memorabilia, to encourage fans to give for green.

After sponsoring a showing of An Inconvenient Truth at the Santa Monica Pier last year, the company began giving shoppers flyers with tips for a healthier tomorrow. Those flyers are now going in a new kind of biodegradable bag — so new that Amoeba is the first retailer to offer it. Amoeba has always supported buying and selling used product, but they’ve now implemented a Green Box program that encourages people to drop off old electronics — like walkmans, cell phones and the like — for recycling.

How long will efforts last? Says Amoeba’s marketing head Ilene Barg, “We’ve raised [near] $20,000 so far, and we haven’t set any end date — this is something we’ll be supportive of for a very long time.”

That’s music to our ears.
— Carly Milne

From Worm Poop to Greenbacks
TerraCycle’s green business success story

Picture the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. Now picture a 20-year old guy in the basement of an old office building, shoveling rotten food into worm bins.

Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, Inc., started his groundbreaking company from just those unlikely beginnings. In 2002, Szaky (pronounced zake-ee), then a freshman at Princeton, was inspired by friends who were using worm castings (ie., worm poop) to cultivate beautiful houseplants. Their horticultural success formed the base of Szaky’s vision: use worms to turn food waste into plant fertilizer on a grand scale.

At the time, fellow Ivy Leaguers thought Szaky and his partner John Beyer were nuts. But they probably don’t anymore; sales at TerraCycle, which now supplies garden products to big guys like Wal-Mart, Whole Foods and Home Depot, have quadrupled every year since 2003. Advance ’07 orders pulled in $7 million, and Szaky projects $40 million in sales by 2009.

With businesses across the nation scrambling to go green, Szaky’s company, based in a warehouse in Trenton, New Jersey, isn’t just zero-waste — it actually consumes waste. To feed its “armies of worms,” TerraCycle uses piles of organic garbage. Szaky was so dedicated to using post-consumer waste as worm food that in 2003, when the company was struggling, he turned down a cool million in funding from a less earth-concerned investor. Szaky reports, “We had $500 in our bank account and no other prospects for funding, but they wanted us to move away from garbage as our source.” As it stands, TerraCycle gets its worm food in the form of stinky garbage from local school cafeterias, supermarkets and food retailers.

TerraCycle doesn’t only start its production process with trash — it ends with it too, packaging the product line in recycled plastic bottles. “We couldn’t afford packaging. That’s how we got the idea to use used soda bottles,” Szaky explains. When they first went out cruising dumpsters, “one of us got arrested in the process,” says Szaky. “It turns out you can’t dumpster-dive in New Jersey. It’s illegal.” The company now sidesteps that law by paying five cents for every bottle collected by schools and other nonprofits.

For CEOs resistant to the green revolution, Szaky, now 25, has this wake-up call: “Either they’re going to become green or they’re going to be taken out by a company like mine,” he says. “It’s their choice.”
— Monica Woelfel

Good Day, Sunshine
If you think solar power is the pipe dream of off-the-grid counterculture revolutionaries, you’re more than two decades behind the curve. In 1986, Ronald Reagan had his maintenance staff dismantle solar panels that were placed on top of the White House by Jimmy Carter. (The panels were moved to Maine’s Unity College, where they heated the school’s water until 2003.) The eighties were dark ages for solar power, but interest in solar is entirely renewable. In fact, it’s becoming bigger than ever.

California recently enacted a law calling for one million solar panels to be installed on private residences, schools and other public buildings by 2018. The power generated by these panels will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of one million cars. Laws like this create an important milestone for solar energy: Experts predict that by 2012, solar energy will cost roughly 80 cents per watt, making it competitive with carbon-based energy sources, and more cost effective for consumers. The California law allows citizens to use their homes as eco-friendly power plants; any surplus solar energy can be sold back to the utilities for public use.

The new ubiquity of solar power is thanks, in part, to photovoltaics — new, thin laminates that collect the sun’s energy. These durable sheets are available in rolls, like wrapping paper, making installation much easier as the heavy glass shielding that weighed down the old panels is no longer required.

Many of the fears that fueled the 1980s reticence to use solar power have faded. Research has shown that decidedly non–Sun Belt cities like Chicago and Seattle can generate ample solar power, even on an ambient basis. Despite the lack of sunshine, both cities already employ solar-powered parking meters and road signs that function 365 days a year.

If you’re interested in going solar, it’s easy to find information about solar-friendly contractors. Renewable energy advocate Verde Energy provides need-to-know info and a search engine to locate contractors in your area.

Solar power is a force everybody understands is going to play a major role in our future. Even skeptics agree: In 2002, the Bush administration quietly replaced the Reagan-exiled solar panels on top of the White House, where they stand to this day.
— Paul Constant

Spring Greening
Homemade cleaning products that are pure enough to eat

If you’re still under the illusion that you’re “cleaning” your house with popular, off-the-shelf products, you may have inhaled too many toxic fumes. In truth, these chemical cocktails contaminate your home, your body, and your planet by emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that can have short and long term adverse health effects. According to the EPA, concentrations of many VOCs are consistently (up to ten times) higher indoors than outdoors. This spring, satisfy your seasonal urge to purge by ditching your chemi-laden cleaners for these homemade solutions pure enough to eat. They’re lighter on the planet and your wallet!

I Can See Clearly Now Glass/Hard Surface Cleaner
For streak-free mirrors, cloudless windows and added shine on other hard surfaces (like appliances or countertops), fill a spray bottle with 2 teaspoons of white vinegar and 1 quart warm water, spray surface with solution, and wipe clean with an old t-shirt or pillowcase. The vinegar odor vanishes when dry.

Bleach Within Reach
While you’re probably familiar with the unpleasant side effects of chlorine bleach such as eye and skin irritation, you might not know that mixing bleach with cleaners containing ammonia or using it to clean up urine can be deadly. These combos can create toxic gases and an explosive called nitrogen trichloride — an ingredient in teargas. To clean and deodorize your toilet bowl, sprinkle baking soda into the bowl and drizzle with vinegar, then scrub with a toilet brush and flush. For soiled fabrics, simply blot spots with lemon juice and allow them to dry in the sun.

Better Leather Shoe Shine
Before you toss that banana peel into the compost pile, use it to polish your leather shoes. Simply rub shoes with the inside of the peel, then buff with an old sock.

Mr. Green Floor Cleaner
For a less-fluorescent-green cleaner for tile or linoleum floors, fill your bucket with 1 cup vinegar mixed with 2 gallons hot water.

Unplugged Air Purifiers
Combat indoor air pollution by installing houseplants that breathe in harmful toxins and exhale oxygen. The Boston fern absorbs formaldehyde — a common indoor air pollutant off-gassed by furniture, building materials and carpeting. Moving several spider plants into a freshly painted room decreases levels of benzene, and the lady palm filters more ammonia than any other houseplant. Other effective leafy air filters include peace lilies, mums, daisies and English Ivy.

Raid Your Spice Rack Ant Repeller
Keep your home pest and pesticide free by roadblocking ant-traffic with a line of cayenne pepper or cinnamon.

Citrus-Ice Garbage Disposal Freshener
Feed your garbage disposal a few ice-cubes and a lemon or orange peel to freshen its breath and sharpen its blades.

Woody-Protection Furniture Polish
Environmental Health Perspectives reports prenatal exposure to phthalates (found in furniture polish) can adversely affect male reproductive development in humans. Protect your family and your hardwood furniture by choosing a phthalate-free solution: 1 cup olive oil combined with 1/2 cup lemon juice.

Fresh Air Fresheners
Conventional “air fresheners” don’t actually “freshen” indoor air; they simply block your ability to smell by coating your nose-ways with an oily film or by releasing a nerve-deadening agent. If you want to overlap odious odors, use essential oils in a candle-lit oil warmer or terracotta light ring, light an aromatic soy candle, or place a sachet filled with dried lavender in the room.

For more information on how to properly dispose of household hazardous waste in the city of Los Angeles, visit lacsd.org.
— Jolia Sidona Allen

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