A magazine that’s paying attention to what’s good in the world.

The current state of global affairs is overwhelming, and if traditional news and media had their way, we would be convinced that we live in a dismal and dangerous world. Fortunately there are some outlets that are pushing back against the norm. The Intelligent Optimist is one of them.

You might know The Intelligent Optimist under its former name: Ode magazine. Not just a magazine, it’s a community of people who believe that more is going right than wrong in the world.

As Jurriaan Kamp, Editor-in-Chief, puts it:

Intelligent optimism is a way of life. In fact, it is the way of life until we lose it. Many of us do. Somewhere, at some particular point in time, our disappointments and failures become too overwhelming, and we give up. Fear and insecurity arise, and we start surrendering to pessimism. Some will argue that it is wise to be realistic, and they see the optimist as unrealistic. I argue that optimism—intelligent, not mindless, optimism—is the only realistic strategy for life.

With the new name comes a launch party, and if you are in the San Francisco area, you will be sure to want to put it on your calendar.

WHAT: The Intelligent Optimist Launch Party

Headlining the event will be one of the most sought-after speakers in the world, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Benjamin Zander, whose TED talk has attracted almost 3 million viewers. Zander has given the keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, and his latest recording, with London’s Philharmonic Orchestra, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Zander is also the co-author of The Art of Possibility, hailed as a landmark work on the triumph of human creativity’s potential. “To be an intelligent optimist, you have to master the art of possibility,” he says. But what is the art of possibility? Zander’s answer will have audience members alternately rolling in the aisles and dabbing their eyes.

WHERE: Fort Mason Center

WHEN: Wednesday September 26, 2012, 7-8:30 pm (you can also catch the event live on webcast)

WHY: Because there’s a lot of good going on in the world, and it’s time we started paying attention to it.

You can score a free digital copy of the first digital issue of The Intelligent Optimist here.

The post Celebrate Possibility at The Intelligent Optimist Launch Party in San Francisco, September 26 appeared first on EcoSalon.

 Partying (sustainably) for New York City’s Fashion Week.

Put a handful of amazing designers, a community of savvy and conscious-minded individuals, good wine and eco-friendly shopping all in a cool space and what do you get? An EcoSalon fête of course.

To kick off Fashion Week we partnered with the Textile Arts Center to throw a party celebrating conscious fashion and designers. Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed, The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, was on hand signing copies of her new book, and Francisca Pineda told many about her ethical fashion abroad program working with indigenous artisans from the Talamanca region near Puerto Viejo.

We talked shop with over a dozen designers and got to connect with some of our readers from around the world.

Thanks to all of the amazing brands that kept our party goers hydrated and energized, Conway Family Winery, The Naked Grape, Zhena’s Gypsy Tea and Equal Exchange chocolate, and our eco-beauty gifts from La Bella Figura, Kahina Giving Beauty and Olie Biologique.

(Did we happen to mention there were live rabbits there too?)

Missed out? That’s alright, we took some fun party pictures so you could see what fun we had and why YOU should be there next time!

EcoSalon writer Jennifer Barckley with goodie bag products from Kahina Giving Beauty, La Bella Figura and Olie Biologique

(Left)Designer Eliza Starbuck and (Right) EcoSalon food writer Johanna Kindvall and friend

Designer Eliza Starbuck

Artists Michael Linton Simpson and Derek Weisberg

Treehugger’s Chris Tackett and EcoSalon Marketing Manager and Foodie Underground columnist Anna Brones

Eco-Chick founder/author Starre Vartan and designer Ambika Conroy

Australian fashion writer and proud EcoSalon reader Yatu Hunt (in NYC for her honeymoon!)

Textile Arts Center co-founder Owyn Ruck, designer Nimet Deg of Soham Dave and Becky Bavinger of the New York City Fair Trade Coalition

Meghan Sebold, founder/designer of Afia clothing

Celeste Lilore, Anthony Lilore, Carmen Artigas, Owyn Ruck and friends

UK fashion student, writer and our most beloved wine pourer of the evening, Kathryn Bell

EcoSalon Editor-in-Chief Amy DuFault, Jam Media Collective founder Julie Atherton and EcoSalon Marketing Manager and Foodie Underground Columnist Anna Brones

Handbag designer and InStyle Magazine/Handbag Designer 101 finalist, Jess Rizzuti

Overdressed, The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, author Elizabeth Cline and Organic Spa magazine editor, Rona Berg

Brooklyn artists Michael Linton Simpson, Derek Weisberg and EcoSalon EIC, Amy DuFault

Conscious Living TV’s Bianca and Michael Alexander

Author Elizabeth Cline

EcoSalon’s Anna Brones, Eileen Fisher social media maven Casey Jones, EcoSalon fashion and food writer Jennifer Barckley and Eileen Fisher consultant/superstar, Chris Oh

Designer Carrie Parry

Fashion professor and sustainable fashion multi-tasker Carmen Artigas and Eko-Lab designers Xing-Zhen and Melissa Kirgan

Ambika designer, Ambika Conroy and her two fluffy angora rabbits

Thanks to Naked Grape for wine and Equal Exchange for delicious dark chocolate!

The post EcoSalon Throws a Fashion Week Bash (And We’ve Got Pictures to Prove It) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Carrying the torch for green.

In a London Olympics 2012 poster titled “being greener”, the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games vows to keep this year’s Games eco-friendly.

London’s Olympic Park will be one of the biggest city parks newly constructed in Europe for more than 150 years. The Games will host 26 Olympic events, 20 Paralympic events, 14,700 athletes, 21,000 media, and 10.8 million ticket holders. While it will inevitably boost the city’s economy, the strain on resources is unavoidable. The Organizing Committee is working hard to maintain a high level of sustainability despite all that needs to be constructed, and the the “being greener” poster is a representation of London’s conscious efforts to make its Olympics the greenest of them all.

The Park will be equipped with some of the most cutting-edge technology to curtail the Games’ greenhouse gas emissions, preserve the natural habitat surrounding the area, as well as to recycle, reuse and reduce all waste. In a pamphlet distributed by the Organizing Committee, the extent of London’s green efforts are detailed.

• 20% of the energy used on the Olympic Park will come from renewable sources
• 4,000 newts and hundreds of toads have been removed from the Park to be protected
• 90% of the materials from the demolition of building in the Olympic Park have been recovered so they can be reused or recycled.
• 50% of materials that are being used to construct the Park will be transported by water or rail, saving thousands of trips on local roads.
• A 120-meter wind turbine in the Park will produce enough electricity for 1,000 homes
• 80 lampposts, 2 tons of red bricks, and 76 tons of paving stones will be saved for reuse on the Park.
• A 3-kilometer footpath and cycle-way will be improved for the local population as well as wildlife.
• Rubbish was removed from 8.35 kilometers of waterways running through the Olympic Park
• 45 hectares of wildlife habitats will be left on and around the Park after the games

Aylin Erman currently resides in Istanbul and is creator of plant-based recipe website GlowKitchen.

The post How London is Keeping the 2012 Olympics Sustainable appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you’re new here, we’re on a road trip down the West Coast this summer with our sustainable clothing company, {r}evolution apparel. You can track our journey here, here, here and here!

On a random Thursday night in Portland, 30 people packed into a dining room at Oba Restaurant. We had drinks. We swapped eco-tips. We took photos. We talked about sustainable fashion. We played dress-up.

It was a small gathering with a big goal: to “Spark Something Sustainable.”

Nothing earth-shattering happened that night – no petitions were signed, or commitments made, or fast-fashion CEO’s burned at the stake. It was just about the conversation.

That’s how change starts – with that amount of people in a small room on a weeknight, who care enough to show up and inspire each other to live, design, and work more sustainably. It’s change on a small, yet crucial, level.

And we believe that’s what a fashion movement looks like. Working together towards something bigger than each of us individually. It’s about people and small businesses simply sparking something, no matter how big or small. It’s a slow revolution and it all makes a difference.

A huge thanks to EcoVibe Apparel for partnering with us on this great event, and of course, to our media sponsor here at EcoSalon!

We’re Kristin and Shannon, the founders of {r}evolution apparel – a clothing company focused on sustainable and versatile design. We created the Versalette – one garment that can be worn over 20 different ways — as a dress, skirt, shirt, poncho, purse & more. It’s made in the USA with 100% recycled fabrics. In 2011, we launched the Versalette on Kickstarter and raised over $64,000. Since then, we’ve been featured in Forbes, Gadling, and the New York Times. To learn more about our mission, check out our website, Facebook, and Twitter.

The post Spark Something Sustainable: The Power of Conversation appeared first on EcoSalon.

Join us in Portland, Oregon on July 12, 2012.

This summer {r]evolution apparel is touring the west coast talking about fashion and sustainability. As a sponsor of the tour, we’re excited to be teaming up with them and one of our favorite eco-boutiques, EcoVibe Apparel, for an event in Portland, Oregon.

Join us to celebrate eco fashion and spark conversations about sustainability. There will be special happy hour pricing, door prizes and even a photo booth.

Come by to join this fun group of sustainable loving folks and talk about fashion, design and the latest in the world of conscious culture. We like to be inclusive, so the event is all ages and open to the public.

Please be sure to RSVP to alice@revolutionapparel.is.

We hope you’ll join us!

WHAT: Spark Something Sustainable

WHERE: Oba Restaurant, 555 NW 12th Avenue, Portland, Oregon

WHEN: Thursday July 12, 2012, 7-9pm

RSVP: alice@revolutionapparel.is

The post Spark Something Sustainable Coming to Portland, Oregon on July 12, 2012 appeared first on EcoSalon.

Ride to support women on two wheels.

Want to honor the favorite women in your life this Mother’s Day? Get on a bike.

On Sunday May 13, 2012 Cyclofemme, presented by Girl Bike Love, is bringing together women, children and men around the world for a global day to support women’s cycling.

Created to “Honor the Past, Celebrate the Present, Empower the Future of Women in Cycling” Cyclofemme invites women, children, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and friends join together to celebrate the bike and the possibilities it brings.

A proven tool for change, pairing cycling with women’s empowerment makes sense. As Susan B. Anthony once famously said, “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

That sentiment holds true for CycloFemme founder Sarai Snyder who says, “Women have had very strong ties with the bike since its inception. For women in the 1890s the bicycle was a form of independence, which helped lead to the emancipation of women and the opportunity to wear pants. Today, women’s cycling is gaining momentum worldwide, with more emphasis on women’s racing and encouragement to get more women and youth riding bikes.”

To learn more about why we should be promoting women cycling, we caught up with Snyder, who is also the woman behind cycling website, Girl Bike Love.

EcoSalon: What first got you on a bicycle?

Growing up in the hills of Kentucky, my sister and I rode our bikes on country roads and farmland. At 19 I moved to the city and decided a bike would be a fun way to get around. A couple of guys I worked with were mountain bikers and promised to show me the local trails if I opted for knobby tires over slicks. The first ride I was hot on their heals and completely hooked. I literally couldn’t think about anything else for months. We rode together twice a week for years. A few years later I started working at a bike shop and it was all down hill from there.

Why do we as women need to support other women on bikes?

First, I believe that women are the future of a healthier cycling culture in the country. Not only are women the most targeted demographic since men’s cycling trips outnumber women’s 2 to 1, but also because women are change makers. When women rally behind an issue or a movement, things happen. Women are also the greatest influencers of future generations. If a woman is a cyclist, she is much more likely to encourage her children to ride to school. If she sees it isn’t safe for her kids to ride to school, she will do something about it.
The culture of cycling in this country can be very hard, fast and aggressive. This isn’t the message that typically gets a woman out riding for the first time. As nurturers, teachers and mothers, sharing cycling with other women is the best way to see it grow. Besides, its so much more fun to share a ride with a good friend.

Can bikes change the world?

I can’t think of any other thing that has as much potential for change as the bicycle does. Riding a bike keeps kids and adults healthy, it helps us stay connected to our communities and saves money. Riding a bike has much less environmental impact than driving a car. These are just the simple, obvious ways that bikes are better. Riding a bike changes lives. But a bike is just a tool, we still need the engines to keep them rolling. It is people that have to pedal for change.

Who’s your own female cycling hero?

I have so many. Annie Londonderry maybe. Honestly, every woman who chooses to ride a bike is a hero to me. It’s not hard to ride a bike, its fun and it puts a smile on your face, but making the choice to get on and pedal can be a challenge, no matter how far you have to go.

***

Over 130 rides in 11 countries will help make CycloFemme a reality. And if there’s not one happening close to you, you can register your own. Can’t ride? Sport one of CycloFemme’s temporary tattoos to show your support. Tattoos are $10 and proceeds benefit Mountain 2 Mountain.

Image: CycloFemme

The post CycloFemme: A Global Day of Women’s Cycling, May 13 appeared first on EcoSalon.

A quick peak at EcoSalon’s celebration of Future:Standard’s 1st birthday.

We were thrilled to partner up with Future:Standard recently to celebrate the online eco boutique’s one-year anniversary. A clothing swap, photo booth and night of celebrating eco fashion is our kind of fun.

“I’m so honored to have celebrated my 1^st birthday party with EcoSalon! It’s been such an exciting year for Future:Standard and there couldn’t have been a better representation of what we are trying to accomplish, than with EcoSalon. I’m looking forward to a fabulous year with more amazing merchandise that respects the planet!” said Future Standard founder Jessica Althoff.

We couldn’t agree more – thanks to Jessica and her team for letting us take part. Here are some of our favorite shots from the photo booth that night.

The post Photos: EcoSalon Celebrates Future:Standard’s 1 Year Anniversary appeared first on EcoSalon.

“You do not have to choose between your passions. If you want to combine them, you should.” Those are the good words of Future:Standard owner/buyer Jessica Althoff. With her  desire to support the environment, promote fair labor practices, and spend her days looking at (and wearing), beautiful clothes, she launched Future:Standard, one of our favorite online eco fashion boutiques.

We are very excited to be co-hosting a celebration for Future:Standard’s 1^st Birthday party, and if you’re in the San Diego we hope you’ll come out to support ethical fashion!

WHAT: Enjoy a few savory cocktails and sweets while shopping 15% off our eco-chic styles at our pop-up shop! Bring in a few items you no longer wear and Swap n’ Shop with a few of San Diego’s top fashionistas! Any leftover items will benefit the Goodwill Foundation.

WHEN: Friday, January 27, 2012, 7pm-10pm

WHERE: at Blokhaus (1600 National Blvd., San Diego, CA).

We would love to see you there! Please RSVP at futurestandard@ellecomm.com.

Can’t make it? You can still take part of a special EcoSalon offer of 15% off at Future:Standard. Just use promo code “ecosalon” at checkout. Promo code is good through Friday January 27, 2012 at midnight PST.

The post Celebrate Future:Standard’s 1 Year Anniversary with EcoSalon appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnToday is Food Day so get your forks and knives out and start partying.

Despite the fact that I often roll my eyes at days, weeks and months that are dedicated to celebrating or building awareness for specific things – did you know it was recently National Chocolate Cupcake Day? Does a certain cupcake really need an entire day to itself? – one that we should all be able to get behind is Food Day, celebrated on October 24, 2011.

The gist of it? Real food.

Now that may sound like an oversimplified celebration, but when we think about it, how often do we truly honor real food? We spend plenty of time wrapping fancy fruits in artisanal prosciutto, sautéing chantrelles in organic, hand-churned butter with a touch of sea salt, and drinking cocktails with biodynamic gin infused with freshly grown herbs. Not that any of these things are bad – in all honesty, that list just made me hungry – but sometimes we need to take a step back and simplify, especially when we’re talking about improving the U.S. food system.

Sponsored by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, the day is based on 6 principles:

• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
• Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect the environment and animals by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
• Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

There are events around the country, from Anchorage to Birmingham. In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Food Policy Council is hosting a series of events throughout the day, including honey tasting, free farmers market apples and fruit picking. For Washington D.C. residents, follow along on Twitter as there are plenty of people taking part in events throughout the day, including food trucks.

But, as with any “day” we have to remember that, ultimately, it’s not about that day. Take part in Food Day as much as you want, but your real food system impact is going to be what you do tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.

As David Katz, Director, Yale Prevention Research Center, wrote:

How can any day we put food into our bodies – or any day spent hungry and wishing we could put food into our bodies – not be Food Day?

On a routine basis, we overlook the profound importance of food. It is nothing less than the source of all construction material for the growing body of a child. Can any loving parent or grandparent truly sanction the construction of a child out of “junk?”

So how do you have an impact on a daily basis?

1. Buy local

We’ll say it once and we’ll say it again: buying from producers near where you live not only reduces the environmental and economic costs of transportation, but oftentimes it allows you to develop a personal connection with the person growing and making your food.

2. Eat together

Food is fun, so throw a dinner party. The quickest way to a man’s heart may be through his stomach, but that goes for both genders. We all need to eat and we all come together around food, no matter what our backgrounds. Serious change comes from influencing those around us, so stop being so serious with your food politics talk and just get your friends to eat.

3. Vote with your fork

Take it from Marion Nestle:

Vote with your fork. Every time you make a food choice, you are voting for the kind of food system you want. More voting for sustainable, local, and organic would be game changing. It doesn’t have to be 100% one way or the other, just more.

4. Support those who don’t have access to real food

Food deserts are a real thing, and so is access to healthy, fresh food. Make sure your local school is serving up fresh greens to its students, support food kitchens, get a community garden going. Do your part to ensure that everyone has access to things that are going to make them, and our food system as a whole, healthier.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: Celebrate Food Day, Every Day appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fried food, two-stepping, honky tonk music, cowboy boots, and environmentalists? It might sound like an odd combo, but that’s South by Southwest Eco for you.

Last week, the EcoSalon team descended upon Austin, Texas to join in as a media partner in the first ever SXSW Eco, a three-day conference bringing together an “international audience of executive level decision makers from the public and private sectors, and thought leaders from academia.”

Just as SXSW has become a launching pad for new creative content and ideas fueled by a dynamic and diverse audience, the goal for SXSW Eco is to apply the same innovative approach to discussing the most pressing issues of our time. From food issues to the global population explosion to exploring what neuroscience can teach us about human behavior, the panelists and keynote speakers of the conference tackled these topics from a variety of perspectives, providing plenty of intellectual space to grow the conversation.

It’s one thing to gather a bunch of green-minded people into one space and get them to talk about pressing issues, and quite another to engage people outside of our circles on the same issues. “I am here to reach the people outside of the room, and I hope you do the same,” said Simran Sethi, journalist and Associate Professor University of Kansas. One of the main themes that stood out to us during the conference was how exactly we go about doing that. We all, at this point, acknowledge and understand that the green conversation has failed to become the green conversion. Going green has been a bust. But why? And where do we go from here? One popular sentiment floated into the Twitterverse from a panel on how green vocabulary has failed us was “We need a Rosetta Stone of green.”

So, is it changing how we talk about climate and the environment in our marketing efforts? Or are we so wired to consume more and deplete our natural resources, we must begin with psychology and science? Is dissonance and debate between greens – “skirmishes,” as the Nature Conservancy president Mark Tercek much prefers (bristling a bit under repeated criticism in the Q&A) – a healthy way to create space for forward progress, or a dangerously short-sighted distraction from the goals we share? Can we find ever find common ground that doesn’t politicize the issue of the environment and brings people from all points of the spectrum together to save ourselves?

The short answer is: yes. But it’s going to take work. And it’s going to take thinking creatively about how we talk about things like “green” and how we get people rallied around the issues. And it’s going to take words that don’t start with “g,” “s,” or “e.” (Green, sustainable, environmental.)

There’s hope, because when it comes to the environmental movement, we are talking about issues that affect everyone, which means that there’s plenty of room to improve and expand. We just have to rally around the right things, and become as sophisticated in our approach as Coca-Cola is at selling sugar water. As Roger-Mark De Souza, Vice President of Research Population Action International, said on a panel about pressing questions that won’t be on the Rio agenda in 2012, we have to make sure that we don’t have “missed opportunities.”

If we don’t want missed opportunities, we must start with communication. Facts and figures don’t work; relationships are everything. “We need to know our audience,” emphasized Brooke Buchanan, Director of Communications for Sustainability, Walmart. On the same panel, Jeff Nesbit, Executive Director of Climate Nexus, added “We have to learn other ways to communicate about these things so people actually care.” That means thinking creatively about how we frame environmental issues and how we communicate them to the larger public.

But it also means finding new ways to connect with people; focusing on the elements that transcend ideologies and political parties. One of those is food. In her presentation, Sethi presented a Wendell Berry quote:

Eaters, that is, must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.

As Sethi put it, “we cherish our connections to food… we do not cherish our connections to turning off our lightbulbs.”

Change, as it turns out, is about inspiring and moving people to do, not only better, but to connect, and the more we separate ourselves from others – be it through messages or actions or lexicons – the more we risk failure.

But there is hope. And in a post-Austin recharge, we’re donning our new cowboy boots and feeling inspired to do good, and we hope you do, too. Just how do we go about this? And what were points of consensus and criticism at the first ever SXSW Eco? Look for that and more in parts 2 and 3 this week from EIC Sara Ost and News Editor Andrea Newell.

We’ll have more on SXSW Eco throughout the week, so check back!

Images: Anna Brones

Main image: Chris Tackett, social media editor of Treehugger, Alex Steffen, environmental thought leader and keynote speaker, Sara Ost, EIC of EcoSalon, Andrea Newell, News Editor of EcoSalon, and others gather at the joint Treehugger/EcoSalon/Triple Pundit happy hour in Austin, Texas.

The post Lessons from SXSW Eco #1: Changing How We Communicate appeared first on EcoSalon.