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link My Fashion Footprint: Is your wardrobe bad for the planet?

Matilda Lee, a fashion writer for The Independent, writes:

Behind its glossy veneer, the truth is that the business of fashion and clothing, from production, to consumption, care and disposal, is among the world’s most environmentally damaging. Ninety per cent of our clothes are imported, and it’s not just the children labouring in sweatshop conditions we may not see – it’s the 2 million tons of waste, 3.1 million tons of CO2 and 70 million tons of waste water that the industry produces in a single year.

Lee takes a visit from Phil Patterson, a sustainably-minded wardrobe consultant who examines her clothes buying, washing, drying, and ironing habits.  Patterson offers these tips:

How to detox your clothing

* Line dry instead of tumble dry to drastically reduce clothing environmental impact

* Wash at low temperatures using environmentally friendly detergent and iron only where necessary – ironing uses large amounts of energy

* Make do and mend. Prolong the lifespan of a garment by finding a local tailor or buying a sewing kit to fix rips and lost buttons. Dry cleaners often offer low-cost repairs

* Never chuck clothes in the bin. Gift them to charity, pass them on or turn them into cleaning rags

* See new clothes as an investment. Pay more for higher quality clothes that will last season after season

via sarazucker

August 9, 2008

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photo Green Sunday: sustainable style for a balmy August afternoon. A Polyvore set created by searching for all things “eco.”

Green Sunday: sustainable style for a balmy August afternoon.

A Polyvore set created by searching for all things “eco.”

August 7, 2008

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photo Solving the climate crisis is going to require a lot of creative thinking, determined action … and bouncing breasts. Ecofriend reports that Adrienne So of San Francisco is developing a sports bra that would power small electrical devices, like ipods or cell phones, with every movement of the wearer. (A square meter of fiber produces about 80 milliwatts of power.) Alas, the product, if it ever hits the shelves, is not for all of us: [So] believes that women with big cup size can help generate energy from the bouncing movements of her breast. Well, at least us ladies with less energy-generating potential have the decidedly lo-fi (but freaking awesome!) ipouch.

Solving the climate crisis is going to require a lot of creative thinking, determined action … and bouncing breasts.

Ecofriend reports that Adrienne So of San Francisco is developing a sports bra that would power small electrical devices, like ipods or cell phones, with every movement of the wearer. (A square meter of fiber produces about 80 milliwatts of power.)

Alas, the product, if it ever hits the shelves, is not for all of us:

[So] believes that women with big cup size can help generate energy from the bouncing movements of her breast.

Well, at least us ladies with less energy-generating potential have the decidedly lo-fi (but freaking awesome!) ipouch.

August 7, 2008

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photo An urban street turns positively mythical with Invisible Streetlights by Jongoh Lee. The solar-powered lights entwine in the branches of trees and cast a fairy tale glow on lucky passers-by below.

An urban street turns positively mythical with Invisible Streetlights by Jongoh Lee. The solar-powered lights entwine in the branches of trees and cast a fairy tale glow on lucky passers-by below.

August 7, 2008

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photo Marc by Marc Jacobs tote.  Hard not to love.  Hard not to fall off your chair when you learn the price ($158.) Save my wallet, more like it.

Marc by Marc Jacobs tote.  Hard not to love.  Hard not to fall off your chair when you learn the price ($158.)

Save my wallet, more like it.

August 6, 2008

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photo We’ll always want the bad boys, won’t we? Cartoon by Robert Mancoff for The New Yorker.

We’ll always want the bad boys, won’t we?

Cartoon by Robert Mancoff for The New Yorker.

August 6, 2008

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link How green is your Emeril?

A New York Times critic finds that Emeril Lagasse’s cooking show on the new cable TV channel Planet Green is as shallowly eco-conscious as the rest of the lineup, which focuses on trivia and hip celebrity environmentalists between commercials for Dow Chemical and Patch Perfect, a grass seed fertilizer.

That said, “Renovation Nation” and “Greenovate,” which “profile pioneers who build entire houses out of shipping crates or couples who restore old houses and fill the walls with soybean-based insulation,” sound interesting.

August 5, 2008

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