Women of the Green Generation held their first meeting in June of 2009. Kris Willey felt inspired to start a sustainable networking group for women because she had been attending green events for the past 2 years and suddenly realized that the majority of people she was connecting with were other women. When she mentioned this idea to some of her girl friends in green business, the response she received was an enthusiastic and resounding “YES!”

Women of the Green Generation creates a space where women can share their ideas and passions for solving environmental and social problems with economically viable eco-solutions.  The purpose is to provide a space for professional women to support each other. This can be done by means of sharing resources, business referrals, patronizing each other, sharing knowledge and experience, supporting sustainable community projects & non profits and the by the simple act of volunteering to help each other when help is needed.

Members consists mainly of women who either own or work for green businesses, but the group is not limited to green business women only, in fact they actively encourage other women to get more involved in sustainable business practices or think about creating products or services that reflect the sustainable paradigm of  “good for you good for the planet.”

WOTGG is dedicated to helping women find success in the green business space. Their mission is to inspire, educate, motivate, share resources, and connect with other individuals and organizations that are actively engaged in sustaining our planet and working towards positive transformation.

Their are hosting their Annual Summit at Evo-South in downtown Los Angeles on June 12th, 2010.

A simple ‘how are you’ evokes a major answer from Project Green Search winner Rachel Avalon. “It’s been the busiest week of my life.” As one of ten PGS finalists, Rachel has spent the last week doing hair and makeup at Shades eco beauty salon, a 7-hour photo shoot with Courtney Dailey at Environment Furniture, Guerilla Gardening on the streets of LA, modeling in a show at EcoStiletto’s Green Blogger Conference, and mingling with distinguished judges at the PGS Wrap Party, and then…she won. Since then, Rachel’s been to one eco event after another as the “It Girl” of the Green Movement, fielding collaboration requests and doing interviews like this one…

What was your central focus previous to Project Green Search?
I work with clients as a holistic nutritionist and I also have a well-respected program called the Avalon Cleanse.

Did the win come as a surprise to you at all?
Of course! My friends, family, and clients were incredibly confident in me winning, but I’m sure you could say the same for all the contestants involved. I could’ve seen the judges go a couple directions for various reasons and at the same time I knew my eco ability, knowledge, and commitment was strong. So, I guess I wasn’t totally shocked either that I did win. I just felt filled with gratitude.

What inspired you to enter Project Green Search?
I saw the opportunity to have a larger platform for raising awareness around much needed eco, social, and animal welfare values. On a personal level, I also thought it could benefit my holistic health practice, lecturing engagements, hosting jobs, and the book I’m working on.

How does your practice as a holistic health practitioner effect your view of planetary health and long term sustainability?
Our bodies and the planet have a lot in common. So many people are overloaded with toxins and are out of balance. The same is true with the Earth. In my profession I witness first hand how people suffer with suppressed immune systems, chronic diseases, cancer, weight gain, inflammation, and emotional challenges. The body is always seeking balance and will sometimes take drastic measures to try and accomplish that. I think there’s a parallel in what we’re seeing with climate change and a number of other planetary symptoms. The key is to find the gift in the symptoms, whether with our personal health or the environment, and make the necessary changes.

What do you think is the greatest impact you can make as the face of Project Green Search?
I suppose time will tell, but I like to think that I have an ability to help people see the big picture. So often people get swept up or overwhelmed by statistics or selecting various products. In my opinion, when you teach someone the real value of making green and holistic choices that value clarifies what questions to ask and what decisions to make. I always say to my clients that I teach what Mother Nature teaches, balance and variety. When people really get that, their habits change for the better.

Time will tell indeed, as this Green It Girl continues her press junket and prepares for her PGS promise to volunteer with favorite environmental group, Heal The Bay. As a holistic nutritionist and champion of superb health and wellbeing for all, Rachel Avalon is unwavering in the face of her win. “My focus has been, and will continue to be, to help people care for themselves and the world around them by honoring the mind, body, spirit, and planet connection.”

Last Friday, the green community of Los Angeles gathered for the Project Green Search Wrap Party. The PGS Top 10 finalists were all gorgeous, well educated, and talented women. From extremely diverse backgrounds, the PGS Top 10 consisted of:

• Jessica Williamson, Host of Zaproot
• Leilani Munter, Racecar Driver
• Ariel Clay, Global Exchange
• Rachel Joy, Host of Ecopop TV
• Juliana Tran, Eco Student Activist
• Rachel Avalon, Holistic Nutrition Expert
• Erika Schmidt, Model & Environmentalist
• Zion Francis, Model/Actress & Civil Engineer
• Karen Pannocchia, Environmental Science Teacher
• Vanessa Meier, Water Quality Task Force Director for Surfrider Foundation

As the contestants mingled around the room in sustainable fashions by Deborah Lindquist, Charmone, and Stewart+Brown amongst others, the judges got to experience the women on a social level. Co-Creators of Project Green Search, Remy Chevalier and Aysia Wright, got to enjoy the culmination of many months of hard work. For Remy C., child of the haute couture world and longtime environmental advocate, creating Project Green Search was a natural step for the Sustainability Movement. After several attempts at founding a green division at an established modeling agency, Remy decided to go at it from a different angle.  “I brought the idea of a green modeling competition to Aysia, who immediately saw what I saw…and here we are three months later, with 10 finalists and a winner. We’ve been strengthening our relationship with Global Green USA and hopefully next year, we’ll be back for round 2.”

***To find out who the Project Green Search winner is, check out the video above.

Conscious Planet execs Bianca and Michael Alexander recently moved from the sunny coast of California to the Windy City of Illinois to create a Platinum LEED-certified television studio at Chicago’s new eco business mecca, Green Exchange. As if that wasn’t ambitious enough, the two fashion-forward media moguls behind Conscious Living TV and Soul of Green have embarked on a mission to produce Vert Couture, the very first eco fashion show Chicago Fashion Week has ever had.

What inspired this husband and wife team to take on such a massive production, in addition to all their other projects? “Chicago has some of the most amazing eco-designers in the world, yet there was no show during Chicago Fashion Week to promote their work.  We basically saw that if we didn’t take responsibility for putting on a sustainable fashion show during Chicago fashion week that it wouldn’t happen. The city’s Director of Fashion, Melissa Gamble was also extremely supportive in helping to bring this show to fruition, and we have received a tremendous outpouring of support from Chicago’s conscious community.”

Vert will be featuring fresh designs from up-and-coming green seamsters Vaute Couture, Frei Designs, Elise Bergman, and Bryant McLemore Smith, along with veteran eco fashion line Mountains of the Moon. Conscious Planet has ensured that stylish examples of sustainability reach way beyond the runway. Vert Couture is contributing to the new Greensburg, Kansas wind farm by purchasing travel and energy offsets for the show through Native Energy. All their printed promotional material from posters to press kits is printed on recycled paper with eco-friendly ink. And for every organic Veev-spiked “Treetini Cocktail” served, a tree will be planted. Even getting your swerve on at Vert Couture is green. Bottom’s up people, let’s save this great planet.

We asked Bianca and Michael what kind of impact they most hoped to make on CFW, and their answer was very appropriate to their new home-it was full of HOPE. “The City of Chicago and Mayor Daley are extremely committed to making this the greenest city in the country. Given the waste and un-sustainability inherent in the fashion industry, we feel that by producing VC and highlighting the amazing eco-designers that are comparable to what you would see on runways in Paris, Milan and New York, that we can not only influence consumer demand for eco-fashion but that designers and buyers will see that you can have amazing style and be green. In doing so, we hope that several years down the road all the shows and designers will be green.”

We hope so too.  If you’re a Chi-town fashion hound, be sure to get your ticket to Vert Couture and support the sustainable evolution of Chicago style.

Actually, only seven… three of them already live in Los Angeles;  Vanessa Meier, Rachel Avalon and Jessica Williamson. Both Zion Francis and Juliana Tran are from Austin, TX. Ariel Clay is coming from San Francisco. Leilani Munter from Cornelius, NC. Rachael Joy from Mount Rainier, MD. Erika Schmid from Portland, OR and Karen Pannochia from Miami.

It wasn’t easy for Project Green Search to narrow it down from 130+ entries to just ten. The online voting was a bit of a confusing mess, because the design platform we chose to build the web site only offered that voting option as a preset. Many people ended up voting by mistake while they were simply trying to access a contestant page… there was no instruction manual or practice run, but it was the only option we had. WordPress or nothing. We were dead set on launching this competition, so we made it work. We will do better next year.

We  asked the judges not to look at the number of stars, the rating, only consider how many votes each entry received. All things considered, online vote popularity didn’t feature all that much into their decision. They looked closely at modeling potential, education, screen presence, media background and experience. It boiled down to running averages on each judge’s top ten submission in order of preference, inviting to the finals those who featured most frequently, the highest on each judge’s list.

We’re confident that the ten women picked to participate in the finals represent the best expression of majority verdict by the judges. It wasn’t easy. Competitions create more losers than winners, that’s what I want to address here. We don’t cast Project Green Search in the same light as your run of the mill cut throat reality TV show. PGS is much more of a collaboration, developing talent to bring attention to issues all dear to our heart. In a sense, the winner, should and will, represent all the other contestants, become a spokesperson for all the women who entered this contest, which isn’t a contest really, it’s more like a direct action!

The Battalion at Los Angeles Fashion Week was truly worth the hour and a half of rush hour traffic it took to get down to Geffen Contemporary at MOCA for a 5pm show. Linda and Chrys Wong, the sisters behind The Battalion, presented an impressive collection for Spring 2010, L’Atelier De Danse.

Tulle-clad models from Ford and Q did their egret-like walks down the runway in the most gorgeous eco collection yet. Not only that, in classic Linda Wong style, “they are clothes you could run away in,” meaning you could eat, sleep, party, or get chased in…or perhaps all of the above.

Linda’s attention to detail was what made The Battalion’s Spring 2010 such a stand out. It seemed she took the extra mile on each garment in the collection. The “Pete” faux denim vest of grey bamboo seemed simple until you got a good look at the tuxedo lapel and the classic jean jacket V applique on the back shoulders. The comfy white tee got asymmetrical sleeves. Oh, and the fringe! Linda created an uber glamorous effect with super fine razor fringe draping provocatively down the front of an otherwise casual top or slinking down just one side of a black evening dress. (One of my favorite examples of this was the Luxe vest which looked a bit like angel wings.)

L’Atelier De Danse remained true to a Kirov Ballet rehearsal palette: black, white, amaranth pink, heather grey, and some renegade navy. Unusually subtle for spring, but refreshing in its unpredictability.

The Wong sisters describe their season with impeccable self-awareness. “Spring 2010 is about fluidity, transparency, and movement. We imagine dancers in a naturally lit atelier, dressed up in various costumes that are made of tulle, fringe, and paper thin jersey. If women are going back to basics in the coming seasons, we want their clothes to be simple but sincere. We want their wardrobe staples to be wearable, but dreamy. We want them to dance, dream, and fall in love like the dancers who have inspired this collection.”

Well, this dancer simply can’t wait to dance, dream, and fall in love…in her new Battalion threads.