Eco-style shoppers rejoice!  LovingEco, a new members only eco grounded flash-sale website (but not too fast…each sale lasts are few days for good peruse & reflect time) has launched, featuring a hand-picked selection of style centric fashion, accessories and beauty for women and children, from the bests  brands out there, at savings up to 70% off!

“LovingEco makes shopping for the best natural and eco-friendly products fun, easy and affordable, so women feel good about shopping by leveraging social commerce and flash sales; partnering with tastemakers who will promote the offers and brands; and giving back to charity.”

Enter code DISCOUNT10 at checkout for an additional 10% off some serious deals from some of our long term favorite brands, like Stewart+Brown, SIGG, Eberjay, & Sustainable Kids, with new sales twice a week.

Jewelry designer John Hardy is teaming up with supermodel and Alter Eco star Angela Lindvall to launch “Hijau Dua,” a handcrafted collection of jewelry made with recycled sterling silver or 18k gold.

As part of the “Wear Bamboo, Plant Bamboo” program, for each piece of jewelry purchased, the brand will plant bamboo seedlings to offset the carbon emissions used for travel and advertising.  Lindvall recently visited Bali, where John Hardy is based, to help plant 600,000 bamboo seedlings for the Bali Province Government’s “Bali Clean and Green” program and model in the John Hardy advertising campaign. Hear from Lindvall in a behind-the-scenes video, and the full article by Emma Grady on Treehugger.com

Photo Credit: Originally posted on Treehugger: John Hardy Creative Director Guy Bedarida and supermodel Angela Lindvall in Bali. Photos: courtesy John Hardy

A solid round-up of modest picks for the  modern woman from Just Like Molly:

Organic clothing has come a long way since it’s inception as a hippie, hemp laden uniform. Sustainability is at the forefront of green living, and a huge part of being environmentally conscious lands on what you put on your body. Organic, natural fabrics have made their way into the fashion landscape, and for good reason. Not only are these pieces minimizing the damage the process of manufacturing and wearing clothes can do to the environment, they are helping to secure the hope of a greener planet in each step of the apparel process. And of course they are fashionable, comfortable, and you can feel great wearing them, inside and out.

Read the rest of article here, and check out their picks for outerwear, dresses and everyday staples, that are “anything but mundane”, where …”on-trend harem pants, gathered sleeves, and eye-catching patterns make infusing these tops and bottoms into your look effortless and rewarding.”

Photo Credit: Raw Earth Wild Sky at BTC Elements.

View entire post by Ecouterre here: College Activists Strip Down to PACT’s “Beyond Coal” Eco-Undies …

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.

You have members all over the country, but you’re mostly based in Los Angeles. How does the business of LA influence the direction WOTGG is taking?

Los Angeles is a great place to be if you really want to connect with others who are actively engaged in the green or environmental movement. But what I have come to realize is that many women that are involved in green business need a place to be able to connect with other women and for various reasons; for support, for inspiration for business leads, to share knowledge and so on.

Tell us about some of the events you are planning, and the audience you’re trying to reach.

Well, on Saturday June 12, 2010, WOTGG will celebrate our first year anniversary with a one-day event. Over 300 women and 50 green businesses will participate in a event will that touch, move and inspire those who feel called to actively participate in a much-needed evolutionary transformation of the individual self, society and our environment.

The event will feature inspiring and powerful women who are passionate thought leaders, visionaries and drivers in making a difference and a contribution to our current environmental threat, economical crises, and social systems.

Speaker topics will include; women who are finding success in the green business space, health and wellness, eco fashion and beauty, greening your passion, getting down to e-business and more!  (Visit website for all details: www.womenofthegreengeneration.com)

LA is a City the world over known for its film industry, yet today, a good portion of that industry revolves around violent video games and the sex trade. How do you reach out to these professionals and help them catch up to the greening of America, and do you even try?

This is a tough question to answer, because I personally have not even been able to connect with these type of businesses yet. Our goal to is to help existing green businesses succeed, but hopefully by setting an example and showing other companies a new paradigm to work out of, we can then influence them to make positive change. Remember Gandhi’s quote, “Be the change you want to see in the World.”

I’m looking at this from a male perspective. There’s an old saying: “What Lola wants, Lola gets!” which means that much of the world goes round inspired by the desires of women. Armies have fought over their whims. Men are too often blamed for military conquest, but in a sense, if there wasn’t a commitment to protecting mother and child, and now the Earth itself, I think we’d rather just hang around and let the time go by. How does WOTGG view its role in the grand green scheme of things? Do you have a relationship with Mothers For Peace and other such organizations?

WOTGG is still relatively a new organization so we have not had a chance yet to connect with organizations such as Mothers for Peace; one of the groups we have connected with has been “Yoga Gives Back” which provides micro loans to women in India and other impoverished countries.

In the grand scheme of things I feel what is starting to take place is a rising of the Divine Feminine energies. This may sound abstract and strange to some people, but the “Mother” energy has been squashed over the past 100 years, especially here in the Western world. Women have had to take on “male like attitudes and qualities” in order to succeed in the business world; not to mention the forming of huge corporations and consumption of oil and plastics and toxic materials have further suppressed the feminine qualities all because we have completely devastated Mother Nature.

In many indigenous cultures, women have to push the men out of the hut to go hunting. It’s not just up to men to stop playing with toys, it’s also up to women to stop associating these toys with male attributes, then these toys would lose their appeal, they’d lose their symbolism. We’d move on to something else to impress. And yet, today, more women are wanting to join the military and play GI Jane. How do you feel about that? Where is it all going? Are male drawn comic books to blame for a woman’s need to identify with Wonder Woman?

I think because women have been told for so long that we can’t do certain things, or at least we can’t do the same things that men are allowed to do, what happened over the past 100 years is we started to buck the currents and demand equal rights. I think it is safe to say, not just for women, but for the human race in general, we always want the things that we can’t have. I am not sure where it is all going and I don’t see anything wrong with women wanting to play GI Jane, but I think what will eventually happen is women will start changing their minds about the type of careers they want to be involved in and our roles in society.

I feel we will want to be more involved in things that we are truly passionate about and want to have success with our endeavors that is equal to men in business.

One of the things we do at Electrifying Times, is stage pin-up shoots with electric cars, using the tried and true to shift male attention away from gasoline. The strategy is working, since nowadays, some say you haven’t arrived in LA unless you drive a Prius, or better yet, a Tesla! Human nature isn’t going to change! Won’t the lure always be there? Don’t things need to be sexy to attract attention?

Sex always sells and not just for men but for women too. But I think the image of what is sexy is always changing. Sexy does no have to be limited to pictures of a half naked woman or man hugging a beautiful horse or straddling a Harley Davidson. Green and eco friendly can be sexy too – This may sound a bit dorky to some readers, but I personally think that rain forests are very sexy. I have been to a real rain forest in Costa Rica and the experience really turned me on, not in the same way that maybe a handsome man would, but you get the point. But as far as the strategy of ad companies, this will definitely take some time to change. I think when consumer’s attitudes towards the type of advertising they are exposed to changes, then the ads will change ~ right?

Right! In mythology, you have Gaia, and you have the Green Man, they compliment each other. They come at stewardship of nature from a different perspective. How do you relate environmentalism with feminism?

Everyone has heard the term “Mother Earth” women in general, are naturally more sympathetic to Planet Earth and many of us are feeling threatened right now by what is currently happening on a global scale. Women are also usually the decision makers for the family and I am seeing more and more women who want their children to have something to look forward to in the future; other than rising tides from global warming, plastics in our ocean, toxic chemicals in our air, so called “incurable diseases” and foods that have been heavily doused with pesticides and GMOs. So women right now are leading the way in the environmental movement at a grass roots level. At least that is what I have been seeing.

During World War 2, Americans were urged to start victory gardens, to help with food production. Then after the war, all caution was thrown to the wind, with chemical agriculture. Today, small organic farms are springing up all around us with markets everywhere, like in Europe, and the rest of much of the world. It took us this long to realize our mistakes, how disconnected we had become from the fruits of the land. We can decrease smog with alternative fuels, increase oxygen and remove CO2 with more trees and vegetation, redesign our neighborhoods with new urbanism, especially in LA where things are so sprawling. How do you get all the different communities in LA involved, how to you cross ethnic barriers? How do we get to green low riders?

I think one way we can accomplish this is for each community to have someone who can be an “Ambassador” a person that “rallies the troops” so to speak.  Sadly most people feel that they don’t have the capacity to be a leader. I think taking the first step is always the hardest, but after you have taken the first step things begin happen and when things start to happen we find the courage and momentum to continue on. Every community or neighborhood should have a leader who can inspire and motivate others to get involved in creating sustainable communities. And maybe it starts within your own family and friends and then expands from there.

Tell us more about Evo-South. What makes it such an extraordinary building in the heart of downtown LA? How did you get involved with them, and can a building in fact, have a mission?

Evo-South is the only “LEED silver certified” eco luxury high-rise in down town Los Angeles. For those who don’t know what LEED means – LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Basically this means that the Evo-South building has been built in accordance to specific environmental guidelines. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. To learn more about these guidelines you can visit the US Green Building Council at www.usgbc.org.

Evo boasts stunning city views, designer amenities, a roof top pool, private gym, and a helipad for those who like to fly around town in their helicopter. And to top things off Evo is conveniently located 2 blocks from the Staples center in waking distance from all that down town Los Angeles has to offer – such as world famous restaurants, music halls, nightclubs, movie theaters, the Urth Cafe (my favorite place to get a cup of organic coffee) and so much more!

I got involved with EVO because they were looking to partner with a green organization that could produce some events at their space. Thanks to my friend Daniel Vanderbark of Dezine, LA. He recommended WOTGG to Evo and the rest is history.

I want to thank you for your time, and for your patience with my confused approach to things. Is there anything you want Greenloop readers to know? What can they do, and how can they get in touch with WOTGG?

With the current global threat and economic downfall the time is ripe for the possibilities of forming new partnerships, teams and intentions of coming together for the prosperity, health and sustainability of individuals, businesses, projects and causes in our immediate neighborhood and globally.

Ultimately we are preparing to usher in a new paradigm of working and co-existing together in this beautiful place we call Earth, by becoming conscious stewards of our planet, our communities and our own self.

We welcome suggestions and would like to encourage more women to step up and manifest successful green businesses and products and become leaders in their communities.

(Promo video for Evo-South)

Readers can contact Women of the Green Generation at: info.wotgg@gmail.com

or visit their website at www.womenofthegreengeneration.com

I started asking myself that question a few weeks ago. First thing that came to mind was what Abbie Hoffman said: “America is in a perpetual state of revolution, because the mainstream keeps absorbing its counterculture.” That’s been the criticism of Earth Day, everybody is green now, even ExxonMobil.  Avatar sends out a beautiful environmental message, sponsored by McDonald’s. Doesn’t anyone feel the hypocrisy here, or is it just me?

I’ve noticed that once a green brand gets bought up by a large corporation, their sales might go up, but their message gets toned down. The companies themselves stop their militancy, stop supporting causes, stop bringing up the rear. And while there’s more green products on the shelves than ever, still only a bleep on the GNP radar screen, why does it feel like we’re right back where we started?

That’s because even though most people will tell you they’re environmentalists, and some very well may be, conscious, recycling, tree hugging souls… they really haven’t done their homework on the politics, studied how deeply rooted the problem really is. So if you don’t understand the past, you’re doomed to repeat it. All we’ve done is hand over our best play to the opposite team.

It’s very naive to think that we’re all in this together, and that rich or poor we breathe the same air. I used to think so. It helped bring about the green economy, eco-luxury, pricey electric cars and far away land organic spas. But look around you, has anything really changed? I don’t mean to depress you, but when are we going to stop handing over the shop?

Green stores come and go because the moment Wal-Mart, Kohl’s or Target start selling organic clothes… or their version of what organic means, hundreds of pioneering green start-ups go belly up. It’s the law of averages. When did volume equate survival? So people on limited income can afford the green lifestyle.

Environmentalists have revolutionized all industries. From the lab to the factory floor; to the distribution chain to the stores; and into people’s homes. From the organic booze at the bar to the safe cosmetics in your kit, green chemistry is changing everything we dream about, make, sell and use. But are we stuck with corporate culture? Is that what we want in our lives. To wear GE proudly on our sleeve, refer to ourselves as “we” when we talk about our work? Knowing that while we might be installing solar panels, the company we work for also makes nuclear reactors for submarines?

That’s the compromise people were not willing to make in the 60′s which people are willing to make now. Both worlds, the green world we’re trying to build, and the old post-industrial world we’re trying to escape from, co-existing side by side, creating an eerie sense of stagnation and helplessness, eroding our spirit, defusing our anger, ultimately slowing down the pace of change to a Bilderberg crawl.

Electric cars at the expense of clean electricity, as deals are made to power the charging infrastructure with new nuclear power. Actors and actresses who one day lend their face to environmental causes, while the next are seen on billboards in Asia hording the worse anti-green crap there is. And they live with themselves, within the lie… actors, acting… telling us what we want to hear, thinking we wouldn’t notice.

I’ve been accused of being too pure. And yet I’m not perfect. I live in an old farm house, so old in fact, we don’t have the resources to fix it up so it can be energy efficient. Our solution is to keep the heat so low, we wear three sweaters, and long for Spring. That’s because green work, real green work, doesn’t pay unless you sell out to the machine, then you become one of them, with that white glow, that fake smile, that superficial graciousness… smothered in kindness and lies.

In the 60′s we wanted to change the system… and we did, to a point. The new generation has embraced a global understanding of our responsibilities… thousands of books and websites educating us about how to go green. An alternative economy has grown out of this, where solar, wind, ethanol, LEDs, sustainable clothing, organic coffee and green cosmetics, have transformed corporate culture to be more in tune with nature.

But we still have a billion vehicles spewing toxic brew, old nuclear plants leaking into ground water, coal mining blowing up mountains, burger chains clear cutting rainforest… why? Why as a collective mind can’t we change our destructive behavior? Why is war, exile, desolation, starvation more important to our species than restoration and stewardship? Why is playing video games 3 hours a day, more important than joining a conservation corps to revive neighborhoods? We live in a culture of avoidism, where it’s easier to walk away, than confront your demons. How can that help you grow as a human being?

All the pressures end up falling on the shoulders of a few… all too often badly paid, hard working drones, fueled by a sense of desperation. We need a big win. We need something larger than life to give us hope again. A sign the planet isn’t going to let us down. A place to hang our hearts.

As I was walking down the road this evening trying to wrap my head around all the things I have set in motion in my life, and how in the heck I am going to string them all together into something that makes sense a few months from now, I started looking around at all the houses, all the Christmas lights going up everywhere… including this little choochoo train on a neighbor’s roof. A few years ago I would get sad about all the electricity these lights was wasting, some families paying hundreds of dollars in utility bills simply for the pleasure of ornating their homes with multicolored bulbs celebrating a holiday which for some, is nothing more than a marketing ploy to empty our pockets in exchange of gifts soon discarted and forgotten.

But then it dawned on me, if it hadn’t been for these Christmas lights, the LED industry wouldn’t have found such an easy niche to slip into, to sneak their wares into a marketplace resisting change, without setting off too many alarm bells. Today, the majority of Christmas lights are LEDs, short for light emitting diodes, it only took a few short years. They don’t get hot, they don’t set dry pine trees on fire, they don’t cost an arm and a leg to keep lit all night long. They consume a fraction, as much a 95% less electricity, than the Christmas lights we were using as recently as a decade ago. So that’s a Godsend, because it means that LEDs are slowly creeping into our lives, dramatically reducing our electrical footprint, to the point where it might very well be possible to shut down some of the older, dirtier coal and nuclear power plants which are contributing such grief to so many.

So this Christmas I’m thankful for these otherwise excessive lights strung in trees and windows, even if they burn for an ideal, like Santa Claus, I left behind long ago… they are only there for a few days, yet they have opened a whole can of worms which is game changing for the utilities, allowing a very disruptive technology to quietly enter the marketplace and provide technological innovation that, long term, is having a positive impact on the planet by reducing our footprint.

If you’re reading this blog, it’s because you have green bones in your body… you care about the decisions you make buying clothing… you know that the Greenloop pays close attention to the labels and the materials it sells, the philosophy of the designers. Every aspect of fashion is changing, from the jobs models are accepting, to the ingredients found in make-up. Our industry is led by the buying decisions women and men make when they spend their money in stores, online… this is the beauty of natural, philanthropic capitalism.

The same way the lights on the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza indirectly moves inventors, engineers, scientists to constantly improve on the technology that makes things shine so we can read at night, or drive dark roads… the same is true with cosmetics. Every time you buy a beauty product from a company which has made the effort to either remove or never include toxic ingredients in the first place, there is a green chemistry lab at a research center or a university which is getting additional funding to develop cradle to cradle molecules. That is what motivates me every day to continue the work I do, linking the evolution of green consumer products to the planet saving science behind them.

We have some wonderful surprises in store for you, some of which are premature to talk about now, but I can tell you this much. In February I am assisting the Green Energy & Building Expo in Connecticut at the Mohegan Sun organized by an ex-marine, Peter Romano, who understands the contributions our immense defense budget can make by developing green alternatives, as predicted by the First Earth Battalion in the 70′s, most recently depicted in the film The Men Who Stare At Goats with George Clooney.

Then in May, rock promoter legend Steve Zuckerman has invited me to speak about our Big Igloo project at his Next Gen Expo in Hollywood, Florida. A who’s who of some of the cutting edge social engineers in the country, a mix of TED and Bioneers coming together to redefine futurism with some of the stars of the medium.

Come June, Summer Solstice, the Greenloop and GreenMUA is developing a two day event in Los Angeles which will bring together all these elements around a celebration of beauty and fashion, to kick off our 2010 Project Green Search. It’s going to be a long walk from here to there… but it’s also starting to look more and more like a real train, with lots of wagons filled with wondeful people and planet saving tools… and I’m thankful.

Merry Christmas!

See more here:
Meet the next eco-model: Rachel Avalon | MNN – Mother Nature Network

Ummm…what can we say? Two Florida college students wanted to create an eco-friendly underwear line. Uranus Apparel produces boyshorts made from soy, hence the nickname “soyshorts.” Soy requires less water, is more durable, and dries more quickly than cotton. It’s also super soft which is great for, ya know. (Excuse my cheekiness.) Out of all the viral vids the founders have put out on YouTube, the one above is our favorite. It has a bit of an Art Haus kind of feel to it. Enjoy Uranus!

The latest fall trend is embracing all that’s good about looking “bad.” It falls somewhere between Joan Jett and Hell’s Angels and relies heavily on leather, spikes, and chains. At first glance, it is not a trend that appears to lend itself to the green way of life. But, look a little closer and you will find that these eco fashion essentials will let you look tough, while maintaining your soft spot for the planet. Rock on!

Read more at WhiteApricot.com…