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!

Meet the new face of eco – fashion : Rachel Avalon! An environmentalist with a holistic nutrition business in Los Angeles, Rachel was announced the winner of the first ever Project Green Search — a contest to find the next eco it girl — at a final … wanted to let you know that jonano eco chic collections is having a search for its next eco model who wants to help the organically grown, ethically sewn clothing co.

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!

Our friends at White Apricot recently featured some hot biker looks for Fall. We’re into it! Fashion editor Bonny Osterhage pulled together the sexiest eco and vegan rocker-wear for your next Marilyn Manson show…

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…

Thank goodness Stephanie Rogers is here to tell us about non-toxic nail polish! No more looks from the manicurist when I tell them “no polish please.” Even a treehugger like me can be Priti after all.

I’m in love – with nail polish. A few years ago, I all but gave up on the idea of ever having a nice-looking manicure again after swearing off conventional polishes full of toxic ingredients and experimenting unsuccessfully with the few ‘natural’ nail polish brands on the market.

Then, I found out about Priti NYC, a boutique brand created by Kim D’Amato. Priti polishes contain no toluene, formaldehyde, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) or petroleum ingredients and are safe for children and mothers-to-be.

Read more about Priti NYC at EcoChick.com…

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!