Archive for eco-friendly products
Manolo Blahnik Going Green with Eco-Friendly Shoes in Spring 2012
Posted by: | CommentsGreen fashion alert: famed shoe designer Manolo Blahnik is coming out with an eco-friendly line for Spring 2012. Blahnik became a household name thanks to Sex and the City fashionista Carrie Bradshaw and her portrayer Sarah Jessica Parker. The rewound shoe designer is teaming up with Marcia Patmos, the former designer for Lutz & Patmos who now runs her own earth-friendly line, M. Patmos. The two will collaborate on a capsule collection of sustainable shoes according to Women’s Wear Daily.
eco-friendly shoes from the Marcia Patmos for Manolo Blahnik collection (Image Credit: Courtesy Photo)
The collection will be available for sale this spring. What makes the line eco-friendly is that is will be made entirely from discarded tilapia skins, raffia and cork.
This collection is Blahnik’s first foray into environmentally friendly luxury apparel. He and Patmos have created two styles for their mini collection one is a “double strap, open-toe flat and [the other is a] strappy, high-heeled sandal in color combinations of electric blue, black, nude and yellow.” Both styles will be available at Blahnik’s retail stores for $895.
Patmos said to Women’s Wear Daily “I am always researching sustainable materials and developments. I love the idea of tilapia skin because it is a by-product of the food industry that would otherwise be discarded, but it’s actually a beautiful material perfect for small leather goods.”
Creating an eco-friendly and sustainable product line, even if it is only a capsule collection, demonstrates the direction that luxury brands are heading in. Consumers are becoming more concerned with sustainability and are using the power of their pocketbooks to get the products they desire. That is why this line is so important, it is indicative of the larger trends happening in retail today.
Blahnik’s shoes are most definitely a luxury item; however, you can feel better about the shoe splurge if the product is made from sustainable materials. Recently, Blahnik’s line has been eclipsed by the famous red soled Christian Louboutin shoes, perhaps this forward thinking line will be what puts him back on top. So, now you can be an eco-chic fashionista come spring 2012.
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Planet Forward is an online retailer of ethically-made, earth-friendly products designed for everyday use with a distinctly urban feel. Products include reusable stainless steel bottles, stainless steel thermal travel mugs, waste-free lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, Make-it-Yourself toxin-free Green Cleaning kits, organic fashions and other accessories. SALE 50% OFF ALL PRODUCTS – SHOP NOW !
Welcome back for another edition of weekly green news featuring some articles from the past week focusing on the green movement. This week: the world’s most energy efficient office courtesy of Sanyo; Harvard studies BPA levels with canned soup consumption; and prison inmates creating an eco-friendly product line in Eastern Europe. Click on the links to learn more.
Kasai Green Energy Park Photo Credit: Sanyo
Amanda Wills from Earth911 headed just outside Osaka, Japan to check out the World’s Most Efficient Office named ‘Kasai Green Energy Park’. This Sanyo operation “serves as a massive testing facility for energy-saving technology.” The Kasai Green Energy Park includes “1MW Mega Solar System, a 1.5MWh Lithium-ion Mega Battery System with the world’s largest level of capacity, energy management system that efficiently control each equipment, and a smart energy system which combines and coordinates all of the systems above using an SES controller. By using all of these systems to maximize energy efficiency, we are able to reduce approximately 2,480 tons of CO2 emissions every year without sacrificing convenience and comfort.” Amanda took some great pictures of Kasai Green Energy Park during her visit.
Kasai Green Energy Park also features side solar panels on the outside of the Sanyo building, a solar parking lot, hybrid bike recharging stations (popular in Japan), electricity storage at night for use during the day, plus small tables with built-in solar panels that store energy which can be used to charge any electronic device while it’s on the table. Heck it even knows when people come and go to help control air conditioning. The lobby also includes a wall of TV screens indicating the energy savings the facility is currently generating. You can read more about the Kasai Green Energy Park here.
BPA levels soar after lunching on canned soup. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a study in a quest to determine how much canned food will increase the level of the compound bisphenol A (BPA) in a person’s urine. The results were higher than expected. Study participants ate a serving of canned soup every day for five days; they reported “BPA levels of 20.8 micrograms per liter of urine, whereas people who instead ate fresh soup had levels of 1.1 micrograms per liter, according to the study.” Researchers noted a 1,221 percent jump in BPA levels over those who ate fresh soup. “To see an increase in this magnitude was quite surprising,” said study leader Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.
In some offbeat green news, Eastern European prison inmates produce and design an eco-conscious fashion line. That’s right, Heavy Eco provides edgier eco-friendly fashion options constructed by prison inmates. Why not turn the process of rehabilitation in prison into an environmental positive? Discarded PVC advertising billboards are recycled and upcycled to make messenger bags, wallets, iPad bags, Mac sleeves and tote bags. Heavy Eco states “Durability and practicality of our bags is most important to us. As a basic bag material we use dead, discarded billboards, made from PVC, that are designed to stand up for any weather conditions, be it heavy rain, snow or wind. We know that our bags last a lifetime, so we feel secure in giving all our bags a lifetime warranty.” They also sell custom designed t-shirts and underwear made from 100% organic cotton from India. Co-financed by the European Social Fund, inmates are paid for their efforts in both the design and manufacturing of the eco-friendly product line.
And that’s a few tidbits from this past week in the green news.
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Planet Forward is an online retailer of ethically-made, earth-friendly products designed for everyday use with a distinctly urban feel. Products include reusable stainless steel bottles, stainless steel thermal travel mugs, waste-free lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, Make-it-Yourself toxin-free Green Cleaning kits, organic fashions and other accessories. SALE 50% OFF ALL PRODUCTS – SHOP NOW !
Tags: Bisphenol A, BPA, BPA levels, co2 emissions, eco-friendly product, eco-friendly products, energy efficiency, Green Energy Park, Harvard, Harvard School of Public Health, Heavy Eco, Kasai Green Energy Park, Make-it-Yourself toxin-free Green Cleaning kits, organic cotton, organic cotton t-shirts, organic fashions, planet forward, reduce CO2 emissions, reuable products, reusable bags, reusable lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, reusable stainless steel bottles, reusable water bottles, Sanyo, Sanyo Kasai Green Energy Park, solar energy, solar panels, stainless steel thermal travel mugs, waste-free lunch bagsNissan Turns Over A New Leaf
Posted by: | CommentsLast year was the year that the long awaited electric car came one step closer to becoming reality. What brought this on was two major car companies brought viable electric car models to market: Nissan’s Leaf and Chevrolet’s Volt. Nissan’s Leaf model has so far out sold Chevrolet’s at 10,100 units compared to Volt’s 2,029.
Nissan recently unveiled that their Leaf can also double as a backup of generator to a house as it as the capability to feed energy back into the house. They say it can power the average Japanese household for forty-eight hours. This is an important selling point in post tsunami Japan where power outages are still occurring. Not to mention they are trying to phase out nuclear power, and until other grids are in place there are gaps in service.
And in renewable energy news: “Last month Nissan also demonstrated a system whereby electricity is generated through 488 solar cells that were installed on the roof of its headquarters in Yokohama near Tokyo. Nissan said that four batteries from the Leaf were placed in a box in a cellar-like part of the building, and stored the electricity generated from the solar cells, which is enough to fully charge 1,800 Leaf vehicles a year.”
It’s not just in Japan that the electric car is coming closer to fruition. In early August the Ontario government announced eighty million dollars to promote investment in electric car charging stations. If governments are willing to help put in the infrastructure needed to support the electric car not only is the idea a popular one amongst the general public, but also it will entice people to purchase an electric car in the future. One of the main concerns around electric cars, for everyday consumers, would be how to charge it when not at home.
On top of that the Ontario government offers up to eighty-five hundred dollars in incentives to buyers of electric cars, as they are entitled “to a green plate that grants them access to high occupancy vehicle lanes.”
This demonstrates that both the private and public sectors can work together to promote viable green alternatives like electric cars.
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Planet Forward is an online retailer of ethically-made, earth-friendly products designed for everyday use with a distinctly urban feel. Products include reusable stainless steel bottles, stainless steel thermal travel mugs, waste-free lunch bags, reusable shopping bags, Make-it-Yourself toxin-free Green Cleaning kits, organic fashions and other accessories. SALE 50% OFF ALL PRODUCTS – SHOP NOW!
