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Innovative Home Features Innovative Garden Executive Director Leslie Hoffman shared her green roof expertise in the preview issue of Innovative Home, the much-awaited publication of the Institute for Home Innovation. The article praises green roofs for integrating "creativity and conservation" to allow urban dwellers to tap into rooftop real estate while sowing ecological benefits. On its reading list, Innovative Home recommends Earth Pledge's latest publication, Green Roofs: Ecological Design and Construction: "It is this kind of mentality that inspires ecological movements." The Institute for Home Innovation is an international organization dedicated to advancing cutting-edge materials and technologoies, like green roofs, to an audience of building industry professionals. With Earth Day just around the corner, an Earth Dinner is a great way to connect with family and friends and to celebrate delicious local and sustainable cuisine. Organic Valley – the largest organic farmer-owned co-op in North America and providers of locally-produced organic dairy foods and other products – has been sponsoring and promoting these “food for thought” events for the last three years. The company created Earth Dinner cards as a fun and thought-provoking way to discuss key issues surrounding sustainable agriculture around the dinner table.
Leslie was recently featured as “Person of the Month” by Jill Danyelle on her blog FiftyRX3. Jill’s blog is “perusing the crossroads of style and sustainability” by chronicling her attempts to wear at least 50% “reduced, reused or recycled” clothing every day for a year. In Jill’s words: “Last year Leslie orchestrated the best "green" fashion event I have ever seen. FutureFashion was not held in a park somewhere on Earth Day and it was not comprised of some ho-hum hemp outfits. Not only can she grow a mean organic bean, but Leslie knows who to partner with. Top designers were recruited…and the resulting designs knocked the Manolos off more than a few fashion editrices.”You can see more of Jill’s informative posts and stylish pictures at http://fiftyrx3.blogspot.com, we appreciate the positive feedback and support from Jill, as well as the mainstream media outlets that have continued to highlight the groundbreaking FutureFashion designs. FutureFashion was also recently featured in the Monday, April 10 issue of Newsweek. Three of the FutureFashion gowns by Oscar de la Renta, Halston and Elisa Jimenez were shown during the Biotechnology International Organization (BIO) Convention held in Chicago April 9-12. All of the gowns are made with Ingeo™, a corn-based fiber made by NatureWorks LLC, and brought a touch of green glamour to the largest biotech gathering in the nation. Some of Earth Pledge’s FutureFashion runway looks were also displayed at the recent Grow Conference in New York on March 25, hosted by AIGA, the professional association for design (where we were happy to have Jill’s help in the styling and presentation of the well-received looks). Leslie was the keynote speaker, and attendees listened to her remarks on Earth Pledge’s work across its initiatives, then were “wowed” by the designer looks on display at the Earth Pledge booth in the conference’s Learning Center. The mannequins were outfitted in day looks – by such designers as Proenza Schouler and Alvin Valley – which later were replaced with cocktail dresses and evening gowns by Karen Walker, Oscar de la Renta and others, for the evening’s cocktail reception and celebration. After a long, inspiring day of presentations and discussions involving representatives from Walmart, Sylvania and others, participants enjoyed seeing a little sustainable style as they unwound with cocktails and conversation. To learn more about the Grow Conference and AIGA, visit grow.aigany.org. As part of the Intertek Ethical Sourcing Conference last March, Leslie presented alongside representatives from companies and organizations – such as L.L. Bean, Gap, Chiquita and Polo Ralph Lauren – that are working at the forefront of corporate social and environmental compliance issues. Leslie will be paying a visit to the fashion designers of the future when she speaks to students at Parsons School of Design. Tim Gunn – Chair of the Department of Fashion Design at the school, and mentor to the aspiring designers of the reality TV show Project Runway – has recently agreed to serve on the FutureFashion Advisory Board, and to collaborate with Earth Pledge to strengthen and extend the scope of our work with design students, designers, and other key figures in the industry. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Tim and the entire Parsons community, and hope to continue to grow our work with other educational institutions within New York and across the country. Earth Pledge will also be partnering with TreeHugger.com and ID Magazine on a design competition called Umbrella Inside Out. The competition consists of two parts, both of which have their impetus in creating innovative, sustainable products. The first competition calls for innovative, earth-friendly and sustainable new umbrella designs. The second competition asks participants to take old, worn-out or thrown-out umbrellas and create a unique garment or outfit out of them. TreeHugger.com readers will determine the finalists in both competitions, who will then be judged by a panel of experts. The winning designs will be featured in a spread in ID Magazine. To learn more, and to find out how to enter the competitions, go to www.treehugger.com. Learn more about FutureFashion Earth Pledge continues to make a green sweep of Gotham with our seventh Viridian affordable housing project. Earth Pledge will consult the Center for Urban Community Services and Cindy Harden of Harden Van Arnam Architects in the design and implementation of a green roof in the Bronx. The extensive green roof will be part of a newly-constructed 60 unit building to house persons with mental illnesses. Funded by the New York State Office of Mental Health, the facility will also offer program and supportive space, a community room and a library.
Earth Pledge continues to oversee the construction of the first pilot high solid anaerobic digester in the New York Metro area. The digester will be used to generate electricity from mainly food waste obtained from a nursing home near the digester. Earth Pledge is working with academic, public, and private organizations across the country to coordinate a research project that will use the completed digester. The experiment will explore the possibilities for combining food wastes with other kinds of organic wastes to create the largest amount of methane output for electricity or for gas to liquid conversion.
Innovative Home – Preview Issue, Summer 2006 BioCycle Magazine – February 2006 Newsweek – April 10-17, 2006 EP News readers in the Los Angeles area should be on the lookout for a news segment on sustainable fashion and our FutureFashion Initiative on KABC TV. |
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