ATTEND // ECO Fashion Week—Vancouver Conference: Fashion Trends, Greenwashing, Case Studies, NAFTA, Toxins, Responsible Business Education, Oh My! via socialalterations.com

Article by Mary Hanlon via www.socialalterations.com

Social Alterations is a returning proud sponsor of ECO Fashion Week—Vancouver (EFWV). We are once again coordinating the conference portion of the event, and can’t believe that it is all less than a week away!

An amazing collection of featured speakers have come out to support EFWV because they understand the importance of re/educating the industry toward responsible systems and practices.

Many will cross industry lines to deliver their lessons, and we are thankful for their commitment to the issues they hold dear.

Seminars | ECO Fashion Week—Vancouver

February 25^th, 2011 | 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

The Salt Building, Southeast False Creek in the Olympic Village

www.ecofashion-week.com

START// 9:30am

9:30-10:00am Registration

10:00-10:50am Carly Stojsic // WGSN

40 minute Presentation

10 minute Audience Q&A

11:00- 11:50am Scott McDougall // TerraChoice

40 minute Presentation

10 minute Audience Q&A

12:00-12:50pm Michael Smith // Sears Canada

40 minute presentation

10 minute audience Q&A

12:50-1:20pm Break // 30 minute break

1:20-2:10pm Linda Mitchell, Christina Klee, and Mandy Quinsey // NAFTA // Import Specialists, Department of Homeland Security (U.S)

40 minute presentation

10 minute audience Q&A

2:20-3:10pm Dr. Rick Smith // Environmental Defence Canada

40 minute presentation

10 minute audience Q&A

3:20- 4:00pm Panel on Education to Close

3 minutes: Introduction // Mary Hanlon, Social Alterations

10 minutes: 1^st Panellist // Denise Taschereau, Fairware

10 minutes: 2^nd Panellist // Scott McDougall, TerraChoice

10 minutes: 3^rd Panellist // Rick Smith, Environmental Defence Canada

7 minutes: audience Q&A

END // 4:00pm

Retuning to the stage is Carly Stojsic, Canada’s Market Editor for WGSN. At the September event, Carly introduced ECO as Movement, not Trend. For this event, we’ve asked her to return to present a trends analysis for 2012. It’s important for responsible designers to keep up to speed with where and how the industry is moving outside of the eco movement as well. Who better to present this than Carly? Exactly.

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Scott McDougall, President and Chief Executive Officer of TerraChoice, wrote the book on greenwashing…literally. He is the author of TerraChoice’s ‘Sins of Greenwashing’ studies and an industry leader in responsible marketing. Nothing slips past him, and at EFWV he is presenting ‘Green’ Marketing 101. Check out the Summary and Learning Objectives of his presentation:

Drawing on recent market research, and on TerraChoice’s experience with hundreds of companies in the “green” product space, this session will be a green marketing primer. We’ll begin with a summary of the state of the green marketplace. We’ll examine who wants “greener” products and why, including the unnecessarily narrow view that many companies take of these markets. We’ll touch on lessons from the successes and failures of others. And, we’ll consider the current attention by regulators and consumers to the challenges of “greenwashing” (including TerraChoice’s “seven sins of greenwashing”). All of this will be aimed at generating enthusiasm and knowledge for winning green product strategy.

Learning Objectives:

1) Essential market intelligence to inform green product launches

2) Tips and pitfalls in green marketing

3) Avoiding the “sins of greenwashing”

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Michael Smith, Manager of Eco Business Development at Sears Canada, will explore how Sears Canada understands sustainability and how the company is working toward facilitating change internally, with suppliers and with customers. The presentation will discuss the life cycle approach which Sears uses and the importance of certification, and will present designer case studies based upon Sears private brands and leading national brands which it offers.

Learning Objectives:

1) Understand Sears approach to sustainability

2) Appreciate importance of life cycle approach to apparel and role of certification

3) Learn from case studies of Sears private and national brands

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Linda Mitchell, Christina Klee and Mandy Quinsey, Import Specialists with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the Department of Homeland Security (U.S.), will join us to present a seminar on NAFTA/Countries-of-origin-labeling:

Summary:

This session will be a general overview of importing textiles/wearing apparel into the U.S. U.S. Customs and Border Protection will go over country of origin marking and classification. Information will be provided on the rules of origin for NAFTA and how to determine if your articles are originating or meet the tariff shift rules. If your articles do not qualify for NAFTA, there will be information regarding Tariff Preference Level (TPL) claims.

Learning Objectives:

1) Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. and classifying textiles/wearing apparel

2) Country of origin marking of textiles/wearing apparel

3) NAFTA and TPL claims

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Dr. Rick Smith is the Executive Director of Environmental Defence Canada and the co-author of “Slow Death by Rubber Duck:  How the Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Life Affects Our Health”, with Bruce Lourie. At EFWV Rick will present the “Just Beautiful” Campaign and bring industry toxins to the forefront and educated participants on best practices for responsible business.

For more information on Rick and on the groundbreaking campaigning being done over at Environmental Defence Canada, click here.

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To close the conference, Social Alterations is hosting a panel on educating responsible business. Scott McDougall and Dr. Rick Smith will stick around and sit on the panel. Joining them will be none other than Vancouver’s own Denise Taschereau, CEO and Co-founder of Fairware, promotional products for your conscious. Before launching Fairware, Denise spent 7 years as the Director of Sustainability and Community for Mountain Equipment Co-op, where she was responsible for overseeing MEC’s national efforts to be a leader in social and environmental responsibility. Click here to check out more from her amazing bio.

For the panel, each panellist has been asked the following question (response prepared in advance):

Within the context of education, what is/are the biggest challenge(s) facing responsible business?

This is an intentionally broad question, and was designed to seek out intersections and gaps between responsible education in theory and responsible business in practice, with respect to the unique experience and expertise of the panellists and their organizations.

We can hardly wait to hear from these speakers, and hope that you will join us!

The EFWV conference sessions are free to attend, but space is limited!

For information on registration, contact me for details: maryhanlon@socialalterations.com

Greenwashing Critics Guilty of Greenwashing?

A recent article on Greenbiz.com critiques TerraChoice and its report,“Sins of Greenwashing: Home and Family Edition”, for doing exactly what it’s trying to prevent: Greenwashing.

Read the article here

Considering Third Party Certification?

In a market were eco/enviro/fair trade labels are becoming more common, it is important for companies to really consider the merits and draw backs of third party certification. Jump on the bandwagon too quickly, and it could be risky. In a recent article on Greenbiz.com, Melissa Scweisguth explores the 10 questions a company should consider before opting for the third party certification:

1.  What are your needs and options?

2.  Is relevant terminology regulated?

3.  What will yield the most significant positive difference?

4.  What’s most appropriate for suppliers?

5.  What’s most cost-effective?

6.  Do you have the right knowledge?

7.  Are you willing to share data if you go it alone?

8.   Do stakeholders require specific certifications?

9.    Does labeling measurably improve reputation and revenue?

10. What delivers the greatest return on investment?

For Scweisguth’s article in its entirety, click here

CBC News – World – EU head urges Canada to act on climate change

CBC News – World – EU head urges Canada to act on climate change.

Projecting Change Film Fest Start on Earth Day

It’s here again. Projecting Change Film Festival will be starting on Earth Day, April 22 and running through the 25th. If you’ll be in or around Vancouver, click here to learn about the festival and this year’s 15 featured documentaries.

Your Biodegradable Bag: Is Doing Something Really Better than Doing Nothing?

I’ve been in a debate with myself for some time now. This debate was heightened when I ordered take-out and I received my food packaged in Styrofoam and contained in a biodegradable plastic bag. I chuckled to myself and thought “how misguided”. I’m often told that I’m too cynical, too critical, but as an environmental specialist and an environmentalist, I find myself thinking that doing something is not always better than nothing.

I’m guilty of doing things that have been environmentally misguided and I know and firmly believe that behaviour and consumption habits have to be changed in small increments and won’t occur overnight, but in a race to be as “green” as possible, so much of what I’m seeing amounts to either a negative or negligible environmental impact masquerading under the banner of “green”/environmentally conscious behaviour.   Going back to the example of my dinner that was packaged in Styrofoam and handed to me in a “biodegradable” plastic bag.  Let’s break it down. The impact cause by any Styrofoam ending up in landfills outweighs the impact of a plastic bag, biodegradable or not …i’ll get to that.

Styrofoam, Polystyrene, or Expanded Plastic Foam (EPS), according to the Sierra Club contains numerous toxic ingredients including benezene which is a carcinogen that is extracted from coal (we will not touch upon the environmental damage that coal extraction can cause today).  According to the Sierra Club:

Styrofoam takes hundreds of years to decompose naturally. There are few known methods of breaking it down quickly. Because EPS is an end product, it cannot be recycled into different products, only reincarnated as itself. This limits recycling options since the process of melting EPS into a liquid state and then reforming it is too labor-intensive and toxic for recycling centers to handle. Most recycling centers do not accept EPS because they do not have the technology available to reprocess it, so people just throw it away with their trash.

From: Sierra Club: Pop! Goes the Polystyrene

Biodegradable bags may not be as environmentally friendly as you may think. Biodegradable bags, or in most cases ‘oxo-degradable’ bags, according to the Guardian Newspaper, often don’t break down in landfills because they require oxygen and light in order to decompose.  According to an article on the Guardian Newspaper last year, some biodegradable bags contain high levels of lead and cobalt. If biodegradable bags that contain lead decompose, there is a risk that the lead could leach into the soil and cause environmental harm. If the bags are not in the right conditions can take as long to degrade as regular density plastic bags. These bags do not necessarily disolve to nothing, but rather turn into small pellets that do not disintegrate or leach harmful chemicals into its environment. Most of what I’ve read suggests that it takes about 100 years for plastic to disintegrate.

I have no doubt in my mind that the proprietor of the establishment that packaged my dinner in Styrofoam in a biodegradable plastic bag probably did so with the best intentions. I think that it’s fantastic that more and more people are thinking about their environmental impact, but these kinds of actions are misguided because of the market that is overly saturated with false and misleading information. Good and balanced information is hard to come by, and it is hard to know what is misleading information and what is not.  So, even if you decide that bio/oxo-degradable plastic is better than non-oxo/bio-degradable plastic, I think the restaurateur chose to fight the wrong fight – perhaps my to-go salad could have been packaged in a cardboard-based container and the plastic could have been avoided altogether.

Starbucks Sharholders Shirking their Environmental Responsibility

Last April I wrote about Starbucks’ commitment to their Shared Planet CampaignTM; the company’s pledge to source all their coffee ethically by 2015, to make 100 percent of their cups reusable or recyclable by that same year, and to increase their recycling efforts. Today, the Environmental Leader published and article exposing a recent vote at the company’s shareholder annual meeting where a large majority opposed the expansion of Starbucks’ recycling programs. According to the article, only 11 percent of the shareholder voted in favour of increasing recycling efforts. Click here to read the article.

Thoughts?

The World Community Film Festival January 29 – 31

CoDev is presenting its 9^th Annual World Community Film Festival at Langara College in Vancouver, BC.  This year’s festival features many films that environmentalist and social justice advocates will find intriguing. The festival and CoDEv are deeply committed to presenting films with social justice and environmental messages. This year’s selection of film are vast and promises to offer something for those interested in the environment, food security, social justice, and social change.

Here are just a few that caught my eye (please visit the website for more information on these and other films):

Addicted to Plastic:

From director Ian Connacher, this film explores our knowledge of plastic; a versatile and often toxic material and why we’ve grown so dependent on it. The film features interviews with experts about solutions in the realm of plastic recycling and toxicity.

Tapped:

From the producers of Who Killed the Electric Car, this documentary examines the human right to water and the growing trade that has quickly turned water into a commodity. The relatively unregulated production of bottled water is followed from cradle to grave, revealing the environmental and human consequences of bottled water.

Justicia Now:

From Filmmakers Martin O’Brien and Robbie Proctor, this film examines the “toxic legacy” left by Chevron/Texaco in the Amazon rain forest in northern Ecuador, and the courageous people who are now seeking justice for the negative health impact caused by the environmental degradation by launching the largest environmental class action lawsuit in history. This film received the Grand Jury Award: Latin American Environmental Media Festival (New Orleans).

The festival runs from January 29-30 at Langara College in Vancouver. For more information, please visit the World Community Film Festival website http://www.codev.org/filmfest/

For more information on CoDev, please visit http://www.codev.org

The 2009 Wrap-Up: A Year of Controversies, Dichotomies, and Ideas

Well, the past year was anything but dull. The world witnessed a giant international movement that brought together environmentalists, government leaders, corporate leaders, economist, and people from all walk of life to engage in lively debates about the state of the planet and that the above-mentioned stakeholder play within it. We’ve seen the ‘greening’ of just about anything and everything and increased awareness about the negative effects of greenwashing caused by irresponsible marketing, advertising, and communications. In the realm of climate action, we’ve seen political sabotage, collaboration, inspiring moments, disappointing decisions, a few steps forward, and some steps back. We are seeing more industries and governments taking their environmental impact more seriously because of a new understanding that the environment and the economy (and more specifically the bottom line) are intrinsically linked.

What’s my hope for 2010? I hope to see the term ‘green’ earn a more meaningful and widely understood definition. This might sound hopeful and naïve, but I would like to see industry, advertisers, and governments be more accountable about their action that maybe environmentally harmful with regards to emissions, supply chain, and human rights. Most of all, I hope that real discussion and debates continue about the state of our shared environment, because without debate and discussion, change can be difficult and even impossible.

Although 2009, may have ended in frustration for many, I continue to be inspired by the amount of people that I spoke with, heard speak, read about, and researched who passionately expressed divergent points of view about the environment, sustainability, and social justice. I am more inspired and enthusiastic about what can be accomplished that ever before!

Thank-you to my readers! I look forward to blogging more in 2010, and I hope to hear from more of you as we move forward!

All the best for 2010!

Kristen

Here are some links for some of the most popular article from 2009 about sustainability and the environment.

Greenbiz.com’s 20 Most Popular Stories of 2009

Environmental Leader’s Most Popular Stories of 2009

The Beginning of a New Environmentalism: Naomi Klein on COP15

In a recent interview, Naomi Klein delivered a scathing commentary on those who are blindly hopeful that a forward-thinking climate change deal will emerge from the COP15 talks.

Only 3 days in, the COP15 conference has already been marred in controversy and numerous efforts to derail talks.  Before the conference even began, many environmentalists were saying that a progressive and binding agreement would not emerge from Copenhagen, but that what would occur was an opportunity to discuss issues, exchange ideas, and align unlikely forces. In her interview, Klein said that what may emerge from COP15 is a new kind of environmentalism – a partnership between those with economic interests and those with environmental interests.

Like Klein or not, agree with her or not, here’s another perspective.

Interview Source: Interview by Jacob Wheeler. Produced by Chuck Olsen for The UpTake: http://theuptake.org