PSFK was on the scene again for this years Green Festival in San Francisco. The annual event, a joint venture of Global Exchange and Co-op America, is hailed as the worlds largest environmental expo. This year featured a number of speakers including Deepak Chopra, Bennet Freeman and a number of others. There were hippie sing alongs, food vendors and high tech products.
On hand were companies offering everything from hemp and recycled sail cloth messenger bags and organic power bars to electric bicycles and compostable… compostable everything. This year had another strong turnout of both curious newcomers and those already deeply dedicated to greener lifestyles.
It could be that this PSFK correspondent has been in San Francisco long enough to be looking at the world through emerald colored glasses but it did seem that green was a little more design conscious this year. We saw an apparent trend in more mainstream friendly fashion in organic cottons, hemp that didn’t look quite so much like hemp and various other recycled and sustainable materials. There were well designed things for homes, offices and vehicles as well.
Though you may still have to wait for your bamboo fiber suit from brooks brothers the horizon of sustainable design looks a bit more transparent. Transparency in this instance being the seamless use of Eco friendly materials and methods in ways that allow the end consumer to integrate them without life altering habit changes. Because while those changes might be ethical, wise, admirable and even necessary, people often won’t adopt them if it interrupts the flow of their daily lives. …or are we all still hitting the gym from our resolutions last January?
There are two more festivals on the slate. Seattle in April and Chicago in May with more in the planning.
-Contributed by JT Barnhart
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