divine green: Sustainable Home, Beauty, & Lifestyle

by Alorie Gilbert

SWITZERLAND–One of the best things about living abroad are all of the British channels on cable. I love British TV! My favorite program at the moment is Miss Naked Beauty, a beauty contest of sorts with all of the classic components of reality TV–competition, eliminations, and a panel of scary judges.

The most interesting part, however, is that the ladies must forsake all artifice–makeup, fake boobs, high-maintenance hair and jewelry–and embrace their natural sex appeal. The winner gets a modeling contract and a column in a fashion magazine to promote natural beauty. In the first episode, 25 contestants were led in their underwear into a big hall and drenched with a fire hose. Pretty entertaining stuff. Then, they were instructed to remove all of their make up, piercings and hair-dos and talk about how they feel. It was amazing how many women really struggled with taking off their makeup. There were lots of tears over this. I hardly wear makeup so I found this somewhat amusing. But I have as many beauty hangups as anyone, so I find the ladies very sympathetic most of the time.

In one recent episode, eight contestants had to witness plastic surgery in the operating room and then write about it. There was a boob job, a lipo and eyelid surgery. Only one of the women (all young and blessed with good looks), was appalled, and she was eliminated for not condemning the procedures. I find this lame. I’m by no means a proponent of plastic surgery, and it has definitely been taken to extremes. But I can allow for more than one opinion on the matter. The show raises a lot of good issues, however. I’ll continue to watch and will report back on the winner…

SAN FRANCISCO–Ten years ago, a designer of a top-selling toothbrush might beam with pride over his or her creation. But seeing that indestructible saber of plastic washed up on a beach shore–battered but relatively unchanged–might cause the same designer some pause in today’s eco-conscious climate.

Valerie Casey would know. As head of global practice for design firm IDEO, whose clients include Johnson & Johnson and Sprint, Casey said at a recent design conference that she had a crisis of conscience about a year ago when she realized she wasn’t talking to her clients about sustainable design, for fear that they wouldn’t be amenable to ideas about eco alternatives.

So in the last year, she’s organized the Designer’s Accord, a nonprofit coalition of designers who pledge to share ideas and information about sustainable design practices with clients. The project launched in recent weeks.

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The Sundance Film Festival, the annual crème de la crème of independent film festivals in Park City, Utah, was a little greener and smelled of French Fries this year, thanks in part to the debut of Fields of Fuel, a documentary about the alternative fuel biodiesel. The film’s creator Josh Tickell and crew descended on Park City this weekend with their Veggie Van, a hippie-style VW run on vegetable oil or animal fat (pictured left), and helped educate people about how biodiesel works and its environmental benefits–all before the Sundance premiere of the film.

(The film features environmentalist-actor Woody Harrelson and Solayzme, a California company that makes biodiesel fuel from algae.) 

According to Tickell’s blog, Sunday “afternoon saw a greasy, french-fry-smelling version of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade…Overheard from Park City fans: ‘Look, it’s the Veggie Van! Do you smell that? It’s making me hungry.’”

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Every day in the United States as many as 426,000 cell phones are retired–either left in a drawer, recycled, or most often, thrown in the trash. Photographer Chris Jordan depicted that daily mass of silver-and-black detritus in his 2007 digitally rendered photo, Cell Phones (at left), which is part of the collection “Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait.” 

It seems appropriate that Jordan will be a featured speaker at the Feb. 1 Greener Gadgets conference in New York. Through art, Jordan, a former corporate attorney, tries to help people see the folly of consumerism and excess. And the confab is purportedly set up to encourage the development of environmentally designed electronics.

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SAN FRANCISCO–The well-heeled set came out in force this week at Global Green’s “Gorgeous and Green” third-annual charity event. Everyone from former Sex in the City actor Jason Lewis to local fashion designer Margaret O’Leary attended the benefit, which was designed to promote eco living ideas and raise money for California green schools and people adversely affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The event, held here at the environmentally certified Bently Reserve Building, was half high society promoting a cause and half a cause promulgating society. Local celebrities and luminaries, who paid anywhere between $250 for general admission to $5,000 for a VIP dinner, were treated to eco-friendly fare including grass-fed beef, fair trade coffee and organic tequila. The entertainment: a henna-tattoo booth, live auctions, models dressed like Marie Antoinette floating in the crowd, and a fashion show of eco-chic wear–items made of hemp silks and recycled tuxedo shirts (this from emerging designer William Good, featured here).

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