New Algae-Growing Technique Could Lead to Earth-Friendly Fabric, Paint

Going green is fashionable, but dyeing our clothes has remained a decidedly eco-unfriendly practice. Now, British scientists have developed a way to grow harmless algae to add color to fabric and paint.

The algae, called diatoms, are single-celled organisms that are unique because they pack iridescent shells. The hard silica shells act like crystals -- depending on the configuration of the holes in the shell, the color changes. The perception of color is maintained without altering the chemical composition of fabric, which is a fundamentally different way of producing color.

"As the paint dries, they will all align themselves horizontally at the surface, all reflecting light the same way," said Andrew Parker, the Oxford researcher who helped develop the new technique. "So, even though you have completely transparent paint and completely transparent silica shells, they will produce a very strong color."

The new process is one of several advances that could provide safer and less expensive alternatives.

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The Eco-Fashion Revolution

In a recent article by Brita Belli, E Magazine. Posted September 17, 2007, consumers are now considering who grew their cotton and who turned it into a wearable object. Less inclined with traditional activist ideals, designers are thinking more like architects creating products with design and textile. For example, Brooklyn designer Nina Valenti, who launched the sustainable line naturevsfuture in 2002, designs peieces that have a strong line, form and texture. Her clothing has severe pleats and soft gathers, military stiffness and feminine slits, the yin and yang of organic and technological forces. Her fabrics range from the expected organic cottons, wools, hemps and soys to fabrics made from recycled soda bottles. Another designer, fusing practicality with design is Carol young. Young's label, undesigned, is a study in wearable sustainable fashion that is decidedly modern in its ability to transcend season and move between office, bicycle, subway and sidewalk. There are skinny jeans layered with dotted, form-fitting dresses topped with demure shrugs. Bold pockets and soft hoodies and bubbled edges.

As Jill Danyelle,an eco-design blogger put its "Green fashion has definitely expanded outward from its 'hippie' connotations of the past," says Danyelle, who is also the fashion editor for inhabitat.com. "We have seen expansion all the way into high-end designer looks down to Wal-Mart. This is what I see as true growth. Yet the percentage of the marketplace is still so miniscule that I believe eco-friendly design in the fashion industry is far from established."

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Green Investing - the next big thing!

Investing in companies touting green and eco-friendly technology and products is the next big thing in wall street. A recent article in Kiplinger's magazine points out how younger generation is investing in stocks and funds that focus on sustainable, eco-friendly technologies and companies. They're investing in environmentally friendly stocks -- either directly or through funds -- to make money.

Contrary to popular belief, environmental stocks do provide healthy returns as evidenced by rising stocks of companies like United Technologies, a green double play. It has been developing more-efficient helicopters and jet engines, as well as such innovative products as gearless elevators that use half the power of traditional lifts. The industrial conglomerate has also reduced its own energy consumption by 2% a year for ten years and intends to accelerate those savings. Meanwhile, the company has boosted its earnings 14% annually since 2002. Its stock price has doubled, and so have its cash dividends.

One of the nice things about green investing is that the universe of potential investments is large and wide. Green stocks encompass a variety of sectors, company sizes and quality. Many potential investments are young, small and risky. But you can green up a portfolio with a package of proven blue chips, such as General Electric (symbol GE), Johnson Controls (JCI) and United Technologies (UTX). All three work with developers to cool, heat and light buildings more efficiently, among other things. That's important because buildings are responsible for about one-third of the world's energy consumption.

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Hemp is Cool

Going green is in and with it so is Hemp!

Hemp has been around for decades and is part of the eco-fashion world. Industrial hemp has thousands of uses, from paper to textiles to biodegradable plastics to health food to fuel. Hemp could be used to replace many potentially harmful products, such as tree paper (the process of which uses bleaches and other toxic chemicals, apart from contributing to deforestation), cosmetics (which often contain synthetic oils that can clog pores and provide little nutritional content for the skin), plastics (which are petroleum based and cannot decompose), and more.

"Hemp clothing has received a lot of negative press over the years and the time has come to give this amazing fibre a serious style makeover" says leading Hemp clothing fashion designer Jenny McPherson who sells the Enamore clothing line of hemp based clothing in U.K. Enamore is a creative hemp clothing label launched in 2004 by Brighton based fashion designer Jenny McPherson, her business philosophy is to design and create fashionable, beautiful, contemporary clothing from a wide variety of hemp based fabrics and recycled materials.

Hemp is is currently going through a revival and it’s market potential is being pushed further all the time. The industrial hemp textile market is expanding rapidly with new interesting fabrics being developed every year. More versatile than other natural textiles, hemp can be woven in a variety of weights from linen-like to canvas, and in a wide array of colours and finishes. The fabrics are luxurious and blended with other natural fibres such as silk, wool, yak hair and cotton, they feel great on the skin. Hemp fabrics are great for people with sensitive skin because of the lack of bleaching agents used in the processing.

Expect to see a number of retailers introducing hemp based clothing in the near future.
Links to Hemp fashion:


http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Stoners/fashion.html
http://www.inbi-hemp.co.uk/

Kids - The Littlest Eco-Warriers

Seen and heard, kids are becoming the green movement's stealth weapon, pressuring their parents on everything from lightbulbs to composting. Inside the push to create the littlest eco-warriors.

A recent article in Wall Street Journal shed light on how kids are influencing more "green" purchases and the lifestyles of their parents and family members. In households across the country, kids are going after their parents for environmental offenses, from using plastic cups to serving non-grass-fed beef at the dinner table. Many of these kids are getting more explicit messages about becoming eco-warriors at school and from popular books and movies.

"Kids are putting pressure on their parents, and this is a very good thing," says Laurie David, a producer of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth." Ms. David is the co-author of a new children's book, "The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming," which urges kids, among other things, to petition mom and dad for recycled-fiber toilet paper. "I know how powerful my kids are," she says. "When they want something, forget it -- all the resistance in the world isn't going to help you."

The Natural Resources Defense Council, the New York nonprofit, has been trying to secure permission from various media companies to use a cartoon character to spread the word. "It is the really, really young kids who are going to change their parents' behavior," says Phil Gutis, the group's spokesman, adding that the message to children ought to be straightforward: "I think it'd be as simple as, 'Kids, tell your parents.' "

We hope that as these young eco-warriers mature, they will in turn foster a greater respect for the environment and help drive the political and business worlds to adopt more eco-friendly policies to help reduce green house gases and other pollutants.

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