Greening Hollywood: Green Graywater Gardens

Dawn of A New Era
A revolution occurred in California on August 4th led by Santa Barbara-based graywater advocate, Art Ludwig, and an army of passionate stakeholders from throughout the state. The revolution was the historic graywater code adoption that took place in Sacramento at the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD).
Graywater is the wastewater that drains out of washing machines, sinks, bathtubs and showers. It can be treated for indoor use and may be used untreated in some landscape applications.
SB 1258 required HCD, in consultation with the Department of Public Health, to develop standards for the construction, installation and alteration of graywater systems for indoor and outdoor uses.
As of August 4th, 2009, “Californians can legally install simple laundry and single fixture systems without a permit. For the first time, licensed professionals can legally help with the 1.7 million existing graywater systems in the state.” -Art Ludwig, graywater Researcher and Educator


"Water Messaging In Media" Dinner presented by Greening Hollywood
and Environment Now at the Dorothy Green Home in Westwood
Typically, a three-bedroom home generates 160 gallons of graywater per day or 58,400 gallons per year. With the new standards, a family of four could potentially divert nearly 22,000 gallons of water per year by using graywater from the laundry system alone. Great news for water conservation advocates.


The all-day Sacramento hearing was described as “a rollercoaster” where “passionate stakeholders” spoke for and against the adoption of the new standards and where a “collision of world views” was on full display as the meeting drew to its “historic” conclusion.
Another historic outcome from the meeting is that the HCD, who has asked the California Building Standards Commission (www.bsc.ca.gov) to revise California’s Green Building Standards, shifted – significantly – to taking into account off-site and future impacts of a building’s systems as opposed to only considering occupant safety.
Why this matters?
More than half of all carbon emissions, those nasty greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, are from buildings. Buildings built to California’s current codes are sucking the groundwater out from under California. Under the new codes, graywater permits would allow people to – legally – redirect their laundry water runoff to irrigate their backyard organic vegetable gardens, for example.
Watch the YouTube Instructional video here:
Abundance In Balance by Devin Slavin

And Art Ludwig's video here:

http://oasisdesign.net/greywater/laundry/video/
Art Ludwig periodically holds City of Santa Barbara-sponsored workshops on engineering Laundry to Landscape systems, for free. Santa Barbara started the graywater regulation revolution in 1989.

On California’s graywater revolution, Ludwig’s office, Oasis Design, said, “The commissioners are to be congratulated for their leadership. It is always more work to set up a new system than to fit into an existing one. It would have been a lot easier to stand aside as legal buildings continue to waste resources and pollute the environment. However, in the face of deeply entrenched, powerful opposition, the commission [California Building Standards Commission] is rising to the challenge of revising all of California’s building codes to allow/require better building systems.”
In the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 24, California Plumbing Code, Part 5, Appendix G where you can find the existing graywater standards, you will see that they are antiquated. The revised standards allow for the installation of graywater systems for the purpose of water conservation. The intent is to encourage new ideas and technology related to water reuse.


The disputed point, at present, seems to be whether these state-level revisions now supersede local and municipal regulations. For example, must someone in Culver City wishing to implement a graywater system for their newly constructed building comply with the City’s code if it departs from the newer California state code?
Water activists such as Conner Everts of Environment Now says that the California State code now has precedence. Wesley Roe of Oasis Design confers. However, Jennifer Sweeney, Communications Director for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, says,

"The code provides guidance to inform the user about minimum health and safety requirements and then allows a system to be designed...at a scale that is appropriate...This can range from the simplest of low technology (a drain to a mulch basin) to the most complex...system.
Typically, small systems are very simple and adding the cost of building permits and professional design/engineering quickly becomes too expensive and burdensome to be practical. This problem has been addressed in the new graywater regulations by not requiring a construction permit for the installation of a clothes washer or single fixture system.
Homeowners would still have to check with their local authority to be sure graywater systems are allowed in their jurisdiction, therefore these regulations do not supersede any local code. Additionally, the systems would still have to be built to the requirements specified in the state Building Code. More complex systems will still require a construction permit and any system will still be regulated."

At the August 28th Greening Hollywood presents “Water Messaging in Media” dinner at the Dorothy Green Home in Westwood, California, these issues and the topic of how to present complex issues of water to the states’ stakeholders, i.e., every California resident and business owner, were discussed.
Co-host Conner Everts of Environment Now, a longtime water activist and friend of the Green family, focused the dinner table discussion on the peripheral dam issue. He cited Timothy F. Brick’s recent editorial HERE in the L.A. Times Op-Ed section as a position he takes issue with.
Water H20 3G
Since many of the dinner attendees, including Stephanie Molen from Sen. Pavley’s office, Frances Anderton, Producer of Warren Olney’s To The Point on NPR, and Catherine Geanuracos of LiveEarth have extensive experience in presenting information in digestible form to large audiences, we steered the conversation toward Water Messaging in Media and the question of which issues to focus on right now.

Susan Munves, Santa Monica Green Building
Water Conservation and Clean Water were two topics at the fore. One of the dinner guests, perhaps it was Edward Headington who counts Breathe L.A., hosts of the Green Salon Series, as one of his clients, or maybe it was Josh Green, the late Dorothy Green’s son, or maybe it was Susan Munves from the city of Santa Monica Green Buildings Program – or, likely it was all three - who said we need to keep the message short, sweet and simple. The message needs to be represented by a one-punch image that will resonate with the Facebook crowd. Something like Water “H203G.” Stay tuned…


Dinner was generously provided by Chef Simon Dolinky of Palomar’s Blvd. 16 who runs a kitchen stocked fully with organic and sustainably farmed ingredients. His platters of roast pork smothered in fresh roasted vegetables and his seafood platter of fresh shrimp, mussels and chubby scallops were all heaven-sent.
Jen Mullen of Jam Gourmet provided us with a fig and gorgonzola pizza – wonderful combination of savory and sweet – and a romaine salad with paper thin-sliced crisp peaches, red onions, pine nuts and feta. Mendocino Farms, the fully sustainable downtown eatery who is opening up their second location in L.A. on 5th and Flower, provided us with Chef Judy's Seasonal Farmer's Market Salad with Arnett Farms Fuji apples, parmesan cheese and honey roasted almonds on organic farmer's market greens with a sherry vinaigrette.


The Green Family’s Otelia, who was first brought into the family 41 years ago by Dorothy, helped with the fluidity of the dinner. Indeed, it appeared that she was delighted by the home being used, once again, as a hub of activity for the water tribe.

Water...for the Next Generation...
Read More on Greening Hollywood.
And also here:

Greening Hollywood: Green Graywater Gardens

Greening Hollywood: Green Graywater Gardens

Greening Hollywood: L.A.'s Downtown Fashion

By Paige Donner

[First published on The Huffington Post, March 2009]

The key words to this year's L.A. Fashion Week were "City of L.A., Vintage and (yeah!)...Eco." CoLA FW, City of L.A. Fashion Week, set the bar with their Friday and Saturday night closing weekend shows at downtown's Lady Liberty Building.


Fashionista Scenesters at CoLA FW, Photo by Paige Donner

"CoLA is about encouraging and supporting this city's talent. Our desire is to set a standard of sophistication that will invite fashion moguls and originals back to the West Coast," said Dani Michelle, CoLA FW Founding Principle. Team CoLA, including Executive Producer Shannon Leggett, staged two nights of back to back runway shows - flawlessly. Their Brian Lichtenberg theatrics was, by fashionista decree, the epicenter of our city's Fashion Week this year. Other labels that walked the runway were Fremont, Eksempel, B. Son, Joyrich and COA (a secret show).


What set CoLA FW apart was that it was so seamlessly organized. We're talkin' "flow." The building's second floor was devoted to party space sponsored, in part by TyKu Asian Liquor. Runway shows were held exclusively on the 5th Floor of this loft space. The drama and theatre of the runway show collections were heightened by having their own devoted space. It was also clear that these were "industry events, not consumer events." Read more from Whatswear's N.Y. Editor, Joseph Ungoco, also in attendance. Some images from the collections:


Fremont collection, Photo by Paige Donner


Fremont designer Brittany Pham noted that her collection was "Depression Era - inspired." She went for basic classics that hold to them the nostalgia of Hollywood Glam.




 
 CoLA FW featured Designer, Brian Lichtenberg Collection, Photo by Paige Donner



 
Fremont collection by Brittany Pham, shown at CoLA FW, Photo by Paige Donner



 
CoLA FW, backstage with models, Photo by Paige Donner



 
Model and CoLA FW attendees, Photo by Paige Donner

Downtown L.A. Fashion Week's Vintage: Classy, Timeless and Eco



 
Rachel Griffiths, co-host of DLAFW, wearing Ferdinando Sarmi Vintage; according to Cameron Silver, co-host, it was the only vintage maternity dress in his Decades boutique. Photo by Paige Donner
"I'm enthusiastic about fashion week taking place at the epicenter of the city's garment district," said Cameron Silver, owner of Decades Inc., L.A.'s starring vintage fashion boutique, who was curator of Downtown Los Angeles Fashion Week's show staged at the MOCA in downtown L.A.'s Little Tokyo.



 
Designer Louis Verdad, at MOCA Geffen Contemporary, showing his Louver Collection, Photo by Paige Donner


 
Panoramic view of DLAFW held at MOCA Contemporary Museum, Little Tokyo L.A., 
Photo by Paige Donner
 
Thursday's "Evening of 20th Century Glamour" happened by the graces and sheer creative innovation of museum's Vanessa Gonzales and her team of "crazy fun" accomplices, including forward thinking DLAFW Executive Producer Leanna Lewis of Leanna Lewis Events. Silver, co-host of the evening along with actress Rachel Griffiths, said that the Geffen Center at MOCA was an exciting venue to stage a runway show and sees L.A. as being the attractive fashion debut destination for both N.Y. and Pan-Asian designers.

"L.A. Fashion Week can really position itself well because everyone I want to dress is already here," added Silver, referencing some of the actors and celebs who showed up for the MOCA DLAFW event including Nicole Richie, Marisa Tomei, Rose McGowan and Nicki Hilton. "We need to import designers to L.A. rather than export our talent to N.Y.," said Silver.


Vintage designers shown on the runway included the show hit, "Iconic Mermaid Coctail Dress - Red," by Norell. This number "stopped the show" and garnered the model, Monique, applause from the crowd. Other dresses included: YSL, Valentino, Azzaro, Dior, Givenchy, Mugler and De La Renta.
DLAFW Founder, Lewis, feels that one of the most effective ways to be environmentally conscious is to re-use old(er) things. She also incorporated EcoNouveau into the DLAFW line up of event sponsors. She's a believer in putting L.A. on the fashion world's map. "I think there is a tremendous amount of talent in this city and it's my mission to expose it the right way, L.A. style. Fashion, art and music fused together. The success of the event last week is the beginning of the future of fashion here in LA and will initiate the credibility Los Angeles deserves."



 
Louver Collection '09, Featured at DFWLA at the MOCA Contemporary Museum, 
Photo by Paige Donner

Speculation by the crowd was that this year was "fashion freer." Freer in the sense that the corporate underwriting was no longer there [by Mercedes Benz, anyway] and that this therefore allowed the designers to "go a little crazy creatively" said some. Comparison of Louver's new collection with last year's reveals that he certainly showed a different side to his design spectrum. Co-host of DLAFW Cameron Silver commented that he has always been a huge fan of Louis Verdad and that "he was really the first designer to explore the 40's in a modern way. I was excited to see his collection on display at MOCA for the evening. He's a really, really talented designer."
Battalion showed at the Los Angeles Theater the first weekend of Fashion Week as part of BoxEight's Fashion Weekend. Its Native American themed collection had the crowd raving. This is an eco line that says Lights, Camera, Eco-Action...with Style! Battalion Collection PHOTOS of collection.


Lobby of Los Angeles Theater, National Historical Building, in Downtown L.A. where Eco-Line Battalion showed and also Society For Rational Dress along with Sahaaj, Photo by Paige Donner


L.A. Fashion Week attendees were enthusiastic about the downtown venues where the shows were held. A particular hit was the Los Angeles Theater where GenArt and BoxEight staged their shows. Theater's rich history includes that its grand opening was attended by Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein. Women loved the roomy bathrooms which feature marble floors and an ornate, gilded makeup room.
See LA Pretty for more Fashion Week L.A. coverage.



 
CoLA FW's Eksempel show, Photo by Paige Donner



 
GenArt's Society for Rational Dress, Photo by Paige Donner

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Greening Hollywood: L.A.'s Downtown Fashion

Age of Stupid Film Trailer

<p><a href="">Ed Miliband</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/ageofstupid">Age of Stupid</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

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Age of Stupid Film Trailer

Greening Hollywood: Green Leadership

By Paige Donner

[First published at The Huffington Post, March 2009]

ATHGO International recently gathered 100 students and young professionals together for a 4-day Forum held, this time, at UCLA (past ATHGO International Forums have been held at the U.N., the World Bank and in Geneva), which was sponsored by Boeing, Milbank, UCLA Sustainability and Green Conversion Systems.


ATHGO International is a nonprofit that cooperates with the U.N., using the U.N.'s Millennium Development Goals as guidelines. Its focus is on cultivating leaders within the youth demographic of 18-32 year olds. These youth are culled from an international pool of exceptional individuals.
The goal of the Forum is for students to come up with an actionable business venture that utilizes Clean Technology and drives environmental sustainability and economic development. The teams are evaluated on the final day by representatives from the professional community. As a result, participants this time developed eight innovative social venture designs.

Dr. Armen Orujyan, Founder and Chairman, ATHGO International Photo Courtesy Robert Kuzon

ATHGO's Founder and Chairman, Dr. Armen Orujyan, speaks of the "three i's of ATHGO: Innovation, Incubation and Implementation." He explains that step one is to nurture the students in their innovation in coming up with entrepreneurial business ideas. The next step is incubation of the most commercially viable of those business ideas and the final phase is implementation. For the past 6 years, ATHGO has primarily pursued phase one, innovation, and is now getting set to launch more fully into phases two and three. Coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers put it, "More than creating, innovation involves anticipating. It is having a broad base of knowledge on your subject and an ability to see where the end game is headed."


The Keynote Address at the Forum was given by His Excellency Cheick Sidi Diarra, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Africa, and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States. H.E. Diarra spoke with Paige Donner for a few minutes at the reception for him hosted by ATHGO and the City Attorney at L.A.'s Tom Bradley Hall.



Dr. Armen Orujyan, Founder and Chairman of ATHGO, has a doctorate in Political Science. His doctoral thesis is on U.S. Presidential campaign strategies. He shares here some of his thoughts about ATHGO International, the U.N. and the importance of cultivating youth leaders...

Our demographic is the 18-32 year olds. We have students and young professionals, social entrepreneurs. The average age is about 24, 25 years old. They come from all walks of life. We have students here from Canada, from Europe, from Africa from Latin America - so although we're here at UCLA, we only have one student from UCLA here.

There's a common saying that youth is wasted on young people. I'm not a major believer of that. There's a great energy in young people. There's a great ambition in young people. They're very open to change and they're more conforming and they're more interested in coming together with people from different backgrounds. They're not stuck in a dogma of any nature.

So what we attempt to do here is bring this energy together and give them the skill set on entrepreneurship, with the addition of a social component to it. We have them organize into teams and together come up with great social venture designs for them to launch profitable businesses that would have several impacts. The impacts will be social impact, environmental impact and economic impact.

We saw over the years that if you give them an opportunity, a platform for them to thrive, they will. What's missing is platforms of this nature. You don't find them around. We send them to traditional university systems, they excel, they get to the climax, the peak of it, and then there's a huge drop when it comes to getting into the professional field. So if they reach the maximum in academia, it is definitely not at a maximum on the practical setting. We try to bridge that gap for them to have the business skills along with the educational skills.
We have five current programs. We have programs here at UCLA, we have larger programs that are at the U.N .Headquarters in N.Y., and at the World Bank Headquarters in Washington D.C. We have repeat attendees because our programs are never the same. The thematic area is always different. The umbrella, for example, would still be Climate Change or Information Communication Technologies, but what we're attempting to do with the larger picture is different with every forum.

The U.N.'s interest in ATHGO is that we're not an advocacy group. The only advocacy ATHGO engages in is giving opportunities to young folks for them to thrive in life. But ATHGO itself is not an advocacy group. We focus on skill set development, and skill set development that will affect economic development positively in working with the U.N. on their Millennium Development Goals.

The U.N. is a major supporter of ATHGO because we are working with a particular segment of the population that is not easy to reach. And once you reach them, it is very difficult to know what will get them engaged and really stay with you continuously. Since we exclusively work with the 18-32 year olds, and we work exclusively with them to develop skill sets that will help their overall economic development, it's very interesting for the United Nations.

The fact that we're not an advocacy group helps the other nation-states within the U.N. as well as the World Bank, to embrace our methodology, for them to try to even model some of the things that we're doing within a larger context with their own work. So they've opened the doors to us for the last five or six years and we've been thriving in our relationships. As you saw, we have the Under Secretary of the U.N. here visiting us for the same purpose, the very nature of how we approach these issues with our methodology.

Navneet Singh Narula, of the Points of Light Institute with the U.N.'s H.E. Cheick Sidi Diarra at the ATHGO Forum, Photo Courtesy Robert Kuzon

Other speakers at this Forum included Mr. Tod Arbogast, Director, Sustainable Business at Dell; Mr. Rich Lechner, Vice President, Energy and Environment, IBM; Mr. Navneet Singh Narula, National Director, Points of Light Institute; Dr. Woodrow Clark, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; and Mr. John Shegerian, President, Electronic Recyclers International, to name only a few.



Dr. Woodrow W. Clark, II, MA3, Ph.D. and Paige Donner, CEO of Greening Hollywood spoke on the Role of Media Panel at ATHGO Forum held at UCLA (Ms. Alegre Ramos not pictured)

The Global Environmental Youth Conference
ATHGO is working with Cynthia Ruiz, the President of the Los Angeles City Public Works, on its Global Environmental Youth Conference. Last year, the city brought 5,000 young people, ages 12-21, together to learn about things they can do to lessen their impact on the environment.



ATHGO Participant, Brad King and others in background, Photo Courtesy Robert Kuzon

ATHGO has been invited by Cynthia Ruiz to lead the initiative globally. What they'll do this year is bring together a large group of young people in five to ten cities worldwide simultaneously to get some knowledge, get some skill sets to come up with some incredible results in their own respective cities. The mission is to come up with a plan that will be actionable on that day. "When you bring in a couple of hundred people, or a couple of thousand people, that energy transforms into some kind of a result. That's what we're planning to do. So it's going to be fun," says Dr. Orujyan.


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Greening Hollywood: Green Leadership

Greening Hollywood: No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and MadMen

By Paige Donner
July 25th, 2009
With this year’s Emmy’s just around the corner, the talented members of the Costume Guild are already feeling the spotlight. This past weekend FIDM hosted the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Costume Design and Supervision Peer Group as they honored the 61st Primetime Emmy Award nominees for outstanding costumes. Several of the collections on display are vintage-era designs and re-purposed style from our Grandmother’s day.
Nominees included Janie Bryant, Costume Designer, Mad Men; Jo Katsaras, Emmy nominated Costume Designer for The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency; as well as Kim Martinez and Jennifer Kamrath, Emmy nominated Costume Designer and Supervisor, respectively, for The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.

The fourth annual exhibition, “The Art of Outstanding Television Costume Design,” showcases the work of this year’s Emmy nominated costume designers and costume supervisors. Show is curated by Mary Rose, President of the Costume Designers Guild and also Television Academy Governor, Costume Design and Supervision. FIDM, host to the exhibit, is also home to this season’s Project Runway.

Jo Katsaras and Mary Rose

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Janie Bryant and Barbara Bundy

Grey Gardens

Chanel Costume Design

Mary Rose and Librarian Nominees

Janie Bryant and Mary Rose

Pictures courtesy Paige Donner

• » See also: Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild Interview With Rachelle Carson Begley

Evidence of this year’s synergy between costume design and Depression-era fashion trends is spotlit in the exhibit, particularly those pieces on display from vintage-looking Grey Gardens, Chanel and Mad Men. Janie Bryant, Costume Designer for Mad Men, acknowledges that her choices are often very eco-friendly but also admits that it is an afterthought for her. “I use all vintage pieces – woolens, silks, I recycle fur,” she said. “I am primarily designing for the show’s look but when I can make eco-friendly choices as well, all the better.”
Depression-era styles are popping up in fashion shows, on street-wear and in the collections of new designers such as Miss K.K. who are re-purposing using sourced quality vintage-era garments rather than exploiting new materials.
Costume Guild member Nancy Fisher who works primarily on commercial shoots commented that she would much rather reach for an eco-tee but knows that she can only dress her clients in things they want to wear. “If I’m working with Cameron Diaz, for example, then it’s no problem to get her to wear eco. In fact, she prefers it. If only all the talent I worked with were like-minded…!”

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Tags: 61st EMMYs, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Chanel, Costume Designers Guild, Depression-era fashion, eco-friendly, EMMYs, FIDM, Greening Hollywood, Grey Gardens, Mad Men, Mary Rose, Project Runway, The Librarian, The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Tudors

Greening Hollywood: No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and MadMen

Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild Focus - Make Up and HairStylists I.A.T.S.E. Local 706

By Paige Donner

June 17th, 2009

There’s more to bringing the beauty industry and green scientists together, all at one table, then might first meet the eye. By the time I presented our panel of beauty experts, moderated by Rachelle Carson Begley, last weekend in my Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild seminar and workshop, I had learned a lot. I had learned more than just that Tarte has come out with a game-changing mascara called Lights, Camera, Lashes! and that O.P.I. had removed all three of the most harmful chemicals in their nail polish, and that Suki Pure has re-defined how to be profitable and committed to pure ingredients in the cosmetic industry.

Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild panelists: L-R Nikoletta Skarlatos, Make Up Artist, Pirates of The Caribbean; Robert Hallowell, Hair Stylist, Dancing With The Stars; Christina Marcaccini, founder, Raw Natural Beauty; Rachelle Carson Begley, Co-Star, Living With Ed; Lisa Archer, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics; Paige Donner, Founder, Greening Hollywood.
What a lucky stroke that EMA, the Environmental Media Association, came before me. The organization that Norman and Lynne Davis Lear founded 20 years ago has made inroads into almost every facet of “green” – including the billion dollar make up and beauty industry.
Of course, the first I thing I did, was go to Debbie Levin, president of EMA and tell her what I intended to do – namely present a panel of natural and green beauty experts for members of the Hollywood Make Up and Hair Stylists Guild – I.A.T.S.E. Local 706. Her colleague, Lisa Barnet, recalled they’d done something similar in 2006 though not for guild members specifically. It had been well-received but for whatever reason they’d chosen to do it as a one-off.



In the past three years lots has happened in the beauty world turning parts of it a deeper shade of green. For one, Oprah got on her show and talked about the terribleness of parabens in beauty products. That was a wake up call to women across the nation to look at the ingredients list in their beauty products. Secondly, California has since passed our Safe Cosmetics Act which is a piece of legislation aiming towards regulating the make up and beauty industry. The scientists from Environmental Working Group and Campaign for Safe Cosmetics who spoke on my Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild panel are quick to point out that there is NO FDA regulation of the ingredients put into cosmetics. Even though our skin acts like a sponge, absorbing whatever we put on it – nearly as much as what we put directly inside our bodies.
Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild, Focus Make Up and Hair, Panelists from I.A.T.S.E. Local 706 Hollywood’s Make Up Guild. Moderated on June 14th by Rachelle Carson Begley and Presented by Paige Donner, Founder, Greening Hollywood.
Now, when you’re an underfunded non-profit such as EWG and Campaign For Safe Cosmetics (a.k.a. breast cancer fund) and you’re going up against well-established cosmetic companies who have big slices of the billion dollar beauty industry, what do you do? Well, if you’re Lisa Archer (CFSC) and Becky Sutton, PhD. (EWG) you simply tell it like it is. AND you create a ratings system called SkinDeep.org where consumers can go to search and see how their products rank in terms of harmful ingredients. Their perspective is a consumer’s advocate one.
This is where the friction between cosmetic companies – both big and small – and these research non-profits rears its head. I contacted one cosmetic company to ask its CEO to speak on our panel and got an earful about the EWG and CFSC. This particular company is known to be one of the cleaner cosmetic companies and donates its profits to charity – all of its profits. They are on the smaller side as cosmetic companies go. I quickly was informed how they’d nearly been put out of business because of information pushed out to the public regarding their trace amounts of lead in a few of their lipsticks.
Now the issue of lead in lipstick is a big one. Last year California narrowly defeated a bill that would have disallowed the sale of lipstick in our state even with trace amounts of lead in it. Most cosmetic companies that you recognize when you walk into a department store have product lines that they sell in Europe - including lipstick with NO lead in it. So, it doesn’t seem to be a stretch for them to just introduce those products here and phase out the ones that are perceived to be harmful to our health. But, no. Alas, a handful of the biggies lobbied successfully last year and defeated the California bill that would have disallowed leaded lipsticks in our state.
Interestingly, the smaller company I referenced above, who is not a California company, did reformulate to take out all lead from their lipsticks. But she nearly went bankrupt doing so. She explained to me that there is more lead found naturally in a bar of chocolate than in a whole tube of her lipstick (before reformulation). And what the scientists apparently forget to consider is that someone, especially some of us women, can and will sit down and eat a whole chocolate bar. But never do we eat a whole tube of lipstick. Surely not in one sitting!
The point being that the SkinDeep rating system is an extremely useful tool. It does have its fallacies, however. Namely that it is self-rated. So a company whose CEO is honest will submit all its ingredients factually and candidly and get a certain rating. Whereas another company more savvy with playing the SkinDeep system, will submit only those ingredients they know to be rated safe and simply omit the harmful ingredients so that their ranking is strong on SkinDeep. They know that there is no auditing mechanism. Whatever they say is what their rating will be based on.
That said, when speaking with the President of Local 706 I.A.T.S.E. the Make Up and Hairstylist’s guild, she emphasized what a concern health issues are to her and her membership. Many guild members work long 12-14 hour days inside small trailers or otherwise enclosed spaces. To be inhaling noxious fumes and chemicals for long periods like that is not healthy and only time will tell what sort of ailments come of it. Similarly, many actors and actresses are also subject to vast amounts of chemicals in the form of beauty products being applied to them. One of our panelists, Nikoletta Skarlatos, a guild member, spoke about the use of prosthetics and how the industry is formulating natural-based prosthetic make up as an alternative.
Robert Hallowell, the “kitchen beautician,” another of our panelist’s and also a 706 member, acknowledged that a natural and effective hairspray is the Holy Grail of hair products. His line of hair care products, “Prawduct,” is all natural-derived and from recipes he cooked up in his kitchen.
Christina Marcaccini, who founded Raw Natural Beauty based in Manhattan Beach, spoke on our panel saying that when necessary companies have to re-formulate their products. If for no other reason than to capture the growing consumer demand and burgeoning market share that safe and pure ingredient cosmetics now command. L.A. – based O.P.I. nail polish company did this and removed three of the most toxic ingredients in their nail polish. The scientists see this is a victory and O.P.I. still has a huge slice of the nail polish pie. Girls won’t stop using make up – after all, most of us girls just want to play. But we can play safe and we can do so by choosing products that contribute to our beauty – both inside and out. And when needing a boost to go within, try Buddha Nose balms and aromatic sprays. Serenity in a bottle.

Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild Focus - Make Up and HairStylists I.A.T.S.E. Local 706

Greening Hollywood: Fashion Finds Generation Eco

By Paige Donner

Greening Hollywood: Maggie Gyllenhaal Steps Out on L.A.'s (Eco-) Fashion Runway

Maggie Gyllenhaal hosted The Eco-Fashion Runway show presented by Gen Art to kick off L.A.'s Fashion Week. Gyllenhaal, who is known for embracing a natural lifestyle and is particularly interested in supporting the growing trend of eco-friendly fashion, noted "lots of short skirts and amazing fabrics made out of bamboo," at the runway show staged inside The Petersen Automotive Museum.

Eco-where? was the question to ask of the runway show's fashions such were the designs so au courant. Only when it was blatantly pointed out (which it was!) that these designers use organic and sustainable fabrics and business methods, was the "eco" side to the designs in evidence.

Velvet Leaf Design
Featured designers were Velvet Leaf which showed a predominantly silk line by sisters Laura and Becky Carter, 21 and 23 years old; The Battalion, also created by a sister team, Chrys and Linda Wong, exhibited an exotic edge with its Anais Nin inspired theme; Popomomo, the design label of Silverlake's Lizz Wasserman, featured knee socks, ankle socks, stirrup socks paired with sandals and kitten pumps and dresses made from natural Soy Jersey; Brigid Catiis crafted her collection of short dresses with backties, sashes and bandeaus as "the fresh, the chic, the bold."


Gen Art was inspired to stage this first showcase of all eco, natural fashions because, "fashion is not just what you put on but what you put in your body." The Battalion uses only organic fabrics and emphasizes its use of bamboo, cotton blends and cruelty-free silk. It's known for soft drapery fabrics and comfort knits and jerseys.


The sisters Wong were determined to design a high-end, very wearable eco-friendly line that was fashion-driven. "We want to combine social and cultural issues into our fashion line. For this line we were inspired by the 80's New Wave, Flamenco dancing, rock-n-roll music and retro romanticism lifted from our readings of Anais Nin literature," they said. Their showstopper piece was the floor-length, all-white Flamenco ruffle evening gown with headdress/veil that had an Egyptian feel to it. It was cut from Bamboo Jersey. www.thebattalion.us


Popomomo's runway show was a comment on the impact of current events on fashion. "I used a lot of socks and legwear. This season it will be all about separates and accessories, pieces people can afford to add to their wardrobe. When I lived in New York, I was all about tights, but LA is too hot for tights!" said this bio-diesel-driving designer. Wasserman also added that when she's designing her line, "I start with my design ideas. Sometimes those ideas are curtailed by the fabrics I find but this time I found what I was looking for. You can't convince someone to wear a nasty fabric even if it's organic." www.popomomo.com


The Carter sisters, the brains and creativity behind Velvet Leaf are all about sourcing. "If you want to care about the environment, care about the labor that goes into making your goods," they said. Their line this season used a lot of raw silk and silk jersey which they source from a fair trade co-op in Cambodia operated by women. "So, basically, we're supporting a community of women in Cambodia," they said. They prefer to get their silk from the fair trade co-op rather than a country like China, they said, so they can be sure that the laborers who are gathering and processing the silk are treated fairly and humanely. "We like to be socially responsible as well as environmentally friendly," they said. www.velvetleafclothing.com

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Mallyce Miller is another young designer showcased by Gen Art's "Fresh Faces in Fashion" but not in the eco-wear category. Nonetheless, when she chose her plaid and flannel fabrics for last year's line, she opted for an organic bamboo fabric. "I'm clued in to what young people want, which is why I used plaids and flannels and chose a bamboo-based fabric," she said. She added that as eco-fashion becomes more popular as a trend, it will allow designers more ready choices in eco-friendly fabrics which will translate in competitive pricing for consumers. Also, she stays away from leather and fur and looks for shoes made out of other materials, such as Natalie Portman's line of vegan footwear. www.laekencollection.com


The event was co-sponsored by 360 Vodka which is an eco-friendly vodka. Their Close The Loop Campaign donates $1 to charity for every bottle top mailed back in to the company after use. Their bottles are made from 85% recycled glass.


Follow Paige Donner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/greeninghollywd

• Fashion Week
  

Maggie Gyllenhaal hosted The Eco-Fashion Runway show presented by Gen Art to kick off L.A.'s Fashion Week. Gyllenhaal, who is known for embracing a natural lifestyle and is particularly interested in...

Maggie Gyllenhaal hosted The Eco-Fashion Runway show presented by Gen Art to kick off L.A.'s Fashion Week. Gyllenhaal, who is known for embracing a natural lifestyle and is particularly interested in...

Greening Hollywood: Fashion Finds Generation Eco

Greening Hollywood: Green Is Teen Choice Awards

By Paige Donner

This year's Teen Choice Awards were hosted by Miley Cyrus, the queen of teen. Teens cast approximately 32 million votes in support of their favorite nominees.

Out on the blue carpet -- a royal blue because it was made from recycled plastic bottles and will be re-used at future events -- Greening Hollywood asked best buds, Demi Lovato (Camp Rock) and Selena Gomez (Princess Protection Program) what their eco-anthem might be about?

Selena Gomez -- Princess Protection Program
"If I sang an eco-anthem right now, it would be about global warming," said Gomez. "Turn off the lights, turn off the lights," is what Demi Lovato said might be some of her lyrics. "I'd also sing about another issue that is close to teens' hearts, which is rumors," said the young star who's on tour right now and starts a TV series in September. "And I have a new movie coming out called The Princess Protection Program that also stars Selena Gomez, my best friend."

Teen nominees for this year's Awards relished the idea of a recyclable "blue" carpet. Fox Broadcasting Company, said they'd specifically requested to rent this recyclable blue carpet rather than purchasing it outright and throwing it away after the event. When asked if traditionally at awards shows and big industry events the "red" carpet would just get tossed afterwards, Fox officials replied, "Yes!"
Fox says they're hoping that people will follow suit and rent the blue carpets for their events. "That's what we want everyone to do. We should all up the ante!"

Cast of The Secret Life of The American Teen

The Secret Life of The American Teen was nominated, and won, for Choice Summer TV Show. "The show aired only 5 times. It's ridiculous! I'm so excited!" said Francia Raisa who plays Adrian on the hit ABC Family show.
Greening Hollywood chatted with show cast members Greg Finley (Jack) and Kenny Baumann (Ben) pre-show.


Greening Hollywood: How is it working on the show?
"It's awesome. I can pay rent. Eat good food. And do what I love to do. And be with awesome people," said Finley who moved out to LA in 2005 from Maine to pursue an acting career.
"It doesn't feel like work. We're getting paid to do what we love. It's like a playground, y'know?" said Baumann whose family operates a wildlife rescue in Texas.


Greening Hollywood: What are some of the big issues these days?
"The big issue seems to be the environment. That's what I think every young teen should be all about is helping to make the environment better for future generations," said Finley.
"Any future candidate really needs to focus on environmental issues," said Baumann.
"Taking care of the environment is a really good idea for theworld. For peace," said cast member Luke.
"It's one of the only world issues, I think, that everyone can agree on. So why the heck not?" commented Finley.

Greening Hollywood: And what about the set of The Secret Life of The American Teen? Is it a green set?
"The creator of the show definitely stressed to the network that she wants a very green set and that all materials used for production are recycled and sustainable.," volunteered Finley.
"We recycle on our set. All the wood used in production on the set is recycled wood," added Baumann.

Greening Hollywood: And you guys are behind her on that?
"Oh yeah! Absolutely! You got to!" said all the cast members.

Greening Hollywood: Do you feel the environment is an issue that can bring us all together?
"I hope so. It's gotta be somethin' so why not the environment?" said Baumann.
Winner of Best Comedy Show, Hannah Montana, cast member Anna Maria Perez de Tagle said that, "People should start using public transportation more because our situation kind of calls for it."
This is something else that Joshua Mark of Fox thought about. He partnered with Global Inheritance, a nonprofit run by Eric Ritz, to provide a complimentary gift from show sponsors Neutrogena, JC Penney and Dr. Pepper, to whomever took public transportation to attend the show.
"Gifts will be given to any one of the 6000 audience members who took the bus or the subway to the show. And Universal is actually a very easy place to get to on a bus or by subway," said Mark.

Chris Brown, Teen Choice -- Best Male Artist


Global Inheritance also partnered with Fox on their composting stations throughout the Awards venue which was held at Gibson Ampitheatre. "We brought in compostable cups, lids, straws to the house... so pretty much everything in the house will be compostable when we're all done. A team from Global Inheritance is manning all the trash bins and they'll help people understand the difference between compost recycling and trash," explained Ritz.

And the big first for this awards show was the use of B99 bio-diesel fuel to power the generators for the blue carpet and press areas and the staging for the house. Solar was also used and fed into the grid in partnership with SoCal Edison.
"Most shows go B20 at the most. That's 20% bio-diesel and 80% regular diesel. B99 generates dramatically less carbon output. It's a much cleaner burning fuel," explained Mark who stressed that by greening the event, a lot of energy was saved.
"This is a first. It's the first time we've used B99. This is the first major awards show to use B99. This is the start of it," said Ritz.
Chris Brown who won a Choice Award for Best Male Artist, R&B Artist, and R&B Track said he came out not just to receive his awards but also to see what the younger kids were up to and who was doing what.  

Brown agreed with Greening Hollywood, that if our teens have anything to say about it, the color of our future is Green.

Follow Paige Donner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/greeninghollywd

Greening Hollywood: Green Is Teen Choice Awards

Greening Hollywood: Solar Taxi's Bbq In The 'Bu

 On 3 July 2007 I set off on my first journey around the world with a solar powered vehicle. The solar taxi...should show that every single one of us can take a step towards preserving our planet." Louis Palmer, SolarTaxi Instigator



The bbq in the 'Bu was held out in the Malibu Colony after the SolarTaxi spent the day making friends and fans at the Malibu Arts Festival. Locals attending included Brian Grazer, James Cameron, Larry Hagman, and wife of Universal Studios President, Kelly Meyer.


PICS available here:


Larry Hagman (of Who Shot J.R. fame) is a big believer in solar power. "Before I installed solar panels on my roof in 2005, my electricity bill was $37,000. The next year, 2006, my entire electric bill was $13.00. I went off-grid," Hagman told Greening Hollywood at the bbq in Malibu Colony.

According to Erik Schmitt, SolarTaxi videographer and Thomas Gottschalk, team mechanic, China has proved so far to be the most receptive country to the SolarTaxi and the concept of solar-powered vehicles. China is cornering the market on cheap silicon production which is what's used to manufacture solar cells. Silicon is made from sand.

Also mentioned by the solar sojourners was that Japan did not allow them entry, due to some archaic law about Swiss license plates still on the books. India has 80,000 deaths from traffic accidents each year. And Saudi Arabia finally issued them visas, from the King himself, to allow them to drive across the country albeit with a police escort the entire way!

How It Works
The solar cells that trail the vehicle on the flatbed behind the car produce enough electricity to travel up to 100 km a day.
When they need to drive more than 100 km a day, they charge their ZEBRA battery with additional solar power. Their solar power plant lives on a rooftop in Berne, Switzerland.
The electricity created by these rooftop solar panels in Berne is fed into the grid, offsetting electricity generated by using fossil fuels. "It's like paying money into a bank account and withdrawing the money somewhere else: We feed solar electricity into the grid and charge it into our battery anywhere in the world, from the grid. If all cars in the world were powered this way, cars wouldn't cause global warming!" says Louis Palmer.

The Solartaxi proves it's possible to drive 15,000 km a year powered by 9 square yards of solar cells on a rooftop.

More Pictures
 
Technology

The Solartaxi is a lightweight vehicle, about the size of a SmartCar.
* Ecology: Zero CO2 emission!
* A new energy solution provides independence: 6m2 solar cells on a rooftop yield power for 15,000 km per year!
* Freedom: To drive up to 400 km with the latest ZEBRA battery technology.
* Max. speed: 90 km/h
* Light weight: 500 kg (+ 250 kg for thailer)
* Energy efficient: Consumption of 8 kWh/100 km (equivalent of 0.8 l petrol / 100 km)
Follow Paige Donner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/greeninghollywd

Greening Hollywood: Solar Taxi's Bbq In The 'Bu

Greening Hollywood: Where Art and Nature Align

By Paige Donner



Art in harmony with Nature is what the G2 Gallery in Venice Beach is all about. The gallery opened March 11th on Venice's chic Abbot Kinney Blvd., and is housed in its very own eco-friendly building. The passion project of Dan and Susan Gottlieb, the G2 Gallery will only showcase art that has a nature or environmental theme.

The gallery's inaugural artist, the renowned nature photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen, said, "What the Gottliebs are trying to do with their gallery is new and different for L.A. I'm flattered that they chose me to be the first artist to be shown in the gallery. I'm proud to have my work in there." Mangelsen has dedicated his artwork to bringing attention to the need for conservation and protection of wildlife and its natural environment, "When I'm moved by something, such as images or experiences of nature, it helps me be inspired to protect it and talk about it," he said. He is the 2007 winner of the American Photo Images of the Year Competition, Nature category.

When asked if all the artists intended to be shown at her gallery will have a nature or environmental angle to their artwork, Susan Gottlieb answered, "That's what this gallery is about. We may do something other than photographs, we might turn to other art forms, but at this point in time we don't ever see ourselves straying from nature and wildlife, the environmental road," she said.

The G2 Gallery, founded to promote the appreciation and conservation of the natural environment through art forms, has collaborated with the Friends of the Ballona Wetlands and the Environmental Media Association to donate 15% of all sale proceeds.

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The G2 Gallery plans on being actively available for lecture series and conferences. "We really want to use this building to that end. We really do. It's a passion," said Gottlieb. "I'm on the Board of Directors for The Friends of Ballona Wetlands. In fact, we're holding our Board Meetings here, now." Any groups or individuals interested can direct their inquiries to Jolene Hanson, the gallery's director.

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Installations will last about 3 months. Robert Glenn Ketchum will be shown in the near future. Ketchum was acknowledged by Audubon magazine as one of the 100 people "who shaped the environmental movement of the 20th century."

Commented Susan Gottlieb about photographer/environmentalists Mangelsen and Ketchum, "I guess it would be hard to go out in nature and take these pictures and not see the devastation that is being wrought by our terrible practices."

The G2 Gallery
1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA 90201
Tues-Sun. 11-6 www.theG2gallery.com

Follow Paige Donner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/greeninghollywd

Greening Hollywood: Where Art and Nature Align