Sunday

World Water Week

From The Green Blog Network 

Courtesy of Stockholm International Water Institute

World Water Week - Green Blog Network

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On the Water Front vol. 2 presents new analysis from global thought-leaders

New edition features 14 essays on water and water quality issues that build upon research presented at the 2010 World Water Week in Stockholm. 

On the Water Front vol. 2 offers a collection of the most innovative and important insights on water and water quality presented at the 2010 World Water Week in Stockholm. This compendium is a must-read for those interested in the latest knowledge, tools and strategies to resolve the planet’s most pressing water quality challenges.

World Water Week Announcement - Green Blog Network

Each of its chapters are authored by leading luminaries from science, business, and public policy and build upon research presented at the 2010 World Water Week in Stockholm, includingStockholm Water Prize Laureates Dr. Rita Colwell and Prof. Takashi Asano and have been edited and peer reviewed by the World Water Week Scientific Programme Committee.

Download it here to gain knowledge on how the public health sector will be impacted by climate change, the most potent policy cocktails to protect coastal waters, the best-practice solutions to wastewater reclamation and reuse, what the potential onset of peak water and peak phosphorus could mean to humanity, new ideas to mitigate the growing dangers of chemical and agricultural pollution to human and environmental health, and much more.

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Monday

China's Booming Eco Beauty Market

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Gaining a Perspective of Possibility for Health and Sustainability in the world’s second largest market - brought to you by Greening Beauty

[press release] August 2011 – Join LOHAS Asia in Shanghai from September 9-14 to unravel some crucial insights for the health and sustainability market in China.

Helping suppliers and attendees to the Eco Lifestyles Fair 2011 to fully understand their new consumer before the fair, The Wellness Works, Asia Pacific LOHAS, Greenovate, Hotpoint Consulting and LOHAS Online have designed a program of tours, workshops and strategic meetings over four days so that attendees can meet like-minded multi-national executives cross category who will learn with you and listen to showcases of small LOHAS companies currently in the market.
 
 
Co-hosted by LOHAS China Country Manager Amena Lee Schlaikjer and Adam Horler, President of Asia Pacific LOHAS Pte. Ltd., attendees will be well prepared for the Eco Lifestyles Fair having gained valuable key insights into new behaviours and touch points:
 
·      Who is the new LOHAS consumer and what are their values and concerns?
·      What can you do as a company to take advantage of this new market?
·      Is it more challenging to develop sustainable practices here in China?
  • And finally, most importantly, how to make a difference!


THE LOHAS Asia and NMI research on China from January 2010 questioned 1,000 consumers across the five cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Results showed that 88% agreed that it is important for companies to be mindful of their impact on society. With China having overtaken Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy, the LOHAS consumer demand is on the rise month by month and there is an urgency for the market to respond.
 
For more information see http://www.the-wellness-works.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/LOHAS-in-China-INSIGHT-TOUR2.pdf

Amena Lee Schlaikjer
Wellness Innovator
Amena went full circle after living in Shanghai as a baby having moved to different cities in Asia and Europe every 2-3 years since birth. She decided to combine her studies in Asian Economics and Fashion Merchandising from Columbia and F.I.T to work on marketing and operations projects for small boutiques in New York and Shanghai, building an expertise in the Health/Beauty/Lifestyle sectors.  She worked on the launches of Vogue, M.A.C and Zagat Survey in Shanghai before being lured by the innovation world to help open ?Whatif! ‘s first China office and growing the team to 20 people.
She has since moved on to start her own initiative called THE WELLNESS WORKS, crafting ideas and events that inspire others towards living healthier.  She is the acting Shanghai manager of Asia-Pacific LOHAS where she gets her much of research and support and works with several creative teams on ad hoc projects that colour the world of wellness.
Frequent traveler, known ‘hustler’ on occasion, and fond of diving, archery and yoga, she lives in Shanghai with her husband and two cats, Sheba and Spirit.
 
Adam Horler
President, LOHAS Asia
Having charted a highly successful career path through the likes of P&G, L’Oreal, red earth (Esprit), AS Watson and Molton Brown (Kao), Adam decided to leave the “comfy armchair” of corporate life in Nov 2008.
More than half his business life has been spent working in Asia, moving to Hong Kong from England in April 1998 and then to Singapore in Sep 2006. His corporate travels have taken him all over Asia; from the capital cities to the countryside; from mega malls to the smallest regional wholesale markets; from Japan to New Zealand to India; all in search of the Asian consumer and what makes them tick.
Asia-Pacific LOHAS is the result of his journey, a regional social enterprise seeking to educate millions of consumers that consumption can be done in a better way and helping facilitate the growth of the LOHAS business community to serve these consumers.
 
About ECO LIFESTYLES 2011
Already described as the 'largest and most comprehensive eco exhibition in China', the event will be held at the Shanghai World Expo Theme Pavilion from 15 to 17 September 2011 and will bring together eco-friendly companies and green brands. It also aims to grow China's LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) market, by educating consumers on the benefits of eco-friendly and green products, as well as encouraging green and eco-friendly lifestyles.
To do so, concurrent activities and special pavilions for the consumers and the public include the LOHAS One-stop Eco Home, the Green Transportation Hub, the Green Kitchen, and the One Million Signature LOHAS Day Event.
Click on www.ecolifestyles.cn/en <http://www.ecolifestyles.cn/en>  to see more details of the event.
 
ECO LIFESTYLES 2011 is supported by the Shanghai municipal government and organized by Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Shanghai Municipal Agricultural Commission and China Trade Promotion Committee.

Posted via email from Greening Beauty


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Youth Sue U.S. Gov't. Over Climate Change

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In case you haven't yet heard, Alec Loorz, the Al Gore climate change protege', filed suit in May against the U.S. government. We wrote about Alec several years ago in Greening Hollywood when he participated in the Los Angeles Youth Environmental Conference. The Guardian U.K. published his explanation, an excerpt of which follows:

Today, I and other fellow young people are sueing the government, for handing over our future to unjust fossil fuel industries, and ignoring the right of our children to inherit the planet that has sustained all of civilization. I will join with youth and attorneys in every state in the US to demand that our leaders to live and govern as if our future matters.
The government has a legal responsibility to protect the future for our children. So we are demanding that they recognize the atmosphere as a commons that needs to be preserved, and commit to a plan to reduce emissions to a safe level.
The plaintiffs and petitioners on all the cases are young people. We are standing up for our future.
But we will not only stand up in the courts. We will stand up in the streets as well. [Read Full Article]

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Wednesday

The Big Uneasy

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Re-printed from Press Release

In 2005, a disaster struck New Orleans. You know the rest. Or do you?

The media reported that what happened in New Orleans was a natural disaster primarily affecting poor black people. On both counts, the media was wrong. But its inability or unwillingness to report the hard truth – that these tragic floods creating widespread damage were caused by manmade errors in engineering and judgment - has failed both journalism and public safety. For what happened in New Orleans could happen again in other cities across the United States.

On August 16 THE BIG UNEASY will be available nationwide onVOD via all major cable providers, (Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter and Cablevision) broadband VOD portals (iTunes, Vudu, Xbox, and Verizon FIOS) and DVD (Amazon.com).  

Please also check out his website at thebiguneasy.com.

In his feature-length documentary The Big Uneasy, humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer gets the inside story of a disaster that could have been prevented from the people who were there. Shearer speaks to the tireless investigators and experts who poked through the muck as the water receded, and uncovers a courageous whistle-blower from the Army Corps of Engineers. His dogged pursuit of facts reveals that some of the same flawed methods responsible for levee failure during Hurricane Katrina are being used to rebuild the system expected to protect the "new" New Orleans from future peril.

In short segments hosted by actor John Goodman (Treme), Shearer speaks candidly with local residents about life in New Orleans. Together, they explore the questions that Americans outside of the Gulf region have been pondering in the years since Katrina: Why would people choose the live below sea level? Why is it important to rebuild New Orleans?

Shearer's film is also laced with computer imagery that takes you inside the structures that failed so catastrophically, and boasts never-before-seen video of the moments when New Orleans began to flood and the painstaking investigations that followed. Likewise, the film demonstrates what awaits people on the inside who try to report painful truths to the powers that be.

The Big Uneasy marks the beginning of the end of ignorance about what happened to one of our nation's most treasured cities—and serves as a stark reminder that the same agency that failed to protect New Orleans still employs the same flawed science in many other cities across America. Without improvements to engineering and accountability in oversight, the film cautions, we will be very sorry to see history repeat itself elsewhere. Nothing less than public safety is at stake.

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Tuesday

Odacité And Absolution - Bespoke Skincare

Bespoke is the new black.  Or, rather, bespoke skincare is the newest wisdom in product formulation for skincare products, especially in natural and organic based lines. We've come across two stellar lines this past year who are both formulating skincare product lines specific to personal and individual needs.

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Odacité

The first, Odacité, is created by founder Romain Gaillard, a French native who makes his home currently in Southern California. For a novel approach and because it's important to remember that our menfolk need TLC too, we tried out his line of products that were formulated specifically for an adult male whose lifestyle includes some sun exposure and late nights.

Before the products were formulated, senior Skincoach Nairi Khatchadourian sent along a detailed questionnaire to find out what sorts of skincare concerns our tester had. This is the response, along with the product types and explanations, that were received:

Dark Circles Under Eyes: The Odacité skincare includes a "great concentration of Tocopherols (natural Vitamin E) that is known to help with dark circles. It also includes bioavailable Vitamin C of rosehip oil that helps strengthen blood vessel walls, and tea extracts that work wonders at reducing dark circles."

Dark circles can appear as a result of several factors: lifestyle, genetic, lack of sleep, aging.

Odacite

Suntegrity sunscreen is their product to deflect the harmful effects of overexposure to the sun.  It's an effective product which is saying a lot for something that is so respectful of natural ingredients use. Sunscreens still are something of the Holy Grail for natural-based skincare products.

Cleanser. The cleanser includes Tamanu oil from the rain-forest of Madagascar which is a super healing oil. They get the wild-crafted oil from Madagascar 
because wild plants retain the highest potency. Tamanu oil is proven to aid in the elimination of waste material and toxins from the capillaries. The cleanser also comes with two sponges that encourage lymph circulation when used on the face.

Immortelle Toner.Toning  helps shrink pores and restores healthy skin Ph balance. They suggest using the Toner as an after shave. Its base is Aloe Vera so it hydrates the skin and reduces puffiness.

The moisturizer is formulated with pure virgin coconut oil and organic aloe. These boost 
skin hydration by locking in moisture. The fresh organic aloe also heals. It is also, "Formulated with DMAE a natural skin firming agent. Long term use of DMAE  has been clinically proven to greatly decrease the appearance of loose and sagging skin. DMAE also helps prevent and reduce age spots."

Our Greening Beauty test subject felt a significant improvement in his skincare quality after using only these products for three weeks. Not any kind of a Metrosexual, it was difficult to convince him to use any kind of skincare. But after using Odacité Bespoke Skincare, we now have a firm believer in natural, crafted to order, skincare.

Absolution

Absolution

The founder of this organic skincare line from France, Isabelle Carron, describes it as "the first unisex bespoke certified organic cosmetics brand." She has created it from minerals, vitamins and wild plant extracts. The line is formulated with simplicity in mind. It is the founder's goal to offer a few products that can answer a variety of your skin's needs.

This she does with a truly original approach to "bespoke."  Basics of the line such as La Crème du Jour and La Solution + Energie are packaged by themselves but formulated to be sold together so that the client, themselves, can mix the ingredients according to their skin's needs at that moment.

This approach earned Carron a Beyond Beauty Jury Award and a Wallpaper Magazine Design Award in 2010. The product line is also Eco Cert-ified.  The Day Cream (recyclable)-plastic jar/pump is beveled inward at the top so that when you pump a bit of the cream out onto the little "bowl" it allows you to spritz a drop of the Energy Solution onto it so that you can mix it all up right there with your fingertips, just before applying. Other "La Solution" varieties are: Eclat (Clarifying/brightening), Anti-Age, and Controle.

The product philosophy emphasizes Listening. "Listen to Yourself..." it says, "Listen to your skin! Intimate connection, echo of your soul and body, your skin's needs are like yours: constantly changing.

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The ingredients are potent: Olive tree flavonoids, Aloe Vera, Borage oil whose anti-aging actions is combined with a mineral sunscreen (Mica) - all of this in the day cream. And in the booster you have Echinacea, Edelweiss and Extract of Thermus Thermophillus to name a few. [That last-named ingredient is particularly effective in protecting your skin from air pollution, UV ad electromagnetic radiations.]

You can read more on the new Absolution.me Blog. 

 

Posted via email from Greening Beauty


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Wednesday

California And Quebec Leaders In Sustainable Transportation


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Tuesday

Athgo International at The World Bank: Climate Change And Entrepreneurship


Treat Yourself to a rewarding experience with Athgo and the

World Bank

4th Global Innovation Forum at the World Bank
Climate Change and Constructive Entrepreneurship

August 10-12, 2011


   
 

Get to know an entrepreneur who made a global career in

entertainment and in advocacy, meet Will.I.Am, the 7 time

Grammy Award winner as the front man and producer of

The Black Eyed Peas

 

Learn from a true serial entrepreneur who founded and manages

the largest and most efficient recycler of electronic waste in the

World, meet the "Clean Tech Entrepreneur of the Year" and the

"Innovator of the Year" Mr. John Shegerian

 

If you are building a new green company, meet Mr. Tom Soto, a

Venture Capitalist whose portfolio clean tech companies have

consistently grown by 150% per year in revenue

 

Interested in creating high-impact solutions while ensuring

entrepreneurial culture, meet Ms. Molly Tschang from Cisco

 

If you are curious about entrepreneurship by way of public sector,

meet Mr. Ivo Ivanovski, the Minister of Information Society of

Macedonia from the age of 28

 
Discover the World Bank, meet Ms. Angelica Silvero
 

Learn about search engine optimization, meet social media guru,

Mr. Evan Bailyn, who used his ability to rank at the top of Google

to build and sell five businesses

 

Learn about clean technologies, specifically electric and fuel cell vehicles,

meet Mr. Jeff Werner, the General Manager of International at Daimler

 
 
Limited seats. Almost at capacity! Learn More | Register | Intern
 
The World Bank Electronic Recyclers International Embassy of Finland in Washington DC


The Climate Project: Interview with Athgo's Chairman Dr. Armen Orujyan

 

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Will.i.Am, Stade de France, Paris June 2011. Photo by Paige Donner
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Black Eyed Peas, Stade de France, Paris June 2011. Photo by Paige Donner
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Will.i.Am, Stade de France, Paris June 2011. Photo by Paige Donner

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Saturday

Info Dog Day Afternoon L.A.

Ecodog


Join us on Tuesday, July 26 from 6:00PM – 9:00PM at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels for the 5th Annual Downtown Dog Day Afternoon at the Cathedral. Come for all or part.

 

This event is for Downtown LA dogs only and their humans, but all Downtowners without dogs and friends of Downtown are welcome too. Come meet your neighbors, Downtown dogs, and join us for an afternoon of fun, food, and community building. Dogs and cats will also be available for adoption.

 

Register today at www.DowntownLA.com/dogday

 

See you all there! 

-- 

Recycle, Reuse, Rejoice!

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Farmageddon Review

By Gina Hall

Gina Hall is a Los Angeles-based writer. Follow her on Facebook. [Bio Cont'd Below...]

Did you have a good 4th of July? Did you spend it eating organic corn-on-the-cob and knocking back a glass of raw milk? No? Me neither. In America, we tend to celebrate our freedom eating the most inorganic materials agribusiness has to offer. You can commemorate our freedom and our forefathers with fireworks, flags and Cool Whip or you can support a film that shows another fight for freedom happening with less fanfare but with a huge impact 

our lives, liberties and pursuit of good food.   
  Farmageddon isn’t a pastoral Michael Bay film as the title suggests, but it is explosive and may provide welcome respite from this week’s Transformers Bay bonanza. It’s a documentary by mother Kristin Canty, who found her way into filmmaking by sheer outrage. Canty follows several farmers and distributors on the frontlines in a war against raw milk.

Raw Milk? Yeah, the stuff people have been drinking for over 8,000 years ever since someone pulled on a cow udder and found it produced something tasty. Louis Pasteur originally intended the pasteurization process for keeping wine and beer from souring – the French commitment to their alcohol is amazing. The process was extended to milk, and for a long time pasteurized milk was sold side by side with the raw. However, as the industrial food system took hold, the pasteurization process became necessary, as the industrial milk would often make people ill. Pasteurization became the FDA’s failsafe even though the benefits of raw milk, which has more healthy bacteria, has been claimed to improve allergies and digestion. 
Are you rolling the dice with raw milk and its by products like yogurt and cheese? Sure. Raw milk can contain bacteria that can make you sick, or kill you. So can spinach, hamburger and fried Twinkies. But raw milk seems to bring out the nasty side of our government, by which I mean raids, guns and million dollar surveillance operations. The film is a collection of eye witness interviews, expert testimony and actual footage showing our U.S. government spending your tax dollars to stalk small farmers, raid their farms, confiscate their equipment and sue them in court. Rarely with a warrant or cause. 

Canty’s film is elegant in its simplicity it shows you the evidence and allows you to ask most of the questions  – like why do we punish small co-ops for producing healthy foods and subsidize the industrial complex that’s contributing to obesity. Is it really safer to pasteurize dairy products or is it something we’ve just grown accustomed to even though it may be detrimental to our health? And wouldn’t Pasteur, a Frenchmen, be rolling in his grave to know Americans were pasteurizing cheese?           
In the film, perennial food documentary favorite Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin asks “why do they have such a problem with freedom?”  It rhetorical, of course, because we all know the answer is money. Canty tries for straight answers from the FDA and the  Department of Agriculture but what no one seems willing to fess up to is the revolving door between politics and agribusiness.  Canty’s film is a small victory in a larger battle fighting for the freedom to choose better food. It’s a war that can use all the patriots it can get.      

For more information visit farmageddonmovie.com

Recycle, Reuse, Rejoice!

 

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