But before you go out and buy that can of Raid and take aim at the crawling menace, pause to ask yourself: Do you really want to coat your home in toxins that you can’t see and that may persist on surfaces for weeks? Are you willing to put your children and pets at even greater risk than what you yourself face from these poisonous chemicals? Are you sure the solution isn’t more dangerous than the problem?

Educating the public about the dangers of chemical pesticides and promoting safe, effective alternatives for dealing with pests is the mission of Chicago-based nonprofit Safer Pest Control Project. Since 1994 this organization — which began as a coalition of four environmental groups–has worked to reduce the risks to human health wherever pesticides are commonly used, including in schools, childcare centers, residential buildings, yards and parks and in agriculture.

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But the river which made the rise of this metropolis possible endured an incredible amount of abuse as the city grew up around it. For most of the last 200 years, the river was treated essentially as an open sewer, where household and industrial waste was dumped with abandon. (One particularly rancid part of the river earned the nickname “Bubbly Creek” because of methane buildup due to decomposing animal remains dumped by the Chicago stockyards, famously depicted in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle.) The contamination led to many outbreaks of cholera, typhoid, and other diseases in the 1800s because the sewage flowed out into Lake Michigan, the source of the city’s drinking water. In 1900, a massive engineering project succeeded in using locks to reverse the flow of the river so that the pollution was sent southwest through the newly completed Chicago Sanitary and Ship canal and into the Missippi River watershed, away from Lake Michigan. When Chicagoans weren’t trying to ignore the stench of the river or actively abusing it, they seriously messed with the natural hydrology. Not much respect.

This human disrespect for the Chicago River continued up through the 1980s, when the river was often still clogged with garbage. But beginning in the 1990s, things started turning around for this urban waterway. Pollution levels started to drop (due in no small part to enforcement of Clear Water Act legislation) and people began to notice that the river, no longer smelly and unsightly, could actually be an enhancement to city life, a corridor of somewhat natural green space in an urban setting. People began using the river for recreational activities that put them in closer contact with the water, such as canoeing and kayaking, in addition to the larger pleasure boats and sightseeing ferries. New buildings along the river are now built so that people can walk along the shore and appreciate this natural asset, rather than being sited facing away from the river, as much architecture did in the 20th century.

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But the 2008 presidential election is too momentous to simply throw up your hands and flip a coin — or to allow yourself to be swayed by a strictly emotional reaction to the candidates. The next president’s administration will have to deal with a slew of problems facing the country, and global climate change is just one of them. If you care about environmental issues and want your political leaders to take the lead on addressing the root causes of environmental degradation that have gone unmitigated during the last several years, you’re going to want to vote for a candidate who puts the environment at the top of his or her agenda — right up there with the Iraq war, the economy, health care, and immigration reform.

So how do you find out which candidates support the environmental issues that matter to you? It’s hasn’t been easy to tell from mainstream press coverage because the environment has gotten pushed to the back burner by more hot-button issues during the campaign. But a number of online sources have done the homework for us, and offer helpful side-by-side comparisons of the environmental platforms on offer.

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Realistically, we’ve got a long way to go before such a claim can be made with a straight face, but progress is being made. Some of the bolder initiatives that City Hall has launched in recent years have worked to expand the use of green roofs, support sustainable architecture, and reduce waste from plastic water bottles. There are other examples, but suffice to say that the mayor is backing up his green rhetoric with some real political muscle in a bid to leave a legacy as an early 21st century environmental leader.

But one criticism that can be made about Daley’s approach so far to creating a more sustainable city is that it is very top-down. Municipal government can put in place programs to encourage better resource management, but it can’t mandate a local green economy into existence. Achieving that goal takes the vision, dedication, and hard work of countless green business entrepreneurs and environmentally conscious consumers. And let’s face it, most of us don’t really enjoy when the government tells us what to do. Even when City Hall tackles an issue we’re passionate about, most of us wonder to ourselves, “Why are they doing it that way? Wouldn’t it be more effective to do X with the money?”

If you’ve ever had such idea, imagine for a moment that you could get help from your local government agencies to help make it a reality. Wouldn’t it be great to have such ideas nurtured instead of being left to die on the vine?

Enter the Chicago Conservation Corps.

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If you’ve ever felt a pang of guilt about how much garbage is created when ordering takeout, you’ve got good reason.  All those disposable containers and plastic bags made from petroleum create an environmental impact that goes on long after you’ve enjoyed the last of your Pad Thai leftovers. According to one report cited on Treehugger, over 1 million plastic bags are consumed in this country every minute. How many of those bags wind up in landfills after one use or, worse, end up wreaking havoc on marine life in the world’s oceans, is difficult to calculate. But it’s a trend that has been on a troubling upswing for a long time.  

To address this problem, an increasing number of restaurants and other food service providers have started to switch from petroleum-based plastic take-out items to compostable products made from renewable resources, such as corn (PLA) and sugar cane fiber (bagasse).  One of the major barriers that restaurants face when switching to such bio-based containers, however, is a painful difference in cost.

For example, restaurateur Dan Rosenthal who runs casual-Italian minichain Sopraffina Marketcaffe in Chicago found that he would pay a heavy price to replace the 400,000 non-biodegradable plastic bags he went through each year. The switch would entail 7 cents more per bag, for a total of $28,000 every year.

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The first problem you’ll face in striving to be a more conscious consumer may be finding the right places to shop. Where do you look for a local hardware or office supply or cleaning supply store that shares your emphasis on the environment? How do you go about finding a building contractor for that kitchen remodeling project that is knowledgeable about installing environmentally friendly materials? If only there were a “green pages” directory that listed all your sustainable shopping options in one place you’d have a lot easier time doing right by the planet, wouldn’t you?

Well, if you live in Chicago, MeGoGreen has you covered.

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As the New Year begins, Chicagoans are getting some direct encouragement to forgo buying disposable bottled water and switch to reusable bottles filled with fresh, clean water from the tap. In November, Chicago became the first city in the U.S. to pass a tax on bottled water sold within the city limits. The 5 cents per bottle tax went into effect on Jan. 1, and is expected to raise $10.5 million for the city this year.

In addition to producing revenue that can be used to maintain the city’s water infrastructure, the tax is designed to encourage citizens to shift their hydration habits from bottled to tap water, which is essentially the same thing you get when you buy most bottled water brands. (Filtration with a charcoal filter such as Brita or Pur is a common step taken to remove any chlorine aftertaste, though it I think it tastes fine straight from the faucet.) The tax will also help reduce the number of the plastic containers that wind up in landfills (less than 20% of plastic water bottles in this country are ever recycled) and reduce the greenhouse gas and other pollution created by trucking all that water to retail sites.

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The good news is that more and more hotel chains are taking up the challenge of incorporating the values of sustainability into their operations. One example is the Hotel Intercontinental in Chicago, which last week announced plans to begin supporting renewable energy in a big way.

The agreement between Intercontinental Chicago Hotel and electricity supplier Constellation NewEnergy is a good thing for the environment, but it takes a little bit of explanation to understand why. That’s because the hotel won’t actually be using wind, solar, or hydroelectric power in its golden domed building on Michigan Avenue. Instead, it will support the operation of power plants that create green energy by purchasing renewable energy certificates (RECs) equal to 50% of its total electricity use. Not every business is able to change its operations to run on green electricity, but any company can buy RECs. For every certificate purchased, a unit of renewable energy is produced and fed into the power grid. The more renewable energy placed onto the grid, the less nonrenewable energy (such as coal, nuclear, oil, and gas) is required to fill the country’s energy needs.

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The urban fabric of Chicago is getting greener every year. Since 1989, more than 500,000 trees have been planted, more than 80 miles of landscaped medians constructed, and 2 million square feet of green roofs built or negotiated—more than all other American cities combined. But the more significant greening is happening in the built environment, where sustainable architecture is becoming a growing part of the skyline here in the birthplace of the skyscraper.

The push toward green building has been gaining momentum in the Windy City during the past few years. Chicago served as proud host to the 2007 GreenBuild Expo in November. The city already has the most LEED-certified buildings in the world. In the private sector, a number of large commercial projects underway will showcase some innovative design. One of the most dramatic of these is Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire, a 2,000 foot twisting tower that will become the nation’s tallest building after completion in 2010. The commercial and residential tower will seek LEED Gold status based on many features including special glass to protect migrating birds.

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The push toward green building has been gaining momentum in the Windy City during the past few years. Chicago served as proud host to the 2007 GreenBuild Expo in November. The city already has the most LEED-certified buildings in the world. In the private sector, a number of large commercial projects underway will showcase some innovative design. One of the most dramatic of these is Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire, a 2,000 foot twisting tower that will become the nation’s tallest building after completion in 2010. The commercial and residential tower will seek LEED Gold status based on many features including special glass to protect migrating birds.

Part of the reason green building is gaining momentum is a big push from City Hall. The administration of Mayor Richard Daley has mandated the use of green roofs and other sustainable design in all city-financed projects. While commercial developers gradually find their way to building more sustainable design as the real estate market develops demand, the city has been able to spread green building throughout the city by requiring all new public buildings to achieve LEED Silver status. In addition to the creation of green schools, green police stations, and green libraries, two buildings that opened their doors this year to some of Chicago’s poorest residents show that green design isn’t just for the well-heeled.

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Perhaps the biggest obstacle to creating this vision of a shining city on a green hill is that government can’t do it alone. While the city has shown willingness to lead by example, it will take the coordinated efforts of the corporate community and private citizens to turn a metropolis with an aging and underfunded mass transit infrastructure, and less-than-stellar record of water management and waste stream recycling, into a model for American cities looking to get serious about getting green.

One of the more intriguing ideas for eco-friendly urban design that Daley’s administration has tried to spread to the private sector is the green roof. Through its Green Roof Grants Program, the city has subsidized more than 60 residential and small commercial projects to the tune of $5,000 each in the last two years. Because the program includes fast-track building permits along with financial incentives, the use of green roofs has spread dramatically. In fact, Chicago now has more square footage of green roofs than any other American city.

The attraction of green roofs is that they offer environmental and economic benefits to both the building owner and the surrounding community. Cities with green roofs are more livable because the increased plant matter helps improve air quality and lowers the ambient air temperature during the hottest weather. Because plants use the energy of the sun to grow and photosynthesize rather than absorbing it as heat, green roofs help reduce the urban heat island effect (which contributes to ozone formation and increased energy consumption in the summer). Green roofs also help absorb and manage storm water runoff, which can be a big problem during heavy downpours in areas with a lot of impermeable surfaces. Owners of buildings with green roofs often see reductions in heating and cooling bills of 20% to 30%, and an additional economic incentive is a greatly increased roof lifespan. Finally, I should mention the aesthetic enhancement that added greenery brings to an urban landscape.

For those residents not willing or able to make the commitment to green roof (which may require building plans for strengthening roof support, added occupant access routes, or irrigation systems), the city recently unveiled a related intiative called the Cool Roof Grants Program. The program will encourage the use of light-colored or reflective materials, some of which use a soy-based coating, on conventional roofs. While lacking the aesthetic and water-management advantages of green roofs, cool roofs do fight the heat island effect, which means less electricity demand and better air quality. The Cool Roofs grant program will be even more well-funded than the Green Roofs program: a total of $185,000 in grants will be awarded in the first year, which breaks down to about 55 projects receiving up to $6,000 each.

Cool roofs may not be as sexy as green roofs, but encouraging their use just might be a better use of scarce municipal funds: an easily-accessible way to encourage Chicago residents to do something tangible to lower the city’s carbon footprint. In essence, this is an intermediate step toward a truly sustainable roof design, with the main goal being to get as many building owners as possible to transition away from the old black tar roofing material that soaks up the solar heat and makes the city a hotter, more smog-prone, and energy-inefficient place to live. In the age of global warming triage (change something, anything, but do it soon!), this idea makes a lot of sense for a town with the moniker "The city that works." This program will work, for the most number of people.

At least I hope that’s the impetus behind this new initiative … and not, say, influence peddling by some group of crooked roofing contractors scheming to corner the market on reflective coating materials in Cook County. After all, shadier things have happened in Chicago, and you don’t have to go back to the days Al Capone to find examples.

Photo credit: U.S. EPA

References and Resources

Mayor Daley’s Green Crusade | Metropolismag.com

History of Green Roofs in Chicago | Inhabitat

Green Roof and Cool Roof Grants Programs | City of Chicago

Chicago Green Roofs Initiative | City of Chicago

Cool Roofs | U.S. EPA

Part trade show, part educational seminar, and part family-themed festival, the Naturally Healthy Children’s Expo is a two-day event focused on exposing families with children to all the tools they have available for achieving a more natural, holistic, and sustainable lifestyle. Mixed in among more than 70 exhibitors at this year’s expo were five different stages featuring dozens of presentations by speakers covering topics like healthy eating, holistic medical approaches to pediatric conditions, and raising kids with a concern for the natural world. There were also a few activities geared at the kiddos themselves, including a hands-on music stage, coloring wall, and various small creatures of the household pet variety available for the petting.

As you might expect in a LOHAS-themed event, a large proportion of the booths were devoted to healthy food products and alternative medical services. But I wound up spending most of my time at booths that fell into other categories. These included book and magazine publishers, household product makers (hawking wares like truly portable nylon tote bags, safe cleaning products, and sustainable toys), and nonprofit educational institutions such the Shedd Aquarium and Chicago Wilderness. I basically focused exclusively on exhibitors with a direct focus on environmental sustainability, and I still didn’t cover everything after a couple of hours. Here’s a sample of some of my favorite discoveries:

• The Chico Bag: A really handy way to keep reusable shopping bags at the ready. The nylon is guaranteed strong and durable, and the bag can be recycled at the end of its life.
• Me Go Green: A Chicago-focused green search engine, savings/coupon book, business directory, and resource for school fundraisers.
• Leave No Child Inside: A public awareness initiative launched by the Chicago Wilderness consortium based on a national movement popularized by Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.
• Naked Juice: I found out from another exhibitor that this brand is owned by Pepsi, but I’m still sold on their gross-looking Green Machine smoothie made from apple, kiwi, and other assorted nutrient-rich produce. Anything this green that can make a preschooler ask for seconds (and thirds!) without added sugar is some kind of miracle elixir.
• Zota Soda: It ain’t exactly health food, but I predict this delicious soft drink made from organic green tea will be all the rage in a couple years. After just a few samples, I’m hooked on the gently fizzy, lightly sweet, totally thirst-quenching beverage — it’s just that good. Zota comes in six flavors, and I can vouch for lemon, orange, and raspberry. I may never go back to Dr. Pepper.

The aspect of the expo that had the greatest unrealized potential, though, was the extensive series of speakers and panel discussions. These sessions were free of the commercial aspect of the trade show and offered the chance for attendees to hear from passionate experts in many fields in an intimate setting. Unfortunately, these sessions seemed sparsely attended, with just a handful of people stopping to sit and listen to most presentations. Perhaps this was because there wasn’t much in the way of drop-off activities for the younger kids, and the speaking sessions required at least a middle-school attention span.

The few speakers that I did catch seemed to have some thought-provoking things to say about the challenges facing families in the age of electronic personal media and a convenience-driven, throwaway society. More importantly, they were offering practical ideas for meeting those challenges. But without much of an audience (at least on Saturday) I think there were some missed opportunities for information sharing. Hopefully next year’s expo (already scheduled for September 20-21, 2008 — mark your calendars) will concentrate the presentations into fewer stages with better attendance. In the meantime, parents interested in getting free practical advice from the folks who put together the expo can sign up for a monthly e-newsletter that will go out in November.

In all, the Naturally Healthy Children’s Expo seems like it’s just getting started. It appears to be filling a niche for people who want to make better choices for their kids, and who want to learn from other parents or caregivers. Since most new parents enter the world of raising children woefully unprepared, and stumble along figuring it out for themselves, occasionally getting word-of-mouth advice from other parents with similar-aged kids on the playground, it was great to see some young couples expecting their first child educating themselves about their alternatives. (As veteran parents know, once the whirlwind of life with baby hits, things can quickly devolve to the path of least resistance.) Hopefully the word will spread to other mindful parents around the country, and next year some of the families of tourists on Navy Pier next fall will be able to walk away with more than a memory of ride on a Ferris wheel.

The Naturally Healthy Children’s Expo will be coming to San Francisco and Seattle in 2008. Click here for details.

Chicago residents who want to get serious about eating local and organic food have a number of ways to get their hands on produce with low "food miles" that is grown in an earth-friendly way. In addition to the scores of different farmers’ markets to be found in different neighborhoods throughout the city, dozens of CSA options are available from organic farms in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. But what happens after your farm share season ends and your friendly local farmer stops setting up his wares in the regular spot each week? Does the approach of winter mean it’s back to shopping at Whole Foods, where the prices can be high and the connection to local agricultural is not nearly as strong?

Not anymore. These days, Chicagoans have another option for sourcing organic produce that lasts all year long. Best of all, they deliver.

Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks is a unique service in the Chicago area that allows customers to order organic local produce online and have it delivered to their homes. Like a more sustainable version of online grocer Peapod, Fresh Picks offers item-by-item ordering from an inventory that’s entirely organic and, by and large, locally produced. Fruits and vegetables make up the bulk of the stock, but you can also get meat, dairy, eggs, pantry items like pasta sauce and preserves, and a wide array of baked goods. Once a week your order can be delivered, with the produce arriving just hours after leaving the farm.

The prices for custom orders are comparable with organic items in any grocery store, and Fresh Picks tacks on a delivery charge of just $5.50. The value is even greater when ordering the Fresh Picks Box, a CSA-style grab bag of the best in-season produce that comes in three sizes: $15, $25, and $40.

Fresh Picks was launched in 2006 by a married couple, Irv Cernauskas and Shelly Herman, who wanted to broaden the market for organic agriculture in the region. Even though Chicago is a huge market, most of the 40 or so farms that sell to Fresh Picks are too small to supply major retailers like Whole Foods. Such farmers typically rely on farmers’ markets and CSA subscriptions for income, but these channels have their own drawbacks: CSAs require the farms to set up their own distribution channels and farmers’ markets involve smaller amounts of produce that must be trucked to various locations. In a statement on the Fresh Picks Web site, Irv and Shelly say, "We want to partner with farmers to grow the market for local organic food and to improve our health and the environment in the process. We wanted to cut out as many middle men as possible and return the maximum dollars back to the farm so small independent farmers can flourish."

For anyone interested in eating healthy and locally who doesn’t relish the idea of lugging groceries home from the store — especially in the dead of winter — Fresh Picks might just be a dream come true. Speaking as a CSA subscriber who picks up my weekly box of veggies at a drop-off location each week, I can say that there are times when I wish that my food could travel the last six blocks from the farm to my house without my involvement. If I ever make the jump to a car-free lifestyle, this feature would be even more welcome. Yeah, I would rather do without middlemen, but sometimes the right one can make all the difference.

I can imagine that the added luxury of home delivery might also help overcome the mental hurdle that a lot of people — myself included — have about the cost of organic food. Intellectually, I can understand that conventional agriculture is subsidized in ways that are ecologically damaging and that the artificially cheap food prices we’ve gotten used to don’t include hidden costs to society. But I sometimes have a hard time reconciling myself to the idea of a $3 tomato; if that tomato found it own way to my house, maybe I’d be happier paying that price.

I do wonder, however, what the experience of Fresh Picks customers is like when the local growing season ends. During the winter months, there sure isn’t much fresh produce coming from farms in this part of the Midwest. Fresh Picks must get most its winter offerings from growers outside the region, and I wonder if the selection doesn’t drop dramatically or increase in price. But then again, if you’re eating locally and seasonally, you’re not buying strawberries in January, right?

If the Fresh Picks model proves successful, it might just become an idea worth replicating in other communities around the country. I can’t help but think that would be a good thing. Giving consumers new ways to make greener choices — and do it with less effort than they spend making the unsustainable choices they make now — seems like a key to changing the way we live. Only time will tell if Fresh Picks is the Amazon.com of organic food — or the next Webvan.

On that sunny Saturday morning there were lots of smiling faces and a palpable mood of low-key excitement as kids and adults talked with the city workers and volunteers who answered questions, collected payments, and handed out the green gear. The scene had a feeling of civic pride and neighborly good will that reminded me of what you might see in a typical polling station on election day—sans any secretiveness about ballots or partisan rivalry. We were all there to take an active role in making our community a more sustainable one, and it was a pleasure to bask in the collective spirit.

So, why is it that two months later we have a sturdy black composter sitting unassembled under our back steps? The answer is that, like lots of eco-minded urbanites who share space with their neighbors, I wasn’t trying to do this alone. When you live in a city, turning green thoughts into green actions requires coordination and cooperation. Neighborly goodwill alone doesn’t often get big changes made.

Rethinking the Garbage Game

The basic concept of home composting makes intuitive sense to most people: take part of your household garbage and create something useful from it—namely an organic soil fertilizer that conditions the soil by restoring depleted nutrients without synthetic fertilizers. But what if you’re not an avid gardener with a burning passion for quality humus? I’m certainly not, so for I long time I considered composting beyond my abilities, the luxury pursuit of true tillers of the soil.

About a year ago, I seriously began mulling over the idea of jumping on the composting train, but I was conflicted. No, I wasn’t worried about creating a stink by trying to ferment my garbage in the backyard. Actually, I had learned in researching composting that keeping oil, meat, and dairy products out of the compost would keep the pile smelling sweet (or at least inoffensive). Instead, I was a bit daunted by the decision of buying a compost bin. You can find a world of choices in compost bins on the market today, and they range in price from as little as $40 to over $400. The high-priced bins seemed awfully costly for essentially a large chunk of plastic, but I was afraid that by cheaping out, I might doom my experiment with substandard equipment.

The decision was complicated by the fact that it was a communal one. The new bin was going to be used by the five other families in our condo building who all wanted to give composting a try. Even with everyone’s agreement on the basic concept, though, choosing a model, picking a day, and putting someone in charge of the whole project usually lost out to panicked conversations about tuckpointing bids or how to get the roof through another winter.

Mayor Daley Makes It Easier

My dilemma was solved when I heard about a new program sponsored by Chicago’s Department of the Environment. The offer to city residents was simple: get a brand new compost bin for the rock bottom price of $30. I figured that even if the bins weren’t top of the line, I wasn’t risking much. I could even swing the price myself and therefore feel confident in making an executive decision. Problem solved!

Driving home with my new composter in the back seat, my son drumming on the lid we had to wedge next to his car seat, I did think the problem was solved. I had a great new bin, made of recycled plastic, called the Earth Machine: no cheaping out after all. In fact, the model retails for $80 or $90.

Now, two months later, the composter is a casualty of simple neighborly inertia. Our resident landscaper hasn’t had the time to move the flagstones that currently occupy the agreed-upon site so that the new composter can be put into action. So our Earth Machine sits, waiting behind other gardening projects to be put into service.

Reasons to Recapture the Momentum

So, I write this for myself, and for all of you who need to be reenergized: composting is important. And, if you find yourself in my situation, or one very much like it, here are some important things to remember, and to share with those neighbors who might need some reminding or convincing:

• You probably already recycle items like paper and beverage containers. Good for you. But what about the wet stuff? According to the Chicago Recycling Association, food waste constitutes 10% of an average household’s trash, and landscape waste constitutes another 20%. Compare these totals with a material like glass, which comprises just 5.5% of a home’s waste stream on average, and it becomes clear that composting has a role to play for anyone serious about striving for a zero-impact lifestyle.
• Need more? Consider your local landfill. Assuming that a modern industrial society like ours is required to collect its refuse somewhere for the sake of public health and sanitation, such sites are a limited resource. Every pound of organic matter you toss in the waste stream instead of composting contributes to the depletion of this resource. When the landfills currently in use fill up, other ones will have to be opened—and chances are these new sites won’t be situated as advantageously as the previous one. For example, the Illinois EPA estimates that there are only five years of landfill capacity left in northeastern Illinios. After that, waste from Chicago will have to be trucked further and further to facilities outside the region. The increased energy use and truck pollution will likely take a hefty toll.
• The case for composting has an even more direct link to global climate change. By reducing the amount of raw garbage entering landfills, composting also helps reduce the amount of methane and other gases produced there. As the Chicago Recycling Association reports, landfills have been identified by the U.S. EPA as the country’s largest single human source of methane emissions, and are responsible for one third of all such pollution. Methane is of particular concern in the fight against global warming because it is 21 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

As I write this, I find myself realizing that the inertia that has made our road to composting such a long one will dissipate. Our condo will soon have that bin assembled and ready to start turning our table scraps into flower food. And if we’re lucky, we’ll have something to show for our efforts before the snow flies.

Editor’s note: Please join us in welcoming Jason Phillip to the Green Options writing team! A freelance writer and editor based in Chicago, Jason will be focusing on the "green scene" in the Windy City for us. Mayor Richard Daly has committed to making Chicago the greenest city in the country, so we’re looking forward to Jason’s reports on these efforts.

My idea of sustainable fashion has always been making sure the clothing I wear gets as long a life as possible. I like keeping things in my wardrobe forever, and when they finally can’t be worn even one more time, replacing them with something from a thrift store that I know has had at least one previous owner. I like to think I’m buying classics, and also keeping material out of the waste stream. If I’m not buying something new, my purchase doesn’t help spew any carbon dioxide into the atmosphere or exploit any sweatshop workers, right? Plus, I can save a bundle outfitting myself with recycled duds.

But as most fans of "thrifting" know, it can be tough to shop this way all the time. There’s an element of luck involved—you have to make do with what fate presents you. The scavenger hunt feeling can be addictive, but sometimes it’s just not practical—like when building a professional wardrobe, or looking for outdoor apparel with modern weatherproofing performance. No one has ever accused me of being a slave to fashion, but sometimes you gotta go retail. And for the eco-conscious consumer, going retail may now mean seeking out environmentally-friendly garments. In just the past year, it seems, the fashion industry has really begun to embrace the environmental ethos, and the choices available to consumers interested in ethically-produced clothing are growing by leaps and bounds.

Case in point: I got a pair of recycled sandals as a gift this year, after my decade-old pair of slip-ons finally gave up the ghost. My wife—never a fan of the old dork cork classics, but nonetheless tolerant of my penchant for comfort over style—found a decent looking replacement pair that compared favorably in the looks department, and had some impressive sustainability features. I appreciated the fact that the soles are made from recycled car tire tread, the straps consist of used (but clean) bicycle inner tubes, and the thread holding it all together is organic cotton. Alas, the whole shoe is less than the sum of its parts; the sad fact is that the new togs just make me miss my old pair. They don’t feel anywhere near as sturdy, they fall off my feet when I walk because the straps can’t be tightened, and the stitching in the soles looks like it’s about to wear through after only three weeks of use. Did I mention I owned my old pair since the mid-1990s? These "sustainable" sandals don’t seem like they’ll last through next summer. The warm glow I felt around the purchase of this innovative product has faded pretty quickly, replaced by the creeping realization that I’m going to have to make another summer footwear purchase soon.

So now I’m weighing the relative merits of buying conventional but long-lasting versus green but disposable. Can a consumer item really claim to be sustainable if it leads me to make even more purchases? Obviously my disappointing sandal experience is just one tiny drop in a rising sea of eco-friendly fashion, but I can’t help but think there are a lot of frustrated expectations to wade through while clothing designers work the kinks out of their green creations. I want to be part of the greening of our culture, but I also don’t want to pay for the privilege of being an early-adopter guinea pig. As fashion guru Tim Gunn from the reality show Project Runway regularly tells the ambitious designers competing for fame and fortune for the cameras, "Make it work, people!" Once I know it works, then I’ll be happy to own it.

Fortunately, Chicagoans will get a chance to decide for themselves which cutting-edge ideas work, and which don’t, in the sustainable designs of dozens of retailers and designers at the EcoModa fashion showcase on Sept. 27. Hosted by Foresight Design Initiative as part of its Sustainable Convergence ’07 party, EcoModa will highlight the ways emerging designers from Chicago, established designers from the region with their own boutiques, and large-scale clothing manufacturers like Patagonia and Nau are creating clothing and accessories that are easy on the earth.

Such an event seems extremely topical at the moment. Eco-fashion is hot right now, as both mainstream and environmental-focused media have rushed to cover the trend in recent months. Entire issues of E Magazine and VegNews have been devoted to telling the story of how eco-fashion has moved beyond the era of Birkenstocks and hemp ponchos. High-end fashion designers around the world have been experimenting with sustainable fabrics and dyes that treat the earth more gently, and they’re creating stunningly beautiful garments with them.

These trends strike me as exciting in a "gee-whiz-that’s-what-the-future-may-look-like-someday" way, but what about us eco-conscious folks who need a new work outfit today and for whom haute couture is just not in the budget? Eventually fabrics utilizing exotic materials like bamboo, corn, organic cotton, and recycled materials will trickle down to the everyday department store shopper, but how long will that take? Many new concepts in eco-fashion out there seem like great ideas on paper, but not thoroughly tested in the real world.

Along comes EcoModa—a chance to enter the big tent of this cultural trend and kick a lot of tires. Skeptical about the aesthetic potential of a skirt made out of recycled t-shirts? Wondering how to avoid supporting off-shore sweatshops? Curious about how high-end designers work a sustainable material like bamboo into their garments? Anybody with even a passing interest in sustainability who’s not a nudist will probably find something at the event to capture their attention. I think we’re just beginning to see what committed, creative people with sewing machines can do with the task of making a billion-dollar industry a more ethical one. In the not-too-distant future, we may look back on the way we dressed ourselves at the turn of the 21st century with the same disbelief that we feel today when confronted with the historical realities of hoop skirts and whalebone corsets.

To get a little background on the upcoming fashion showcase and find out what to expect, I recently sat down with Peter Nicholson, the Executive Director of Foresight Design. He told me that each year the Sustainable Convergence event brings together over 40 nonprofit organizations, business enterprises, and service providers doing work in the sustainability realm in Chicago. The Sustainable Enterprise Fair portion of the event features dozens of information tables and networking opportunities with environmental movers and shakers, but Convergence is also a big party, complete with sustainable food and drinks, music, and free giveaways.

"We work a lot on building community," Nicholson says. "Changing the way we do things, whether it’s biking to work or buying local produce, is better done in concert with other people who are trying to do it too."

The event was originally conceived as a way to bring together (as in "converge" … get it?) different groups of Chicagoans—the business community, members of the general public interested in sustainability, and design professionals—all in one place and all around the concept of packaging green ideas so people will want to use them. "I believe we’re going to design our way out of this crisis. Advances in technology will get us part of the way there, but how do you incorporate them into people’s behaviors? How do you package it so it is useful? That’s the role of design."

Not simply a stereotypical gala fundraiser, Sustainable Convergence is meant to showcase great ideas in sustainable design in a setting where people can support and learn from one another. Rather that have a separate space for a runway show, the fashion designers will be mixed in among the nonprofits and green businesses promoting their products and services. The idea is to cross-pollinate among different subgroups of the overall "green community" in the city.

I asked Nicholson why he and his staff decided to make fashion the featured design discipline at this year’s event. He swears that he had no idea it would become the green issue du jour it is now when the idea was considered over a year ago. The draw for Foresight, he says, was that eco-fashion could take design out of the abstract realm and be presented as something that everyone can relate to on a daily basis. He says the EcoModa will be compelling because of the breadth of the 40 different "looks" that designers will present. Nicholson says attendees can expect to see "everything from everyday wear, to kids clothing, to more fancy stuff." He also says focusing on the intersection of sustainability and fashion design "offered the opportunity to show not just one product or approach, but a whole range of possibilities."

That newly emerging range of options is what I think makes this the right time for a showcase like EcoModa. Whereas once "earth-friendly" clothing was synonymous with "hippie wear," the entire fashion industry seems to be on alert to the new trend in eco-sensitive—if not socially just—design. As a casual observer, it’s gratifying to see what can often seem a pretty frivolous and self-absorbed industry waking up to the need for better environmental stewardship. And as it wakes up, it can lead consumers to a deeper understanding of how garments get into their closets. It can present a different path than the mindless consumerism that follows the pattern of See-Want-Buy-Discard-Repeat at the lowest monetary cost to the consumer. Hopefully, the trend will spread to all the segments of the market, in order that eco-fashion not stay a niche within the industry. Indications so far are encouraging. As Nicholson says, "It’s not couture and it’s not crunchy. It’s—dare I say it—mainstream. Or at least it’s headed that way."

Just like organic food and green architecture have come of age and have presented a new set of choices to consumers, the American public may someday have to reckon with labeling and branding messages that have never been part of our retail shopping lexicon. Now is when we start to shake out the relative merits of terms like "upcycled," "compostable," "reclaimed," "fair trade," and "low-impact" (to name a few) as they apply to the clothing and accessories we wear every day.

Even more important than learning to parse the buzzwords, though, I’ll be attending EcoModa on the lookout for designers that would make Tim Gunn proud. In Season 2 of Project Runway, the contestants on the show were challenged to design an outfit using materials they scrounged from piles of refuse at an industrial recycling center. This design challenge was mostly just a reality-TV stunt ("You’ve got 8 yards of bubble wrap, 2 rolls of duct tape, and 90 minutes…Go!"), and most of the creations didn’t hold up to being worn by an actual human being for even the few minutes it took to slink down the runway. When it came to eco-fashion, the Project Runway kids didn’t really make it work. But I’m hoping that EcoModa will feature some design solutions that reflect some deeper thought and that capture the promise of the "recycled dress" concept. I’ve got a feeling that here in Chicago, known as "the city that works," the audience at this event won’t be satisfied by mere aesthetics–this eco-fashion is going to have to work. I can just picture Tim Gunn wandering the exhibit space in one of his impeccable suits, stopping to peer over his glasses at a beautiful design that makes you forget how small its ecological footprint is, and intoning with sincere appreciation, "Mmmm…very impressive." It could happen.

Like the discriminating Mr. Gunn, I plan on not being shy about questioning a few of these visionaries about what really works in their designs. I value what they’re doing, I really do. I’m even willing to pay a premium for a dress shirt or a raincoat or a pair of pants that does everything I expect it to because it does those things in a sustainable way. But I need to be satisfied that it’s going to keep delivering on that promise for a few years before I’m willing to spend my thrift-store dollar on experimental eco-smart threads. Call me crazy, but I want my next "sandal of the future" to have a real future. Otherwise, there’s a world of second-hand clothing out there just waiting to be reclaimed.

To register for Sustainable Convergence ‘07, click here. Ticket prices vary by date of registration.