Monica also planned how to stimulate the job market. She intended to provide work that would benefit local craftsmen and women’s organizations worldwide. Simultaneously, waste would be reduced significantly.

The handbag materials are milk cartons, juice boxes, telephone books, and newspapers. The craftspeople are artisans from across the globe. Designers are both staffed and sourced.

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Emma explains that it’s like a small environmentally-friendly version of eBay. Yet the merchandise is strictly apparel with three categories of men, women, kids. Love the tailored coat offering pictured.

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German thread maker Amann, with the new Lifecycle Threads brand name, distributed press releases to the trade last August.

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The first runner-up is Tina Bossy for Bossy Baby and the second runner-up is Rachel Hart for Miss Sugar Pops. Be sure to read the related posts below to discover all the terrific nominations.

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The newborn collection is designed for babies with sensitive skin. The organic cottons come in subtle pastels and natural cream colors. Baby nursery rhymes come to life with her signature embroidery. You can choose the rhyme that suits your little one best.

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That’s what happened to Rachel. So she decided to create exclusive and unique hand sewn or stitched garments with plenty of spunk and pizzaz. Her passion started and continues from vintage treasures. Durability was also important to Rachel, so each item is made to last.

Vintage pieces are incorporated into designs that bring a little from the past into the present. Her favorite materials to work with are tulle, velvet, speciality ribbons, laces and  good quality silk flowers. That’s recycling fun!

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What a perfect time for a shoe sale.  Simple Shoes is currently offering many of their popular styles at special clearance prices – and we are talking dirt cheap here!  Boys Innertube shoes and the adorable GT Janie for girls are each marked at $8.99 and Skippies are just $7.90.  And while you are at it, grab a pair for yourself and baby. 

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Steven Psyllos interviewed Harris recently for New York magazine to discuss his inspiration, artistic process,  and to unveil a new animated plastic bag beast; the video was shot by Jonah Green.

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I see quite a few old favorites in this Leisure Arts publication from other Leisure Arts books including the Trash to Treasure books.

I also see a few new crafts and one that I am thrilled to have found the instructions for.

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We love a good mix tape remix around here. Heck, some of us even knit with used cassettes. Seamstresses, don’t you fret! You can get in on the recycled cassette action, too…

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The new Recycled Walking Enthusiast Kit from Gemline is another example of the promotional items market getting a better handle on the customer base that many Ecopreneurists are targeting with eco-friendly promotion - read that as active, professional, urban.

The Recycled Walking Enthusiast Kit is a great little mix of form and function, providing an easy sling style carrying case for a stainless steel water bottle, wallet, music player (including earphone outlet), key, map, cellphone, in short all those little things that often need to be carried when your client is out for a little exercise.

The sling is made from 51% recycled PET fabric with an overall size of 5″L 10″H 3″W. Unfortunately the included stainless steel water bottle is not available with decoration, which would have been a nice touch. The sling can hold a 3″ x 3″ screen printed logo.

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Gemline -  one of the lions of the promotional items industry - is introducing a number of new items featuring recycled cotton. This is a material that seems to have first been used for apparel items.

What does recycled cotton mean to Gemline? They sent me four points in way of a definition.

1. Recycled cotton is made from the post-industrial cotton material collected from weaving mills.
2. Recycled cotton benefits the environment by reducing the fresh raw cotton consumption, it is also cost effective for the customer.
3. 85% of the fabric content is recycled cotton and 15% is polyester.
4. The 85% recycled cotton material is recyclable.

One item in this line that I would like to point out to Ecopreneurists is the Recycled Cotton Apron Kit. This complete apron kit is touted as “the perfect gift for the “green” chef” and includes an 8 oz recycled cotton apron, detachable bottle opener, padded oven mitt and towel (not of recycled materials). Lots of front pockets for storage and of course the unit is machine washable.

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The company makes many different types of shoes, but the Terra Plana collection is the most traditional “green” and design students are paying close attention. Features to expect:

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TerraCycle

Soyeon is a classical concert pianist, with an impressive Julliard, Carnegie Hall performance history who may be the first to bring the eco-cause into the world of classical music. In her effort to bring classical music and environmental awareness together, she turned to husband and garbage-to-gold entrepreneur Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle to help design the new CD cover for Reinvented. As it turns out, he had just come home with a sample of new composite board made from - yup, you guessed it - tossed out Frito Lay bags!

They thus created the first garbage-inspired, Frito-Lay CD cover. I have one and you can even see the name Frito on one of the tiny shreds!

The music is beautiful, but the real inspiration is the marriage (pun intended) of eco-clever re-use of garbage and musical artistry.

If there were a contest for eco-power-couple of the next generation, I would vote for these two.

Matt converted a small farm of mountains, trails and streams into the Wicked Footwear headquarters where new designs are developed and tested. The Wicked Hemp division turned global August 2008. And a new wood pulp and hemp collection was created with projected deliveries soon, ‒ mid 2009.

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Caron yarns has a new entry into our yarn vernacular called Simply Soft Eco. Simply Soft Eco is similar to Caron’s other yarns made from acrylic, but contains 20% of recycled PET content.

If you recall PET is plastic water or soda bottles and is popping up in recycled form in various places such as EcoFelt, fabric blends, clothing, bags, and even boats! What I find really wonderful about this yarn is that it has recycled content, a huge selection of colors and that it is available in big box stores - great for when you don’t have access to a small indie shop.

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My favorite Easy Going Green Flashcard is “Wear the same clothes all day”.  I am constantly doing laundry, and I know part of the problem is the frequency with which my daughter changes her outfit. This has gotten better as she has grown older and would live in her pajamas all day.  When she was younger, it was not uncommon for her to have worn five outfits in one day when she first learned to dress herself.

Other great tips include “Eat seasonally” and “Don’t waste food”, as well as information on rainforests and cleaning products.

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Earth Day takes place this April 22nd.

As a green leader or entrepreneur, the day begs the question, what will you be doing?

In a mad public relations world that anchors on events as a tangible “touch point” in lieu of diving into the messier (and harder to track or control) world of ‘awareness’, Earth Day is one of many symbols (i.e. polar bears) we use when speaking to some of the starker and concrete practices of the planet’s ecological anxieties.

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