eco-chic design

beautiful organic soap packaging turns into fun bathroom art

If you should ever be in New Paltz upstate New York make sure to stop by Mother Earth’s Storehouse. It’s like a family-run Whole Foods with a great selection of natural and organic products in three locations within the Hudson Valley region. Always on the lookout for cool green products I loved the vibrant illustrations on the packaging of LEAP organic bar soaps at their store. I was not surprised that Moxie Sozo created the packaging since I have always admired the Boulder-based design and advertising agency for their green initiatives. For starters Moxie Sozo is certified zero waste, 100% carbon neutral, and 100% renewable-energy powered. The hand-painted illustrations with quirky and powerful lines such as “what we lack in corporate cloud we make up for with our environmental ethos” are reflective of LEAP’s sustainable business practices. LEAP Organic Soaps are certified organic by Oregon Tilth to ensure that all organic ingredients and processes meet USDA’s guidelines. They contain no synthetics, parabens, petroleum, sulfates, GMOs or chemicals of any kind. Instead the eco-chic soaps are made with some of the highest levels of certified organic, fair trade shea butter on the market and smell delicious. I bought the organic lemongrass bar soap that has a blend of 100% certified essential organic oils such as lemongrass, orange, and lime. The fun packaging of the soaps is 100% recyclable, contains 50% post-consumer waste, is FSC-certified and produced with alternative sources of energy. It’s so beautiful that I can easily see it reused as framed bathroom art.

eco-modern Domespace home in New Paltz rotates with the sun

Minnewaska State Park Preserve is on top of my list for amazing hikes upstate and is only about 90 miles north of Manhattan. Last time I was out there I also took a tour of the rotating Domespace in New Paltz that’s for sale. I’ve been a big fan of dome-shaped homes since my class at MCAD about Buckminster Fuller and his geodesic structures. The Domespace in New Paltz created by the French builder Patrick Marsilli was the first of its kind in the US. From the outside it integrates perfectly into the surrounding wooded area with its red cedar façade. It almost looks unassuming despite its space ship form. Inside the sun-flooded home everything feels incredibly spacious and inviting thanks to big floor to ceiling windows. The living area consists of 2,300-square-feet spread over two floors that are connected through a central spiral staircase. All design elements throughout the eco-dome home are circular like the dining table or kitchen counter. What makes the home so spectacular is that it rotates with the sun to be energy-efficient. The benefit of this incredible passive solar design is that during the summer months you can rotate the windows away from the sun and during the winter towards it. All this happens via remote control. Another eco-conscious feature is that the dome-shaped home does not sit flat on the ground. This reduces its footprint and interference with the existing eco-system. The Domespace combines my love for modern design with eco-friendliness and is close to fantastic hiking, climbing and caving. Why do I live in NYC again?

contemporary glass designs from repurposed Perrier bottles

When in Europe I usually buy recycled glasses by La Mediterranea made in Spain since they seem hard to find in New York. That’s why I was thrilled to discover a US based alternative with the eco-modern glass designs by The Green Glass Company. All glass designs are made in Wisconsin. The bottles for the contemporary glasses come from our waste stream as well as discarded bottles by glass manufacturers.

At NYIGF this year it was the Meadow ice tea tumbler collection made from reclaimed and then repurposed Perrier bottles that caught my eye. The shape of Perrier bottles is already elegant to begin with and I love what The Green Glass Company has done with them by repurposing them into eco-modern tumblers.  Its base makes a perfect ice tea glass and is available as bare, frosted, or with a pretty dragonfly design. The frosting process is achieved through sandblasting without hazardous by-products. I was impressed to learn that The Green Glass Company uses every part of their bottles. In their Mist collection the top of the recycled bottle turns into a wine goblet through twisting and flaring the bottleneck. The result is a playful stem that looks really cool in the ice-blue color of the Mist collection with matching tumblers made from the remaining bottom. Even the shipping materials follow the same green principles of recycle and repurpose. Boxes are either reused or made of recycled materials and cushioned with biodegradable cornstarch peanuts. Good to know since the modern looking glasses make great eco-chic gifts.

eco-chic skincare from Latvia certified by ECOCERT

My most recent read has been the book “no more dirty looks” by Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt. I purchased it at the store Organic Avenue in NYC. It’s quiet fitting since what you put on your skin is as important as what you eat when it comes to your health. The book was an eye-opener but also felt like learning a second language with its long list of contaminants used in most cosmetics. It’s full of practical advice. One that’s easy to follow is to start a healthier skin routine with a natural or organic body lotion. After all the skin is our biggest organ.

This year I started using MADARA’s natural and organic body lotion. Initially I noticed that it slightly smells like hay and summer. It's no surprise since MADARA is a Latvian name for wild madders that are common inhabitants of the Baltic meadows. All MADARA skin care products are made from herbs and flowers according to organic farming principles. The packaging is incredibly pretty with its beautiful logo design inspired by the pattern of wild matters. All boxes, booklets and visual merchandise are printed on FSC certified paper that comes from renewable wood-pulp resources. But most importantly MADARA products are certified by ECOCERT. The ECOCERT label on MADARA’s ecobody product line guarantees that a minimum of 95% of the plant based ingredients and a minimum of 10% of total ingredients are certified organic. Another impressive number is that 99,875% of the total ingredients in MADARA’s moisturizing lotion are of a natural origin. Sounds pretty clean to me.

eco-friendly beeswax candles shaped like antique bottles

Until recently I didn’t know about the green light district in Santa Monica. Thankfully The Green Life based in LA pointed me in the right direction via twitter. The green light district is this great area with eco-conscious stores, green restaurants, organic coffee shops, educational centers and community gardens with a focus on sustainability.

That’s how I discovered these eco-chic candles by Pollen Arts at Kelly Green Home. The store has a comprehensive selection of eco-chic gifts and sustainable home accessories. Some of them I featured before like bamboo utensils, reusable food containers or green cleaning supplies. It was great to see them all curated in a well-designed environment. I liked that the antique bottle-shaped beeswax candles by Pollen Arts were grouped with vintage style Royal Honey Bee matches by HomArt. Together they make cute green housewarming gifts for eco-modern homes. What’s so cool about the beeswax candles by Pollen Arts is their interesting backstory as well as design. The eco-chic candles are hand-made by a husband and wife team in their solar-powered 1975 Winnebago RV. They come in the shape of medicine bottles, hand-blown inkwells and antique bottles with embossed lettering. Pollen Art’s candles are handcrafted from 100% raw beeswax and burn cleaner as well as longer than conventional candles. They are not supplemented with fillers such as paraffin that emits toxins and carcinogens when burnt. Instead they are naturally scented by the honey and nectar of flowers. But let’s face it: Pollen Art’s beeswax candles are too gorgeous to be burnt anyway.

urban reusable shopping bags that support a good cause

Every year at NYIGF here in New York I browse the sustainability display to find new eco-chic products. This year there were a lot of great eco-friendly, fair-trade and sustainable designs but what really got my attention were the Homeboy Tote Bags. These cool reusable shopping bags launched last year and are designed by Studio Artecnica and NYC-based designer Alex Lin in collaboration with Homeboy Industries in LA. I had written about Artecnica’s Design w/Conscience program before which creates contemporary products rooted in humanitarian and eco-friendly principles. Their eco-modern designs are mostly produced in developing countries but lately Artecnica seems to be more involved with local initiatives like Homeboy Industries. The Homeboy Tote Bags are reusable and keep plastic or paper bags out of landfills. But these urban-chic shopping bags do so much more since they were designed in collaboration with artists at Homeboy Industries who were formerly gang members. They are screen-printed by the Homeboy Industries screen-printing shop with provocative slogans by the organization’s founder and Jesuit priest Father Greg Boyle. All designs feature cool calligraphy with messages like “nothing stops a bullet like a job”, “hard work is easier than hard time”, and “if you hang around the barbershop you’ll wind up with a haircut”. What I love about the collaboration is that it draws attention to the gang intervention program, creates income for Homeboy Silkscreen and provides ex-gang members the opportunity to engage in a local business. A portion of the proceeds of each canvas tote goes to support Homeboy Industries.

skincare made with local beeswax and organic ingredients

One of my highlights at NYIGF last week was the Worker B booth with bee products made from chemical and antibiotic free hives. The packaging of the eco-chic skincare line has super-cute letterpress labels with illustrated bees and the different flowers they pollinate. It was contagious to see the integrity and enthusiasm of the owners to support their local beekeepers. They ensure that the bees are kept without chemicals or antibiotics and are not shipped across the country.

Worker B uses local ingredients from Minneapolis such as honey, beeswax and propolis for their hand-crafted lotions and balms. I found some of their eco-friendly products at the Tea + Honey Store on the Upper East Side in Manhattan and purchased the Worker B lotion and lip balm.  The unscented lotion contains organic almond oil, organic olive oil, beeswax, raw honey, propolis tincture, and vitamin E. Another eco-friendly product is the Worker B cream made of organic olive oil and beeswax. It’s basically edible. The store has a cool display in the shape of a honeycomb to show off their bee products such as honey. I learned that currently there are no organic standards for honey produced in the United States. Makes sense since those busy bees fly several miles outside their hive and might pass crops that are sprayed with chemicals even that their home base is on organic certified grounds. Luckily I found a store in NYC with the Worker B skin care products since they seem to be as hardworking as their bees.

sustainable streetwear made of bamboo-based fabrics

As a designer I love cool graphics and that’s what attracted me first to LA based Arbor Collective. I always knew that the company uses eco-friendly materials to produce their snowboards and skateboards such as bamboo, recycled glass or water based finishes. But I wasn’t aware of their amazing line of bamboo apparel until my recent visit to their flagship store in Venice. 

Arbor Collective’s bamboo T-shirts for men are super-soft made of bamboo viscose based fabrics. Most of them have a mix of 70% viscose from bamboo with 30% organic cotton blend and are made in Los Angeles. Bamboo viscose fabric is made through a process where cellulose (viscose) is extracted from bamboo and then turned into a fiber that can be spun into a yarn. The environmental benefits of bamboo are endless: it’s a rapidly renewable resource and can grow up to 4 feet per day without requiring any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. It needs less water as well as land than cotton or organic cotton and adds nutrients back into the soil instead of depleting it. But most of all bamboo has great performance benefits: it helps to regulate body temperature, is breathable, wicks moisture away and has anti-microbial properties. Many graphics on the eco-friendly T-shirts are created in collaboration with artists such as Haunted Euth. Arbor Collective also annually donates at least 5% of their profits to organizations that protect and restore the planet and makes their in-store displays with recycled or sustainable materials. I’ll be back for sure.

green your commute with IZIP electric bikes

Recently on a business trip in Santa Monica I rented some e-bikes from the IZIP store in Venice. I had never been on an e-bike before and absolutely loved riding it around the Venice beach bike path area. It was very affordable and the ultimate eco-chic fun. The IZIP store provided us with helmets, locks and a quick introduction on how to use the e-bikes. We rented the Izip E3 Metro in dark grey/orange and the more retro-inspired looking IZIP Zuma in red. Both e-bikes let you choose between two riding modes: PAS (Pedal Assist) requires pedaling and applies power automatically or TAG (Twist and Go) requires no pedaling at all. Their batteries last around 20 miles depending on the terrain and biker. I really liked the sleek design of the IZIP E3 Metro. It’s IZIP's top-of-the-line e-bike with a powerful 500W motor and a concealed 36V Li-Ion battery. Feeling a bit guilty about having used the motor power most of the time instead of pedaling I found an interesting study about the environmental benefits of e-bikes. Basically it’s a bicycle with an electric motor that uses rechargeable batteries and lets you commute without any CO2 emissions. But now get this: based on a recent study on the environmental impact of e-bikes compared to other modes of transportation they are not only greener than conventional cars or rail transit but also have a similar impact as conventional bikes. The result was quiet a surprise to me but also relieved my eco-guilt a tiny bit.