This was done in 2007.Its the 100 Mile Suit, a project by designer Kelly Cobb to make a man’s suit from materials produced within 100 miles of her home in Philadelphia. It took 20 artisans several months to produce. yeah .. its ugly but the important thing to remember is that its local, local, local.
Why are local materials so important?
Because in 1965, 95% of the clothing in a typical American’s closet was made in America, today it’s less than 5%. Because the textile industry is reckoned to be the 5th largest contributor to CO2 emissions in the US. Because the production of an average T-shirt emits 40 times its own weight in carbon dioxide emissions.

Yes cutting down on those expensive designer Stussy , Y3, etc.. collabos we all love and taking a BIO REGIONAL regional approach to apparel could reduce such impacts.
The movement is catching some steam as some of you might notice this weekend.Mannequins are taking to the streets dressed in designer duds, made entirely with local materials in New York City’s Garment District, this Thursday in New York City as part of a public art and fashion exhibit called “Sidewalk Catwalk“, on display from June 24 until September 3rd. Local garment manufacturing is an integral part of the city’s economy and with the area threatened with rezoning, the public exhibit is as timely as ever. Thirty-two leading fashion designers, from Betsey Johnson to Tommy Hilfiger, are taking part

The UN saying that the world’s oceans will be out of fish by 2050 if present trends continue.

What the heck am I supposed to eat now?

I gave up eating meat about 10 years ago after a morning photo shoot in lower Manhattan’s  ‘Meatpacking District’.For those of you that thought  the Meat Packing district was just a place to mix it up with pretentious people who never have to get up in the morning and go to work ;think again. Its actually called the meat packing district because Meat packing does occur there during the morning.

While my artist was getting her hair and make-up done, I took a life changing walk that would gross me out and steer me from beef forever. Those same cobble stone streets that have broken numerous Jimmy Choo heels were now flowing with cow and lamb blood. Carts full of dead carcasses were transported from filthy blood stained vans  and sometimes dragged by hooks across dirty NYC streets to the nondescript doors. Doors I thought were clubs not important enough for me to know about. Who knows what happened behind those doors. Sorry… back to fish.

2050, I”ll be 70 but what about my kids, What are they going to eat?Are we really going to continue dangerous fishing trends that slow the re-population of fish. How many Oil disaster will it take?

Here we have this ‘Act of God’ in the Gulf. I know God did it because Republican Governor Rick Perry said so.“From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented,” Perry said.   Was it really God who lined the senators’ pockets all these years so Oil companies could drill freely and recklessly. Was it really God or BP who didn’t use two safety mechanisms because of the measly $500,000 costs of each mechanism. Has it been God who has stalled Americas corrupt Republicans from passing legislation that will move our dependency from oil and towards more eco-friendly energy sources. Good Day Governor, I don’t think it was God.

I don’t know how many chicken or Turkey Burgers you or I can eat at age 70 but I think we should start paying attention.

Being Green at home is one way to reduce your carbon footprint, but it’s just as important to integrate your lifestyle at your workplace. Unfortunately, most of this eco-friendly advice is a pain in the ass but here are 5 small steps you can take to be green at work.

1. Use less paper
Try cutting down on your printer . A single person can use a quarter ton of materials a year, including 10,000 pieces of copier paper. When you  reach for the “print” button, consider if you really need a paper copy. I know some people cant grasp what’s on the screen and need a physical paper copy in their hands.If you do, try to make a habit of printing on both sides. You can also ask the office manager to get paper made from post-consumer waste. Also, recycle your newspapers and magazines—they can add up quickly!

2. BYOCC (Bring your own coffee cup)

Sometimes you just can’t get started without a cup of coffee in the morning. Buying coffee every day in a disposable cup generates at least 20 pounds of paper a year plus several hundred industrially produced plastic covers. Bring your own coffee mug to work. The same goes for plastic utensils and plates. Consider bringing your own utensils, bowl, or plate to work instead of using paper plates and plastic forks that will head straight to the trashcan.Who cares if you look crazy. Crazy is the new thing , people love weird complex people nowadays.

3.Leave the Truck At Home- I don’t care if your company pays for parking (Do companies still do that?) Do you really need to bring the SUV to work? If you must, instead of driving alone to work, find a carpool buddy or give public transportation a shot.

4. Maximize computer efficiency
Make a habit of turning your computer off when you leave at the end of the day. And while most computers automatically go into sleep mode when not in use, you can set your computer to go to sleep automatically during shorter breaks, too. This simple step can cut energy use by up to 70%.

5. Tell IT Manager/Office Manager to Call TelecomforCharity.org

If you can’ t bring yourself to change at least one thing in your life for the benefits others you can just take the lazy route and tell your office manager to turn your telecom services (phone, internet, data) into a green machine. TforC has made it possible for businesses to save money or improve on their telecom, take part of those savings , 5% of your company’s bill to be exact and donate that to a cause each and every month.

I have tried to be more conscience of being green since I started at an eco friendly and green TforC. I have taken quicker showers, used the train more often but I still have a bad habit of leaving that water running while I brush my teeth. I then have the nerve to criticize my wife only because she has the water blasting out of the fuacet at a rate that could take gum off the sidewalk . 

Denis Hayes way we need to take some radical action when it comes to water .In case you didn’t know Earth day was started by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, with the help of young organizer Denis Hayes who was credited with lighting the fuse of the modern environmental era on April 22, 1970 with the first Earth Day.

What many people don’t know is that our water systems are on the verge of collapse. Under our streets are 1.5 million miles of aging pipes. Food and Water Watch reports that U.S. cities have 250,000 to 300,000 water main breaks a year and we lose one-fifth of our water through leaks and contaminate our waterways with 1.2 trillion gallons of wastewater annually.

The price tag for fixing all this is going to be big. The EPA estimates that we have a potential funding gap of $150-400 billion between projected needs and current levels of spending over the next 10 years. The New York Times reportedthat, “There are 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants in the United States that operate 100,000 major pumping stations, 600,000 miles of sanitary sewers and 200,000 miles of storm sewers, according to U.S. EPA. That system received a grade of D- from the American Society of Civil Engineers in its latest ‘Report Card for America’s Infrastructure.’”

Most of us are fortunate to have clean and safe drinking water available at their tap at a very low cost.Sorry Bronx readers. We turn on the water and it comes out, we don’t have to think about where that water comes from.But lets start thinking about the cost of that clean water and how we can start calling on Congress to create legislation for a clean water trust fund.Did anyone see Dune…

If your going to be more conscience of how your behavior affects the world you have to start questioning your purchases as well. Where did that fur on your winter coat come from? What about those those diamonds on your neck? Are they Blood Diamonds from areas of conflict in Africa?

Where did that gold on your Valentines Day necklace come from? Now you can  rest assure that at least some of the stores you shop at have some form of social responsibility. Jewelery retailers, representing over $2 billion in sales in the United States, pledged support to protect Alaska’s Bristol Bay this past week, and have vowed to not buy gold from the proposed large-scale metal mine, including the controversial Pebble Mine.

The biggest of the twelve jewelers include retail giant Zale Corp. jewelers Toby Pomeroy and Alberto Parada join Tiffany & Co., and twenty other jewelers committed to protecting the source of roughly 50 percent of the world’s commercial supply of sockeye salmon in Alaska.

The mine proposed at Bristol Bay is projected to be the largest in North America, generating billions of tons of mine waste and industrializing important salmon habitat in the heart of the world’s last great wild sockeye salmon fishery. London-based mining giant Anglo American and Vancouver-based Northern Dynasty are partners in the project.

Earthworks’ Bonnie Gestring says, “The customer is always right, and we expect smart suppliers like Anglo American and Northern Dynasty to listen to their customers. These leading jewelers are just saying ‘no’ to gold from harmful mining in Bristol Bay. These jewelers know that shoppers in their stores care that the gold that they purchase doesn’t come at the expense of international treasures like Bristol Bay.

According to the article we don’t even need to mine anymore as far as gold in concerned. There is already enough gold to satisfy the next 50 years of demand.Much of it currently sits in bank vaults and in old, unused jewelry.Considering the economy and fashion cycles I don’t think fat gold chains are gonna come around for another fifteen years anyway.

More than 60 jewelry retailers have  signed Earthworks No Dirty Gold campaign, is your jeweler one of them?

www.TelecomforCharity.org

Puma has gone green with its packaging. They teamed up with famous industrial designer Yves Behar and came up with this alternative to a box. I’m not sure what you would do with the bag after you take it home cause I would never carry it, maybe I’m not a bag guy.Is any guy a’ bag guy’? please comment

Not sure how this is going to work for the sneaker aficionados. This packaging  might be hard to stack.

Nevertheless, according to PUMA its saving 8,500 tons of paper, a million litres of water and a million litres of fuel. The system will reduce paper used for shoe boxes by 65% and carbon emissions by 10 tons per year.

This is only the beginning as suggested by Jochen Zeitz, the Chairman and CEO of PUMA. This seems to be only a part of Puma’s new long-term Sustainability Programme that will see the company reduce waste and carbon emissions by 25%

Their Tee-shirts are being packaged in biodegradable corn starch bags which will save 720 tons of plastic yearly (that’s equal to 29 million plastic bags). By folding them one more (extra) time they are able to reduce packaging by 45%.and develop 50% of its products according to best sustainable practices by 2015.

Their looking to reduce their carbon foot  print or as Puma puts it their ‘Paw print’ -its cute but I hope they didn’t spend too much brainstorming on that one.  Puma introduced their new long-term 360 Sustainability Program which is a plan to called PUMAVision, their vision of a better world, they are carrying out initiatives under three categories: puma.safe, puma.peace and puma.creative to give back to the environment what it has taken. They have a goal to be the most desirable and sustainable Sports Lifestyle company in the world.

Nike , Adidas; step your game up. PUMA is not  being greedy with their design either, Zeitz said that there is a patent pending for the bag design but that he would be happy to share it with others and make it a universal system.

My experiences doing volunteer work for NY Cares, Habitat for Humanity these past years have given me a newfound love for doing something meaningful and ‘Socially Responsible’. Being in my thirties I feel like I’m late but better late than never. I have decided to work in the nonprofit industry. Those of you that have worked with me, chasing money in entertainment and fashion are probably scratching your heads and saying “nonprofit?”.
Yes I said ‘nonprofit’. I am excited about the opportunity; I’m excited about the initiative; I’m excited about the challenges of building the buzz for this initiative.
In case no one has looked over the website , the Facebook page the initiative is called Telecom for Charity. It uses everyday telecom needs (telephone, internet, data) and turns your service into a fundraising mechanism. The initiative save your company money, then donates 5% of your monthly to your company’s favorite cause or charity. It’s a Win /Win for everyone.
Like the majority of people, I always felt only experts should be writing blogs. Unfortunately no one ever cares what the majority of people think and that’s why we have hundreds of thousands of blogs. You might ask” Why is he writing this blog if he doesn’t feel he’s an expert.
Reason : my boss giving me the responsibility .
Kidding -Because I have only known music, entertainment and fashion for as far as I can remember, I will be writing this blog, not as a green expert, not as a nonprofit expert and not as a telecom expert
So what will this blog be about- it will be about how someone who’s never had experience in the Green industry getting this initiative off the ground and building a BUZZ. It will be about anything in Green news I can get my hands on. New Green Products; Green Foods that lead to green Healthy lifestyles and Green Sex; anything in Green Fashion;Green Art you name it.

We are very excited to be attending The Feast Conference and look forward to meeting like minded socially responsible businesses.

T4C is not only looking to promote our initiative, but also find ways to work with other forward think people, and help develop a new trend in sustainable business. We expect to meet a very diverse group of people each with their own theories on social innovations.

The one common ground all of these attendees will have is their dependency on telecommunications. every business needs voice and internet, there isn’t any way around it. However, the telecom industry is notoriously greedy and distant from social responsibility. That is where the T4C initiative will play a major part. We can turn any telecom resource into a tool to support a worthy cause. Whether the cause is local, environmental, or global the T4C initiative will make a difference by providing much needed funding.

Feel free to email or call us prior to the event so we can arrange a meet and greet.

See you there.

Jaf Frank, Founder, jay@telecomforcharity.org
Britt Sutcliffe, Project Manager, britt@telecomforcharity.org