day 51. july 21. 2010. July 21, 2010

Puma. and Yves Behar. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little more excited about Yves than Puma. Yves is, um like, a design god. I am in awe of him. Perhaps a little weak in knees awe, actually. And reduced to using “like” in my, like sentences, and stuff.

Yves is an industrial designer based in San Francisco and founder of fuseproject, and he designs SERIOUSLY cool stuff.

Like the XO Laptop. (The story of why he designed this laptop, and what happened when it went to market is incredible.)

The Mission Motors Motorbike. SAW-weet!!!

But in terms of being an honourary ecoJunkie, Yves gets my vote for this:

Earthshattering? No. But really clever!! And DOWN with shoeboxes! You are still my hero, Yves!

day 47. july 17. 2010. July 17, 2010

I’m going to a “natural make up” party tonight!! I’ll let you know if there’s any good stuff!!!

day 46. july 16. 2010. July 16, 2010

Hand mined, environmentally sensitive gems are available through Columbia Gem House Inc. The do their own mining, cutting and marketing and “strictly adhere to The Quality Assurance and Fair Trade Gems Protocols.”

OK. So if you NEED a fancy rock, you might want to research where these are available.

meh.

day 45. july 15. 2010. July 15, 2010

Diamonds. I’ve never really been a big fan of diamonds. Part of it is the rebel in me. I try not to do what everyone else is doing. Ok, sometimes.

I’m not entirely sure what all the fuss is about… its clear stone. I think it’s “value” has been over exaggerated by the diamond companies. According to the US Geological Survery, the World Industrial Diamond Reserves are estimated to be 580MILLION CARATS. Makes me think twice about this idea of it being a “rare rock”.

Then there was the movie, “Blood Diamond“. A fantastic film, and for me, completely reinforced my belief that Leonardo DiCaprio is indeed a great actor. But I digress.

Even after all of the bad press on “blood diamonds”, Amnesty International still estimates that up to 10% of the worlds diamonds come from countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cote D’Ivoire and tied to groups engaged in all manner of human rights abuses, from rape to child abuses. Not the sort of thing you want associated with the happy ceremony and commitment to your betrothed.

Sierra Leone Workers

The Kimberly Process was developed to reduce the trade of conflict diamonds. Currently 47 members (representing 75 nations – the EU counts as an individual participant) have met the minimum requirements of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme.

Even so, this only tells you that your diamond is “conflict free”. The mine could still be causing extreme environmental damage, the workers could be exploited, they could be employing children.

More recently I have come across some research revealing the environmental impact of diamond mining. Did you know that on average 250 tonnes of ore have to be dug up and processed to reveal a single carat. After that, only 1 in 5 raw diamonds are considered good enough to wear. Twenty percent of diamonds are excavated from dry riverbeds, and let me assure you these riverbeds are not “naturally dry”. Vacuuming a riverbed destroys delicate ecosystems reliant on that water system. Did you also know that diamonds are mining from the ocean floor? Neither did I.

Ocean Floor Diamond Mining

Open Pit Diamond Mining

More information on the environmental impact of diamond mining can be found here.

day 38. july 8. 2010. July 8, 2010

poplove! i love the name of this unique fashion house!

About:

Growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, a city of about 40,000, Andrea Hughes moved to Toronto to study the business end of fashion at George Brown College. After a stint at retail chains like Aldo and the FX Boutique, by age 23 Hughes was designing her own clothes.

Today, four years on Hughes has moved again, and now she and her husband Shai Wallach are running a unique family business – a line of “upcycled” fashion items for women and men – out of their PopLove studio in south Tel Aviv, Israel.

“Basically I decided I was done with working for other people and wanted to design for myself,” Hughes tells ISRAEL21c, explaining that “upcycled” refers to clothing which is recycled into garments that are a cut above the pieces from which they originate.

Wallach and Hughes took materials sourced from a local women’s charity that collects donations of clothes to create PopLove. It’s an online fashion retail brand that can be found in Tel Aviv’s trendiest boutiques, like those in the Gan Hashmal (Electric Garden) area. Items for sale online are popular with American, European and Australian clientele.