Grass Routes Presents: The THEKEY.TO ACADEMY

THEKEY.TO and Grass Routes proudly present the THEKEY.TO ACADEMY, offering an in-depth, six day training program in sustainable fashion during Berlin Fashion Week. Key experts and opinion leaders in sustainable fashion will share their experience and provide profound knowledge and inspiration to keep up with and contribute to the momentum of green and sustainable fashion.

The advance training for industry professionals covers the topics of sourcing, production, certifications, CSR, branding, design, retail and social business. The ACADEMY is directed specifically at designers working independently, product managers, supply chain and CSR managers, marketing and communication teams and newcomers to the green fashion business. The 6-day program will be held in English language and has a focus on facilitating discussion and exchange between expert speakers and participants in small international groups.

Running alongside of THEKEY.TO, the international event for green fashion, sustainable lifestyle and culture, the ACADEMY is an opportunity for networking and grants access to the trade fair venue and its exciting side program.

Speakers include Peter Ingwersen [Noir, Denmark], Ulrike Möslinger [Galeries Lafayette, Germany], Dr. Otto von Bush [Göteborg University, Sweden], Ulrike Wollenschläger [Textil Wirtschaft, Germany], Rolf Heimann [Hessnatur, Germany], Simone Seisl [MADE-BY, Germany], Jens Soth [Helvetas, Switzerland], Jana Kern [Kernkommunikation, Germany], Tony Tonnaer [former CEO of Kuyichi, Netherlands], Claudia Helming [Dawanda, Germany], Satish Chukkapalli [Zameen, India], Bernd Hausmann [Glore, Germany], Noel Klein-Reesink [Karmakonsum, Germany], Kirsten Brodde [Author, Germany].

Limited places available. Apply now HERE to reserve your place!

Every Leather Boot kills an Amazon Tree

Leather just a waste product? An interesting report by Greenpeace shuffles up the discussions on Leather. Even among sustainability experts, leather is often regarded as a waste product of the meat industry, and so sustainable shoe designers often work with vegetable tanned leather.

Greenpeace directly attacks the fashion industry, and makes them co-responsible for the immense destruction of Amazon forests for the meat and leather industry. Also, and especially, those that are “Made in Italy”.

In a recent blog post, shoe company Terra Plana states, that “it’s the fashion industry, rather than the meat one, that is driving an increase in cattle farming”. For Terra Plana, known to have a progressive sustainable policy, this is a reason to focus more and more on non-leather alternatives. An interesting standing point that provokes other sustainable footwear companies to take standing as well.

There are some organic leather projects, but most “sustainable leather” isn’t organic, it’s just about the tanning. So, if this is all true, what should be the alternative? Vegan shoes? Salmon leather? Barefoot? Cradle to cradle shoes? Just some less rainforest for your next fashion item?

Green Aid: Guerrilla Gardening for Everyone

You’ve just got this irresistible feeling to do some guerrilla gardening but forgot to bring your seed balls? No worries! The green aid project have started to sell them via candy machines so you can easily green up your neighbourhood with a simple grab-and-go.. The life of an gardening guerrilla have never been so easy!

Via Farmblogger

Empowering a New Spirit in Business

Karmakonsum, the german blog and agency for sustainable lifestyle and business, is organizing it’s next Karmakonsum Konferenz, a business conference and networking event in Frankfurt am Main on the 25th of June 2010.

Next to a conference, the event hosts a green camp and an exhibition of sustainable businesses. The event will also present the winners of the Karmakonsum Start-Up Award, for which one can still apply untill the 24th of April.

Topics on the conference cover social banking, social web and sustainability, eco sex, slow food, and different spiritual and sustainability visions on leadership and business.

The conference is organized by Christoph Harrach and Noel Klein Reesink (see pic), two good friends from the LOHAS szene who will definately rock a good spirit for the event.

I’ll do my very best to be there, so let’s have some new spirit in business and see us in June!

London Recap

Friday night I spent with the Latvian-Japanese crew of London Trousers (picture), a young, high end jeans brand who run their office from the rooftop bar of the Hospital Club, a membership club for the creative industries. I like the art work around London Trousers a lot, and one wouldn’t guess in the first place that their jeans are produced with organic cotton.

On Saturday I payed short visits to the boutiques Equa and Ascension and later in the day came to the opening of the Pop Up Store of the Environmental Justice Foundation, a three floor store & event space in high street. Located at 57 Carnaby street, it will be still open in the coming six weeks for shopping and a row of events. There I met with Ben from Pants to Poverty, the world leading anti-poverty underwear brand…

In the afternoon I had a walk, and accidently met a group of about fifteen community gardeners, who where just building a garden at a channel side. I joined them for a while to help, and got invited for  a lovely lunch and tea on a boat house. With all the stress and speed of the city, it felt great to meet people who where so open and spent their day building a garden in public space.

Slow sweet slow.

One Day of Ethical Fashion in London

London can surely be named one of the key cities in the world when it comes to green or – the British way – ethical fashion. I’ve just arrived last night and as the speed in London is accelerated, so has been my day…

- Starting with a nice stay at the home base of Sven, founder of the shoe brand Po Zu, one of the most innovative sustainable shoe brands on this planet. Recently, the brand is getting forward pretty well and you’ll definitely hear more of them soon..

- This morning I visited the launch of the Considerate Design Project by Professor Sandy Black, author of The Fashion Paradox and Director of the Centre for Fashion Science of the London College of Fashion. The project is aimed to create a technical breakthrough for new ways of mass customization, and combines technical and online innovations to offer new forms of customized production and in that way supporting the production of products that fit the consumer as a real alternative to the excesses of mass production.

- Lunch with Judith Condor Vidal from Trading for Development, who I’ve met a few years ago in Kenya and who’s working to promote fair trade in fashion for many years and a great linkage between small, fair trade projects in the south and the European market, and sustainable think tank thinker and blogger Sarah Ditty.

- On my way I passed on of the pop up stores of the sustainable shoe brand Terra Plana and the Junky Styling boutique. Junky Styling has been a pioneer in upscale recycling fashion and they’re selling their unique pieces all over the world now.

- For tea time I moved to the headquarters of the Ethical Fashion Forum at Rich Mix, who share a cosy stuffed office space with underwear label Pants to Poverty and the shoe brand Worn Again.

- This evening I visited the Ethical Fashion Social. A networking evening regularly organized at the showroom of the Foundation Agency, the major distribution agency for ethical fashion in the UK, with brands like Kuyichi, Komodo and Article 23 on board. Next to mingling, the evening hosted the presentation of three interesting fair trade projects, The Big Swap, a successful consumer campaign in the UK, the presentation of fair trade certified jewelry brand Cred, and the interesting story of the fair trade Panama hat company Pachacuti.

After one day of meetings, I get the feeling there’s a lot going on and the issue is still pretty vibrant. And, in London, the ethical fashion community is more and more interconnected with the mainstream fashion business.

To be continued…

- image by Po Zu -

Green Fashion Event THEKEY.TO Shows Over 50 Designers at Berlin Fashion Week

Successfully launched in July 2009 in Berlin, the new International Event for Green Fashion and Sustainable Lifestyle THEKEY.TO arises now to its second edition: THEKEY.TO SHIFT, from January 20th to 23rd 2010. As part of the Berlin Fashion Week, THEKEY.TO is the first event of its kind in Germany, entirely and exclusively focused on stylish sustainable fashion. Half a year after it’s launch, it already counts as one of the largest green fashion events worldwide.

Over 50 exhibitors representing this new generation will come from all over the world to take part in the second edition (Germany, France, Denmark, Portugal, Switzerland, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Austria, Canada, USA). THEKEY.TO will gather a wide selection of the hippest and most contemporary upscale green brands alongside casual and street wear labels and a variety of innovative bags and footwear.

The Shift Sessions will feature a press conference and forum titled The Key to Shift and a series of diverse workshops focused on an active interchange of culture, information and visions among international experts, the press and the green community around the main topic of sustainability. The full program can found here: http://thekey.to/program/

As one of the Founders, I am glad that this Grass Routes initiated project is growing strong now, and look forward to the upcoming event. In February, the Grass Routes blog will be re-launched after a period of silence. We keep you updated!

Image: Van Markoviec

Grass Routes Presents: thekey.to, International Event for Green Fashion & Culture in Berlin

thekey.to is the new international fair for green fashion and sustainable lifestyle. Between 1st and 4th July 2009, a selection of sustainable fashion labels ranging from street-wear to high fashion will be on display in Berlin. The chosen brands are pioneers in fair and ecological production and will showcase innovative design combined with the very highest quality.

The fair itself shows a new direction: all display furniture will be made of impeccably sustainable materials. Thanks to its unique architecture concept, the event will be able to be nearly 100% recycled. And the fair will be about more than fashion. With slow-food gastronomy, sustainable design, organic beauty, cultural highlights, fashion shows, workshops and parties, thekey.to presents the entire progressive lifestyles spectrum.

This event is organized by Gereon Pilz von der Grinten and Rostislav Komitov (creative agency fairactivities) with Frans Prins (Grass Routes Foundation). To put it into Gereon’s words: “global trendsetters today want style with background and a committed attitude. This is exactly what is offered by thekey.to. We are presenting progressive and innovative designs, green avant-garde, which are set to bring about a fashion and lifestyle revolution for the future.”

Frans explains that “thekey.to is the first event to present the whole spectrum of this visionary consumer movement. Designers and buyers in this developing market will gain from the fair an early vision of the latest developments, as well as a place to network and develop ideas. With this event we revolutionize our culture itself. We no longer need lifestyles that destroy our nature and neglect our social values, we need lifestyles based on real sustainability and a sense of quality. thekey.to will be a forum for sustainability. Berlin’s creative climate makes it the ideal city for this fair. Together with Berlin Fashion Week and Bread&Butter, thekey.to will strengthen Berlin as a key fashion spot.”

Between 1st and 3rd July, the fair is reserved for accredited fair professionals and press. 4th July is public day, where visitors can get informed and buy products. The location will be kept a secret from the public up until two weeks before the opening: “we want to increase the excitement, to provoke people in a positive way and to realise an exclusive event”, explains Gereon, “thekey.to is the key to an open door.”

Picture: thekey.to founders Frans Prins, Gereon Pilz van der Grinten and Rostislav Komitov.

Earth Hour: Largest Climate Action Ever

This Saturday the largest global climate change action ever will take place. 2,140 cities, towns and municipalities in 82 countries have already committed to VOTE EARTH for Earth Hour 2009, “as part of the worlds first global election between Earth and global warming.”

For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming. WWF are urging the world to VOTE EARTH and reach the target of 1 billion votes, which will be presented to world leaders at the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009.

Let’s see how far we can bring it… 1 billion people joining one action is quite LARGE…

How: switch off your lights for one hour

When: Saturday 28th of March, 8:30PM local time, wherever you live on planet earth. Saturday 28 March 2009

via: Sustainablog

World Water Day: Is Blue The New Green?

Today it’s World Water Day. We all know how important water is for life. Still, the process of privatization of water resources and exploitation of precious water areas for commercial use are ongoing. Who owns and has access to water is predicted to be one of the major topics for this century.

How much water is used to produce your T-shirt? The amount of water used to irrigate cotton is greater than that of all the households worldwide.

Some people say “Blue is the new Green”. This might be true, and the water issue is extremely important to ecology, but it can also become just the new toy for marketing gurus to play with. As green has gone mainstream, blue is just the next thing. Therefore I liked the statement of Nick Rosen who recently told Ode Magazine, that the environmental movement should choose brown as their new color, because the color and the word brown are harder to make sexy.

According to Rosen, green was a word that stood for an era of less materialism and zero growth. “It took us a long time to establish the word, but now it has been hijacked by the people we were trying to distinguish ourselves from. Manufacturers, advertisers, marketeers: They pretend we can live on with our lives the way we did, as long as we check the label. They have made ‘green’ into a fashion item. Now everything is green.” So, brown is the new green . Wait a minute, how many colors are there in the rainbow?

I think the answer is different. Look at the earth, what do you see? Blue. Green. White. Black. Brown. We don’t need a simple color to advertise sustainability. We need awareness and action. And we need to build this movement together, manufacturer, marketeer or old school eco hippy, those distinctions are from yesterday. What counts is what responsibility you take and how you live it.

Also see:

Worldwaterday in Berlin

Blue Planet Project

Do You Design “Open” Already?

Over the last years, Open Source Software has developed from a playground for hackers towards something defining for the mainstream market. But as there’s more areas where copyrights play an important role, there’s more work to do…

Nowadays music, culture, science, agriculture are all frontlines for heavy patent and copyright battles, a struggle between corporations interests and those of smaller organizations, farmers, musicians, and consumers. Often here it’s really about life or death, if medicins are available or not, if one single company can own the copyright of a species or of human DNA.

A lot of young people have grown up witha free availability of information, and apply this towards everything non-material. The future lies in open source and free access, because it’s in the mindset of the youth.

Now, here in Berlin there’s an active open source scene of webdevelopers and people from the cultural scene exchanging their vision and work in this field. Their mission is to create platforms for open collaboration.

Next Thursday in the Newthinking Store there’s a workshop on OPEN DESIGN, organized by Creative Commons and Open Everything, and as their aim is creative collaboration, there might follow a lot of interesting projects.

One of the first collaborations form the designer corner was the cooperation of Open Source Fashion Label Pamoyo and the theatre company Gutestun, with the Open Source Theatre Performance Copy Me (video), which had a premiere in Bordeaux and recently showed in Berlin.

I think there’s a lot of potential for this issue and we will hear more of this. But where’s the fashion scene hiding?

See also:

TAZ article on Copy Me

Nike and Creative Commons

Berlin Vista Social Bar

Wertvoll: New Eco Fashion Store in Berlin

Wertvoll is a new eco fashion store opening it’s doors in Berlin. They advertise with “an innovative and consequent fair trade concept”.

The store hosts a fine selection of eco brands for women, with designer fashion and Germany made knitwear but also brands like Kuyichi, Beyond Skin and the underwear label G98.

Wertvoll is founded by the two young Berliner fashion designers Judith Finsterbusch and Monika Lesinski.

For those interested, the opening of Wertvoll is at Friday 27. March from 2pm.

As also Glore is starting activities here in Berlin this summer, and some more surprises are foreseen, Berlin finally takes it’s steps towards the Berlin summer of love, peace & eco fashion.

The Future of Food

Just food for thought. Watch out: might be a bit radical for your mind. The rest of the film on you tube.

I am going out in the sunshine and play with my daugther… and get some earth and seeds…

via Sound of Sirens

Humana – People to Profit

“People to people” is their slogan. And considering the accusation of Humana being a cult, this slogan gets a slightly different sound. While you think you post your old clothes to charity when donating them to the Humana box, you might actually support a fraudulent cult that exploits both volunteers and people in development countries.

According to Tvind Alert, a Humana critical site, “it’s pyramidal structure, strict heirarchy, all-powerful leader, millennial goals, secretive nature and hostility to outsiders all match classic descriptions of a cult. Under the name ‘Tvind’ or ‘Humana’, it is listed as a cult by the French and Belgian governments and many cult watchdog groups around the world.” The organization also operates under the names “Planet Aid” and “Gaia”.

Peterson, founder of the organisation, has been disappeared for 22 years, and catched by the FBI while living in a Humana funded billionaire’s house near Miami. After courts in Denmark, he’s on the run again and since Jaunary 2009 on the list of Interpol.

The clothing collection is a profitable business. While the textiles are collected for free, the best pieces are sold in second hand stores, and the rest shipped to Africa to sell on the local markets. According to some specialists, the dumping of second hand clothing in developing countries has had a crushing effect on local economies. This is not a Humana problem alone, also more credible NGO’s have been involved in this process. Also, specialists don’t have one standing point there and some still state that sending clothing as aid works.

So, what to do with your next clothing dump? I suggest: organize a clothes swapping party. It’s much fun and you know where your clothes go. And with the rest? Also an NGO label on the container doesn’t give you any guarantee that your clothes are not gonna be sold on a profitable base. In Germany, the organization FairWertung informs about credible organizations and which containers to trust. In the future, I hope I can just bring my old clothes to the nearby climateneutral cradle-to-cradle machine and get fresh underwear out on demand. But yeah, until then we have to cradle to cradle with our bare hands…

also see: Kirstin Brodde, Korrekteklamotten, Sebastian Backhaus

Karmakonsum Goes Social Business

Where last years Karmakonsum Konferenz had a primary focus on LOHAS and marketing, this year the program has a stronger focus on social business, with speakers like Hans Reitz (Mohammed Yunus right-hand) and Peter Spiegel from the GENISIS, a Greencamp that also puts the topic of social entrepreneurship more into light.

Also a special “Sartup Awards” for startup green and social entrepreneurs celebrate their first edition with a Gala party. Startups can apply here until the 19th of April. The winner get’s a price worth 30.000 Euro in business coaching, advertising space and green office equipment.

It is interesting to see that the “LOHAS” topic itself is slightly moving out from the spotlights, and that Christoph and Noel have looked for topics that could be an answer to current economic events.

The Greencamp is organized in the tradition of a Barcamp; which is an open conference form where participants decide together over the program and where everyone can offer a workshop. While the conference has it’s price, the Greencamp and Awards Gala are are free of charge. What about really camping somewhere with the visitors of the camp?

Impressions from last years Karmakonsum conference:

Where’s the Plug?

We’re slightly re-branding our perception of reality. I remember a hilarious moment, having trouble with finding an actual spot, because on “google earth” reality looked different.

We accept this as normal. Thereby we often forge how far the technological and virtual realities we have created re-shape our perception of the world we live in.

The more we’re using new technologies and mix virtual and non-virtual reality, the more we will long for moments we can hide from our over-branded and technology-stuffed world, and get “unplugged”.

This will be a major issue, because as recent science fiction predicts: there might soon be no escape. And: is there still a plug?!?

The Google action is created by artist Filippo Minelli, it is really worth checking the whole series of Google images by Minelli

MC Donalds action by Keim & Zjomo;

Images via Rebel:Art;

Berlin Trainbirds: Make the City Your Livingroom

There’s no escape. About a week ago, some people did a little test for an action called “Zugvögel / Trainbirds”, and said not to publish any materials. But after the action, they where so enthusiastic that they published about the action anyway. And there we go in a day: Toolsforactions, Karmakonsum, Alles was gerecht ist, Nachhaltigkeitsguerilla, etc.

The next Berlin Trainbird will soon take place, be larger, and if you want to join, you can leave a comment here and we will get you in touch with the organizers…

The Hess Man

I tried it out! I’ve been involved in the eco fashion movement in Germany for about two years now, but I actually never tried any product of Hessnatur, one of the pioneering clothing companies in organics.

My friend Noel insisted that I should apply for the testpanel of Hessnatur, and so last Wednesday I had a trip to Hamburg to have a free ride at the Hessnatur shop.

Something Hessnatur is really good at is material quality. They have high standards for keeping the textiles natural and chemical free (higher than some of the eco fashion brands around). And they use quite a range of good, organic textiles.

Something Hessnatur has long been criticized for is style. Obviously, Hessnatur is in a period of slightly redefining it’s image and style, and with recently getting designer Miguel Adrover on board they are experimenting in a new direction. But actually I did not find much of this new approach back in the standard lines at the mens department.

While testing I started to appreciate the classical approach and conservative style, and in the end, I had to make though choices on what to bring home. I choose a jacket (100% organic cotton, made in Turkey), a black shirt (100% organic cotton, made in Macedonia) and a blue shawl (cut off the label, sorry!).

I had a lot of fun trying everything on, cheering with the Hess crew and having a late night hitch back to Berlin.

See also:

Grass Routes Blog on Hessnatur

Hessnatur blog

Grass Routes Becomes Official UN-Dekade Project

Last month, Grass Routes recieved the UN-Dekade “Education for Sustainable Development”. As a young organization in the field we are very happy with this support and acknowledgment of our activities and our organization. The Dekade is given to a large spectre of organizations.

In Germany, the Dekade is implemented by the German UNESCO-Comussion based on the support of the German parliament and coordinated on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Science. This week Grass Routes is project of the week of the German UN-Dekade.

Howdy, we will educate the world till it glows green!

Nike and Creative Commons Launch Open Knowledge Sharing Project on Sustainability

The world is turning upside down. Nike and Creative Commons recently launched GreenXchange, “an open innovation platform that promotes the creation and adoption of technologies that have the potential to solve important global or industry-wide challenges”.

For the movement of open knowledge sharing this is a great step. Nike is one of the first large corporations working with creative commons, an NGO providing licenses and tools for free information sharing. But is this the start of a new era of collaboration in the industry or greenwashing 2.0? Or both? What do you think?

My email to creative commons:

Hi John,

I just read about the GreenXchange project. (…) For the open sharing of sustainability knowledge, this is a great step forward. What is the practical implication of the project, who are you inviting to join this mission? Who’s going to manage the information available?

Personally, I think it would be much better to have more brands on board than just Nike, because for an exchange you need more partners, and because now the action looks too much like a cheap greenwashing trick for Nike, something that could actually damage the image of the project and keep some possible serious supporters out. Even if it is not greenwashing. But generally, I think this cooperation is exiting and I hope other brands and corporations (music industry? medics?) will follow…
Best regards, Frans