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Art, Design, Fashion, Music, Business, Local or Global with a Sustainable, Responsible Twist.

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New Friends: SUST - An Organic Women's Clothing Company

SUST ad in the May 2009 Issue of Dwell.

My first reaction while I was reading through the latest issue of Dwell Magazine and came upon an ad for a clothing company called SUST was, good name! We've been calling ourselves Susty's since we first got started over a year ago and are always on the look out for long lost friends. Couple that with the fact that I also use arrows in my marketing materials for my consulting firm Be One Creative and my heart started to beat a bit faster. After digging a bit more to learn about the company, its product, and its founders I started to uncover some striking similarities about how our companies came to be.

As we are always researching ways to diversify our Venture Space, we recently began discussing the incorporation of retail to supplement our co-working office and conference space. We will be coming out with our own line of t-shirts during the summer but we are also researching a collection of the latest sustainable, ethical, and responsible clothing lines. This in mind I contacted SUST to get further information.


SUST, Spring 2009

SUST is based out of San Francisco and was started by two childhood friends named Tristan Gribbin and Marion McKee. Tristan and Marion went through high school and college together in Northern California, which has always been a vortex for fresh thought and progressive culture. After working on their own careers and projects they recently came together in order to harness their creative potential and to realize their dream of harnessing the fashion industry to promote a positive movement of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.

Generation Sustain has a similar story. We were started by two sets of childhood friends who grew up together, attended the same highschool and college, and came together to start a business based on the positive and inclusive communication of sustainability. Tory Hanna and myself studied Environmental Design and have been working on harnessing the influential power of the built environment to create positive social change. We've always agreed that if the buildings and landscapes that we walk through every day have the power to influence our collective behavior, so must what we walk around in, clothes. Ethical and sustainable fashion, marketing, and product development are what Alee Marsh and Jennifer Kehoe have begun working on. The pair will both be graduating this year from the University of Massachusetts and we're excited to see what they will work on when they have a lot more time on their hands.


www.getsust.com

SUST's collection is made entirely of US grown 100 percent organic cotton in San Francisco. By working with US based cotton growers, local California based manufacturers, and mainataining a close relationship with the production of their garments, SUST ensures that true "fair trade principles are woven in every step of the way." Portions of their proceeds are also given to support ecological causes.

Their Spring 2009 collection invokes a minimalist beauty that seems to be very much a part of their business ideals. Their bright colors and simple elegant fits are depicted well in the photos of the collection taken in Iceland by Tristan's Icelandic husband, photographer and director Stefan Arni. The collection reminds me of the form of design that has influenced me the most, Scandanavian Minimalism. That said, if I were a woman, I'd wear their clothing. The clean lines and quality materials highlighted by bright colors suggest a positive break in a cluttered dreary environment.

SUST, Spring 2009


An example of Scandinavian Minimalism I spent much time in and around.
Shot facing north next to the "Black Diamond" Library in Copenhagen, Denmark.

We are happy to have come across this exciting new business and are looking forward to somehow working with SUST in the future. Our similar paths to starting our ventures speak to a new paradigm for innovation and sustainability, one that has moved away from alarmist environmentalism and cause elitism and will hopefully harness the power to influence through accessibility and quality design.

More information about SUST and photographs of their spring line can be viewed at www.getsust.com.

Boswell's Books - Shelburne Falls, MA

If you're ever in western Massachusetts, make sure to swing by Boswell's Books in Shelburne Falls. The store / cat named Boswell were recently purchased by Sarah Pepper Fournier Scanlon in 2008. She has done a great job renovating and building her collection of volumes focused on sustainability, permaculture, and transition culture ranging anywhere from topics like edible forest gardens to classic urban theory.



We hope to be working closely with Sarah in the future to get some good things going in our community and region.

Sailboats and the Evolution of the Problem Solving Process

Will we as humans be able to more accurately forecast potential problems so we don't have to rediscover old technologies to increase efficiency? With the emergence of technological hybridization in pop and mainstream culture, will we develop a collective hybrid model for problem solving, invention, and work? My favorite example of this is putting a sail on a boat.


www.kitesail.com

Spawn of Generation Sustain

I'm proud to announce our newest official venture. Be One Creative was set up to provide fresh eyes and innovative vision to the planning, marketing, and development of the cities we live in, the businesses that allow us to flourish, and the causes that drive us. For more information check out the blog while the site is being built. We'll be working closely with our network and clients to ensure that meaningful, game changing projects get off the ground in an attempt to shift the paradigm from urban planning to urban implementation.

New Friends: TALK By Design

Generation Sustain is happy to be working in collaboration with Timberly Hund and Travis Kline of TALK By Design to research and possibly develop further locations for our Venture Spaces. More news on this front will be coming out in the following months.


TALK By Design office In Brattleboro, Vt.




Guest office at TALK By Design

Interior Shots of GSVS1

Mckenzie Rollins Checking out the view with a book in our lounge.


Our workstations were built by our first tenant, Justin Lively. Pine wrapped with canvas and finished with poplar. Neutral and cool.


Raechel digging in to a book next to Joie Watson of Shine Design's Desk.

Welcome to Our New Tenants!

We would like to extend a warm welcome to our new tenants, as of February 1st our 6 initial workstations will be filled by local creative talent. We are currently developing plans to build up to six more Anchor tenant workstations for full-time inhabitants.

Welcome to: Justin Lively, Joie Watson, Erbin Crowell, and Annie Cheatham. More details on them and their projects are soon to come, so stay tuned!

-GS team

Shots of Our Space - Zooming In

View from the High Ledges in Shelburne. The building is a landmark.




Shot from across the Iron Bridge. Intersection Bridge and State.




The space is taking shape as the dividers for our workstations are being built as I type.

Brainstorming

GS Venture Space Design and Layout

We met with our friend Riana Heddens who happens to be an excellent interior designer last night in the space. She's helping us furnish and design the layout of the 1,900 square feet to create a dynamic, creative, collaborative work environment that can evolve with our needs.

The final design is not yet decided but we are looking for young industrial and furniture designers to show their work in our public areas. We'll also be borrowing ideas from the latest approaches to office space to create an example of outfitting on a startup budget without sacrificing congruent, sound design.

We are looking for local support and expertise in the Shelburne Falls/Valley area (Contact Caleb). Stay tuned for more as we hammer down the design and begin to implement.

Generation Sustain Space Venture

Done Deal!

We just locked down our first space in the rad little creative cultural hub of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. We have a full third floor, over 1000 square feet, that will now be the headquarters for GS and act as collaborative incubator space for other young responsible ventures.

The space is located in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, is 3 hours driving distance from New York, NY, 2 hours from Boston, 5 hours from Montreal, 50 minutes from Bradley International Airport and is directly surrounded by Amherst, Northampton, the Five Colleges, the Berkshires and plenty of things to do outside.

We will bring in 3-10 small creative businesses, start-up ventures, and plenty of fresh ideas to support and drive our mission forward and be diversified under the canopy of Generation Sustain. As we build and work we will develop a model for creative economic development in non-traditional areas that will be able to be taken any where in the world to empower fresh ideas and sustainable development.

More to come on this front!

Connect Learn Empower...Create

-Caleb

Operation Incubation

We are currently working on locking down a space to be set up for other responsible entrepreneurs and artists to join us, collaborate and get ideas out. There will definitely be more to come on this topic in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!

-Caleb

Welcome...Again!

Welcome to the editorial piece of Generation Sustain. We will be doing our best to highlight the next generation of socially and environmentally responsible thought, ventures, news, and art. Now that green is chic and on the verge of being cliche we believe there is a need to highlight positive endeavors that are working toward the goal of taking our world and the systems we use to reach a level of sustainable prosperity. Whether or not the Earth is melting or freezing, and whether humans will end up being the disease or the cure, there is a strong youthful push to rethink the way in which we live, interact, and think. This group that ranges from artists to entrepreneurs and everyone in between is pushing the envelope and reshaping our society. The call is out and we believe that the future of our beautiful Earth is in our hands, so it is our duty to answer this call and make sure that we live the most responsible lives we can, and be proud of it.

Every generation is defined by a decisive set of events as we rise up to overcome the challenges we collectively face. Let our generation be defined by our rising up to combat climate change and social inequality as we create responsible ventures and live sustainable lives.

We are just beginning this push so we hope you check back frequently for updates and feel free to contact us.

Welcome and thank you!

Generation Sustain

Rural Broadband: Shelburne Falls, MA

Express Yourself...Dress Green!

Jennifer Kehoe and Alexandra Marsh

The population is going green. From the health addicts who crave the organic and locally grown food products to the environmentally conscious who splurge on hybrid vehicles, even the fashion industry is finding its niche. Clothing and accessories made from organic and alternative textiles and recycled materials are eco-friendly and cruelty-free. Young and middle aged women interested in sustainable and progressive ways of life are still fans of style, and when celebrities endorse the “green”, such as Bono’s socially responsible clothing line, the ideas and products become mainstream and accessible. Concerns about health and the environment, in relation to the pesticide use on textile crops is just another aspect of the green trend that consumers may be concerned about. Socially and environmentally conscious actions in the fashion industry connect it to the global phenomenon of sustainability.1

There are many companies and designers that are now offering full or part lines of organic fashion. Using pesticide free raw materials, recycled materials, and other eco-friendly textiles, they are able to appeal to a wide variety of people. Large chain stores such as Target, Sam’s Club, and WalMart are introducing Go Green campaigns and offering organic clothing in their junior, child, and athletic apparel departments.2

Organic apparel, in part due to a buy-in from retail behemoth Wal-Mart, is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the organic movement. Sales of organic fiber grew 44 percent to reach $160 million in 2005, according to the Organic Trade Association, and the boom is expected to continue as consumers become more familiar with eco-friendly clothing.3

Not only has population of progressive, socially and environmentally conscious citizens jumped on board the style of green, but the general mainstream market is offering similar products, and cheaper, to people who are just catching the eco-friendly bug. Stores such as WholeFoods and Nordstrom offer the earthy chic and designer lovers a chance to shop around for the industries products. Organic clothing and accessories are no longer frumpy looking, as the fashion world has taken on the project of stylizing the materials into pieces that look no different than other company’s designs. There is a shift in the industry from hippie to hip.4

The designer fashion market has a collection of supporters from designers to celebrity consumers. Boutiques and high-end department stores have started carrying all sorts of sustainable clothing lines. There are two types of consumers and producers, those who are adding fashion to their social and environmental responsibility beliefs and those who are adding the sustainable aspect to their already existing fashion production. As the “fastest growing
category in organic fiber consumer sales in the U.S., according to the Organic Trade Association,”5 the women’s clothing market has the opportunity to take the lead in eco-friendly design, and the consumer demand is quite apparent. The new trend in fashion is a national interest, coming from a variety of perspectives and is available in progressive areas such as Western Massachusetts and other cities, expensive high-end markets like Los Angeles, chain stores such as WalMart, and online.

As people are becoming increasingly interested in the environmental, social, and ethical consequences of their actions and decisions, consumer behavior has experienced a dramatic shift. From organic, Fair Trade, locally grown and eco-friendly products, the natural industry has been able to claim top sales. According to Packaged Facts, a 17.4% increase in sales has occurred since 2005, reaching $32.8 billion in 2006.6 In the fashion world, the trends of the summer 2007 season also introduced green as the new top color pick in more ways than one. Sellers claim that the surge of interest in the many shades that green has to offer is in indication of an awareness and interest in today’s environmental issues. The fashion industry has been introducing apparel made of recycled material, organic and alternative fabrics such as cotton, hemp, soy, and bamboo, and even accessories made of cardboard. “‘We've got woven bags made out of recycled materials like candy wrappers,’ said Seana Pedelaborde, owner of A Mano Trading in Berkeley, Calif., of her Babylon line. ‘They're really bright and colorful and have a New Wave feel to them,’”7

Major retail clothing and apparel companies are catching onto the trend of using sustainably harvested and organic fabric material. Powerhouses in the outdoor and athletic industry such as Nike, Eddie Bauer, and Timberland have been weaving these new textiles into their finished products. Environmentally conscious consumers are able to still buy their favorite, big-name brands, but with the assurance that the company has an interest in going “green” and pleasing the customer who values sustainability. “But the best part for consumers is that many alternative fabrics have features that traditional ones don't, said Rebecca Calahan Klein, the president of Organic Exchange, a clearinghouse and resource center in Berkeley, Calif. ‘Bamboo is a good example,’ Ms. Calahan Klein said. 'It's a natural and biodegradable fiber that also happens to be soft against the skin and, according to fabric producers, it is naturally antimicrobial.'’”8

One company, Indigenous Designs, founded by Scott Leonard 14 years ago, sells organic fair trade clothing made by the people of Ecuador, India, Guatemala, and Peru. He works with 300 knitting cooperatives of women. He determines their skills in knitting, sewing, and crocheting, and gives them designs his company creates for sweaters, casual wear, and accessories. They stick to their design manta, “Never let a customer feel like they're sacrificing quality or fashion sense to be a good global citizen." The fabric used comes from no more than 400 miles from the cooperatives, and is produced with sustainable natural materials. The women are given training and the right tools to create the clothing. Indigenous Design had a hard time when the company first started up, because no one was familiar with organic or Fair Trade, but now, the company earns $4 million in revenue.9

Conserve, a New Delhi based company that makes woman’s fashion accessories out of the plastics bags that find their way blowing across the polluted streets of India, started from the work of Anita Ahuja. After paying government ID-ed “rag pickers,” or people who search through the dumpsters, her employees turn trash into treasure, creating handbags out of reusable, yet no resale value, plastics. The fashions are sold through Global Girlfriend, an online retailer, to Whole Foods stores in the U.S. Ahuja’s products are an example of how green fashion accessories can be constructed out of almost any material. Ecoist, Basura Bags, and Focused Bags create bags and purses out of recycled chip bags, can tabs, gum wrappers, and broken skateboards. Companies of this philosophy combine creative art, environmental protection (recycled materials) and fashion into merchandise that consumers have fun with and feel good about.10 Reusable shopping bags are becoming immensely popular, even attracting top designers. Hermes launched its $960 reusable shopping bag in the U.S. this summer. Vogue writes, “Today, let us go out and harness the power of fashion to change the way the nation shops…Say no to plastic bags. Whip out your own brilliant alternative. Make people stare. Break a habit. Set a trend.”11

In the sales of ethical, eco-friendly/conscious, and sustainable trend products, the food and beverage category has experienced the largest growth in sales by the billions on dollars. Personal care products has taken second place, with an increase of 3.2 to 5.24 billions of dollars, from 2002 until 2006. By 2011, a 10% increase is expected, totaling a whopping 8.82 billions of dollars into the industry.12 The movement into holistic and alternative health practices may justify these numbers. As people are deciding they should monitor what they put in and on their bodies, a shift towards organic, plant-derived ingredients is catching on. Mainstream popular beauty outlets such as Lush, and department stores such as the famous Sephora are carrying brands like Dr. Hauschka, a holistic skin care company that emphasizes natural regeneration of the skins processes, and sourcing their ingredients from their own biodynamic organic farm in Germany.13

With corporate companies buying many of the socially and environmentally responsible brands, such as Hershey’s now owning Dagoba organic chocolates, and generic brands such as Kellogg’s introducing cereals that are now offered organic, “green” is everywhere.14 This mainstream shift though, has brought up controversial thoughts. Some believe that the root beliefs in ethical, environmental, and socially responsible consuming risk being undermined as going green become more mainstream and more trendy. Whether or not this debate really matters or will hurt the industry members who want stay “pure” is up to individual evaluation. Yet either way, people are moving towards the green, the natural, the sustainable, the eco-friendly/conscious, no matter the price, in response to an increased awareness in a progressive future and change in mental models.

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1 Kennedy, Kelli. “Organic Clothing Enters Realm of High Fashion.” The Purse Blog. 14 October 2007. http://www.purseblog.com/fashion/organic-clothing-enters-realm-of-high-fashion/.

2 Bond, Patti. “FRESH IDEAS; MANUFACTURERS RESPOND TO A GROWING INTEREST IN ORGANIC FASHIONS.” ProQuest, ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry. Organic fashion. 14 October 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1199085491&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1192454654&clientId=2724.

3 Bond, Patti. “FRESH IDEAS; MANUFACTURERS RESPOND TO A GROWING INTEREST IN ORGANIC FASHIONS.” ProQuest, ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry. Organic fashion. 14 October 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1199085491&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1192454654&clientId=2724.

4 Bond, Patti. “FRESH IDEAS; MANUFACTURERS RESPOND TO A GROWING INTEREST IN ORGANIC FASHIONS.” ProQuest, ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry. Organic fashion. 14 October 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=1&did=1199085491&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1192454654&clientId=2724.

5 Sarkasian-Miller, Nola. “Green Day; Organic fashion takes root.” ProQuest, ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry. Organic fashion. 14 October 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=3&did=830655851&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1192456481&clientId=2724.

6 “Corporate Responsibility: The Market and Trends for Green Products in Food and Beverage, Personal Care, and Household Items.” Natural fabrics, Packaged Facts; Market Research.com Academic. 1/1/2007. Oct 8, 2007. <http://academic.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1282418&curl=&surl=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Easp%3Fprid%3D1006577935%26query%3Dnatural%2Bfabrics%26cmdgo%3DGo&prid=1006577935>

7 Daswani, Kavita. “See Green; The Color Finds its Way into all Types of Accessories for Summer, Echoing the Growing Interest in Eco-friendly Products.” Handbags and Accessories, Proquest; ABI/Inform Trade and Industry. 8/13/2007. Oct. 8, 2007. <http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=7&did=1324167951&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1191933190&clientId=2724>

8 Regenold, Strephen. “The New Wearing of Green.” The New York Times; LexisNexis Academic. 11/17/2005. Oct. 8, 2007. <http://www.lexisnexis.com:80/us/lnacademic/results/docview/docview.do?risb=21_T2220667488&format=GNBFI&sort=RELEVANCE&startDocNo=1&resultsUrlKey=29_T2220667491&cisb=22_T2220667490&treeMax=true&treeWidth=0&csi=6742&docNo=8 >

9 “Grocery Totes.” Chicago Tribune. 5-07-2007. Mintel.

10 Ahuja, Anita. Conserve. 20 November 2007. http://www.conserveindia.org/main.php

11 Ramberg. “Doing Good: Fair Fashion.” J.J., Entrepreneur; Oct 2007, Vol. 35 Issue 10, p36-36. Business Source Premier.

12 “Corporate Responsibility: The Market and Trends for Green Products in Food and Beverage, Personal Care, and Household Items.” Natural fabrics, Packaged Facts; Market Research.com Academic. 1/1/2007. Oct 8, 2007. <http://academic.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1282418&curl=&surl=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Easp%3Fprid%3D1006577935%26query%3Dnatural%2Bfabrics%26cmdgo%3DGo&prid=1006577935>

13 Dr. Hauschka Skin Care. Oct. 8, 2007. <http://www.drhauschka.com >

14 “Corporate Responsibility: The Market and Trends for Green Products in Food and Beverage, Personal Care, and Household Items.” Natural fabrics, Packaged Facts; Market Research.com Academic. 1/1/2007. Oct 8, 2007. <http://academic.marketresearch.com/product/display.asp?productid=1282418&curl=&surl=%2Fsearch%2Fresults%2Easp%3Fprid%3D1006577935%26query%3Dnatural%2Bfabrics%26cmdgo%3DGo&prid=1006577935>

Traveling Abroad ( and Within Our Own System)

Scrambling through the last minute details will only allow for an experience twice what I had originally imagined.

Ah, yes. I will be following the path previously traveled by Caleb Dean himself, and to Copenhagen ( or Kobenhavn), I go! Through the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the spring semester of my junior year will be spent overseas in the lovely Denmark. While the wind circulates unremittingly through the turbine blades, the next five months are bound to contribute to the generation of my own sustainable energy. Experiencing a culture already in tune with, and invested in, the future, not only reinforces the mental models I have been creating, but will provide a foundation upon which the chance to evaluate and spectate on the application of sustainability and social responsibility in practice is limitless.

Their ideas and actions are progressive, and their homes, well just plain cozy sums up the community-oriented candlelight. The social economy is strong and so too are the daily expenses. For a country that has taken a true stand towards sustainability, I guess this may be expected. Offshore farms of wind turbines do not exactly come off as cheap technological structures. So the price of sustainability...

When solar panels, organic food, fair trade goods, hemp clothing, spiritual retreats and yoga classes and hybrid vehicles come into the picture, not everyone, whether they are interested or not, can even afford to become part of the movement. I know from personal experience that shopping at Whole Foods instead of Big Y puts an enormous dent in my wallet. Yet I continue to dish out for the higher costs to mark my contribution in the green revolution.

Again, the actual economic price of sustainability...How does this effect the who, what, when, where, and why? Are we leaving people behind who wish to join? Does mainstream marketing and product/service availability strengthen or weaken the underlying values? How can we make sustainability sustainable for all people and all places, all things and at all times, for all of our reasons and ideas?

More to come on this complex yet truly eye-opening and powerfully important topic.

Watch Our New Video!

Original music by Tory Hanna and Caleb Dean.

Copyright: Generation Sustain .com

Conversaton: Walter Cudnohufsky

One concept that stood out during my conversation with Walter Cudnohufsky is, to paraphrase;
The greatest exercise in human capacity is to see the possibility for development and leave it alone.

Walter Cudnohufsky is a landscape architect and planner located in Ashfield, Massachusetts. He is an accomplished artist and writer, and in 1972 founded the Conway School of Landscape Design.

I asked him what led to establishing a master's program in landscape design and his response was "madness." He took all the negative aspects of his degrees from the University of Michigan, Harvard Design School and his time teaching at the University of Massachusetts, removed them and started a program of his own.

"The mission of the Conway School of Landscape Design is to explore, develop, practice, and teach design of the land that is ecologically and socially sustainable."

Although he refrains from over-using the term "sustainable", Walter continues to be a leader in the realm of socially and ecologically responsible land use and design, and in my eyes, defines the concept of revolutionary thought.

More information on Walter Cudnohufsky the designer can be found here and the artist, here.

Information on the Conway School can be found here.

Check It: Vernacular Green Roof

Example of a vernacular green roof in Vallø, Denmark south of Copenhagen.

More on green roofs to come...