Outdoors · Eco-Chick

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What's Up Vogue?

I knew that the October British Vogue was doing a whole green feature, but I had heard nothing about the US version covering any such territory. Lo and Behold, I’m contemplating the resort collections and too many metallic handbags when I come across pages labelled “Earth Days”.

Included under the apple-green corner banner is an health and beauty piece on upscale organic products like Dr. Hauschka’s, John Master’s, Jurlique, Origins and Patyka. Next, a health-based article entitled “Toxic Overload” which analyses the sources of toxins in our everyday life and their possible connection to breast cancer. Finally, writer Marina Rust goes to an outdoorsy spa in Connecticut where $6,700 buys a week of eco-bliss.

So, Vogue, is this Earth Days feature going to pop up randomly in future issues? In every issue? There’s no clue in the editor’s letter, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

bags, Beauty, breast cancer, Cancer, corn, earth day, handbags, health, Organic, Outdoors, spa, style, Toxins, Vogue

Mountain Clubs or Country Clubs?

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by Brianne Goodspeed · 06/30/06

Unlike bigger mountains out west, the craggy granite outcroppings of New Hampshire’s White Mountains and Vermont’s Green Mountains are within a day’s drive of about 75 million people. Each summer, mountain clubs and other non-profits get to work educating hikers about Leave No Trace and the responsibility of land stewardship.

But not all mountain clubs are created equal. The old and now-behemoth Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) is coming under frequent fire these days from hikers who claim that the AMC has abandoned its commitment to the mountains and the ordinary folks who trek through them. Instead, the AMC is building quasi-resorts such as Crawford Notch’s new Highland Center to attract wealthy visitors and corporate groups. Other smaller and less controversial groups inlcude Vermont’s Green Mountain Club (GMC), the Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), and the Guy Waterman Alpine Stewardship Fund.

The Guy Waterman Fund, which offers grants for land stewardship and education, was established in memory of a long-time dedicated White Mountain advocate who, along with his wife, Laura, was instrumental in raising environmental awareness in the northeast mountains. Their fabulously well-written and suprisingly funny books include Backwoods Ethics, Wilderness Ethics, and Forest and Crag.

Laura Waterman, by the way, also recently wrote a memoir, Losing the Garden, about her life with Guy at their Vermont homestead, where for twenty-seven years they lived without heat, running water, or electricity while penning over ten books and countless articles from the kitchen table of their two-room cabin.

Amazon, book, books, electric, electricity, ethics, garden, Home, Outdoors, rum, summer, Tea, water, wood

"Sustainability: the new self-satisfaction"

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by Summer Rayne Oakes · 03/15/06

On March 7th, 2005, Financial Times writer Richard Tomkins reports that “Sex will sell but sustainability is the new self-satisfaction.” Though he opens up the editorial on Coco De Mer, he remarks that “it is not just sex that is getting sustainable.” He mentions Ethos Water (owned by Starbucks), which donate 5 cents per every bottle sold towards water projects in underdeveloped countries; the fair trade brand launch of People Tree, Hug, and Gossypium at UK’s Topshop; and Bono’s new AMEX Red Card deal (which could have been much more integrated with SR, in my opinion).

The conclusion: “Ethical products are an obvious [purchase]. Each time you make a purchase, you get something back as well as feeling you are doing some good.” So in one sense, I am not religiously promoting consumer culture, but just letting all of you out there know that if you are going to buy something, you might as well go ethical. Good for you, good for the earth. Makes perfect sense.

“Surely you don’t want us to become an endangered species Edna?”