Conscious Consumers' Community

by E.  Originally published on The Conscious Consumers’ Network 0n[  07/24/05

Home ownership. The American dream. Home ownership is one of the last bastions of complete freedom of will, choice & independence. A man/woman’s home is their castle, right? But did you know that with ongoing developments inrenewable energy technologies, green construction materials & green design architecture (biotechture), your home doesn’t have to pollute & cost you $ every time you flip on a light switch? In fact your home can be producing it’s own electricity, supplying much of it’s own water, heat & cooling (or be designed so well that their is little need for powered air conditioning or lighting). Currently, on the west coast of the U.S., their are homes that produce a surplus of clean energy & sell it back to their electric company or are off the grid altogether.

If you think these types of homes have only one 15 watt light bulb & no HDTV, you’d be wrong. Modern homes with all the techno-cultural creature comforts American’s have decided they can’t live without are still available in a properly designed energy self-sufficient home. While it currently costs more to design, construct & outfit a renewable resource home, those costs are rapidly falling as the market grows. How does the market grow? These markets will grow by consumers becoming aware & demanding these goods & services. That’s where you, my dear consumer, come in. So read on & learn how to make your world better while simultaneously making everyone’s world better. Win-win results are becoming within our grasp, & this site is about keeping you up to date on them.

Here’s what I will build here in Tampa to make others aware of green hi-tech living, & to promote the business of whatever construction company has the expertise to do it. I’ve designed this house to survive our increasingly severe hurricane seasons.

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by E. Originally published on The Conscious Consumers’ Network 0n 09/26/04

[ Tampa 09/26/04 ] Home is the one place where you can have control of your immediate environment. However, what you buy to put into & service your immediate environment has an effect on our collective environment. In this last place where you have full control, you can choose to learn to make your home more alluring, cleaner, healthier, & technologically advanced. Opt to make your house a state-of-the-art place for you & your family with a new level of creature comforts, while making the outside world we all share a better, cleaner, healthier place.

Imagine if this idea caught on.. Imagine if everyone started to learn to make these choices. Not only would our personal lives improve, but manufacturers would be forced to supply what the public demanded & switch focus to meet this demand. This would cause prices on “green” products to fall, as they would no longer be specialty items. So live by example. Inspire your friends & neighbors.

Bring about this change for your home-castle. In a time where most of us may feel disenfranchised & unable to make much of a difference beyond our immediate surroundings, we must learn that every time we spend money we are supporting something somewhere. We are in effect voting for some company to keep doing what they are doing to provide us with some product. If many of us have convinced ourselves that our vote at the polls does not matter, that corporations are responsible for putting our leaders in office through huge political contributions, & then further controlling policy through lobby, then we should realize that it is the collective “us” that gives them this power through our dollars. We go to the polls every day we spend money. It’s time we all looked deeper at what we are voting for with every dollar we spend. Consumer power is the highest power in a capitalist society. Read the rest of this entry →

by E. Originally published on The Conscious Consumers’ Network 0n 11/01/04

[ Tampa 11/01/04 ] “Green” is an oft used buzz word in the fashion industry, however, just because a company is not employing a 3rd-world sweat shop labor force or burning rain forests to produce cheap clothing does not mean they are “green”.
Indeed, many clothiers are labeling themselves “green” & selling their products at higher mark-ups for having such distinctions. But who is really green & who’sGreenwashing? Here’s a hint: If the manufacturer sells cotton that is not organic, then they are not “Green”. Non-organic cotton is one of the most pesticide-intensive crops grown.

A larger problem that may prevent bhigher sales of earth friendly clothing is the lack of contemporary style choices. More high fashion designers need to start hanging organic cotton clothing and “green” couture on top models strutting the cat walks of Paris & New York. I say Enough with the baggy hemp shirts, shorts, sandals & hippy clothing.. If environmentally conscious clothing is going to catch on, it’s going to have to get some fashion consciousness.

While it’s great that many clothing & textile manufacturers are joining modern civility by no longer exploiting a poverty stricken 3rd-world work force, C2 seeks to find designers & clothiers who are making a fashion statement by designing attractive clothing made from innovative, organic fibers, low impact dyes, manufactured in advanced, eco-conscious factories, by a labor force that is treated under socially responsible guidelines. This fulfills a more full sense of what it means to be “green”.

At C2, I want to go one step further into “Viridian Greenism” & seek the best designers. Hippie-centric styles only preach environmentalism to the converted. It is the broad consumer base that needs to be reached to make meaningful impacts. Therefore, we demand clothing that makes people feel good because they know their clothing is not being manufactured at grievous expense to the biosphere . However, we Viridians, also desire higher-than-fashion, pragmatic, futuristic, techno-cultural, ‘urban attack-wear‘.. ;-> Seductive, apparell that can be donned anywhere; from nightclub to office to skatepark. We need gear that can keep up with all the phases of modern life, including a place to hold our wireless devices & I-pods.. (such is the “EveryWear” & “Wear For Art Thou” clothing I have designed). Read the rest of this entry →