For our second New York stop on the Worldchanging book tour, we organized a "green salon" with the crew behind the annual design show, Haute Green. About thirty people congregated in the eco-renovated Williamsburg loft of Kimberly Oliver, for what turned out to be a wonderfully stimulating and inspiring evening of conversation about what's coming next in sustainability.
The room was full of brilliant minds, mostly from the design, media, architecture, and art worlds. After some organic food and drink and conversation about the book itself, we sat everyone down, handed out pens and paper, and asked the question: If 2006 was about green becoming "the new black," what will 2007 be about? What's next?
Kimberly Oliver spoke first, postulating that sustainability is on its way to a tipping point where it will become ubiquitous and mainstream à la "Green is the new Wal-Mart." Treehugger founder Graham Hill wondered if mainstreaming would just lead to greenwashing and a dilution in quality of available green products. Bart Bettencourt (of Haute Green, Scrapile and Bettencourt Wood fame) agreed, adding that this year we'll see even more marketing geared towards a green consumer, which brings the danger of inauthentic claims. On the other hand, Bart sees corporate adoption of green practices as a good thing if we can keep the bar high. "We're still in a transitional period," he said, and if we can hold to our standards as we move through it, we might hit the tipping point Kimberly brought up.
Several times, conversation came back to the notion that we need to keep the bar high, that in the absence of strict standards and real vision, the current vogue for environmentally- and socially-responsible consumerism would merely dissipate into an excuse for greater consumption.
Rebecca Silver pointed out that there's a knowledge gap which hinders progress in design and large-scale manufacturing, as well as in widespread responsible consumerism; we need a certain amount of basic education to get the green momentum going -- and, added Sandra Hansel of Design Within Reach (which graciously sponsored the evening) -- we need to feel like there's no deep sacrifice involved in becoming more responsible.
But does it matter, asked Graham, if people understand the complexity behind a green product, as long as they are finding sufficient motivation to choose it?
Most of the group countered that it does matter: since the gap between current practices and sustainability is so large, education must be constant if consumers are going to learn to choose the truly green from the only marginally green. "What's green today might not be green tomorrow," said Rebecca.
So coming back to the original question... As Alex has often said before, this cresting green wave might be compared to the early edge of Internet Boom -- lots of venture capital and investment dollars floating around and a near-boiling eagerness to make a fundamental shift, particularly in business, by throwing funding in new directions. That there will certainly be an investment bust to follow at some point should not frighten us, because in the meantime, many sustainable practices will become widely adopted: after all, the Net's alive and well, even after the Dot.Com bubble burst. And, given the magnitude of the challenge ahead of us, the potential for radical capitalism is pretty profound.
It's a sign, Alex pointed out, that this is not the old environmental generation. The last green advocates were spending their time raising the alarm; this generation has already heard it ring. And we are empowering ourselves to push solutions.
"But what about those members of our generation who still feel apathetic?" asked Sophie Donelson of Elle Decor. What about the fact that we sometimes require a personal revelation to change our behavior and our minds? Kimberly told the story of hearing a recent panel of sustainability influencers, all of whom cited having kids as their green epiphany.
But of course, most people who attended the salon are still kidless, and yet we've all had personal turning points that led us to our pursuits and passions. So what jolts us awake? Alex suggested that it is our ability to see the consequences of crisis in our own lives. The crisis is not looming, it's here; and as we witness events like Katrina, we recognize the infinite layers of consequence implicit in warming up the globe.
Indeed, the conversation was starting to ring with mild negativity. That's when Kristen Dettoni from InterfaceFABRIC -- one of just a handful of guests who work at a giant corporation -- chimed in to call us out. From where she stands, she said, things don't look nearly as grim as we might suspect. Interface is perhaps the best example to date of the very real possibility off turning a big corporate ship around.
Many agreed that as our ecological chickens come home to roost, regulations and resource constraints are likely to push the market even more strongly towards green and responsible practices and products. We know a better world is possible. And, as we broke for more wine and some organic chocolate, there was a sense in the room that we can't wait to start building it.
[image of loft from (and loft renovated by) Matt Gagnon Studio] -- more shots from the salon to come...
