Abundance: Reflections on Eco Style Pop-Up

This evening marks the end of our Eco Style Pop-Up. Thank you to all those who were able to stop by and check it out.
 
A few reflections: In my early days starting my company I was at a local start-up campus where there was a lot of posturing, secrecy, competition and, frankly, dudes. I craved something more and different, something extremely honest, positive, supportive, nurturing with a splash of environmental realism – overtly acknowledging and incorporating the needs of our environmental crisis into business solutions. When I met the women who participated at the Eco Style Pop-Up I was ecstatically joyful that this wish was no pipe dream. It was something tangible and doable and already working its way into existence.

The Eco Style Pop-Up was our first opportunity to work together. Rather than working secretively, competitively, individually, we came together, shared everything from marketing assistance, press contacts, design assistance, photography, advice. We worked together with the idea that a win for each of us individually is a win for the whole.  Each person pitched in with their special talent to bring the event to fruition and share it with as much of the community as possible. The existence of these women, their passion for their creations and the environment, their big, good hearts, and their creative solutions to environmental problems has me wondering how many assumptions about business as usual we can rethink.

To respond to our environmental and inequality crisis we have to rethink the way we get around, what we make, how we make it, what we consume, how we spend our time. So what business assumptions are worth rethinking? In an era with a lot of fear-mongering around scarcity – I think about abundance. In business and commerce we have grown up with the idea that our natural resources are abundant to be extracted and exploited as fast as we are able to. But we are conversely taught about scarcity of consumer dollars – the importance of competing against your fellow business owner. Abundance of raw materials yet a scarcity of demand for what is created from them.

And I have already written that we are witnessing a transformation in the way we think about our resources and how it relates to our businesses. We are realizing that our resources are not unlimited.  Every item of stuff made has a cost. But though these women talk about the environment and what sort of change is needed, there is a sense of abundance. What is endlessly abundant is creativity. An abundance of potential creative responses to these very real problems which creates wealth and beauty in our world.

So I’ve included the founder information below to share this sense of abundance with you as each of these woman used creativity to tackle an environmental issue.
 

Perhaps you will get the bug to counter ideas of scarcity with ideas of abundance. Lift each other up! More is more is more!

Crystal Dreisbach: Chair of Don’t Waste Durham

In 2010 Crystal Dreisbach–public health researcher, entrepreneur and new mom–was writing letters to her favorite local restaurants urging them to stop using Styrofoam. She wrote 200 or so of these letters. As you might imagine from this, Crystal is energetic and takes action when she believes in something. These letters turned into a policy paper for the Environmental Affairs Board, which turned into a grassroots coalition advocating and taking action on waste in Durham–Don’t Waste Durham–where Crystal sits at the helm. Of the myriad projects they are working on, they launched a successful Kickstarter in 2016 for Durham’s first GreenToGo container system–a subscription based program to reduce carry-out waste using reusable containers set to launch at the end of April. Need cutlery for your GreenToGo box? Crystal’s got you covered with a beautiful, reusable bamboo set with a stainless steal straw to boot!
 
More information @ dontwastedurham.org
 

Alyssa Cherry: Founder of Fillaree

Alyssa Cherry is very serious about plastic waste in our oceans and women’s health. She followed the harmful effects of plastic waste and visited a local recycling plant, only to learn that much of the plastic waste cannot be recycled and gets shipped overseas. This knowledge coupled with her mother’s diagnoses with ovarian cancer, pushed her to learn about all the toxins and carcinogens used in person hygiene and cleaning products. She was surprised to learn that even “green” soaps and cleaning products contained known carcinogens. So Alyssa embarked on a quest to create truly green body and cleaning products that would produce no waste: beautiful, zero waste formulas in lovely containers, refillable locally. Her products are now available and refillable in Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

More information @ fillaree.com

River Takada-Capel: Founder of RIVTAK

Born in Tokyo Japan and raised in Carrboro, North Carolina, River Takada-Capel grew up with an appreciation for the constant change in nature and the beauty of functional art. She began using a sewing machine in the 3rd grade and loved working with her hands. She had a life long love affair with all things textiles, handmade and vintage. With her line–Rivtak– River embraces the spirit of re-use by investing in high quality materials that are left behind by factories, giving them a second life to serve a function in our everyday lives. Her growing lifestyle brand of clothing and accessories are hand crafted by River in her studio in Durham, North Carolina, where you can find her designing her next collection, sewing, screen printing, and dying fabric. River also shares her creative and vocational powers of sewing and other textile skills with the community at community centers and at her studio.
 
More information @ rivtak.com

Lee Moore Crawford: Farmer-florist and founder of
Hana Lee
 
Lee Moore Crawford is a farmer, florist, artist, educator and naturalist with a background in studio art, environmental education and organic landscaping for habitat gardens. Lee has been an Ikebana practitioner for 10 years and studied flower and event design with Erin Benzakein of Floret, Amy Osaba, Kelly Perry and the great Mother Nature herself. She is inspired by the palettes of our North Carolina seasons, the magic of its pollinators, vintage vessels and protecting our watersheds from the rivers to the sea. Her business–Hana Lee–provides local, seasonal, organic and zero waste botanical enhancement for arrangements, personal flowers, styling and event designs. Hana means flower in Japanese where flower arranging is a cultural act of reverence and meditation to share the appreciation of the natural world. She is also an instructor at the Durham Garden Center.
 
More information @ leeattractingbirds.blogspot.com

Daria Drake – Founder of Durham Originals and
Drak Haus
 
Daria Drake is an environmentalist, illustrator and design artist who thrives on bringing her creativity to bear to promote sustainable ventures. Daria’s design career began at a small firm, where she quickly realized that she aspired to provide a different sort of design assistance to a different sort of client. She wanted to promote meaningful ventures that were in line with her own passion for the environment and sustainable causes to protect it. She wanted to create a firm that itself practiced and promoted sustainability. She wanted to work in a positive work environment. So she created it. Her venture is two parted– Drak Haus {dreyk house} –a local design firm that delivers purposeful and environmentally ethical branding solutions to communicate the ethos behind her client’s missions and Durham Originals–a community collaborating for a more sustainable Triangle through art and design.
 
More information @ www.drakha.us & thedurhamoriginals.com

Reid Miller: Founder & CEO of Reid Miller
 
Reid Miller spent her childhood designing clothing for her dolls that her grandmother would make for her. Years later, during her training in public health, she began bike commuting when she could not afford a car. She spent her time pedaling to school and meetings thinking about design improvements for the apparel she wore so she could ride her bike and look stylish and professional at her destination. Reid also became a passionate advocate for bike commuting for the health, environmental, and empowering impacts on women. In 2015 she reconnected with her design roots and began Reid Miller, originally designing clothing for women who commute by bike. However, after commissioning prototypes for her first line and sharing her work with women, she discovered that her apparel filled a vacuum in the broader women’s fashion market: high-quality, professional looking wardrobe staples that allow for activity.
 
More information @ reidmillerapparel.com