If the fashion industry were embodied in celebrity form, she would be Britney …or Jennifer…or Angelina. Like these tabloidtagonists, we obsess over the surreality of her high profile, glamorous love affairs, break-ups, steps and missteps, and frenetic fiascos. Phone throwing, nip slips, Kanye-isms it doesn’t matter – G-i-v-e- U-s- M-o-r-e! We’re much too nosy not to know, which is why we’re always craning necks and catching sideways glances over the shoulder of the sucker on the subway who paid $1.00 for OK Magazine.
I suppose that we can go with the age old adage (augmented with a little nip, tuck, and botox) that “Any press is good press,” but that’s not the case when the fashion industry’s pretty little digits get tarnished with a DOE (read: Destruction Of Environment). I suppose a charge of “rainforest deforestation” is more akin to a leaked sex tape – your reputation can be turned around and redeemed, but you’ve still lost your public virginity (or virgin forests, if you will).
This past Tuesday, September 15, we held our inaugural “Don’t Bag Indonesia’s Rainforest” event at the King of Greene Street location at the Green Shows with Rainforest Action Network. Basically RAN documented over 100 fashion companies that were most likely unknowingly purchasing custom packaging and paper bags from pulping companies exploiting endangered forests in Indonesia. This has increasingly become a big issue for five main reasons including,
1.) Deforestation accounts for 20% of the world’s greenhouse gases and there are new international safeguards seeking to protect existing forests,
2.) Indonesia has become the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases (right after China and the U.S.) largely due to rampant deforestation,
3.) The country is a rich biodiversity sink containing 10 percent of the world’s flowering plant species, 12 percent of all mammal species, 17 percent of all reptiles/amphibians, and 17 percent of all bird species – as well as some of the most endangered species (i.e., orangutans, Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinoceroses, and Asian elephants)
4.) Indigenous people who live and rely on the forest are at grave risk of cultural extinction, and
5.) It’s just bloody wrong, whichever way you slice it.
So together we reached out to fashion companies letting them know that they seem to be purchasing products (according to customs data and related information) from companies exploiting Indonesia’s rainforests. Tiffany, H&M, Levi Strauss, Gucci and others responded immediately – and our inaugural event in New York at the Green Shows helped bring more awareness to the campaign. We’re taking this across the world and ramping up for COP15 so be sure to check back here with updates and more information on how you can get involved. Pix and press release from event below!
Erin, Kate and I at the RAN “Don’t Bag Indonesia’s Rainforest” event
Olivia, Bahar and I get a little kooky for the camera.
Cold, hard facts.
Collin’s response to the cold, hard facts: 350.org!
Those are Indonesia’s forests behind me! Photo compliments of Ecoturre.com. Organic linen dress by Ekovaruhuset (House of Organic); hat by Ryan Wilde; shoes by Charmone; jewelry by RabidFox, Kirsten Muenster, Tiffany, and Lia Sophia.
Fonzworth Bentley and Faune Chambers. Fonzworth shared with RAN’s executive director, Mike Brune, how he saw forest destruction firsthand on his trip to Chile.
Mike Kowalski (CEO of Tiffany), Lafcadio Cortesi (head of RAN’s Indonesia Campaign), Mike Brune (Executive Director of RAN) and I
Jodi Koskella, designer of Charmone and I show off our matching Charmone shoes!
Olivia, Bahar and I are up for a mismatched role of Charlie’s Angels.
The Green Shows and RAN brought in a good crowd.
Thierry Amegnona Ekon, Lily Jacqueline Thehrazi, and Lawrence Cobb
Mike Brune gave a heartfelt talk
Mike Kowalski discussed Tiffany’s work to the crowd.
A “thank you” to everyone who came out for the event…More to come…Photo: Ecoturre.com
All other photos provided by: ©Patrick McMullan== Photo – WILL RAGOZZINO/PatrickMcMullan.com==
Fashion Week Party Connects Climate Change to Luxury Shopping Bags
Rainforest Action Network hosts the GreenShows Opening Night Party; Highlights Plight of Indonesian Rainforests, Connection to Fashion
New York – Taking a break from Fashion Week’s normal shows and parties, some of New York’s finest fashionistas will pause on Tuesday, September 15 to bring awareness to the plight of one of the world’s most urgently endangered rainforests. Hosted by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), the new GreenShows EcoFashion Week opening night party will highlight fashion’s ability to help stop climate change by halting forest destruction.
The event features Tiffany & Co., the first brand to take action to protect Indonesia’s rainforest and the climate by switching their iconic blue shopping bags (and all the other paper it uses) to environmentally preferable paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
“Tiffany & Co. has a long history of concern for the natural world,” said Michael J. Kowalski, chairman and chief executive officer of Tiffany & Co. “From our shopping bags to our gemstones to our gold and silver, we’re trying to tread more gently upon the Earth so that our customers can be assured we share their desire to protect the world our children will inherit.”
RAN is urging the fashion world to more closely examine their paper supply chains and to sever any connection with paper suppliers who are actively destroying Indonesia’s rainforests. Rapid deforestation and the global warming emissions it causes has catapulted Indonesia into the world’s third largest greenhouse gas producer after the U.S. and China. RAN discovered that almost 100 top name fashion labels and luxury product companies were unknowing drivers of this rainforest destruction, selling their luxury wares in custom paper packaging – shopping bags – made by the worst destroyers of Indonesia’s endangered rainforests. Seeking to raise awareness of the problem and produce change in the marketplace, RAN sent out over 100 letters to some of fashion’s most recognizable brands, asking them to cancel contracts with companies like New Hampshire based PAK 2000, an affiliate of Indonesia’s leading forest destroyer, Asia Pulp and Paper (APP).
“The world looks to New York Fashion Week to set trends,” said Michael Brune, RAN’s executive director. “After this party, top designers around the world will see that the trend for Spring 2010 is to get rainforest destruction out of their boutiques.”
More than 250 people are scheduled to attend the event, which will feature model and activist Summer Rayne Oakes, eco-friendly cocktails courtesy of Veev and organic nibbles by Kitchen Club.
Worldwide, the degradation and destruction of tropical rainforests is responsible for twenty percent of all annual greenhouse emissions. The carbon emissions resulting from Indonesia’s rapid deforestation account for around eight percent of global emissions: more than the combined emissions from all the cars, planes, trucks, buses and trains in United States. This huge carbon footprint from forest destruction has made non-industrialized Indonesia the third-largest global greenhouse gas emitter, behind only the U.S. and China.
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Rainforest Action Network campaigns to break North America’s oil and coal addictions, protect endangered forests and Indigenous rights, and stop destructive investments around the world through education, grassroots organizing, and nonviolent direct action. For more information, please visit: www.ran.org
Tags: china, climate change, deforestation, deforested areas, Don't Bag Indonesia's Rainforest, fashion week, Fonzworth Bentley, greenhouse gas emitters, greenhouse gases, Indonesia, Mike Brune, Pak 2000, Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Destruction, RAN, shopping bags, Sinar Mas Group, Summer Rayne Oakes, The Green Shows, U.S. GHG