activism, environmental justice, fashion, green, Shoes, social responsibility, veganJoshua Katcherbrndnu, canvas shoes, endangered forests, forest Ethics, good society, gram shoes, Graydon Carter, green issue, leather, mauve, paper waste, Phillip Toledano, sweatshop, Todd Paglia, vanity fair, vegan shoes

Getting All Huffy & Shoes by the Gram

activism, environmental justice, fashion, green, Shoes, social responsibility, veganJoshua Katcherbrndnu, canvas shoes, endangered forests, forest Ethics, good society, gram shoes, Graydon Carter, green issue, leather, mauve, paper waste, Phillip Toledano, sweatshop, Todd Paglia, vanity fair, vegan shoes

1. Getting All Huffy About It: 2007 Green Guide

Photograph by Phillip Toledano - Vanity Fair 'Green Issue' 2008

Right before Earth Day, Todd Paglia, Executive Director of Forest Ethics, a forest protection organization, blogged about the hypocricies of Vanity Fair and other copycat magazines' so-called 'green' issues in the Huffington Post. Vanity Fair is printed on paper from clearcut forests. None of its 12 issues per year are 'green.' In his editor's letter, Graydon Carter laments the lack of stage time some of our largest looming challenges -- global warming, the true costs of the US's energy-ineptitude -- have received in our current presidential race. While he goes on to say that those topics get their due in the subsequent pages, he conveniently neglects to mention another problem: the fact that every year, the magazine industry destroys an area the size of Rocky Mountain National Park -- at an average of one tree per second -- to print its 12 billion magazines. Read more...

Want an easy way to help protect endangered forests? Petition for a "Do Not Mail" Registry.

2. Gram Shoes

I wish these were organic, but at least they're not leather! These hot shoes are as sophisticated as they are bad-ass. I spoke to their super-friendly and helpful US agent (BRNDNU, also associated with Good Society) to find out about their labor policies and ecological footprint. I was informed over the telephone that Gram is made in China by a Japanese owned and staffed factory. They are paid living wages, so no sweatshops. The fabrics are from England, and the design headquarters are in Sweden. Their new range is entirely nylon & denim, but in the past they've used leather, suede, and lambskin. Buy them at Mauve.

GRAM 406 - Black Denim

GRAM 366 - Grey