Earth Day events

New York City’s ABC Carpet & Home is celebrating Earth Day with an exhibition to highlight the innovation of sustainable rug design. The New Shades of Green exhibit and sale features rugs from the Nabati Collection, Gee’s Bend Collection, Zollanvari, and Woven Legends. Each rug is distinctively representative of the innovation and artistic evolution of sustainable design in the carpet industry. Vegetable dyes are combined with natural materials including handspun wool and cotton to create a vibrant infusion of experimental color. Innovative production processes such as Nabati Collection’s previously undiscovered flatweave technique adapted from a remote village along the Caspian Sea and Zollanvari’s hi-low weaving method are applied to produce unexpected textures and striking combinations. The New Shades of Green is located on the store’s 6th floor.
 

In celebration of Earth Day, Ingeo and host, Elettra Widemann, will launch Ingeo Earth Month Creative Gallery at 201 Mulberry Street in New York City. The event, the fourth edition of Ingeo’s Earth Month, features a pop-up exhibition — Fantastic Natural Plastic; a round-table panel discussion — How Responsible Innovation Comes To Everyday Life; and sustainable fashion designs by DDCLAB, naturevsfuture, Project Runway contestant Elisa Jimenez, Marithé+François Girbaud, Monecouture by Daniela Barba, Christine Chang and Scott Amen from the 2008 graduating class of Parsons The New School for Design. The panel discussion begins at 4pm April 22nd. For more info, contact ingeoearthmonth@statepr.com. (Ingeo is a natural plastic made from 100% annually renewable plant resource, not oil.)

Wal-Mart launched its most comprehensive environmental sustainability campaign this April to celebrate Earth Month, highlighting eco-friendly products available at budget-friendly prices and issuing new consumer research that shows shoppers are considering the environment before making a purchase. The retailer announced an adoption rate increase of 66% from last year in its sustainability Live Better Index, which has been tracking consumers’ decisions to purchase five key eco-friendly products since April 2007. These products were selected because consumers can make a conscious decision to purchase them for their environmental and cost-saving benefits versus other products in the same category:
  1.  Compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs - Average adoption rate of 19.7% (up from 13.39% in 2007)
        - Delaware leads the category with an adoption rate of 25.8%
  2.  Organic baby food and formula - Average adoption rate of 4.12% (down from 4.31% in 2007)
        - California continues to lead the category with an 8.58% adoption rate
  3.  Organic milk - Average adoption rate of 1.58% (up from 1.15% in 2007)
        - Virginia has the highest adoption rate of organic milk at 2.7%
  4.  Extended life paper products - Average adoption rate of 67.5% (up from 50.77% in 2007)
        - Minnesota has the highest adoption rate with 78.1%
  5.  Concentrated/reduced-packaging liquid laundry detergents – Average adoption rate of 76.3% (up from 22.86% in 2007)  - Oklahoma leads the category with an adoption rate of 96.3 percent