Natural Products Expo West, the largest natural foods show in the country celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Anaheim Convention Center in California where, a record 56,000 attendees sampled the latest in natural, organic, healthy, eco-friendly and fair trade products. Thirty years ago, the size of the natural products industry was estimated to be $2.4 billion and natural and organic products were sold mostly by independent retailers and co-ops.

These days, consumers can find healthy, environmentally conscious products in most retail channels in North America. According to the Natural Foods Merchandiser’s 2009 Market Overview, the natural products industry is now worth nearly $68 billion.At the 2010 trade show, thousands of booths were set wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling over five massive pavilions exhibiting every kind of food, health and household product imaginable.

“Natural Products Expo West has grown because it is the premiere show in the industry,” said Adam Andersen, the show manager for Natural Products Expo West.  “Hundreds of new product introductions at Expo West are proof positive of the strategic value surrounding in-person business events.” …read more of Expo West ‘Greener than Ever’ Hosts 56,000 Attendees here

GEWVCW6TQG8U

I think it’s safe to say that many people who care about the earth, like me, have a beef with plastic soda and water bottles. They’re made from petroleum derivatives and though they can be recycled, millions are tossed in the garbage daily, headed for landfills.

The behemoth Coca-Cola Company has taken steps to make their plastic bottles less environmentally offensive with the introduction of the PlantBottle.

Comprised of the usual PET plastic, the PlantBottle also contains plant materials, specifically sugar cane and molasses. …read more of Is there a plant in that bottle? here

While flying home from GreenBuild 2009 in Phoenix, Arizona,  I found myself thinking—like most parents who attend conventions—about the promotional, freebie, giveaway, “swag” I picked up while walking the exhibit hall at GreenBuild– items I could pawn off on my kid as a gift.

Hhmmm… I didn’t score nearly as well as my LEED AP sister who attended the show with me. She has a special gift for SWAG and I found myself bartering with her—mainly because she was limited to what she could get in her carry-on luggage which meant she had to ditch the corkscrew and the liquid detergent samples.

But all in all, it made me think about the promotional swag—the freebies, chatzky crap we all collect at conventions—and above all,  supposedly “green” ones. …read more of A Gift For SWAG here

At the recent Sustainable Brands ’09 conference, the audience was charmed by two professors of psychology: Dr. Dacher Keltner and John Marshall Roberts.

While it’s not uncommon for great brand strategies to be based on cutting-edge psychology, it was surprising to hear the relevance of their message to marketers today.

Keltner’s recent book, ‘Born to Be Good’, illustrates how the human path to happiness can be found through inter-connectedness. While some assume we are hard-wired to lead “nasty, brutish, and short” lives, he posits that we are in fact unselfish and crave positive connections.

Roberts builds on Keltner’s thesis, adding that the current climate is in need of inspiration, and there is a gaping opportunity for persuasive visionaries. …read more of Positively Salty here

Green news has been inundated of late with warnings to consumers to be aware of greenwashing. While consumers should read labels and be certain the products they buy are truly green, these warnings seem almost frantic in nature.

Greenwashing is when businesses label their products as green or eco-friendly when the products don’t actually meet these standards. It is about people being fooled into buying products that are not really good for them, or for the environment.

Consumers today should be savvy enough to navigate through advertising hype. How many people really think that sugary cereals are nutritious? Yet TV commercials and cereal box labels still want us to believe that sugary frosted cereals are “part of a nutritious breakfast.”

There are of course many more examples of advertising hype as we all well know, so shouldn’t the same hold true for eco-friendly products? …read more of The Hype About Greenwashing here