Ted is always looking for ways to minimize his ecological footprint. Professionally, Ted is working to gain the skills necessary to turn his passion for sustainable development into action, as an entrepreneur or financing sustainable businesses.
Ted studied economics and international business at Saint Louis University’s campus in Madrid, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was honored as the Distinguished Student in International Business for his class. As the founder and president of the SLU Madrid Business Club, Ted focused the club’s activities on sustainability.
While working for commercial real estate multi-national Jones Lang LaSalle’s Madrid office, Ted strove to implement sustainable practices both within the firm and for its clients. He proposed and designed an Environmental Sustainability Action Plan for JLL Spain. Green Building and Environmentally Sustainable Development remain a passion for Ted: he believes that the intersection of sustainable infrastructure and sustainable attitude is where we’ll find a sustainable society.
Ted currently works for a private equity firm in Madrid, learning skills that he hopes to apply to finance Environmentally Sustainable Development in the United States and around the world.
Cherl Petso is the Associate Editor at Disaboom.com, an online magazine for people with disabilities. Her writing expertise includes articles about the environment and sustainable living, and vegan/vegetarian issues. A vegetarian for 16 years and a recent vegan, Cherl is passionate about animal rights and issues. She enjoys writing about simple ways to lessen the impact on the Earth.
Cherl recently moved to Denver, Colorado from Bellingham, Washington. She enjoys hiking and hanging out with her puppy.
Marie Oser is a best-selling author, columnist, and host/producer of VEG TV. A vegan lifestyle expert, and environmental advocate with a focus on nutrition and its role in disease prevention, Oser specializes in creating original gourmet recipes with a solid nutritional bottom line.
Many prominent medical and nutrition professionals endorse her work, including Dr. Colin Campbell, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University and principal researcher of the groundbreaking CHINA STUDY, and Neal Barnard, M.D. founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC.
Marie is president of VEGTV, Inc., a video production company producing content for TV and new media. VEGTV streams hundreds of lifestyle videos to more than 1,000 sites globally. In her role as Director of Product Development at Smart Planet Kitchen, she has created, Marie Oser’s Lean & Green, a new line of vegan and Fair Trade Certified products. Marie has appeared on CNN, ABC, National Public Radio, QVC, WUSA, WNBC, KCAL, KOVR, Home & Garden Television (HGTV), FINE LIVING, TECH TV, and Discovery Channel.
Vegetarian since 1971; vegan since 1990, Marie left a career in TV advertising to pursue her interest in food, health, and nutrition. Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, she studied psychology at St. Joseph’s University. Marie is a gourmet cook and organic gardener living in California, writing her 5th book and hiking every day with Travis, her Yellow Lab companion.
Loretta White is a writer, educator and scholar who gained huge diversity of experience within varied industries; energy, government, high tech and more. The last fifteen years she brokered deals with the top multinational companies globally, her Rainmaker skills are unsurpassed and she remains an authority on BD, BI, sustainability and the Global Marketplace.
Frugality was the voice of her elders who endured wars, rationing and Depression, raised to respect, love and to co-exist with nature through sustainability, self reliance, need and RRR practices. Loretta’s juxtaposition of ideas, deep love for the planet and her Yankee sensibilities are the foundation of a lifestyle that is in partnership with nature. Loretta indulges her passions for renewable energy, organics and being green on her 17.5 acre farm in central Massachusetts.
Recently Ms. White has lead an Assoc. of Caregivers providing support to those caring for parents, disabled, and others.
Loretta is invested in the community of our species and our planet and her diverse background in technology and green living gives her a unique perspective on how to live with nature and with our own gifts of technology.
Ms. White’s work has been published by Corporations, magazines, readers digest and many others.
Tracy is the CEO and Founding Partner of Technical Green - a green industry career site focused on clean tech and green research and development.
Tracy's professional experience are in the recruitment advertising and non-profit sectors and she has for many years maintained a sustainable lifestyle.
Heather O'Neill is the founder of Eco to the People, a green living blog.
Before founding Eco to the People, Heather O’Neill wore so many hats in the field of journalism that even the Queen Mother would envy her collection. She has worked as the managing editor of a beauty trade magazine; as a copy editor for an online tech magazine; as the associate editor of a city magazine and as a newspaper reporter and columnist, and as the senior editor at the popular online newsletter ecofabulous.
Her work has appeared in many publications, including Parenting, Alternative Medicine, Natural Solutions, Marin Magazine, Greenwich Magazine and HOME.
Heather earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from California College of the Arts. She lives and works in San Francisco.
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.
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
Trash is a relative term. In 1995 Liz Gardener accepted the Academy Award for best costume design in a dress made entirely from 254 recycled American Express gold cards. The dress was auctioned off for charity four years later for more than $12,000.
Haute Couture has also been attracting a lot of fans in the glitterati, raising the profile of ‘Recycled Designer Duds” exponentially.
Design houses are using vintage cashmere, linen and lace and eco-fabrics such as Fortrel EcoSpun polyester fibers spun from recycled plastic bottles. The high-end fashion runway has created a ‘buzz’ with innovative concepts and fashions that are, for the most part unrealistic and out of reach for most of us.
Fair Trade fashion is eco-chic, and trendy fashion designers are forging a number of strategic partnerships that will increase visibility and distribution.
Bono, activist and U2 lead singer, introduced Edun last year, a Fair Trade fashion brand that sells high-end goods through upscale stores like Saks and Nordstrom. American Apparel is a publicly traded basics brand that is best known for tee shirts and underwear aimed at young urban buyers. Their Fair Trade clothing is made in Los Angeles and sold internationally.
Fair Indigo is a young company founded by a handful of Internet retailers that relies mostly on the Web and catalogs to sell its reasonably priced upscale casual clothing line. Industry veteran and Chief Executive Bill Bass said that Fair Indigo was the first mainstream clothing line made in accordance with Fair Trade practices.
EXPO West, the largest tradeshow in the industry is the place to find the latest and greatest in natural, organic and healthy living.
The 29th annual Natural Products Expo West at the Anaheim Convention center covered 300,000 square feet and more than 53,000 people attended. 1,900 companies with 3,000 booths from 28 countries showcased thousands of organic, fair trade and sustainable products.
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