The Green Living Show Vancouver

Submitted by Alexa Booth on Sun, 03/02/2008 - 03:36.

• Tags:
  • Bamboo
  • BCplace
  • bedding
  • clothing
  • ecofriendly
  • Green
  • greenliving
  • hemp
  • Organic
  • show
  • thegreenlivingshow
  • vancouver

Just got back from the Green Living Show at BC Place. I ended up going for the last 2 hours of the day, which I'm actually really glad I did end up going so late in the day, when most of the people had already left; gave me more of a chance to chat with the people at their booths.

I first stopped off at: bamboostyle.com
Complete with an adorable cartoon bamboo. They offer a variety of bamboo products such as towels, yoga and baby wear as well as candles and other products. I picked up two really awesome soft bamboo tank tops from a $12 discount bin. Looks like they are in the process of setting up online shopping, but isn't quite up yet.

I also stopped off at Australian Outback Collection to grab some bamboo socks I saw So incredibly comfortable :) Made by Naturally Bamboo. They also had a bunch of soy and other bamboo products, all the products I saw were made in Australia. (Hence the name..)

There were these really neat 'trees' setup, with fans, paintbrushes,water bottles and light-bulbs on the leaves and little information signs:

Nektar
Their website is under construction, and they are working on a retail location. But if you get a chance to check out these beautifully designed clothing, made of bamboo, organic cotton or soy... you'll fall in love. I bought a beautiful egyptian wrap skirt made of bamboo and organic cotton - photos to come :) The woman who sold it to me encouraged me to think of new ways to wear the wrap as it is a very versatile style, with lots of ties. The back of their card says they do custom men and womans clothing, custom costume design, custom silkscreen, and wholesale organic fabrics. Basically every piece of clothing I saw was beautiful, soft, and most amazingly, VERY reasonably priced.

Adhesif Clothing
I had visited their etsy.com shop before, but this was the first time I could actually check out their work in person. Very very cool designs, made of recycled clothing, all one of a kind, and unique. I unfortunately visited them during the end of the night, so I didn't get a chance to try on anything- hopefully I'll see them again at EPIC or Portobello West or if nothing else I'll check out some of the shops around town that carry their clothes.

Mr. Ellie Pooh's Elephant Dung Paper
Mr Pooh explained to me the process of how they make the paper, which is actually 70% elephant dung and 30% rice pulp. Apparently elephant poo is very fiberous and therefore can be easily made into pulp and paper. All his papers have a very tactile quality to them, making them a very attractive and unique paper. All the colours in the paper are natural dyes as well.
Mr. Ellie Pooh was also recently featured in the Vancouver Sun.

There was also Shaklee eco-friendly cleaning products, who were giving away samples and are proud to say that they have been 'green' LONG before it was even called green. Friendly on the environment, not tested on animals and highly concentrated (only a few drops to a spray bottle for a whole lot of cleaner!) - it's a great green cleaning alternative and has the customers and years of experience to back it up. Available online. They don't give a list of ingredients however, just mention that it's biodegradable, kosher and has no phosphates etc.

Another booth there was Life Maid Easy, a green cleaning service in Vancouver, they actually use Shaklee products.

Then there was a very interesting booth, GreenCoast Weddings - Green wedding planners- something that I wasn't aware really existed in Vancouver. Susan Johnston, the senior event consultant says that there seems to be an increase in interest in green weddings over the past year since they started doing green weddings. They recently wrote an article for an annual wedding magazine that will be published shortly. They had a gorgeous organic fabric wedding dress on display as well. Offering green solutions depending on the level of 'greenness' the couple wants, they are a great people to talk to if you are planning a wedding and want some a few earth friendly options or to go full out.

inBed Organics, M-smart design and Dream designs offer organic bedding and home solutions. Dream designs is located on commercial drive and some pretty interesting items like hemp shower curtains.

I was overall impressed with the show, there was a surprisingly large variety of businesses represented. I wasn't quite expecting that, and was pleasantly surprised.

Now, I'm even more excited to see how this year's EPIC goes.

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