The Business of Being Green

Spent a few days last week at a Travel Goods Industry trade-show in Las Vegas, helping a friend who is selling luggage tags and the like exhibit. In the process, I got a chance to walk around the show and see the latest and greatest in travel goods (or so it was supposed to be.. the show was down drastically from previous years... rumor on the floor had it that it was down 40% YOY, so the show was actually a lot smaller than I thought it would be.)

In any case, it was interesting to walk the show and see growing numbers of products touting how "green" they were. From a pretty weak base - there really aren't that many green travel goods - the number of people TALKING about being green is slowly getting more impressive. However, the number of products that are REALLY green.. that's another story. This industry, like many others, seems to be jumping on the green marketing bandwagon, but less so on the truly green bandwagon.

One over-the-top example was a line of canvas bags from Case Logic, labeled in big, earthy letters as "Earth Friendly, 100% Cotton." When I inquired as to what type of cotton it was that made the bags so earth friendly, the reply was... "Uh, they're not any special type of cotton. They're just regular cotton. But that's why it's earth friendly, because it's made out of cotton. Not some synthetic material." On their website you can find this line in the features section:
"-Doing your part- Made from earth friendly 100% cotton canvas"
Really? I mean, c'mon.

A second company was advertising it's new Eco-line of products, which essentially consisted of a bunch of canvas grocery bags. Another company was touting an interesting product (a tiny bag that unfolded to fit over one of those airport security check trays) but was completely laced with anti-microbial chemicals. Not sure how environmentally friendly that really is.


Yet, at the same time, I was happy to have found a few really environmentally friendly companies, the main one that I'll highlight here being "Act2 GreenSmart." These guys make laptop carrying cases and messenger bags out of 100% recycled PET, much like Patagonia does. From what I could gather, they source their PET from Japan and produce their bags in Taiwan and China. I don't know about the social aspects of the CSR, but I talked with the founder, Tom Larsen, and got the impression that he's pretty serious about being a socially responsible, sustainable business. I picked up one of the bags at the end of the show, and it looks good, feels great, and seems to be made with thought and care. It's high quality stuff.

A second company that deserves to be mentioned is Eton - the guys who are responsible for making those hand-crank radios and flashlights. They've gotten really advanced, and Eton's stuff, under their own brand, the Red Cross brand, and Grundig, is really high quality stuff. They're not cheap, but they're a pretty environmentally friendly way to charge stuff, listen to the radio in out of the way places, and keep in touch via short-wave radio. Most of them have built in solar chargers in addition to the hand-crank. And they look good too. Pretty cool.

So, despite most of the show being a disappointment in terms of truly "green" products (those companies that are not green are REALLY not green), there were some shining lights here and there. It gives me hope. Now we just have to get out there and support these guys, and let our money do our talking for us. Bypass the greenwashers, spend money with the really green.