Green Fest is coming to New York City on April 26 and 27!
Green Fest promises to be the biggest and best ever. Organic Spa Magazine is a sponsor, and yours truly will be moderating a panel on “Connecting the Dots: How your beauty products affect your health—and the health of the environment,” with guest panelists Britta Aragon, Karim Orange and more on April 26 at 3 p.m.
It’s a great time to green. And no better place than New York! You may not be aware, but New York is one of the greenest cities in the U.S. Think about it. We don’t own cars, we take public transportation. We drink water from the tap. We live in teeny tiny apartments that use very little energy. And we recycle 25 million tons every day!
By the end of 2015, New York City restaurants will be required to compost. A couple of weeks ago, the City Council introduced a bill that would impose a 10 cent plastic bag fee on those who don’t bring reusable bags to market. The New York State Attorney General proposed the first legislation in the U.S. to ban microbeads—tiny plastic particles that are ubiquitous in toothpaste, face scrubs, you name it! Because microbeads are so small, they slip through our water filtration systems and end up in our rivers, lakes and fish, which may ultimately end up in us!
But good news! Even major corporations like Johnson & Johnson have pledged to remove microbeads from their products by 2015.
And speaking of corporations, at Organic Spa Magazine, we started to see spas and hotels hiring directors of sustainability over the last couples of years. Now major corporations are doing it, too: JetBlue, Target, Macys, Bloomingdales, and more, have all brought on sustainability directors. It’s huge!
The world is moving in the right direction. Sometimes initiatives start small, take root and look at how they grow.
To learn more—and have a great time!—come to Green Fest NYC—I look forward to seeing our New York City friends there!