A Great Green Festival Weekend

Last weekend I had the pleasure to attend the Green Festival Seattle 2010. Upon first walking into the event, I was overwhelmed with over 300 exhibits, excited to see all of the friendly faces, and ready to learn a lot about everything green. The Green Festival took place June 5th and 6th in the Washington State Convention Center. I attended the festival on Saturday, June 5th, and volunteered there on Sunday which was a fantastic experience. The staff of the event were knowledgeable, friendly, organized, and most of all excited to be a part of, and provide, a wonderful weekend for many individuals and families. One thing I noticed while I was volunteering: a large percentage of the people coming to attend the event had free passes which had been given out at Verizon stores and other places. The Green Festival is completely focused on trying to provide as many people as possible the opportunity to spend the weekend learning about living green and green products, and that is a great thing.

Here are a few products and companies I learned about while I was there:

Marcal Small Steps – Marcal is a company with a ‘green culture.’ Being the oldest environmentally friendly paper product distributor in the US since 1950, their mission is to provide affordable and recycled paper products to families. Their Small Steps line was created in 2009 and consists of recycled bath tissue, napkins, towels, and facial tissue. Because their products are 100% recycled, no trees are used in their manufacturing and they have already saved 23,720,740 trees and counting.

Chinook Book – The Chinook Book is a mix of hundreds of coupons, maps, and advertisements to provide you with many tools for living green, saving money, and having fun. Their book is printed on 40% post-consumer recycled content which is locally made. The ink is even made with the highest soy content possible for their web printing process. The book costs only $20 and the coupons last all year. I was really excited to learn about this book, and even one a free one at their exhibit!

Soda Stream – Soda Stream is a fantastic eco-friendly idea that a lot of people love. You can make you own soda at home in a large variety of flavors: root beer, cola or diet cola, orange, lemon lime, ginger ale, cream soda, and cranberry-raspberry. I tried their energy drink flavor and it tasted exactly like an energy drink. One soda package from Soda Stream equals 33 cans of regular soda! That is a lot of cans, and a lot of cans you can save, considering the average American consumes 600 cans or bottles of soda and sparkling water each year. This is a really fun and intriguing idea and I suggest you take a look at it. It would be an especially fun summer product for children!

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AusPen – The AusPen is a refillable whiteboard marker made from recycled aluminum, with non-toxic ink. One AusPen started kit containing 6 pens and 6 ink bottles is equal to 246 disposable whiteboard markers. They even have a double tip inside of them in case one tip gets dull. This is a great product for schools, or your whiteboard at home because they don’t need to end up in a landfill, they will save you money and help save the environment at the same time.

The Natural Choice Directory – The local “Health Pages.” Natural Choice Directory includes the numbers and locations of many Green Resources around the Puget Sound as well as natural health centers, food and supplement centers, mind and spirit locations and events that are happening soon. The Natural Choice Directory has been connecting “those who are aware with those who care” since 1995. Their website even features a great blog and articles section for more information on living green.

People Towels – Rachel has previously featured People Towels, and they attended the Green Festival as well. They are made from 100% organic cotton and are reusable personal towels. They even have a strap on them so they can be easily tied around your wrist or onto a bag for easy accessibility. At the Green Festival, they were featured in the fashion show with clothes from bgreen apparel.

The festival included speakers such as Amy Goodman who hosts Democracy Now!, Dr. Danaher who is a Founder of Global Exchange and the Green Festivals, Rob Holmes, founder and president of Green Living Project, and many many more. If you attended, what was your favorite speaker or exhibit? The Green Festival will be in Chicago in October and San Francisco in November. This was a fantastic way to spend a weekend and I look forward to welcoming them back in 2011, and seeing you there too!