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Expo moving Sundance toward a
greener place
GREEN EXPO:
Vendors present eco-friendly products at Sundance. /
Photo by Ben Hansen
By Ben Hansen, special contributor
January 19, 2009 | When most people think about the
Sundance film festival, they think about movies, parties
and concerts. This year, these people will also start
to think about how to lessen their negative impact on
the environment.
The Alive! Expo Green Pavilion is a new pavilion at
the festival that focuses on businesses specializing
in green, organic or nature-friendly products. This
event is a big change from the normal informative and
gifting type events, with a fresh look at some great
opportunities from a consumer perspective.
This expo is the brainchild of Sundance veterans Kim
Shimmel and Patricia Towns. When asked about why the
expo was created, Shimmel responded, "We try to
help our small to mid-sized green companies try to break
into the mainstream economy by getting them marketing
collateral in the forms of celebrity branding and press
so that they can compete. Maybe eventually all of us
as consumers can have more of these green choices on
the mainstream shelves."
Many vendors -- 37, said Shimmel -- participated.
Some of the products represented are eco-friendly cosmetics,
jewelry, foods, drinks, lotions and sunglasses. One
of the highlights at this year's pavilion included the
Easy Pha-max display, which focused its efforts this
year on stressing the benefits of using wheat grass
as a dietary supplement. This all-natural plant product
is used in many countries as a medicinal herb, and has
been confirmed to have blood sugar-lowering activities.
Check out the benefits yourself at www.gotwheatgrass.com.
Making a difference is easier than you think. Per
Shimmel, "Be more concerned about what you use.
Ask yourself questions, such as, 'What I can reuse and
what can I recycle?' I think twice -- I look to see
if something is made from recycled products. It's the
simple things that matter. We can take baby steps that
add up if a lot of people do this together."
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