The week prior to and after Green Festival have been a whirlwind. We were very pleased that our exhibit , a Sustainability Conversation Space, was very well received. We left for Seattle, WA from Portland, OR late Friday around 3 PM with live-broadcasting webcam starting when the show opened on Saturday. Our large booth space shared with Canvas Dreams took a little longer to set up because some of the pieces still needed assembly. But, less the "manufacturing time" We were able to set up in about 1 hour. That was pretty good considering this was new booth set up using a new concept. The booth itself was a feat of sustainable concepts. The theme was centered around Conversation, Community and Commerce. Canvas Dreams and Peraska's Wall of Sustainability was entirely constructed from re-purposed/recycled materials that were originally destine for land fill. AAP Creative was responsible for the construction of the modular components. They designed the structure for break down into a space no larger than ~5'x3"x3' ~75 cuft. for easy transport in a medium sized vehicle with room to spare. The material is very lightweight too!
The goal of our booth was to present another picture of sustainability in words, images and methods - the Three C's of Sustainability Conversation, Community, Commerce. We wanted to create conversations around paths of action showing how our businesses Peraska and Canvas Dreams found common ground. Sustainability is a continual process of education, partnership, action, and continuous assessment. David Anderson and I spent several months discussing the concept and purpose of exhibiting at Green Festival. Through the process, patterns begin to emerge. Those patterns showed a clear path of educational awareness to sustainability, the fact it can be applied at every level, industry, lifestyle and interest, and that the greatest barrier preventing more people and businesses from heading down the sustainability path is simple lack of knowledge of how and where to begin.
Through an educational presentation detailing our approach to sustainable business, Canvas Dreams and Peraska aimed to demonstrate how we have applied these principles to our businesses, the effect they have had not only on our operations but also our interactions with vendors and clients, and ultimately we hoped our Green Festival exhibit would open door and brings new insight to festival attendees.
If you didn't make it to Green Festival, there are no worries. Saturday was beautiful day in Seattle. We are working up a Web version of our exhibit in case you want to view it at a later time. If you have any questions about our approach, please don't hesitate to contact me at 503-626-3332 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
