LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Acclaimed designer, campaigner and environmentalist Dame Vivienne Westwood and Troy Wiseman, CEO of EcoPlanet Bamboo co-host ‘OFFtheGRID’ - a solar powered party in London for crowd-sourcing platform Trillion Fund in partnership with Finding Infinity. The inaugural event took place to support the “renewable energy revolution” and to provide a clarion call to the general public and mainstream investors to switch to investments that positively impact the environment.
The event was taken off the grid and powered exclusively by solar panels, mounted on and designed with structural bamboo. Bamboo was also used to produce the DJ booth, bars, display boards, and even the staff uniforms were made from 100% bamboo fibre, indicating the plant's full spectrum of opportunity and EcoPlanet Bamboo's versatility and ability to transform markets as unique and different as renewable energy and textiles.
The ambition for Vivienne Westwood’s Trillion Fund is to accelerate the global switch from fossil fuels to clean energy by contributing towards the $1 trillion a year investment the UN says is necessary to keep the world below a 2 degree warming threshold. ‘Fossil fuel based capitalism is past it’s sell by date. Conventional energy is getting more expensive. It’s heavier, it’s deeper, it’s less. And we live in a world where the poor get poorer and the rich get richer but fewer’ - says Westwood.
The ‘OFFtheGRID’ Party is “the result of a combined vision to solve some of the very problems that EcoPlanet Bamboo was created to overcome in a profitable way. That includes the world's most pressing environmental and social issues; access to clean and renewable energy, deforestation of our natural forest" says Troy Wiseman, CEO of EcoPlanet Bamboo; "investment into innovative technology development to meet a new generation of consumer, and the provision of sustainable sources of fibre to an ever increasing global population is taking off.”
EcoPlanet Bamboo, the largest sustainably certified bamboo plantation company globally, is continuing to expand, having recently secured 50,000 acres of degraded land in West Africa. However, as important as the provision of the raw fibre from its plantations, is the company's investment into innovative technology, providing bamboo based solutions and creating patents to transform and covert mainstream industries from tree based fibre, to sustainably grown and certified bamboo fibre, from structural products, to renewable energy to clothing.
Sustainable clothing is a shared passion for Wiseman and Westwood. As is the case for energy, textiles share diminishing supply of raw materials to meet increasing demands. More than 30% of cellulosic fibres come from the harvesting of natural forests, not to mention the negative environmental side effects that go hand in hand with traditional chemically based industrial pulping processes. Working with some of the world’s top clothing brands, EcoPlanet Bamboo has committed to not only provide them with sustainably certified bamboo but lead the development of a more environmentally friendly pulping process and transforming the entire supply chain from field to store. This will allow bamboo to replace the 1 million trees that are deforested each year to make clothing.
“We’re entering a new paradigm in both renewables and textiles with the advent of a disruptive technology in the form of bamboo. EcoPlanet Bamboo has humbly been referred to as the "Apple Computer" of the timber industry because we care about what matters and we have put our money where our mouth is to challenge the status quo where the world's remaining forests are being depleted and exploited by cutting down 70-100 year old trees to be used to make products as basic and disposable as toilet paper" says Wiseman. EcoPlanet Bamboo is not just about providing a sustainable source of fibre, anymore than Apple was about providing it's customers with a computer. It is about a commitment to innovation and giving consumers not only what they need, but in the way they want. EcoPlanet Bamboo is bringing the same dedication by investing in forward thinking R&D, collaborating with the biggest end users and hand in hand creating solutions so that one day people will have a choice between products that were made from cutting down natural forests or those that are certifiably tree free, while aiding in the restoration of degraded land and stagnant rural economies.
"For those companies who are listening to their next generation of sustainably minded consumers, we are here to help provide a solution" emphasizes Wiseman.
About EcoPlanet Bamboo - "Making Bamboo the Timber of the 21st century"
EcoPlanet Bamboo Group is enabling a sustainable alternative for manufacturing industries that currently rely on the harvesting of natural forests for wood and fibre based products. A proven global leader in the development of commercial bamboo plantations, EcoPlanet Bamboo combines this global resource base with investment into technology that enables bamboo to be a superior fibre across multiple sectors, including textiles, pulp and paper, renewable energy and activated carbon.
With operations currently in Central America and Southern Africa, and expansion into West Africa and Southeast Asia underway, EcoPlanet Bamboo targets areas that have suffered extreme deforestation, ensuring that bamboo plantations and bamboo based products are only ever developed as a deforestation free crop. In conjunction with each plantation, R&D focuses on ensuring clean manufacturing techniques, leapfrogging current technology to create a turnkey solution.
Plantations are certified under the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and/or suitable alternatives, and climate change benefits are quantified and commercialized through the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS).
With a solid framework in place, and with each plantation operating under strict operating procedures and protocols, ensuring standardization and quality control, EcoPlanet Bamboo has laid the groundwork for the company's short term target of the restoration of 1 million acres of degraded land.
Vivienne Westwood - Designer, Campaigner and Environmentalist.
Vivienne Westwood was born in 1941 and moved to London 17 years later. She began designing in 1971 along with her partner Malcolm McLaren when London was at the forefront of cultural trends. In 1984 she launched her own fashion line and in 2004 the V&A hosted a Vivienne Westwood retrospective exhibition to celebrate her 34 years in fashion – the largest exhibition ever devoted to a living British fashion designer. The exhibition toured the world for over 4 years and was shown in over ten cities worldwide. In 2006, her contribution to British Fashion was officially recognized when she was appointed Dame of the British Empire by her majesty the Queen Elizabeth the Second. In 2007, she was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Fashion at the British Fashion Awards in London
As well as Human rights, Vivienne is passionate about the environment and actively supports the charity, Cool Earth, in their efforts to save the rainforest and stop climate change, as well as supporting the environmental Justice Foundation and Friends of the Earth- amongst others. Vivienne is also an ambassador for Green Peace.
Vivienne Westwood has also worked with the United Nations Environmental Protection Agency to re-establish the fragmented forests of Europe. She has also joined forces with the International Trade Centre- a joint body of the UN, since 2011 to produce bags through the Ethical Fashion Initiative.
