The Go Green Expo in New York, organized by Bradford Rand, took place on April 8-19 at the Hilton in NYC. While I saw numerous inspiring exhibitors selling all kinds of green goods and services from green job training to make-up, my two favorite vendors were Mr. Ellie Pooh (mrelliepooh.com) who make paper from elephant poop, thereby saving the lives of elephants in Sri lanka who would otherwise be killed for eating people’s rice paddies, and also reuseniks.com (reuseniks.com) who sells reusable dry-cleaning garment bags so you don’t have to take a plastic one every time—so simple yet so brilliant.

Speakers at the Expo included Mariel Hemingway, the Lazy Environmentalist Josh Dorfman, renowned eco-journalist Jim Motavalli, Ken Rother of Treehugger, Sarah Beatty of Green Depot, and even Nigel Barker the photographer who has dedicated his talents to documenting the issue of government sanctioned Canadian seal slaughter.

Of all the speakers, the one I found most inspiring was Mattie Kahn of Teens Turning Green (teensturninggreen.org), a young woman who spoke with remarkable confidence and passion about her groups’ activities to raise awareness among teens, through such efforts as a green proms campaign. She said a small group of representatives planned on going to Albany to lobby for a bill to ban Styrofoam—good luck Mattie!

For more info see gogreenexpo.com