I stumbled into my first class in Environmental Politics at SUNY/Buffalo in the Fall of 1975 and first went to work for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1977, and if you told me back then that thirty years later they would replace pickles and blintzes with eco-fashion on the Lower East Side—I would have thought you were nuts. I also would not have had the slightest idea what an eco-fashion was.

Fortunately, Sara Schonhardt, a graduate student at Columbia University, joins me on this piece, and helps explain what it means to shop green.

It turns out that New York City is fast developing a green shopping district. To learn more about green commerce in New York City checkout the Green Apple Map.

Venture into many of the small shops between East Houston and Delancey and you’re likely to find a new world of environmentally friendly fare, from leather-less shoes to organic stockings to dairy-free cheesecake.

As Jill Fehrenbacher, a green-design consultant and graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, told us by e-mail: “I live in the lower east side, and I think my little neighborhood is the center of the universe for eco-friendly shopping. Within a three block radius we have three eco-friendly clothing boutiques – Kaight, Ekovaruhuset and Organic Avenue; a vegan shoe store, Moo Shoes; Whole Foods Market; and tons of vegetarian/vegan restaurants, including Teany, Tien Garden and Babycakes.”  read more »