Producers of The Energy Trust Better Living Home, Garden & Lifestyle Show (Better Living Show) are working with Portland Fashion Week Productions to host an eco-fashion panel discussion and installation fashion show at the largest sustainable lifestyle show in the Northwest.

On Saturday, March 29, members of the global eco-fashion community will gather at the Portland Expo Center to discuss environmentally responsible design and manufacturing processes. Attendees of the Better Living Show, which is free to the public, are encouraged to attend the event to learn how Portland is leading the international fashion community in its quest to go green.

As people become increasingly aware of the effects that their purchasing decisions and lifestyles can make on the environment, HI-TEC has responded by creating a golf shoe made from 99% environmentally sustainable materials.

Traditionally leather is tanned using chrome - which when absorbed into the body through drinking water can cause damage to organs including the liver and kidney. In some areas of heavy leather production, drinking water and aquatic life has become seriously polluted by chrome use. To help counter this, the Enviro is created using chrome-free, organic vegetable-tanned leathers.

To complete the picture, the shoe's outsoles are made of rice husks and latex rubber and the sockliner is made from 100% recycled materials. Only the spike receptacle remains 'not green' although HI-TEC's engineers are confident that soon even this will be made in a sustainable fashion.

When Beth Brownlee, former Director of Apparel Sales for Columbia Sportswear was diagnosed with breast cancer, she never thought it would lead to launching her own brand just a few years later. This month, Brownlee and her business partner, Ruth Nichols, also a former Columbia executive, have introduced Trust Your Journey, an inspirational and eco-friendly apparel line.

The company was conceived during Brownlee's chemotherapy treatments when a friend told her to "trust your journey."

"When I heard those words, it just hit me, 'You can beat this awful cancer, Beth, you just need to believe in this and have the courage to stay positive,' I said to myself. I knew at that point I would heal and one day give this inspiration back," says Brownlee.