It’s Getting Hot In Here

This story is part of an ongoing series: Vanity Fair: The Untold Stories

Growing up in a small town helped give me a sense of place and the opportunity to imagine what the rest of the world was like. When we’re young, we only ever see our possibilities, not our limitations. It’s a good philosophy we should never outgrow: If we don’t put limitations on what we can do, then our opportunities are endless.

The fashion and media industries are and have been a great tool for me to communicate larger sustainability topics. We all wake up in the morning and get dressed. That is a universal commonality that we all share, so why not use it as a tool to connect us to greater issues, like environmental health, conservation, climate change and social justice?

Because of my involvement in fashion, most of my work has been associated with sustainability in the apparel sector. Since the founding of my consulting company, SRO, however, I’ve had the great privilege in working on a number of broader environmental issues, many of which focus on climate change. Since the beginning of this year, I’ve worked with a number of international clients – universities, media, non-profits and foundations on environmental communications, media strategy and market research on sustainability, “green” consumers and global climate change. Because of the diversity in clientele and deep involvement in the environmental and fashion communities, it has also allowed me to connect groups that normally would have never worked with one another.

In another month or so, I’ll be helping launch the Be Carbon Neutral Jewelry Campaign done in conjunction with jewelry designer Anthony Aletto, Columbia’s Center for Research on Environmental Decisions and Green Insight Consulting. The silver jewelry pieces, done with environmentally-responsible techniques are designed to engage and inspire individuals to work on reducing their carbon emissions.

In September I’ll also be speaking and participating at the Race against Global Warming, a community-based 5K walk/run in Santa Cruz featuring live music and information demonstrating what we can do to address global warming. It’s a pretty cool event because it can be replicated in any community of any size. I also like how it engages the community through positive messaging and wellness, so if you are around the area or interested in participating, I encourage you to get on your running shoes and show us how in (or out of) shape you are.

Over this year, I’ll be turning my attention back home to Pennsylvania and to renewable clean technologies. In my teens, I was asked to head up a planting plan for a sterile mine reclamation site that was polluting a Class A Trout fishery with acid mine drainage. Trying to resuscitate a land stripped of life after decades of mining is not something that is done overnight. If history teaches us one thing, it is to look into the future and work towards better solutions, not trying to retrofit an already defunct system. The same issue goes for nuclear energy. If as much of the $73 billion dollars in R&D subsidies for nuclear power that the federal government has spent in the last 60 years was put towards clean, benign, renewable technologies, we’d be in a much better position in protecting our health and our planet. I’m looking forward to lobbying and working with my political representatives in envisioning a smarter path in this critical time of action.

Half of my work is about communicating an important message; the other half is about getting people to care enough to want to do something about it. You can say it’s about letting us re-imagine our possibilities, and figuring out that “limitations” is an excuse we made up along the way.

Cheers,

Summer Rayne Oakes