The green guru: Danny Seo was born to save the Earth.
IT WOULD BE EASY TO THINK DESIGNER DANNY SEO was destined to preachthe gospel of green. After all, the 31-year-old eco-living guru was born
on Earth Day, April 22,1977.
But that wasn't actually in his parents' plan. "My
mother had a closet full of furs, and my father was a doctor who
advocated animal testing," says Seo. "I just started getting
into environmental activism when I was little. I think my parents
thought it was just a phase." Well, don't they always?
Longbefore he started talking about nontoxic cleansers and
solar-powered gadgets on CBS's The Early Show and in the pages of
Country Home (where he's an editor at large), the out decorator
from Reading, Pa., started proselytizing in his own backyard. When he
turned 12, Seo told his conservative Korean-American family he wanted to
use his birthday money (a whopping $23) to found the environmental and
animal-rights advocacy group Earth 2000. With equal parts enthusiasm and
naivete, the adolescent Seo organized an antiwhaling demonstration,
provided vegetarian meals to people with AIDS, and rang up lawmakers to
harangue them about pending environmental legislation. Earth 2000
blossomed from barely a dozen members at its start to 25,000 by the time
Seo was 18--making it quite possibly the country's largest
teen-focused nonprofit. "The goal," says Seo, "was to
save the planet by the turn of the millennium. You know, nothing too
ambitious." (For an eco-warrior, Seo has a wicked funny streak.)
Despite the boy wonder's success at eco-activism, his path to
enlightened living rooms was hardly direct. After graduating from high
school with a D-minus grade point average--"schoolwork was not
where my priorities were"--Seo scored a book deal with Random House
to write a how-to guide for teen activists. The advance for Generation
React gave Seo the financial freedom to move to Washington, D.C., and
lobby for old-growth forests. But it didn't take long for him to
grow disenchanted with life on the Hill. "In D.C. politics is its
own end," he explains. "I wanted to reach people
directly." Even with that conviction in place, the shift from
lobbyist to lifestyle expert happened somewhat accidentally.
"'Green style' was an oxymoron in the 1990s," he
remembers. "But I'd find a great old sofa and hire someone to
reupholster it with this beautiful Polish hemp fabric or buy organic
cotton towels that were drab beige and custom-dye them the colors I
wanted. It was crazy stuff."
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
A reporter for The Washington Post, on assignment in 1999 to
profile Seo's activism, was so stunned by the greendesign
sensibility of his apartment--and the all-organic vegetarian snacks he
proffered-that she turned the piece into a lifestyle feature. The
e-mails and calls came soon afterward. "The more consulting I was
doing, the more I'd get asked to do. This whole world of stylish
sustainability opened up," he explains. And how: By the time he
turned 25, Seo had written four books, appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, and been named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful
People in the World.
SEO'S SCHEDULE HAS HIM ON THE ROAD MUCH OF THE YEAR, making it
hard to carve out a social life. (He's mum on the subject of a
boyfriend.) But when he's not consulting on the new eco-suites at
the Hotel Monaco in New Orleans or emerald-hunting in Australia with
Rosario Dawson, he bunks down in one of his two homes in
Pennsylvania's affluent Bucks County: a cozy bungalow on the
Delaware River and a midcentury-modern cabin in the forest (the ongoing
renovation of which Seo blogs about in the Huffington Post column The
Green House Effect.)
"My style at home is modern country," he explains.
"It's not gingham, plaid, and stencils, but it's
comfortable. Everything has a handmade touch but very clean lines and is
eclectic." And while it would be impossible for Seo not to practice
what he preaches, he doesn't skimp on flair in the name of
consciousness. So rather than use an eco-unfriendly cashmere blanket--high demand for cashmere has caused an increase in the goat
population in China, which has turned grasslands into dust bowls and
caused an upswing in pollution in Asia and across the Pacific to my company the
western United States--he bought an armload of downy-soft alpaca scarves
and had them stitched together as a bedspread.
Being creative (and adorable) has put Seo on Hollywood's speed
dial, though he's reluctant to dish about the stars who've
turned to him for eco-advice, chiding me that "it turns into this
whole gossip thing." Yet he clearly understands the benefits of
celebrities going green: "If a movie star does something good, even
a little thing, they can draw a ton of media attention," he admits.
"Something totally unsexy, like compressed hydrogen fuel for your
car or water treatment systems for your house, winds up being written
about in Us Weekly."
So while the A-list is important to his cause, Seo continues to
reach out to everyday consumers. In 2006, he published two successful
entertaining guides, Simply Green Giving and Simply Green Parties,
followed by the 2008 daily calendar, Do Just One Thing, which offers
simple eco-friendly household tips like unplugging cell-phone chargers
and turning old soup cans into makeupbrush organizers. He's just
returned from Palm Springs, Calif., where he was taping a new edition of
Red, Hot and Green, an environmental-design show for HGTV.
But Seo wants to really educate the public, not just regurgitate the same old green advice. "I'm trying to take it to the next
level," he says. "I'm not going to tell people to use
compact fluorescent light bulbs, because everyone knows that. But I
might talk about what to do with the old nasty nylon carpet you're
tearing out or how to recycle laminate countertops--things you
can't just Google."
Something of an eco-version of Martha Stewart (one of his idols),
Seo has also started extending himself as a brand. He's partnered
with mattress manufacturer Simmons on Natural Care by Danny Seo, a line
of earth-friendly latex pillows and mattresses available at JCPenney,
and his "Simply Green" stamp now appears on the department
store's line of organic cotton bedding and bamboo blankets.
"They've got all these really great colors and styles at all
these different price points," he says, momentarily slipping into a
sales pitch. But Seo isn't selling out. He's never apologized
for promoting the good life. "I've always felt strongly about
sustainability but, unlike a lot of activists, I also want to eat great
food, wear cool clothes, and be surrounded by beautiful things," he
says. What makes him different is that he's "worked hard to
make it so you can do that and still be responsible."
Now, that's something gays can get behind. Which gets my blog me
thinking: Is green the new pink? "I honestly don't think
it's a gay-straight thing," says Seo. "What we're
seeing is a total cultural shift. If you don't like it, you're
still going to have to adapt to it. Eventually it becomes second official statement nature
for everybody." And that, to borrow a line from a certain domestic
doyenne, is a good thing.
IS IT REALLY EASY BEING GREEN?
When you figure out how to do it, sure. Here are five of
Danny's favorite green thumb rules.
DON'T PANIC: With the wealth of green products flooding the
market, it can be hard to figure out what's legitimately
earth-friendly. But, Sea says, "companies are so scared of being
accused of green-washing"--making phony environmental
claims--"that they're really doing their due diligence."
Of course, he adds, the greenest product is nothing at all. But
what's life without duvet covers and gravy boats?
DEFINE YOUR TERMS: "The use of the word organic is regulated
by the Department of Agriculture--it has to have been grown without
pesticides, herbicides, or chemicals," See explains. "So you
can rest assured if you see that label, it's the real deal."
If a product is made from postconsumer recycled materials, that means it
comes from the sort of things we put out on the corner--newspapers,
glass bottles, aluminum cans--that have been crushed or melted down and
turned into something new. Just be wary of adjectives like biodegradable
and ell-natural, which aren't regulated, says Sea.
"Technically, even a polystyrene cup is biodegradable. It just
takes 60,000 years."
CARRY IT OFF: Use your own reusable bags when you shop. "We
know to do that at the grocery store, but don't be afraid to bring
one to a department store," Sea says. And there's a bag to fit
every taste and budget: "You can get anything from a $1,000
reusable bag from Hermes to a 99-cent sack from Whole Foods."
KEEP AN EYE ON THE ROAD: "A lot of people don't close the
gas cap to their cars tightly enough," says the green guru.
"Over time, the gas evaporates as you drive." If you click the
cap three to five times to make sure it's secure, you'll
improve your fuel efficiency 1% or 2% a year.
BE A STAR: Sea says there are several government programs that help
point consumers in the right direction, like Energy Star, which
identifies energy-efficient electronics and appliances. Think of it as
"a green kosher symbol."
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