What is Alter Eco? Those two-words are proving to be popular in the eco-world, with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, fair trade entrepreneurs, and bamboo furniture people all nabbing the title for their eco-product.

If you’re a Martha Stewart fan, you probably think Alter Eco’s a company that sells strange but pretty purple jasmine rice. Martha Stewart featured Alter Eco‘s organic, fair trade rice in a recent episode. And you can buy this novelty rice of sorts at Whole Foods and other health food stores, as well as Alter Eco’s other fair trade yummies, including chocolate, coffee, and quinoa.

Alter Eco’s been especially active in San Francisco, where its US operations are headquartered. Felice notes in WorldofGood that Alter Eco was one of the companies out celebrating San Francisco’s new status as a fair trade city.

But it turns out that Alter Eco’s become a popular name, especially now that the green market’s growing. In fact, Entourage star Adrian Grenier’s new green lifestyle show’s also called Alter Eco (formerly called The Green Life). The 13-part series will air on Discovery’s Planet Green channel, which launches June 4.

Already, news of this Alter Eco’s all over the blogosphere — or at least the L.A. blogosphere. Adrian Grenier’s show’s revamped Hollywood’s Tokio Lounge using eco-friendly building materials. The lounge will reopen as Ecco in July with an organic menu, LED lights, and waterless urinals. Alter Eco’s also transformed the downtown L.A. art exhibit space Pharmaka with LED lights, eco-friendly furniture and an energy-efficient air circulation system.

I actually inadverdently crossed paths with Alter Eco. I was shopping at Kelly Green, an eco-friendly store in Silver Lake, when Grenier and his crew walked in to start interviewing the owner. I tried to exit the store unobtrusively –

According to Sarah van Schagen at Grist, Alter Eco episode officially premieres on Planet Green Monday, June 9, at 9 pm — but a sneak peek will air June 4 at 10 pm.

Last but not least, it appears there’s also a bamboo furniture company called AlterECO! I found out about this company thanks to Katie Riley, who writes Envirostyle.

I guess the eco movement — or at least green business — has gotten so big we’ve run out of names, sort of. I’m lucky I got the greenlagirl.com domain when I did! I thought companies had rules and stuff against other companies copying their names though. I mean, Starbucks seems to sue a new mom-and-pop store for using anything that even remotely looks or sounds like their logo or name every other day. Will all the Alter Ecos exist in green harmony?

[crossposted on BlogHer]

Image courtesy of Alter Eco

0 Comments