As faculty, staff and students from the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) prepare for the college’s 5th

the great sustainability-themed conferences that I’ve recently attended, from the American Marketing

Association (AMA) Educators’ Conference in Boston to the Green Festivals in San Francisco. However,

the one that particularly stood out was the LOHAS Conference in Colorado.

I travelled to Colorado to attend the LOHAS conference because FIT, as many other colleges and

universities across the country and around the world, is infusing sustainability throughout its curriculum.

The event attracted more than 500 attendees, including over 50 guest speakers, from 230 companies and

organizations representing various industries, across public and private sectors. The 2010 roundup

included The Coca Cola Company, General Mills, Neutrogena, eBay, Johnson & Johnson, U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, Green America, movie directors/producers, academics, physicians,

journalists, marketers, investors, artists and so many others, with the common goal of sharing and gaining

knowledge that will inspire all to strive toward a sustainable future.

After a forty-five minute drive from Denver International Airport to Boulder, I was staring at the majestic

Flatiron Mountains, which appeared to be guarding this picturesque town, and instinctively knew I was

somewhere special. For example, it is home to the University of Colorado, has a large environmentally

conscious orientated population and businesses, is surrounded by 36,000 acres of recreational space,

has a bustling social scene, and was even rated #1 on Forbes.com for America's Top 25 Towns to Live

Well.

Typically, a New Yorker attending the usual business conference would not expect to be greeted by a

Shaman banging a drum, with a rattle, while instructing the audience to close their eyes, relax their

bodies and meditate over a spiritual image projected on the front screen. But this was no average

business conference…this was LOHAS’ opening “Fit Body/Fit Soul” session.

Shaman and Healer Brant Secunda and Mark Allen, 6-time Ironman World Champion took us through

their fascinating personal journeys and explained how a sustainable lifestyle must first start with a

person’s spiritual realizations and connectivity to nature before it can be extended outward to society and

the environment. Shaman Brant Secunda outlined the 4 Powers, which the Huichol Indian indigenous

people of Mexico, who he lived with for many years, believe to be human capacities that all individuals

should strive to achieve: love, is the first power, as a natural force ingrained in all of life; second is

physical power, he stated “your body is an extension of Mother Earth”; the third power is intuition,

constant development of spiritual awareness; and, intelligence is the fourth, the importance of not abusing

one’s power or taking advantage of others. This brought me back to a program I recently viewed on

LinkTV titled “Earth Wisdom for a World in Crisis”, which described how many, including the United

Nations, are discovering that indigenous peoples could hold some vital keys to the survival of our

Mark Allen and Shaman Brant Secunda concluded their workshop by providing techniques that transform

negative emotions into positive energies to help individuals face challenges. And do we have

challenges…the difficulties we are facing today, i.e., global warming, ongoing human rights abuses,

corporate/political scandals, world poverty, etc. due to habits, past decisions, fear, apathy, and so on are

haunting our society and will linger for future generations unless we work together to resolve them.

The stage was set for attendees to network and collaborate, during conference workshops and meals.

LOHAS not only provided delicious organic breakfasts, lunches and snacks, but also served up much

food for thought in the remaining 34 sessions of this 3-day event.

To give you a taste, during the “Developing a Healthy Planet: Our Health and Environmental Health are

the Same” meeting, Dr. Alan Greene, Author and Physician, discussed how our act of eating is intimately

linked to the environment, through the stages of food production, packaging, delivery and especially

consumption, stating “Food plays our body like a piano.” Representatives from the Natural Marketing

Institute reviewed global and domestic consumer trends, in the “New Paradigms in Health and

Sustainability” session, advising that the US LOHAS market size represents almost $300 billion in

consumer sales across the market sectors of Green Building, Personal Health, Eco-Tourism, Alternative

Transportation, Natural Lifestyles and Alternative Energy. Panelists on the “Leading Edutainment”

workshop reviewed the unique way of educating and successfully engaging audiences through creative

storytelling documentaries, i.e., Dirt!-The Movie and the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove.

There were also “Igniting Inspiration 101: An Advanced Empathy Workshop for Conscious Capitalists”,

“Rewriting Rules of Consumer Engagement”, “Understanding the Carbon Economy”, “Kids vs. Global

Warming”, “Understanding the Value of Social Currency” sessions and many more workshops all

Dr. Elliot Dacher’s echoed the advice of Shaman Secunda, when he discussed the joining of the inner

(self) and outer (environment/society) as the foundation for a sustainable lifestyle, during his “The Path to

Human Flourishing” session. This MD Internal Medicine summed up the overall theme of the conference,

linking all sessions through a common denominator, he stated “Work for your own happiness, others

suffer; work for the happiness of others and you will be happy.”

Philippe Cousteau, CEO of EarthEcho International participated in the panel “The Situation in the Gulf”

along with Stephanie Owens, director of the Office of Public Engagement for the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) and Charles Hambleton, producer for The Cove. The audience cringed as

Philippe provided a first-hand account of what he experienced as he dove 20/30 feet into polluted parts of

the Gulf, looked up, and saw dead fish mixed with oil in what appeared to be a reddish hue toxic soup

that almost blocked out the sun.

We all have different vantage points on this disaster and other global challenges. However, society must

realize that whether one resides along the Gulf of Mexico, in NYC, Boulder or any other town/city in the

U.S., or across the globe, we all share responsibility in working to solve these challenges. And we could

use all the advice available to become mindful about our thoughts, decisions, actions and reactions,

whether it comes from a Shaman, physician, entrepreneur, academic, marketer, activist or artist.

Learn more about sustainability and get involved by attending FIT’s 5th Annual Sustainability Conference

12, 2011 in the Great Hall. Inspired by the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, this year’s theme is “The Liquid

Planet,” focusing on water as one of our most precious resources.