Danny Seo

How and why did you become involved with JCPenney?

There was a week about seven months ago when several major U.S. retailers emailed me out of the blue and said they'd be interested in working with me on a product line. The funny part was that a few years back, I had approached all of them about working on a green line, but no one was interested! Anyway, I was approached by everyone from mass retailers to very upscale stores, but I felt JCPenney was the best choice because it's really where all of America shops. I thought, "Here is a chance to create some really good quality products in great colors and styles, at affordable prices."

In what capacity are you working with the brand?

I'm acting as a consultant and advisor at all levels and in every single department, from jewelry and juniors to apparel and footwear and luggage, to home design. This is a long-term relationship, too, not a "one-off collection and we won't be green again." I'm also helping to create a very clear and understandable message to the shopper about what it means to go green. There's an opportunity to use the stores to educate the customers who visit every day and to get them involved in different green campaigns. There are 1,100 stores, which means there's a great opportunity to influence a large number of consumers. We plan to do everything from a reusable bag program to something on the non-profit level, maybe where you recycle an item in the store so we can keep it out of the waste stream.

It's obviously tough to instantly green your entire home. What types of things can people do first that will have the most impact?

I think it's important to invest in energy efficiency. If your refrigerator is more than 10 years old and you know it needs to be replaced, you've got to replace it. It's the biggest energy hog in the house and it's on 24 hours a day so it makes sense to get an Energy Star refrigerator. And your old one is 80 percent recyclable, so don't worry about waste disposable.

You recently partnered with the Simmons mattress company, correct?

I'm very excited to be rolling out my own mattress. It's called the Simmons Natural Care by Danny Seo and it's the first nationally distributed mattress made by a major manufacturer using natural latex from the rubber tree, instead of petroleum-based and synthetic parts. It's the only mattress that's also naturally resistant to dust mites, mold and mildew. Even the wood in the frame is cultivated from sustainable sources.

What other interesting second uses have you found for items that people tend to just toss away?

I love those bags that linens come in. I love repurposing those plastic bags. Comforter bags, for example, are great to store things like sweaters and blankets in when the winter season is over. You can zip it up and toss it under the bed. With the smaller bags, I'll make toiletry kits for guests, with shampoo and soap samples from hotels. Or I'll make these little winter kits for restless kids. I'll put in all the essentials you need for a snowball fight, like mittens and scarves and snowball makers and even a box of hot chocolate.

What are some of the most wasteful things that people do when entertaining?

Honestly, I think the number one, most wasteful thing is theme entertaining. When throwing a kid's birthday party or a baby shower, the first thing people do is go out and buy lots of stuff like paper plates, paper cups, utensils and amass all these disposable things, so you have bags and bags of waste at the end of the party. I think what needs to be embraced is the idea that the guests, the food and the environment is all more important than how much, say, purple dinosaur stuff you have going on.

Do you have any great green entertaining ideas you could share with us?

It depends on what you want to do. For a normal dinner party or maybe a Sunday brunch, a nice thing to do is go as local as possible. What I like to do here in Bucks County, when my friends from New York City come for Sunday brunch, is go to a local egg farm, buy fresh eggs and cook a fresh meal. There's just something unique about having a frittata made with eggs that were laid just hours before it was made. I think having organic wines and spirits is helpful, too. Give someone a good cocktail and they're not going to care about the décor!

When did you start to incorporate greener habits into your life?

I started a long time ago. I was born on Earth Day and for my twelfth birthday I started an environmental group. The goal of the organization was to save the world by 2000, so it was pretty ambitious! I grew the organization into one of the largest environmental groups for teenagers by my eighteenth birthday. During that period of time, I was traveling around the world and running national campaigns. That experience gave me a lot of background on what it means to be green. When I was nineteen I moved into my first apartment. I wanted things to look a certain way. I wanted my home to be green but I wanted to do it with style. This was before there were Whole Foods everywhere and hybrid cars. At that time, I was writing books and the Oprah show got behind those books, but they had nothing to do with sustainability. They were all about how to be an activist and how to make a difference in your community. It wasn't until I was promoting a book and a reporter came over to my apartment to talk with me about it she ended up writing story about how I had decorated my place instead. It was totally by accident, but it was the launching pad for my green design business.

Do you think there are less young people involved in the green movement today?

I think the way they're involved is different. When I was a teenager, the Internet was still coming to fruition. There was the Internet and some people were on it, but it wasn't as involved in our daily lives as it today. Back then, activism meant protests and petitions and writing letters and visiting elected officials. There was a lot more grassroots campaigning, where today I think some people are just as involved, but they're doing it in a much more efficient and modern way through the Internet. It's easier to have your voice be heard and your opinions be heard, especially if you have an influential blog. Kids can have a lot more power doing that. Not a lot of thirteen-year-olds can start a national organization, but anyone can start a blog and influence opinions and get traffic numbers in the tens of thousands if they want.

What do you think is the biggest challenge of getting people to go green?

I think functionality is a big issue for a lot of people. There seems to be a stigma that green products are not as good in quality or usefulness and I think that's something that really needs to be overcome. There's this mentality that green products are good for you so you should buy them, but no one wants to be forced to do something. I think fashion is where green items need a lot of work. Even in terms of what they did at Barney's during the holidays with their green collections. It was kind of expensive and not as great as I thought it could be. Clothing is so personal because it's all about fit. If there were to be a green retailer like the GAP to come out, they'd really have to master how to create different shapes for different body types.

These days there's a lot of trendiness involved in going green. What do you make of that?

I don't think it's trendy. I think going green is just a cultural shift and we get confused by the term "trend." Trend to me is just about fashion, like an Ugg boot, something that's in one moment and out the next. I know it feels like overkill right now with all the magazines doing green issues and all these retailers going green, but I think it's here to stay. It's such a huge issue with the world that it's not something that can be "in" right now and then the next moment we're going to be about overconsumption.

What is one recent green obsession that you just can't live without?

I have a weird obsession, and people tell me I need to stop talking about it, but I love microfiber towels. I used to buy the really eco-friendly recycled paper towels, but now I use these microfiber towels from Method and they are absolutely amazing. They suck up every spill, every mark on the floor, every soil and spill on the countertops. I really just clean everything from the ceiling to floor with these towels and water, and everything comes out sparkling clean. I have a ton of them and I collect them all in a basket and when I'm all out of clean ones, I throw them in the washing machine together. You don't even have to dry them. They just dry out in the spin cycle and you can use them over and over.