Second Sunday Sustainability Fair
In a city overflowing with creativity and community, it should come as no surprise that there is yet another reason for Portlanders to get together and celebrate our quirky resourcefulness.
Every second Sunday inside Hip Drip Café, a new coffee shop on SE 16th and Sandy, you’ll find the Sustainability Fair — a monthly gathering of ecoconscious artists and entrepreneurs. At today’s premier fair, acoustic music from gypsy jazz trio Swing Papillon keeps the mood lively and distinguished.
Booths feature arts and crafts handmade with recycled, reused, and renewable resources. Sound like a chore? Ha! This is Portland. We’re going to recycle, and we’re going to look good doing it.
Miss Lola’s designer grocery bags are some of the classiest I’ve seen. And ever wonder what to do with that old coffee percolator? Well Anitra Cameron has it figured out with her Coffee Pot People. (Yes, we’re also a little java-obsessed here.) Her metallic companions each have names and bios, including “Amos,” the “wirey” brick-layer by day and fire dancer by night. Amos might find a kindred spirit in one of Joel Barber‘s hip robots, painted on “canvases” that had former lives as wooden pallets and panels from post office sorting bins.
Sustainable businesses get their piece of the organic pie with booths from the Redirect Guide directory of ecofriendly businesses, Solar Energy Solutions, and local fair-trade favorite Stumptown Coffee Roasters.
As one might expect, Hip Drip itself features coffee by Stumptown, all organic milks and syrups, bins to recycle or compost your used-products-formerly-known-as-trash, biodegradable and non-GMO coffee cups and lids, and, of course, WiFi (I’m writing this inside the shop right now.) However, for a business that appears to be teetering on the cutting edge of environmental sustainability, I am surprised to see so few vegetarian options on the café menu.
If guilt-free goodies for your senses weren’t reason enough to cruise by the Sustainability Fair, perhaps an opportunity to test drive the latest electric vehicles would do the trick. Hip Drip Café is located inside Ecomotion, a vehicle showroom that specializes in electric, hybrid, and biodiesel automobiles. Featuring everything from full-size hybrids and electric mini-trucks to sleek silver capsules, Ecomotion is not your average car dealership.
For a colorful goodbye to winter, stop by next month’s Sustainability Fair on March 9th and take home a new skirt, a new car, good art, or at least a good buzz.
What: Sustainability Fair
When: Every second Sunday, 11 am-4 pm
Where: Hip Drip Café / Ecomotion, 1625 NE Sandy Blvd