Vancouver’s EP!C showcase of sustainable living

Food, fashion, cars and shopping—Vancouver’s EP!C expo offers an epic spread of eco options for living the life sustainable

EP!C: The Vancouver Sun Sustainable Living Expo, May 28–30, 2010, Vancouver’s annual sustainable living expo, offers plenty of green inspiration and valuable education through speakers, workshops, cooking stages and exhibitors’ booths—plus, plenty of deals you can’t get anywhere else on a variety of eco-products.

Held at the new LEED-certified Vancouver Convention Centre, it’s the largest of its kind in Western Canada and provides a unique opportunity to get tips from the experts on everything from greening your home and your beauty regimen to cooking, shopping and playing sustainably.

 

Fair Trade Pavilion

New this year is a Fair Trade Pavilion, where visitors can buy unique products that support producers in developing nations; an eco wedding showcase that will help you plan, organize and green-up your special day; and the opportunity to test drive hybrid luxury cars and see the world-famous Tesla Roadster, the only high performance-capable electric car in mass production.

 

Carbon-neutral, EP!C walks the talk

EP!C is a showcase of organizations moving the world forward. I like that EP!C also walks the talk, producing a carbon neutral event and hosting the expo in the world’s only LEED Platinum certified convention centre.

 

Make a day of it

This year, I’m gathering a group of friends, biking to EP!C (they offer free valet bike parking) and making a day of it! First we’ll learn how to cook sustainably with demos from Vancouver’s top Green Table chefs, then we’ll treat ourselves to a free spa treatment from EP!C’s wellness spa, grab some organic wine and tasty food samples and sit down to enjoy a green fashion show. Then, with Fair Trade coffee in hand, we’ll set out to browse hundreds of eco-friendly exhibitors.

All in all a great start to the weekend’s festivities!
 

Top picks for the EP!C Main Stage

Throughout the weekend, there will be lots of educational workshops and fun events happening on the EP!C mainstage. Here are my top picks:

 

Friday

I don’t want to miss the City of Vancouver’s presentation on its plans for becoming the Greenest City In The World (4:00 p.m.)—I want bragging rights!

Stick around after for the Power Plant networking event that has up-and-coming eco-community leaders pitching their ventures (7 p.m.).

Full disclosure: I’m presenting TheChange!

 

Saturday

Salt Spring Coffee founder and CEO Mickey McLeod speaks on how his company has set the bar even higher by going beyond Fair Trade (2 p.m.).

Later, I’ll lighten things up with Graham Clark giving me some green laughs during his eco-comedy routine (1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.).

And I don’t want to miss the panel on Emerging Low Carbon Careers (5:00 p.m.), which focuses on what kind of training, education and experience is required to snag cool green jobs in such fields as a solar panel installation, energy management and corporate sustainability.

 

Sunday

My first stop is learning about Environmental Conservation in the Wine Industry (12:00 p.m.)—hey, it’s never too early in the day to learn about wine—and if I can drink with a good conscious all the better.

Next is a panel on sustainable food (Vancouver’s Sustainable Food Panel: Developing Community & Cuisine, 2:00 p.m.) where I hope to learn about the “ingredients” of a fully sustainable food culture and find out the newest developments in sustainable dining.

Food and wine? The perfect finish to a great weekend at EP!C.
 

To learn more, visit the website: 

EP!C: The Vancouver Sun Sustainable Living Expo.
 

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Annalea Krebs blogs about the organizations, people and ideas that are moving Vancouver forward. She is founder of TheChange.com, a social media platform that helps people discover local organizations committed to sustainability, which launched May 15, 2010. Read bcliving‘s writeup about TheChange.

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