About ecofabulous

ecofabulous.com is the destination for sexy, sustainable style. We are dedicated to inspiring and educating consumers about quality eco-friendly products vetted by our expert editors and designers. ecofabulous is the “IT” guide for environmentally conscious beauty, fashion, home, kids and lifestyle products and experiences.

Based in San Francisco, ecofabulous has quickly built its impressive level of trust, credibility and experience by providing fresh, informative reviews of today’s hottest sustainable products that meet our stringent criteria. The ecofabulous team is first and foremost dedicated to the intersection of style and sustainability and has developed its eco expertise through hands-on experience designing spaces and events.

Events and Design Projects:

Not only does our team of editors and designers research and write about the best eco-products on the market, but we work together to produce fabulous off-line experiences - whether it’s a “green” event or an interior design project.

Eco-expert Zem Joaquin founded ecofabulous as a result of her personal journey into sustainability. She realized that the products she was using in her home were toxic and thus intensifying the asthma that both of her children battled. The more she learned during the process of transforming her own home into a healthy environment, the less she was able to trust traditional products the way she once had and the more she turned towards an eco lifestyle.

Inspired by her mentor William McDonough, whose Cradle to Cradle philosophy has galvanized many, Joaquin advises organizations with very high sustainability standards including Global Green, Healthy Child, Healthy World, and Teens For Safe Cosmetics, and is committed to keeping ecofabulous consistent with the high-sustainability standards of these organizations, thus providing credible recommendations for ecofabulous subscribers and fans.

Meet Team ecofabulous:

Zem Joaquin
Founder and CEO

A former contributing editor at House and Garden and Domino Magazines, Zem Joaquin is 7×7 Magazine’s Queen of Green and KFOG’s Eco-Expert. Mentored by William McDonough, Zem is a certified BuildItGreen design and strategy consultant and Cradle to Cradle enthusiast who helps companies and individuals create beautiful, smart, sustainable spaces and practices. Zem is the eco-luxury specialist for Planet Green’s Alter Eco and regularly contributes to various media. Much of her penchant for superior design came from her years at Splendora.com and living in Milan, Paris and London, but her love for the earth can be traced back to her early upbringing on a Palo Alto commune. As the mother of two children, Zem is committed to improving all families’ health, education and access to well-vetted information.

Emilie Cowan
COO

When Emilie worked on environmental policy for Senator Carl Levin in his Washington DC office, she quickly realized the importance of being conscious about one’s community and how one should build and design within it. She spent time working overseas on community development and advocacy projects, specializing in resource management and sustainability, and occasionally living in alternative conditions (such as sharing a hutch with a chicken), in India. While completing her Masters in Business Communications, she worked for BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance, focusing on the development and implementation of a large Sustainable Development program throughout Australia (she did not live with any marsupials but did develop a penchant for kick boxing - coincidence?). She continued her career in high-end real estate sales and development for Starwood Hotels and Resorts. It was there that she refined her passion for new business operations, project management and client relationship development. She then turned her ardent attention towards ecofabulous, to help implement a plan for the continued growth of an evolving green information service - and hasn’t looked back.

Rachael Dorsey McGowen
Director, Strategic Planning and Marketing

An outdoor enthusiast and organic foodie, Rachael has long been passionate about sustainability, but just recently officially joined the green workforce at ecofabulous. Originally from West Virginia, she moved to San Francisco from New York City, where she most recently directed communications and public programs for a non-profit multidisciplinary art center The Kitchen, and previously handled press and marketing for P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a MoMA affiliate. She is thrilled to be able to transfer her skill set, passion and energy from New York’s contemporary art world to the exciting environmental community in San Francisco and beyond. Her personal passions include food (organic and local, of course!), cycling, yoga, hiking, live music, swimming, travel, her husband Shawn, and Bi-Rite creamery’s balsamic strawberry ice cream.

Lisa Lowe
Director, Business Development and Marketing

Lisa Lowe is a marketing, communications and business development strategist. As Events Manager at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSLO), Lisa worked directly with Martha Stewart and launched and implemented a branded events program for all MSLO properties, connecting consumers and clients directly with the personalities and content they desired. At MSLO, she also worked on all marketing initiatives including research, strategy, proposals, new business development, and public relations. Lisa later led marketing and development at San Francisco magazine, and launched their event program. She has also provided integrated marketing and communications strategies and event production for numerous non-profit organizations. Bringing content to life is Lisa’s forte, utilizing multi-channel touch points to reach customers and clients. She is a proponent of sustainable practices, and is a member of the NRDC, Environmental Entrepreneurs, the Sierra Club, and the Alliance for Climate Protection. Marin County, California, home for this outdoor enthusiast, provides a constant reminder of the importance of protecting the environment for generations to come. She is excited to have gone “green” in her lifestyle, and will be helping on all development initiatives to green and grow ecofabulous.

Alyssa Warnock
Graphic Designer

Graphic Designer Alyssa Warnock recieved her BA in Art History from USC and her BFA in Graphic Design from CCA. She loves to help people realize their new business ideas by giving life to concepts and making them real through design. She has designed catalogs, brochures, and ads for the Bonhams & Butterfield auction house; done freelance design with Sarah Shaw and Fetish; was on a design team at marchFIRST, Inc. for projects including Apple, Pixar, 3Com and Netflix. Working independently for various clients from San Francisco, L.A., and New York, she focuses on logo identity, branding, packaging, and signage for both boutique and corporate businesses. She enjoys working with and learning about all types of companies, and her clients include Bay Bread, La Boulange, The Brentwood Country Mart, Wilson Meany Sullivan, Coffee Bar, Café du Soleil, woo, Hiball Energy and the Blues Jean Bar.

Nadine Weil
VP, Special Projects

With an industrial engineering degree from Stanford and a business degree from Harvard, Nadine is now dedicated to undoing everything she learned in school to help create a more sustainable planet. Her past experiences include mergers & acquisitions for entertainment companies in Los Angeles, international business in Milan at the LEK Partnership, startup advisory services at Pathway Ventures, and Internet marketing for OpenTable.com. Nadine became an intern at General Motors for the EV1 Electric Vehicle in 1995 and still enjoys watching EVs out-accelerate Ferraris at the track. Nadine has been known to co-host and green events for WildAid, U.N. World Environment Day, An Inconvenient Truth, and the Brower Youth Awards. She serves on the ForestEthics Board of Directors, the Mofilms Advisory Board, and the Full Circle Fund’s Environment & Energy Circle, maintains a personal blog called Heart of Green and is contributing eco-editor for 944 Magazine. Despite her petite nature, Nadine is happiest when standing next to 300-foot tall redwood trees and 600-pound tigers, both of which she hopes to play a role in saving.

Our Editorial Team:

Heather O’Neill
Senior Editor

Heather O’Neill is a writer and editor who believes that the more a person knows, the better they do. It certainly sums up her personal commitment to supporting green companies and products and is what drew her to ecofabulous like a moth to an eco-friendly flame. Before joining ecofabulous Heather had a well-rounded background in the field of journalism. She has worked as the managing editor of a beauty trade magazine; as a copy editor for an online tech magazine; as the associate editor of a city magazine; as a newspaper reporter and columnist and as a full-time freelance writer, positions that all come into play in her role as Senior Editor here at ecofabulous. Heather has a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from California College of the Arts. Her work has appeared in many publications, including Parenting, Alternative Medicine, Marin Magazine, Greenwich Magazine and HOME. Several of her articles and columns have won top journalism prizes and her investigative series “Invisible Men” (The Advocate, 2006), which chronicled the struggles of male victims of sexual assault, was a finalist for the Society of Professional Journalist’s esteemed Theodore Driscoll Award.

Caitlin Bristol
Editor

Manager, Creative Services

An Oregon native, Caitlin Bristol focuses on developing spaces that seamlessly integrate the built environment with nature. With an extensive background in residential design, she is less concerned with the latest trends and prefers to ask her clients the question, “How do you live?” She received her BA from Santa Clara University while managing a design showroom in Palo Alto. After working on the retail side for several years, she transitioned into the custom home industry. She is currently completing a graduate program in Sustainable Design at UC Berkeley’s extension campus in San Francisco. She grew up spending summers in her mother’s native Australia, where she had the dubious distinction of being bitten by a wild dingo. She has traveled to over twenty countries and volunteered in India and Africa, where she found herself rooming with monkeys, cockroaches, bats and jumping spiders. Despite (or maybe because of) those experiences, her travels instilled a deep appreciation of nature’s beautifully efficient, waste-free, regenerative cycles. Nature is her inspiration and biomimicry her model as she creates interiors that meld sustainability with high design. It’s no surprise that her personal style blends globe-trotting eclecticism with city-girl chic. In her spare time Caitlin indulges her passion for black and white photography and home-made fig ice cream. You can also find her browsing local flea markets for vintage furniture and one-of-a-kind pieces crying out for a DIY makeover.

Omar Aqeel
Correspondent

Omar joined the Ecofab team fresh out of his first year of college at Boston University’s College of Communication. Aside from his naturally enthusiastic personality and outrageous sense of humor, Omar brings to the table his passion for design and a background in the arts, including theater, music, photography, film, and fashion. Omar owes his broad worldview to his extensive traveling, eccentric parents, and frequent visits to TED and Burning Man. As a student, artist, and citizen of the world, he has always sought to contribute his creative vision to inspired, collaborative efforts. Omar hopes to one day start his own line of eco-couture, but promises to be an ongoing part of the ecofabulous crew.

Emily Dobbs
Intern/Designer

Dobbs, who has had a heightened awareness of the built environment and of interiors since she was young, seeks to save the world through the vehicle of interior design. Beginning her formal career as a design consultant at Ethan Allen, Dobbs’ work can be seen in residences all over the Bay Area as well as in various commercial locations, including Scott Cole & Associates in Oakland and the ZaZa Nail Spa chain locations of Northern California. Her educational background in liberal arts, Interior Design, and Sustainable Design, as well as influences from her childhood in Japan inspire Dobbs’ interdisciplinary approach to design. As a passionate proponent of the sustainability movement, she seeks to create highly sustainable spaces that meld green technologies and ecologically-inspired design, but are still beautiful, functional and reflective of their inhabitants.