Adrian Grenier, actor, and Peter Glatzer, producer, helped host the Wired party launching its Manhattan pop-up store, standing by a display of cool green products they'd selected. The co-creators of Alter Eco, the green living show on Discovery's Planet Green, looked delighted to be discussing an hybrid electric bicycle and an LED table lamp made with what looked like foam peanuts but were actually cast-off silkworm cocoons. Asked how they got motivated to go green, the friends said they'd grown up in the urban tristate region but always loved, and increasingly worried about, the threatened natural world. 

 

It was three years ago, when Grenier bought a Brooklyn townhouse in need of major renovation, that he started getting serious about leading a green lifestyle. It's been good discipline, he told us.  "I'm sort of both a control freak and a slob, and this was something I could control that also contributed, in a small way, to cleaning up the planet," Grenier said, noting that individual choices really do matter. "Our mission is to inspire people to go green and that it doesn't have to be difficult," Glatzer said. "So we don't preach; instead, we show how a small shift in your thinking can make the difference. In curating for this section of Wired's store, we found the things we liked that had great design, functionality, and were also sustainably made."

 

Despite the troubled economy, the business partners were upbeat about the incoming Administration and the promise of public investment in a green infrastructure and jobs. Glatzer and Grenier produced, and Grenier appeared in, public service announcements for the Rock the Vote campaign aimed at registering young voters ages 18-23, who turned out in historical numbers (23 million) for this election. Young adults are also ushering in positive consumer change. In a 2008 survey by Mintel, over half of 18- to- 24 year-olds said they regularly purchase green products, compared with 36% of older Americans (hey, that's still not bad!).

 

As we studied the Glatzer/Grenier picks, including the big frosted-glass, Mason-style Solar Jar ($42) that could light your patio forever,  and wandered through the loftlike store crammed with other enticing green stuff, we began to feel flush with holiday spirit (well, the high-alcohol California wine helped, too, not to mention the lemonade punch and cranberry vodka sans the cranberry juice: Next morning, we could have used the bionic tongue cleaner and mouthwash).  So drop by the Wired Store, whether in person (at 15 West 18th St.) or online. And stay tuned for more news about G/G's multiplatform green lifestyle venture, including a forthcoming website.