GreenHeart Global

GreenHeart Global was created in the spring of 2006 by Gary Barker and his partner, Larry Chernicoff. They wanted to both start a business together and were extremely passionate about industrial design so that is the direction they chose. Shortly after that, Chernicoff came up with the idea of designing 100% recyclable hangers. When he proposed this to his partner, Barker spent the following 30 seconds figuring out he could get out of this situation.

However as Chernicoff explained the idea further, Barker became increasingly interested in the idea and prototypes soon followed. The real passion behind the hanger idea was linked to the severe environmental damage that they caused. Every year an estimated 8-10 billion unrecyclable plastic/wire hangers end up clogging our municipal landfills, requiring over 1,000 years to break down. That’s 4.6 Empire State Buildings full of plastic hangers–every year. An estimated 3.5 million wire hangers end up in landfills and can take over 100 years to decompose. They were astonished by how such an overlooked, ubiquitous commodity could have such a detrimental impact on the environment. Gary’s thought process was that if we can make positive social and environment change through hangers, then the sky is the limit.

And with that drive and passion, they soon created Ditto hangers, a product line of 100% recyclable hangers. Ditto Hangers solve these industry-wide problems by designing hangers made from the most widely recycled materials in the world: Recycled Paper and PET Plastic. Ditto hangers received such great feedback and took off so quickly that it became the primary focus for GreenHeart Global.

However, in order to truly understand the GreenHeart Global family, you must understand their vision as artists with an environmental conscious. They feel that there is absolutely no reason why environmentally friendly products must compromise style and beauty. In fact they feel as the though the inverse is the real truth. The idea should be to bring out the beauty of your materials, acknowledging the intrinsic value of everything you use and create. In the case of Ditto Hangers, they create innovative designs that clearly show the use of plastic and paper.
source: FPR

So what is the ultimate goal for Gary and his group of green crusaders? Well it is simply this: to create a paradigm shift in the Industrial Design community. They want to be the catalyst for a fundamental change in how products are created, essentially bringing responsibility back into the design community. The objective should go beyond just “selling” products, and instead, should be to promote a lifestyle and ultimately a sustainable future for the world. And until this becomes the norm, GreenHeart Global will be doing its part, one hanger at a time.