Showcasing the Growth of the Green Economy

Which raises the question: What if Target or Wal-Mart opened a store 10 blocks from him that sold everything he sells?

Ware doesn't think Wal-Mart would put him out of business. In fact, he thinks if Wal-Mart sells more green products, his business will be enhanced, with even more foot traffic. Ware said that if competitors were legitimately green, "I would be absolutely enthralled with it. . . . I know there will be more and more places coming up where you can buy Marmoleum flooring. Everyone will soon be selling organic cotton shoes and clothing."

And judging by the turnout at this year's show, there will be plenty of customers. The festival drew about 25,000 people, up from 17,000 last year. Fifteen minutes after opening Saturday morning, there were four lines with more than 60 people in each, waiting to get tickets.

The green industry's move toward the middle provided an interesting study in contrasts. While the show offered free valet parking for bicycle riders, high-profile Washington was also represented, and Tim Russert and his wife strolled through the hall.

Liz and Jim Staedler of Summit, N.J., were in town visiting their daughter when they came across a flier for the show. Though they have never been to a green event, their 22-year-old son has been pushing them to incorporate sustainable energy into their Colorado home. They decided to drop by for some ideas.

"I thought it would be hippies and granolas, that type of thing," Jim said. "What I see here is some of that, but it's really more toward the mainstream."

The Staedlers were standing in an aisle with a booth selling politically charged bumper stickers, including one that said "Too Poor To Vote Republican." But nearby, in a booth with an iPod playing the Jackson Five through a speaker, a tall man in a pinstriped suit introduced chic body products from Pangea Organics. Big selling point: The skin lotion boxes are plantable and will grow Genovese sweet basil.

The products displayed varied appreciably: stationery from Mr. Ellie Pooh; organic wine and beer; sustainable men's underwear at $10 a pair. There was wheat litter bedding for pets, organic yerba mate, and information on obtaining an MBA in sustainable management.

Zach Lyman is the managing partner of a District company called Reware, which sells backpacks and messenger bags that have small solar panels on the outside to provide electricity for charging. Connect cellphones, iPods, GPS navigation devices and other gizmos to the bag, and they can be charged in generally the same time it would take plugging them into a wall socket. The bags sell for about $240. Lyman estimated that he has sold about 3,500 of them.

The bags were popular with early adopters and green-product aficionados, but after Hurricane Katrina, when millions of Americans realized that they could be without power for months, Lyman's business expanded into the mainstream, to average consumers as well as disaster workers and utility companies.

"I'm a big mainstream guy," Lyman said. "That's the whole thing with this bag. How do we introduce renewable energy to people who don't think about it in their everyday life?"

Lyman said he was particularly enthusiastic about GE's efforts in green energy.

"My whole goal in life is to bring this stuff into the mainstream," he said. "I look at GE and I'm excited. They are getting the message out, and for us, here you have one of the most successful companies in the world and they are saying that climate change matters, that renewable energy matters. That is so exciting."

Mark Bisbee, the owner of Liberty Carpet One in Fairfax, has created an offshoot called GreenFloors. He sells, among other things, carpet made from recycled soda bottles, which are sorted by color, ground into chips that are turned into fibers, then spun into a carpet.

A curious thing happened in the carpet market. Because nylon carpet needs oil for production, the high price of oil has pushed nylon carpet prices about $3 per square yard above recycled carpet.

Bisbee has customers in 48 states. He is still waiting for Wyoming and Hawaii.

"It was a small niche market and now it's more mainstream," Bisbee said. "Basically it's a question of awareness. Once people are aware they have choices it's easy, especially if it's economically similar. Then there is not really a decision."