One of the highlights of Shanghai’s green calendar is the Eco Design Fair. Held twice yearly and featuring the city’s best environmentally credentialed companies, the fair is back this month, bigger and better than ever.

From small beginnings, Shanghai’s Eco Design Fair has grown bigger and better every year. Founder and organiser Sherry Poon, who is also the creative force behind kids’ clothing line Wobaby Basics, says having her own children in Shanghai made her more aware of living sustainably. And to her surprise, when she went looking for green resources around the city, she found a plethora of options.

“I started the Eco Design Fair as a platform for these eco-conscious companies to showcase their products and services to the general public and to be an easy starting point for making sustainable lifestyle choices by everyday people in everyday ways,” Poon says.

“The Eco Design Fair will never be a trade fair and will remain  small in scale, which helps maintain the community marketplace."

This month’s fair will include vendors spruiking organic food, toys, eco-friendly clothing and jewellery, eco-tourism options, sustainable home wares, stationery, green building materials for homeowners, architects, interior designers and more.

It’s pretty easy to be cynical about the ‘green’ credentials spouted by a lot of companies, particularly in China where confusing labelling and a lack of transparency makes it hard to judge the sustainability of a product. But Poon maintains that because many of the fair vendors are locally owned and operated enterprises, it makes it much simpler to find out about the background of their products (compared to those of large, faceless corporations).

The Eco Design Fair has certain guidelines when deciding on vendors. According to Poon, the products showcased should be “natural, organic, sustainable, fairtrade, recycled, reuseable, energy-efficient, non-toxic, or cruelty-free.” And to make it easier for visitors, they also make sure all of the products are available in Shanghai.

But it’s not just a weekend for shopping. There will also be plenty of options for visitors to get involved in living the green life by learning about reducing their carbon footprint, lowering energy costs and the amount of waste and water they consume. All of the products, exhibitions and workshops are aimed at increasing the number of people in China seeking to live LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability), which Poon says incorporates “activities and products that do good, feel good and look good.”