Travel can be a major pain, heavy bags, long lines, lost luggage, delayed flights, trains, planes, buses and cars. For frequent travelers it seems counterintuitive to continually plan trips – often many hours or days long – knowing it’s going to be uncomfortable, annoying, challenging and tiring….why willing go through that? For many of you reading this the answer is probably obvious…the bottom line is we want to get to where we are going. Whether we’re going to see family, friends, on vacation or just heading home, however difficult the journey, it’s the destination that drives us.

Last week I had the immense pleasure of joining the 15 Leadership Academy fellows of the 2007–2008 class for their third and final retreat. It was three days of teaching, learning, sharing and immensely enjoying each other’s company.

Fashion Week. A week during which top designers preview their upcoming collections, some see it as a vapid tradition of parading the up-and-coming styles of apparel that are generally completely out of reach for most Americans. Attendees include major retail buyers, stylists, celebrities, media and the "fashion press corps;" and people with enough money to afford the clothing can usually finagle an invite as well. Fashion Week happens a few times throughout the year in major cities around the world, but the week hosted in New York City is considered by many to be the one at which to be and be seen. It's easy to dismiss this event as one of the ultimate representations of materialism, frivolity and superficiality; nevertheless, it is undeniably trend-setting.

This year, in addition to setting trends in hair, makeup and clothing, sponsors of Fashion Week tried to set trends in environmental friendliness and sustainability.