Not to be gossips, but in our last post, we at Garments Without Guilt took what Treehugger said about Ecouterre and told you. But that’s called “Word of Mouth” when it comes to promoting good companies and good causes, right? Now we’ll give you a few more fashion labels that have built corporate giving in to the way they do business.

• FEED Projects – Dispelling any doubts that one person can truly make a difference, Lauren Bush helped start FEED Projects which look to “create good products that FEED the world.” Funds are raised through the sale of organic FEED bags (consisting of natural burlap and 100 percent organic cotton) made into fashionable and useful totes, in order to achieve the organization’s main goal: “…to FEED and educate the world’s 400 million hungry children.”

See the bag? (Photo from Ecouterre)

• Satara – Satara is a non profit organization that looks to empower underprivileged women in India. Employed as seamstresses, these women are instrumental in putting together Satara’s unique fashion designs and in turn are provided with, as they say on their foundation site, “…training, entrepreneurial support, and access to the global market under fair conditions.”

(Photo from Satara.com)

• EDUN – Founded by U2’s Bono and his wife Ali Hewson, EDUN’s mission according to the company’s chief mission officer, Christian Kemp-Griffin, is to “…create beautiful clothing and sustainable trade in the developing world, in particular, sub-Saharan Africa”. EDUN’s mission focuses on increasing trade with Africa and looks to “…build sustainable farming communities and provide a fair trade market for their cotton.”

Photo from Ecouterre.�

Sure, every fashion label out there wants “in” on the eco-ethical bandwagon these days, but do they really practice what they preach? Well the good news is that socially conscious fashion labels that take their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) seriously, do exist! Giving them the recognition that they deserve, Treehugger.com rounds up Ecouterre’s “Best of Ecouterre: 7 Fashion Labels With a Conscience”, and now we’re going to pass the good news on to you.

• TOMS Shoes – For every pair purchased, the people at TOMS Shoes will give: 1) a pair of shoes to a needy child, and 2) to another Charity: Water. Their latest project: building a clean water well in a village in Ethiopia. Funds for the well will be raised through the sale of two exclusive, limited edition shoes.

• 141 Eyewear – The philosophy of 141 Eyewear in donating eyewear to those in need, is similar to that of TOMS Shoes. In their own words “For every pair of 141 Eyewear purchased, we give a new pair of prescription glasses to a person in need. No portions of proceeds. No percentages. You buy, we give. One Four One.” Get it? 1-4-1?

Photo from Ecouterre

• FIGS – The “threads for threads” philosophy at FIGS is quite simple: “With every tie purchase, FIGS gives a uniform to a child in order for them to attend school.”

Photo from Ecouterre

• The Red Rail – This unique Dutch initiative requires those wanting to own one of the designer ensembles on offer, to pay in blood! Founded in order to “…create a new generation of blood donors by promoting the act of giving,” this limited, one of a kind collection will be given away on a lottery basis only to those who are registered blood donors.

Photo from Ecouterre

More in our next post!

Our friends at White Apricot (a website about Fashion, Beauty and Lifestyle for the eco and socially conscious) pointed us to this great CSR project from the clothing company Horny Toad.

Horny Toad’s philosophy is “Look good. Feel Good. Do Good.” They believe the choices they make are as important as the clothes they create, so they try each day to lighten their environmental footprint, be good partners in all of their relationships, pay attention and stay active in their communities and support organizations that improve our world - the source of our daily adventures.

This year they’ve joined together with Goodwill® to help Share the Warmth this season, by asking you to donate your “pre-loved” clothes.

The clothes will be sold at Goodwill locations, and the revenue from the sales of these donated items will go to funding job training and enhancing the quality of life for many people in need.

Also, donating clothes helps recycle usable clothing in environmentally sound ways, keeping billions of pounds of clothing out of U.S. landfills—“a little added nugget of eco-love.”

Not only do you reap the benefits of the philanthropy warm-and-fuzzies, but you get 15% off new Horny Toad clothes! Bonus!

How it works, step by step:
• Take your pre-loved clothes to a local Goodwill donation center.
• Tell Horny Toad about how many units you donated and how great it felt, on their Share the Warmth page.
• When shopping online, Use the code GOODWILL at checkout for 15% off new Horny Toad duds. If you’d rather shop at a participating dealer with your discount, you can find one on their website, where you can also see how many clothes were donated so far!

And we hope you enjoy the promotional video about winter warmth above!

There’s no reason to feel guilty about using personal care products to make yourself beautiful, especially if you’re choosing them well. We at Garments Without Guilt recommend Fair Trade and organic products as the most sustainable products you can buy. Fair trade is sustainable because the people who are involved in the production of the raw materials, usually in developing countries, are ensured fair wages, which leads to a thriving community. Organic products are sustainable for the environment, because they don’t use chemicals which can negatively impact the land and water used in growing and processing them.

We came across an article in a year-old issue of Self Magazine that asked “Can Lotion Change the World?”. The article told the story of a reporter who was invited by The Body Shop, the pioneer of the Fair Trade Movement, to visit one of their source farms in Nicaragua. We couldn’t find the entire article online for you to check out, but most of it can be read at World of Good’s site (for more on World of Good, visit our GWG Universe Blog).

In searching online for the article, we came across one on Redbook’s site titled “Can a Beauty Product Save the World?” written by a different reporter who seems to have gone on the same trip to Nicaragua.

The beauty of the way fair trade shares abundance with all involved seems to extend to reporting on fair trade too. These writers didn’t give space to The Body Shop, their hosts. They also included other fair trade products in their recommendations. That’s a win-win!

The video above highlights one of the products mentioned in the Self Magazine article, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap, which uses coconut oil sourced in Sri Lanka. As we may have already mentioned, the labor laws in Sri Lanka help ensure that all workers are treated ethically, which is why we can make Garments Without Guilt, along with other guilt-free products.

Self also mentions:

• Aveda
• Lush – who we gushed over when we explained the win-win of ethical business practices and when we encouraged you to “Shower with Friends, Guilt Free!”.
• Pangea Organics
• Alaffia

The Redbook article touted The Body Shop and Aveda along with:

• Nu Skin Enterprises
• Origins
• Weleda
• Dr. Hauschka

We’ll look at each of these companies in future posts!

We at Garments Without Guilt like tea. So when we spotted this story from The Environmental Leader saying that Lipton Tea has a factory that has met its zero landfill goal, we were excited.

It happened at their Suffolk, Virginia facility in the U.S., where about 70 percent of the plant’s waste is recycled or reused, 22 percent is composted and the remaining eight percent is converted into usable energy. They even broke their savings down for us this way:

• 16 tons of plastic, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 13.76 tons
• 21,182 mature trees, the equivalent of 262 million sheets of newspaper
• 576,898 gallons of oil, enough to heat and cool 2,856 homes for a year
• 29,904 gallons of gasoline, enough to drive more than 837,000 miles in the average American car
• 8,722,000 gallons of water, enough to meet the daily fresh water needs of 116,293 Americans
• 5,108,600 kilowatt hours of electricity, or a years supply of power for more than 425 average homes

In looking for a video to illustrate this, we found only a television commercial that touts the green credentials of tea. We agree. Tea is good and good for you!

BUT…

…we also found a series of videos from The IUF- International Union of Food, Farm and Hotel Workers- about their “CasualTea” campaign. Placed on their YouTube Channel, the videos feature stories from tea factory workers in Pakistan who tell of less-than-ethical treatment. Lipton is owned by Unilever, so we visited their website and their Our Values, Our People page. They say they care, so let’s hope they listen to the IUF’s arguments and take the necessary steps to resolve the issues.

This is where it gets sticky. We at Garments Without Guilt want to congratulate companies for their environmental achievements, but we’d like to see ethical achievements too. We want tea that is both eco-friendly and employee-friendly!

We also believe in the power of the pocketbook. When we as individuals buy the products that are in line with our ethics, we reward them, and at the same time, express to the others that there is room for improvement.

This played out in my most recent trip to the supermarket here in Sri Lanka. They were out of my favorite Zesta Organic Tea in tea bags. I already had some loose tea at home, but I wanted the option of teabags, and if I couldn’t be organic about it, I wanted to be ethical.

I remembered hearing about Mabroc Tea at GWG HQ. They call themselves “The Ethical Tea Brand of the World”. But I didn’t see them either. I spotted a box with the word “ethical” on and grabbed it. It was Dilmah Tea, and the box said “Dilmah is the world’s first truly ethical tea.” I read the rest of the information and I bought it. That’s how I made my money work to encourage guilt-free tea! And I found a TV ad from Australia about Dilmah, and featured it above.

Going to their website now, I see that their CSR work includes their own foundation for social justice and that they are members of the Ethical Tea Partnership. Visit their site, Ethical Tea Partnership.org (without the spaces, of course) to see what other brands offer ethical tea.

Armed with this information, you can now go out and flex your financial muscles to encourage guilt-free tea drinking!

Written by your Garments Without Guilt blogger, Malayna Dawn.

This organization of unconventional angels-Vitamin Angels-was created by the Organic and Natural Products Industry-an example of indsutry-wide CSR. They wanted to create a consumer-driven promotional program that woudl support a life-saving effort around the world—getting vitamins to undernourished children.

One in three children worldwide is undernourished. Vitamin Angels reduces child mortality by connecting infants and children under five years of age with vital nutrients. Essential nutrients enable young immune systems to fight infectious diseases, helping children attain good health and the opportunity to lead meaningful and productive lives.

The video above gives you a little more information, but visiting their websites, vitaminangels.org and vitaminangels.com will tell you how you can get involved.

One of the things they do to promote their cause is to participate at events. For example, right now, as this is typed and posted, the Vitamin Angels team is at the Power to the Peaceful Festival in San Francisco. The Power to the Peaceful Festival (PTTP) is a fun, educational, hip, diverse and family-oriented event with international musicians on a main stage, a DJ tent, an open-air art gallery, eco village, social justice forum, green vendors and food booths, and a healing arts tent, and a kids zone offering arts and crafts, live theater, music, activities and a parade. The team will provide the crowd of over 70,000 people from all over the world with information about the organization and their important work. Pus, Vitamin Angels’ President and Founder, Howard Schiffer will be speaking on stage.

An upcoming event is The Celebration of Angels in Boston. In conjunction with New Hope, they’ll invite other companies at the industry-wide event, Expo East, to help them save the lives of children worldwide. They’ll be showcasing a variety of programs that natural product companies are already participating in to help them reach millions of children, while synergistically giving companies great exposure in the marketplace. They’ll introduce the children they’re working with in India, Kenya, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti among others. In getting to know them and their stories, participants will learn why 25 cents is the MOST important, life-saving contribution they can make. An interactive adventure park will test people’s skills and challenge them and their colleagues. And then they can CELEBRATE the 15 million children they’ll reach in 2010 with live music, food and a party like no other!

Earlier this year, Vitamin Angels spread the word by hosting the Twenty-Twenty Revue in Seattle to benefit Operation 20/20. While guests were transported back in time to an era of 1920s care–free fun, they helped raise funds to connect infants, children, and lactating women to vitamin A and anti-parasitic treatments that eliminate the presence of intestinal worms that contribute to poor absorption of vitamin A.

So next time you’re at your favorite organic or natural health store, see if they are involved with Vitamin Angels, or find you how you can help on their website at www.vitaminangels.com/get-involved.

GWG was excited to spot our friend Kelsey Timmerman’s book, Where Am I Wearing, reviewed in TIME Magazine’s recent Commemorative Issue with US President-elect Barack Obama on the cover. 

ONE DAY, WHILE STARING AT A PILE OF clothes, the twentysomething author decided to embark on a quixotic journey and trace the garments to their countries of origin. His venture, often loopy (he carries his JINGLE THESE Christmas boxer shorts back to Bangladesh) takes him all over the developing world. His conclusion-after meeting Amilcar, Arifa, Nari and Ai-is that the reality of the workers’ lives is harsh. “When it comes to clothing, others make it, and we have it made.” Timmerman’s youthful exuberance carries this unlikely consumer tale.

If you haven’t already, be sure to read GWG’s interview with Kelsey, and look for his book on the shelves of your favorite bookstore (real or virtual), because it’s available now! 

Seeing Barack Obama be elected U.S. President reminds us at GWG that we can change the world to fit our ideals. As the president-elect said repeatedly in his election night speech, “Yes we can.” 

What Kind of World Do You Want.com
www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com
These are the words to a song that was played on an advertisement during the election night results in the U.S. :

It reminded us at GWG about the band’s positive campaign to promote the song (that unfortunately seems to be no longer running). The frontman of the band Five For Fighting came up with idea after receiving hundreds of unsolicited homemade music videos using the band’s hit singles.

Tell the world what kind of world you want and raise money for charity by making and uploading a video of yourself, your friends or your family-whomever and whatever-answering the question, "What Kind Of World Do You Want?"

Clicking and watching any video donated to the charity they had chosen,  raising over two hundred thousand dollars-one dollar per click at a time. Some of the videos are still available on YouTube, such as the one above, created by a 5th grade class with donations going to Save The Children.

SocialVibe.com
www.socialvibe.com

GoodSearch.com
www.goodsearch.com

That’s what we at GWG believe too.  What kind of world do YOU want?

Okay, so it doesn’t exactly scream “GUILT-FREE”, but you have to admit it got your attention. 

This month, Folio, a magazine about magazine publishing and an industry resource, came out with their Green Report. This mock cover came from a blog by Folio’s Dylan Stableford commenting about the magazine publishing industry’s recent penchant for “green” issues. And he assures us, “Don’t worry, no baby seals were harmed in the making of this cover; Dan Trombetto, FOLIO:’s art director, insisted on a photo illustration. And the tear, reminiscent of a more recent cover controversy, was his idea.”

But it does seem that the token “green issue” isn’t enough to prove green creds anymore. According to Folio’s Green Report, , “It wasn’t long ago-maybe three years-that a magazine publishing a so-called “green” issue was considered innovative, leading-even brave. Now that seemingly every magazine feels it necessary to publish a green issue, it’s become trendy to the point of annoyance-what experts refer to as ‘green fatigue.’”

Their report offers publishers a set of standards to follow, which seems to be much needed. “Even a large number of “green issues” aren’t printed on sustainable paper, something Locantore [of Co-op America] says is the ultimate irony. And even when they do, most magazine publishers don’t continue the practice for their non-green issues.”

But now a new genre in magazine publishing has arrived: the Green Fashion Magazine. The newest on the scene is Boho, part of the growing number of publications that are making the commitment to print on 100% recycled paper with soy or vegetable-based inks as an extension of their overall editorial vision. And Boho’s launch brings to attention the Green Fashion Magazines that came before.

In newcomer Boho’s case, their commitment to the environment is in alignment with their vision of making the world a better, and prettier, place. A “Boho” is a modern Bohemian, still interested in peace, love and art, but without feeling the need to drop out of society to pursue her vision. Instead, she hopes to change the world match her dreams. The magazine’s contents aim to empower and inspire women to live prosperously, but consciously, attending to their own bodies, minds and spirits while also devoting themselves to worthy causes.

Written for Garments Without Guilt by Malayna Dawn.

The video above is a fun way to acknowledge the Garments Without Guilt member companies who contributed to the development of the Speedo LZR swimsuit. It’s from Mo Rocca, a reporter known for his off-beat take on the news, satirical commentary and ability to make the audience laugh, as well as the interview subjects-in this case Olympian Michael Phelps and his teammates.

Coca-Cola Provides Olympic Athletes with Sustainable Apparel
Aug 25, 2008

The Coca-Cola Co. distributed this "I'm from Earth" shirt to more than 15,000 athletes, coaches and other team officials participating in the Olympic Games. The production of each shirt recycled roughly five plastic bottles.

Coca-Cola’s eco-friendly T-shirts and visors are made from a blend of cotton and recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a material commonly used to make plastic bottles. Both items were printed with the statement, “I’m from Earth,” which relays the messages of conserving environmental resources as well as unity for the Games. The T-shirt backs feature a design of five Coca-Cola contour bottle silhouettes indicating the number of PET bottles recycled to make each shirt. One PET bottle was used in manufacturing the visors given to the Paralympians.

More than 200,000 plastic bottles — roughly 6 tons -  were reclaimed from the manufacturing of the Olympic recycled T-shirts and visors.

What do you think, readers?  Does every step forward require yet more innovation to remain sustainable?