Fashion & Earth: Honest-to-Goodness Greenwear With a Passion
Choosing ethical apparel like Fashion & Earth's breezy flowered tank really does make a difference.
The nice thing about the Green sector is that it’s still possible to find vendors who are in it for reasons other than just to make a buck.
Even now, when it seems nearly every company out there is scrambling to the treetops in order to proclaim its newfound devotion to sustainability (yeah sure), there are businesses out there who are – and always have been – Green to the core.
The Driving Force Behind Every Green Company
Company owners and presidents are almost invariably enthusiastic about their businesses. You can get a pretty good feeling about a company by talking to its CEO and paying attention to what I call the “passion factor.” While you’re talking, take note of the issues that get him excited. Is it the product or technology? Market share and profits? Or something else?
In my experience, what distinguishes a True Green company from the rest is its leader’s deeply-felt concern about environmental and/or social problems, and an impassioned desire to solve those problems. That desire becomes the driving force behind the business. For these individuals, it’s more powerful than money. And it acts as a ready-made yardstick of integrity that ensures the company won’t cut corners when it comes to being eco.
Fashion & Earth – Driven by Vision
Take Adrian Desbarats, President and CEO of Fashion & Earth.
Talk to him for any length of time and you’ll have no doubt about what motivates him. After working for years as a wastewater biologist Desbarats takes the environmental impact of manufacturing to heart:
Much of my work has been in industry and I have seen first hand how so many companies put making money at the top of the list and environmental protection at the bottom. It’s very rare that a company looks to clean up its wastewater because it is the “right thing to do”. As a biologist, I see companies like these as parasites that are sucking the life out of this planet. The only problem in this case is that once the parasites kill the host, there will be no other hosts available.
I truly believe that as the awareness of everyday people increases and their intolerance for these parasitic companies swells, these companies will disappear through the process of well…natural selection…they will go extinct. And eventually some day all companies that survive will be those that have the environment and community at the top of their list in harmony with their corporate policies. But this vision will only come to pass if we the people share that vision, promote it and nurture it. I see our company and others like us as the seeds of that vision and hopefully as the mainstream embraces this vision, these seeds will become a forest!
Wow. Talk about vision.
Nurturing the Seeds
It’s a vision that guides Desbarats in every action he takes for his company, from his decision to avoid the waste generated by print catalogs and unnecessary packaging to the ruthless environmental and social standards he sets for his suppliers. And get this – Fashion & Earth will even take back the clothes they sell to make sure they’re recycled or disposed of in a responsible manner.
But wait – it gets better. The clothes are affordably priced for organic. There’s free shipping both ways - so if something doesn’t fit or you just don’t like it you won’t be penalized for sending it back (like a virtual fitting room). You can actually talk to friendly, real people any time you have questions or just would like to order from a human being.
AND they even donate 5% of their profits to World Vision and the World Wildlike Fund!
Guess Desbarats figures the better his company, the quicker the seeds of his vision will grow!
