YouthTrade

Beantown love on Project Repat upcycled bags - Love it!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:41:52 -0400

Beantown love on Project Repat upcycled bags - Love it!

Live your life. Do what you love, and do it often.

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:14:13 -0400

“We wrote a manifesto but we never wrote a business plan.”

Holstee founders Mike, Fabian and Dave quit their jobs to set off to live a fuller life including writing their famous and inspiring manifesto, able to be bought in a poster to remind us all that life is short and we better start living and sharing our passions.

http://shop.holstee.com/produtcts/holstee-manifesto-poster

Holstee started small in a tough time but their mission wasn’t just to create designs or clothes but a lifestyle. They were not just looking for a profit as they lent 10% of their first round sales to other entrepreneurs in a tough time. Holstee continued to grow with a higher purpose and passionate team. With upcycled and environmentally conscious goods, Holstee continues to innovate and design their lifestyle to do what they love, often. Holstee is not just about the products but also about sharing ideas and other people’s sustainable creations with their newsletter, videos and shop to their community.

Holstee also has a branch of a website called mylife.holstee.com that shares the stories of people touched by the Holstee lifestyle; living their lives, traveling, creating and experiencing new ideas and new people. Just reading a few of the stories something was sparked inside of myself that has been quietly sneaking around my soul since I began adolescence. MyLife project by Holstee is meant to do just that. These people whose lives have changed due to the Holstee manifesto or more importantly the message behind it, have wild traveling stories, crazy creative jobs, and most importantly smiling faces.

Their website shares their story and their ecological purpose as well as raises awareness about the environment and what we can all do to help. So next time you want to shop to improve your life, think about Holstee’s lifestyle design with a conscience.

Shop your ethics!

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:13:28 -0400

The Autonomie Project’s main purpose is not just to add style and creativity to American consumer’s lives but also to promote their fair-trade and sustainable project. They want to end the cycle of poverty. Talk about world peace.

Driven by their desire to start a grassroots movement toward global sustainability co-founders Anne O’Loughlin and Gina Williams’ purpose is to raise awareness and inspire their customers to take action and “uplift the world”.

Offering many different organic vegan recipes, pet fair-trade collections, gift ideas and fair-trade news updates, Autonomie Project’s blog is all about being innovative with the world. Autonomie sells apparels, jewelry, and pet and baby collections.

So stop talking about being a socially aware person and become a conscious consumer today! Shop Autonomie!

http://www.autonomieproject.com/fair_trade/about.html

What is YouthTrade? YouthTrade is a project launched by the YES...

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:11:00 -0400

What is YouthTrade?

YouthTrade is a project launched by the YES (Youth Entrepreneurship and Sustainability) Campaign, which is centered on creating large-scale job opportunities through encouraging youth leadership and promoting youth entrepreneurship. YouthTrade is a label (like Fair Trade) which ensures that the product being purchased has been created by a mission-driven, young entrepreneur under the age of thirty-five years.

Why is it important?

It is critical to give young people access to markets, because in doing so, we are giving youth the power to shape the future.Not only are we giving them a more hands-on approach in creating the future that they want to see, we are also sharing their commitment to a future that is sustainable. Inspired by the Conscious Capitalism Institute (CCI), YouthTrade also aspires to reshape the capitalist machine to serve as a vehicle for positive change through promoting sustainable and ethical business practices, eco-friendliness and social responsibility.

The ultimate goal?

Giving youth entrepreneurs access to market allows for them to become job creators while it develops them as innovators and leaders. If more jobs are created, more people are taken out of poverty. In empowering youth, we will be eradicating poverty by giving people the tools to create a sustainable livelihood, as opposed to growing dependent on benefit and aid. In countries where there is minimal government aid, but lots of unharnessed creativity - developing youth entrepreneurs and providing them with access to markets is the option that is both the most effective and economically sound.

Who are the YouthTrade entrepreneurs and what do they focus on?

Meet the YouthTrade entrepreneurs!

In addition to empowering young people, the YouthTrade certification also implies that the products are sourced ethically, created with care for the environment, or contribute to the promotion of global welfare in some way or the other.

Where can I find out more?

Visit our YouthTrade website at: www.youthtrade.com
Or you can visit our YouthTrade tumblr at: www.youthtrade.tumblr.com

Yellow Leaf

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:30:45 -0400

founder, Joe Demin

Join Yellow Leaf as they build a movement that strikes at the root of extreme poverty, deforestation & social injustice and helps Americans “Do Good. Relax.”

Yellow Leaf makes insanely cozy hammocks- technically engineered for extreme comfort, durability & strength, with the option to completely custom design your own one-of-a-kind handwoven hammock. In a hectic, increasingly plugged-in world, Yellow Leaf provides a guilt-free opportunity to relax and allow yourself to rejuvenate, spark your creativity and float for awhile.

As a social enterprise, Yellow Leaf strikes at the root of social inequity for marginalized hill tribe groups by creating high-wage jobs- empowering weavers and creating a ripple effect that combats associated social ills (e.g., exploitation, sex trafficking, disease, civil rights denials). By adapting weavers’ artisan skills to creating stylish eco-luxury hammocks, they enrich the entire community and tackle sustainability on a comprehensive level (economic, environmental, social & cultural).

click here to visit the Yellow Leaf site!

True Herban Clothing

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:27:14 -0400

founders, Salim and Eric

True Herban Clothing is a premium green friendly, American made lifestyle brand with a social purpose. Bringing fashion, sustainability and social responsibility together into one natural brand experience. Fueled by forward thinking founders, Eric and Salim, a community of artists, interactive web experience and a sustainable and economical supply chain.

Click here to visit their website!

Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:23:31 -0400

founder, Cameron Sheldrake

Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips was founded by Cameron Sheldrake in 2011. Cameron grew up on a sweet corn farm outside of Ithaca NY, and attended Babson College. He started cooking tasty, healthy chips made from real sweet corn while still at Babson. By his senior year he was working with manufacturers to mass produce chips. Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips will be available in three Sweet Corn based flavors: Sea Salt, Jalapeno and Sea Salt and Pepper.

click here to visit the website!

Susty Party

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:17:56 -0400

founders, Jessica and Emily

Susty Party manufactures and distributes eco-friendly party supplies that meet environmental and social standards. With the idea that fun human connections and sustainability can co-exist, the company sells unique Susty Party branded products and other curated products.

click here to visit their website!

Shea Yeleen International

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:09:20 -0400

founder, Rahama

Shea Yeleen International is a socially responsible enterprise that cares about the global community. Our mission is to benefit rural African communities and particularly women in West Africa through the production and sale of high quality shea butter products. Our skin care line includes body butters, lipbalms, and soaps, among other products, which contain between 100 – 25% unrefined shea butter. Shea Yeleen’s model is transforming the shea industry by strengthening the shea butter supply chain to benefit local shea producers, and supplying higher quality natural shea products directly to savvy consumers. One major misconception among beauty product consumers is that all shea butter is natural shea butter. This is not the case. The majority of mainstream shea butter products use an ultra-refined shea butter, which is processed with hexane and stripped of its natural therapeutic benefits. Through connecting shea producers directly to consumers Shea Yeleen is ensuring that not only are women paid a living wage, but also that the highest natural product is available to consumers.

click here to visit the Shea Yeleen website!

Shady Oaks Organics

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:05:07 -0400

founders Nate, Devin and Leif

Founded in 2010, Shady Oaks Organics cultivates the finest quality specialty mushrooms using 100% organic inputs and methods. Our state of the art indoor production facility located in Newburyport, MA benefits from highly efficient equipment and environmentally conscious practices. Shady Oaks Organics provides New England with a nutritious and sustainably produced food product that otherwise can’t be sourced locally.

click here to visit their website!

Runa

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:01:55 -0400

founders, Tyler and Dan

Rejuvenating, energizing and invigorating are just several of the words used to describe the tea manufactured by Runa. Designed by 26-year-olds Dan MacCombie and Tyler Gage, this four-person operation out of Brooklyn, NY and has been created to share an Ecuadorian ancestral tea with the world. This process allows members of struggling communities in Ecuador to both preserve their culture and generate income with which to feed their families.

Runa promotes healthy lifestyles and livelihoods by connecting producers and consumers through sustainable Amazonian products. Runa works with the Association and Fundacion Runa, an Ecuadorian non-profit organization, to ensure Fair Trade practices that promote the social and environmental integrity of guayusa production.

click here to visit their website!

Raaka Virgin Chocolate

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:55:19 -0400

founder, Ryan Cheney

Raaka makes handcrafted chocolate from organic, fair trade cocoa beans in Brooklyn. Raaka’s virgin chocolate delivers flavors you simply can’t find in other chocolate because it’s made from unroasted cocoa beans. Where conventional chocolate starts with roasting cocoa beans, Raaka has created a low-temperature, stone-ground process which preserves the unique character of raw cocoa beans.

Raaka is committed to ethical trade and green business practices. It guarantees that cocoa farmers receive at minimum $500 above market price per metric ton of cacao beans. At today’s cocoa prices, this is equivalent to a 20% raise for cocoa farmers. Raaka’s packaging is printed with soy inks on FSC-certified, 100% post consumer recycled, chlorine-free paper that was processed by wind generated energy. All of its cocoa husk is donated to Edible Schoolyard NYC, an after-school gardening program at P.S. 216 in Brooklyn, for use as mulch and fertilizer.

click here to visit the Raaka chocolate website!

Proxy Apparel

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:47:00 -0400

founder, Heatherjean Macneil

Proxy Apparel is an ethical fashion company dedicated to supporting women’s cooperatives around the world. Launched by thirty-year old Heatherjean MacNeil, this company is empowering and employing women through the sale of its trendy fair trade products, apparel, and gift line.

Proxy’s mission is to empower and employ women in sweatshop-free, sustainable world and this mission drive their daily effort and they are working to infuse it into every aspect of the Proxy brand.

click here to visit the Proxy Apparel site!

Project Repat

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:26:58 -0400

founders, Nathan Rothstein and Ross Lohr

Repat turns second-hand t-shirts into fun and fashionable clothing accessories. Each product is ‘upcycled’—a way to add value to a recycled good- by a person making a fair and living wage around the world.

We believe in telling the t-shirt story of the world, embracing upcycle innovation and creating jobs with dignity. Our planets’ current rate of ‘new’ production is not sustainable, and it is time that we re-use the millions of t-shirts that we have already made, and in the process give more people the opportunity to work and live life with financial stability.

click here to visit the Project Repat site!

Perfect Fuel Chocolate

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:18:13 -0400

founders, Nicolas and Miles

Perfect Fuel Chocolate is raw dark chocolate that is certified Organic, Kosher, and sustainably produced. All products are made with low-glycemic palm sugar and their current chocolate includes ginseng for natural endurance. Perfect Fuel Chocolate has 74% cacao and 500mg of certified American ginseng in each serving. CEO and Founder Nicolas Warren’s mission is to create the “perfect snack for healthy, active life”

Click here to visit the Perfect Fuel Chocolate website!

Njabini Apparel

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 13:12:59 -0400

founder, Mike Behan

Njabini Apparel, pronounced ‘jah-beanie’ and founded by 21 year old Michael Behan, empowers handicapped Kenyan mothers through employment and micro-business development programs. Using locally sourced materials, the mothers of Njabini Apparel hand-craft beautiful products across various lines, from scarves to clutches, for customers in the United States and Kenya.

Combined with financial and business training programs, the mothers are now earning six times their previous income allowing them to provide for their families, educate their children, and dream a limitless future. Together, we share in their story of hope and promise.

click here to visit the Njabini Apparel website!

Farmer's Crate

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:53:00 -0400

The Farmer’s Crate Team

Farmer’s Crate is a new venture incorporated in the US that commercializes and markets all natural food products from Latin America. Our mission is to capture the gourmet and exotic flavors of the natural foods from Latin America and present them to the American market in an appealing and convenient format. Farmer’s Crate generates wellness and a sustainable business in the community by providing healthier and more balanced diet options to the US consumers while promoting better trading conditions for Latin American producers.

click here to visit the Farmer’s Crate website!

MissionRoot

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:37:08 -0400

founders, Soham Patel and Alex Rabe

missionRoot is the first functional beverage based on Ayurveda. Developed for active people looking for more than just electrolytes after a work-out, missionRoot features clinically proven herbs that rejuvenate, replenish and detoxify the body.

Each unique flavor is infused with fresh ginger-root and unique Ayurvedic ingredients formulated specifically to balance, restore and rejuvenate.

LifeCycle

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:32:00 -0400

founder, Ben Gould

The dream for the LifeCycle brand is to create a business through identifying discarded materials that can be put to better use as refurbished products. In the past decade, the public has become more aware of the importance of sustainability. LifeCycle targets product opportunities where consumers can exhibit their green pride.

For starters, LifeCycle is launching a line of wearable art that is made from reclaimed post-consumer bicycle chain. Every month, bicycle shops will discard an average of 25-40 pounds of steel bicycle chain. What better way to encourage other people’s attitudes towards sustainability than by making it a part of one’s own personal style and fashion? LifeCycle endeavors to inspire social awareness of sustainability through fashionable products.

click here to visit the LifeCycle website!

Holstee

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:28:41 -0400

founders, Mike, Dave and Fabian

Holstee is a sustainable design company dedicated to producing high quality goods to parallel a more mindful lifestyle. Launched by brothers Mike and Dave Radparvar and their best friend Fabian Pfortmuller, their mission is to share a more conscious lifestyle in an effort to examine and better our current trends of consumption, production and waste.

click here to visit the Holstee site