Nice Intro to Fair Trade
Paul Rice, CEO of Fair Trade USA, recently gave a quick talk at a Ted event. Its a great 10 minute intro to fair trade, so I thought I’d pass it along. Mr. Rice also talks about his start in the world of fair trade, so this video is also worthwhile for those of you who are already familiar with the concept of fair trade.
Dear friends,
Over the last several months I have worked hard to get Tompkins Point’s charitable activities up and running, and I am very excited to announce that we recently made our first donation to the farmers and factory workers that produce our clothing – we contributed to our factory’s ‘workers welfare fund’ and the money will be used to help finance schooling expenses for the factory workers’ children.
To provide some context, the fair trade certified factory that produces our garments has a policy in which all workers are reimbursed for their children’s educational expenses (through the high school level). Programs such as these are extremely rare among the world’s textile factories and we are proud to contribute to this worthy cause.
I want to end by thanking all of our customers. As a startup clothing line, we rely on our brand’s early adopters – those who see the value in Tompkins Point and the higher standard that our brand represents – and we can’t thank you enough for your support. Everyone who purchased one or more of our shirts has played a direct role in this donation, and we give our sincere thanks for joining us.
-Scott
Ecouterre, an eco-fashion blog, recently published an article listing simple ways to reduce the environmental footprint of your clothing. While some of them (eg, wash less often) require you (and possibly those downwind from you) to sacrifice, there were a couple painless tips I thought I’d share. Among them:
1. Switch to cold water – Ecouterre states that by switching to cold water, you can reduce your laundry’s energy impact by up to 90%. Before you go cold, however, be sure to buy a cold water laundry detergent.
2. Line dry – I’ve studied textiles and garments for the last several years, and everything I’ve learned tells me that dryers are bad. They use a lot of energy and the heat used in drying does significant damage to garments, which reduces the life of the clothing we wear. If you’re like me, however, you can’t imagine life without a dryer… but that doesn’t mean that we have to use it every time we do a laundry. Just a thought.
3. Choose products from plants, not petroleum – Laundry detergents are filled with all sorts of chemicals. These ingredients have crazy names – I think its safe to assume that the crazier the name, the worse it is for us – and sometimes it feels like you need a chemical engineering degree to decipher the ingredient list in most laundry detergents. Luckily, our friends at GoodGuide are those chemical engineers! They have created a system to rate the environmental friendliness of laundry detergents. Take a look! The guide is quick and easy, so its worth a glance.
4. Go to a green dry cleaner – Historically, dry cleaners have used toxic chemicals to treat our clothing. With our increasingly environmentally conscious society, green dry cleaners have been popping up all over the place, so check to see if there’s one in your neighborhood. At the very least, your dry cleaner should not be using perchloroethylene, a highly toxic substance. The better green dry cleaners use silicone based cleaners, so ask around and use those whenever possible.
As environmentalists like to point out, our clothing’s footprint is much more heavily weighted towards cleaning than production. At Tompkins Point, we’re doing all that we can to reduce the environmental impact of our garments, and we encourage you to take these simple steps to help us make clothing a greener part of life!
-Scott
In light of the recent video posted by Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy, Tompkins Point has decided to cancel its account with GoDaddy. As fair trade advocates often say, we vote with our dollars everyday, and by cancelling our account with GoDaddy, Tompkins Point’s vote is one that is sure to be counted.
To provide context for our decision, Tompkins Point is not canceling its account because Mr. Parsons killed an elephant. Yes, I found it offensive that Mr. Parsons killed an elephant; however, his hunt was legal, and it had the support of local villagers. On top of that, Mr. Parsons is correct in his claim that elephants can be very harmful and dangerous. I came across a wild elephant while I was traveling through Kerala, India, and I remember seeing the fear in the eyes of the local villagers as we watched from a safe distance. Wild elephants are not taken lightly by anyone who lives near them – they destroy crops, buildings, and sometimes kill humans. Now don’t get me wrong, elephants are beautiful animals and I could never justify shooting one, but since he was legally permitted to shoot the animal and he had the support of locals, I think his act was offensive, but somewhat forgivable.
On the other hand, what I found to be inexcusably offensive and downright disgusting was the ‘mayhem’ scene shown after the hunt. For those of you who have not seen the video, this scene shows locals butchering the animal. It begins with a fairly orderly process, but the scene develops into chaos as more and more villagers attempt to carve out meat from a quickly disappearing elephant. The text on the screen reads, “Even though the elephant was huge, there was not enough meat for everyone.” It is a very sad scene – one that clearly displays how difficult life is for these villagers. But in the middle of the chaos, the camera zooms in on a villager that is wearing a bright orange GoDaddy hat (this has subsequently been deleted). And during all of this, AC/DC’s ‘Hell’s Bells’ is playing in the background.
This is the part of the video that sealed the deal for me. Having spent time in some of the poorest parts of the world, I have encountered situations similar to the elephant butchering. I have found these scenarios to be very upsetting, and the emotions evoked during these experiences have been a source of inspiration for my decision to try to make a difference in the world. I can not, for a second, understand how Mr. Parsons appears to see entertainment value in hungry villagers fighting for meat. The AC/DC soundtrack, the shameless GoDaddy hats – everything about this scene is disgusting. And for this reason, Tompkins Point will no longer do business with GoDaddy.
-Scott
Hi Friends,
We recently put together an introductory slideshow for Tompkins Point, so if you’re tired of reading, hit play and I’ll tell you our story… in HD!
-Scott
Hi friends,
If you haven’t seen our facebook/twitter postings on the topic, we wanted to let everyone know that Tompkins Point will be participating in the New York City Fair Trade Coalition’s ‘Fair Trade Fashion’s Night Out Sneak Peek’ at Arcadia (8th Ave between 21st and 22nd in NYC) tomorrow (3/29) from 9pm-11pm. It is open to the public, so if you have an interest in fair trade clothing or if you are thirsty for a free drink, please stop by!
We’re really excited about the event because it will serve as a kickoff for the coalition’s fair trade fashion campaign, which will lead up to a ‘Fair Trade Fashion’s Night Out’ during NYC’s Fashion Week this September. Its quite the ambitious project, but we’ve got some great partners, and we’re looking forward to getting out there to spread the word about fair trade clothing in New York City.
If there are any questions about the campaign or about the New York City Fair Trade Coalition, please do not hesitate to contact me – sleeder [at] tompkinspoint [dot] com.
-Scott
I came across a great TED talk today and thought I’d pass it on. For those of you who are not aware, TED is “a global set of conferences formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading.” (Thanks, wikipedia). TED has a great website with a plethora of fascinating talks. Some of them get a bit heavy, but I’ve found the Ted site to be a great place for a 10 minute distraction.
The video is below. Its short and sweet and has a great message. Enjoy!
Hi Friends,
If you’re a fan of fair trade, you might have heard that Ben & Jerry’s announced a new fair trade flavor on Jimmy Fallon’s show last night (called “Late Night Snack”, it features vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered potato chips and a caramel swirl… so crazy that it has to be delicious!).
While we are excited about the flavor and the fact that its proceeds to go the Fair Trade Universities campaign, we were super excited to find out that Jerry Greenfield (the Jerry in Ben & Jerry’s) wore a Tompkins Point fair trade polo during his appearance!
And we’ll be honest, he looked great…
Here’s the clip and an article with some pictures.
-Scott
Good Guide (www.goodguide.com), an organization that “scientifically ranks products and companies based on their environmental, health and social performance” recently released a rating system for the apparel industry. Tompkins Point’s Classic Polo was among an initial batch of 118 clothing brands that were rated, and we came in #8 with a 7.1 rating (to see the ratings, please visit: http://bit.ly/hTSb0A).
We’re very happy to be acknowledged as one of the top clothing brands in America for social and environmental standards, but we’re always open to positive criticism, so we looked at our ratings very closely. As a result, we’ve decided to begin a number of initiatives to make our social/environmental standards even stronger. The core of these initiatives revolves around how our products can be designed, worn and washed in a way that minimizes their impact on the environment. Good Guide points out that the majority of a garment’s environmental footprint is in a garment’s washing/care, and this is something we’ve known for a long time. Since we’re a new company, we haven’t had a chance to directly address this, but as a result of Good Guide’s evaluation, we’ve decided to start to work towards designing clothing that requires fewer resources during its lifetime. In addition, we are going to add a section to our webpage that will provide our customers with information on how to care for their garments in an environmentally friendly way, while also maintaining a clean and crisp look.
Now, with that said, I do have a number of issues with Good Guide’s system and scoring. I have not had an opportunity to speak to anyone at Good Guide about the scores or their system, so I will stay silent on my criticisms until I do. Assuming I can speak to a Good Guide representative within the next several days, I will write more about their system next week.
Hi friends,
Just wanted to give a quick update on Tompkins Point. We’ve been working hard over the winter and you’ll see the fruits of our labor when we make some moves this spring, so keep your eye out for us once the weather gets warm! Here’s a quick overview of what’s going on:
First, we’ve been working with Branson at Of Rags and the New York City Fair Trade Coalition to put together a handful of interesting events for the spring and summer. Details are TBD, but we look forward to announcing them within the next several weeks.
Second, we’re in the process of rolling out our revamped PR/social media campaign, so you can find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TompkinsPoint) and Twitter (@TompkinsPoint). We’ll be experimenting with some unique approaches to social media, so friend/follow us, and get in on the action! There will be more than one opportunity to get a free polo.
Third, we’ve added a list of retailers on our site, so if you’re in the Bay Area, New Jersey or Rhode Island, stop by our retailers and support some great small boutiques. And, as always, you can purchase our lovely fair trade and organic polo shirts at any time on our website.
That’s all for now. Thanks for visiting and come back soon!
-Scott
