What We Sell
(From the Free-Range Horse’s Mouth):
While at a national apparel convention recently, I asked vendors of mainstream goods, why not shake things up and go eco-friendly? What are the main reasons, I asked, that stop them from coloring their products green? I heard the same concerns as if I was talking to a one-trick parrot.
- Our customers aren’t willing to pay the necessary premium to make eco-friendly changes cost effective.
Is this a short-sighted or even lazy assumption? As the founder EcoFriendOnline.com, I believe we are becoming more sensitive to the urgency of our planet’s need for us to go green and more realistic about how we will be affected as consumers. As we become more environmentally conscious, we understand that buying green products will cost slightly more until such products and manufacturing processes become the norm. And if getting manufacturers and distributors on board the eco-friendly, socially responsible train, via what they consider to be simply a trend upon which to capitalize, then so be it. Without change, the future of Mama Earth looks bleak. And only changing brings change. So let’s change.
- "The eco-friendly vegetable dyes don’t adhere to our fabric as well as the (environmentally harmful) pigments (we currently use).”
Why should choosing to not use vegetable dyes until they improve, rule out, at minimum, using organic fabrics? It seems to me this all-or-nothing mentality supports no change rather than some change. But we know it’s time to change.
And change remains our focus when choosing products onto which we spotlight exposure by selling on EcoFriendOnline.com. We look for products that support and inspire positive change for our planet and humanity. Must we hold out to purchase only apparel made of 100% certified organic cotton and organic thread, and buttons made from sustainable material such as bamboo; shipped from manufacturing sources that recoil from the use of child labor as if touching a flame; distributed by sources that adhere to strict practices of fair trade; shipped in only 100% recycled, post-consumer packaging that can be reused indefinitely as a grocery bag; and transported in a vehicle using only fuel made of restaurant waste? If we wait for the product that is green in all areas, we will continue to throw the baby out with the polluted bathwater by missing an opportunity with which to communicate to designers and manufacturers that we applaud them for their efforts to change even incrementally.
EcoFriendOnline.com supports products that are made of environmentally-healthy, natural and/or sustainable materials, and/or recycled materials, and/or made by processes which are non-harmful or leave low-impact footprints on the environment by companies committed to practices of social responsibility, such as fair trade and rejecting the use of child labor.
Is this “greenwashing”? As the founder of EcoFriendOnline.com, I view this website as an opportunity to support even incremental change because every bit of change is needed now. While I dream of the day when every ingredient used in creating a product is recycled and recyclable and every manufacturing practice is guided by the health and well being of our planet and her co-existing life forms, we have damage to heal now and technology to create and improve.
To paraphrase my father, quit your bellyaching and start a revolution!
~Kim Hammar
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