ROOTED TO NATURE RADIO
Host - Zach Matheson
October 2007
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Rooted to Nature Radio. Today's program is part two of a three-part discussion on sustainable lifestyles in natural fibers. Natural fibers are making their way into the mainstream of the clothing industry, but unlike much of fashion, this is not a trend rather a change for the better in the industry. We now join Zach Matheson of VTalk Radio, Cathy Montgomery of Rooted to Nature, Matt Reynolds of Indigenous Designs, and Scott of Greensteps in this open discussion.
ZACH: Hi, we're back with Matt Reynolds and Scott Leonard. Also, Cathy Montgomery from Rooted to Nature. Scott and Matt are co-founders of Indigenous Designs and Scott, perhaps you could tell us a little bit about Greensteps and the ideas that brought you to Greensteps and what the future of Greensteps is, and also if you could sort of fill in the blanks on what the differences are in the replacement of synthetic fibers with the more sustainable fiber.
SCOTT: Matt and I feel very strongly about educating every place that the company touches down, and what I mean by that is, we feel it's important to bring sustainability.raise the bar on sustainability with our customer base which means trade shows and where we actually meet our retailers. We feel strongly about bringing sustainability and understanding of community development and fair trade to all of our partners that produce in other countries and also of course at our office place here in Santa Rosa, California. So, all of these touch points are very important to us and are outside the scope of our day-to-day product and revenue stream. However, we feel it's very important to our values. Our values as a business. So Greensteps was created as venue to bring sustainability to the forefront primarily the outdoor industry. We felt that it was important to call out companies that were doing and making green practices happen within their products that they offered. We brought educational platforms to outdoor retailer to bring in speakers about sustainability to highlight all of the companies that were there at that tradeshow at outdoor retailer as offering green products. So along with that we asked every wholesale company that participated in the Greensteps program to purchase a little green step. Literally a little green step in front of their booth for $500, and 100% of those precedes would actually go to greening the show. So for the last 5-or 6 shows we've been able to run a very large trade shows off of wind power. So it’s all been carbon neutral. So we're very proud of that. We brought that to the outdoor industry and there continues to be several things that are being done there. Everything from really working on recycling at these tradeshows, for instance getting more recycled carpeting to bring Ibo-degradable containers through the vendors that are there, because these tradeshows tend to be very polluting at the end of the day what happens to all the trash that we go through when we all congregate so to speak as businesses. So, we thought it was really important to do all of these things. Go more paperless and just in general bring more information and education about sustainability. So that's pretty much what the Greensteps' platform is all about.
CATHY: Yeah, as a retailer, Scott, we really appreciate the work you've done with Greensteps because it allowed us to find vendors that were doing business in the right way. That had products that we could stand behind and offer to our customers with a good conscience and you'd sort of...you’ve done the forward work on that in faceting out those different people that, you know, we are proud to represent.
SCOTT: Thank you very much for that, Cathy.
ZACH: So, Greensteps by going around and selling this green step and then donating 100% of the proceeds to greening up the tradeshows is basically helping to spread the word about how companies can, you know, even in their own touch points even at tradeshows, be a greener example of what they’re trying to do in their own business practices. Is that safe to say?
SCOTT: Absolutely, in fact a big part of the Greensteps program is calling out best practices. That's what it's all about. Sustainability in concepts of how we can all is greener need to be shared and that is a big part of the educational processes. Everybody coming to the table and trying to figure out how we can have a truly a greener economy.
ZACH: Ok, so then I have a kind of very broad questions then, if somebody were listening to this show and saying to themselves, "Wow, I really like that. I'm going to go over to rooted to nature, I'm going to pick out some Indigenous Design's stuff." Aside from that one purchase, is there anything else you might recommend them to do in their life that would make them greener, almost automatically? Like could I stop drinking so many water bottles a day, or refuse the plastic bag at the grocery store, I mean what would be one thing that I could do?
SCOTT: You know, I really like to go simple. If it were outside of purchasing clothing that was green, I'd have to say the number one thing is, put some eco light bulbs or some change all the light bulbs in your house. A lot of people don't realize that your house emissions actually outweigh your carbon footprint for your vehicle and transportation needs in the United States if you're not doing something that's green. If you're not using renewable energy; if you're not say buying appliances that are energy efficient and so forth; if you are not doing those things, you're emissions from your household are higher than your car. So, I think we can really solve a lot of the "global warming problem" and be much more energy efficient as a society or culture by just doing simple little things as opposed to thinking that you have to do everything. You do what you can where you can and that's been a philosophy that Matt and I adhere to when speaking to other people. We're not business owners that stand on a soapbox, I think Cathy had said that early, there's lots of room for improvement all the way around. So, you do what you can where you can and hold yourself accountable as best you can.
ZACH: Ok, so can I one follow-up and then I think Cathy has some things? So, I wake up in the morning, I put on jeans and a t-shirt that aren’t green, or the next day I put on jeans and a t-shirt that are green. What is the difference in the impact in that one single choice? So what I'm saying is, I wake up, I make a choice. I make the small choice to go green for that day in my clothing. I replace my whole wardrobe like I replaced my light bulbs. Do I save a pound and a half of pesticides from going in the water? What happens?
SCOTT: That is a really tough question to answer broken down to one t-shirt and one pair of jeans. The reason being is that you could say in general, yes, you're saving roughly a third of a pound of pesticides for that one to-shirt, but cotton grown in California versus cotton grown in India or China or Turkey or Peru, there's a variance. So, when you say something like that, we've had it happen before. You know, farmers in Texas can be up in arms because they are saying it takes a quarter a pound, not a third, or whatever it is. So, it's a very difficult thing to look at. But there is, I would encourage people who want to make a difference to go online and type in, you know, in their search engines, things about organic or about sustainability. There's so many incredible websites. There's even a website that I think is called your ecological footprint and it actually has a user-friendly interactive approach to typing in the things you do and how.what?your footprint is. I think even www.greensteps.org provides a link to that. So they can go to www.greensteps.org and find a way to trace their own ecological footprint.
CATHY: And through www.rootedtonature.com we're also trying to do an educational piece because we're not limited to the size of a hangtag on the Internet. We have educational information, articles about different things like the benefits of wool bi clothing or what is soy? How can you make clothes out of soybeans? You know different informational things that people could read at their leisure. So we can do that through our website as well. I'd like to comment on what you asked, Zach, about putting on green t-shirt and green eco friendly clothing.
ZACH: Yeah, how do I measure my impact?
CATHY: I think one key thing to recognize is that your awareness has expanded then. At least your consciousness, if nothing else, is aware of the fact that your purchases - no matter whether it's clothing purchases or food purchases - whatever your choices are - that they have implications for your personal health and for the health of workers and the environment. And so once you've reached that point where you have that awareness, then you’re able to start affecting the world in all sorts of ways that you know you don’t even, you can't even measure really, the ripple affect that goes out from making those choices.
ZACH: And I almost think that I'm glad that Rooted to Nature is doing an educational component because I think that education is a big part of the consumer’s choice. I think that, you know, that's going to allow me right know to make the effort because there is some effort unless it's provided automatically to go out and seek out the climbing clothing, the Indigenous Design stuff, all that kind of thing. I mean, don't you think that education is as much a part of the purchase as getting people through the door and having them try it on. It's almost like you need education in order to make these sorts of decisions.
MATT: Absolutely, 100%. Scott and I have always believed that we need to be involved in all sorts of different organizations outside of this business. In order to link ourselves to educational campaigns. Examples are, you know, being on the steering committee of the Organic Trade Association. Being involved with Organic Exchange - one of the founding members of Organic Exchange, being involved in the founding member for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies in Sonoma County, which reaches out and educates our own community about the importance of buying local and environmentally and socially responsible. We are involved in the Organic Education Alliance. I mean there are many, many, many organizations that Scott and I are on or involved or on steering committees or even on the boards of in terms of an informal board. We're not on... a lot of these are noon-profit so. The importance of reaching out wherever we are. I mean that’s why we call ourselves a quadruple bottom line company, because that forth bottom line is reaching out to the global community. So, I would like to also add back to the question when you said what's the difference I’m making if I wear this organic product versus non-organic. There is another really important ingredient that I think is missing in that sentence, which is whether that product was made with social responsibility in terms of the worker or artist that made that garment. Were they treated fairly? Were they paid well? Obviously, not everybody can be certified fair trade, and we can go into that later, because there's different requirements to be fairy trade than fair labor, but just taking into consideration whether the garment was made ethically is very important because that has a tremendous impact as well on the livelihood and well being of the producers that actually make the clothes.
ZACH: Well, with that I think we will take a short break. We're here with Matt Reynolds and Scott Leonard of Indigenous Designs and also Cathy Montgomery of Rooted to Nature. We'll take a quick break and be right back.
ANNOUNCER: This segment has been brought to you by Green Steps. You can visit them on the web at www.greensteps.com.