Responsible Fashion
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Who Makes Your Clothes at Wildlife Works? Fashion Revolution
Fashion Revolution is a global movement calling for a fairer, safer, cleaner, more transparent fashion industry. Ask your favorite brands, “who made my clothes?” Wildlife Works has been a fair trade factory for 20 years. We have featured many of our factory employees on our blog. Here are a few more we wanted to introduce to you this week. Agnes Kilunju Meet Agnes Kilunju. She has been working as a Machinist at Wildlife Works’ Eco-factory for the past six years. Agnes is in charge of laying the fabric for sewing as well as packaging. Working at Wildlife Works means security to Agnes, because as a single mother of two she…
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Wildlife Works Ethical Shopping Guide
This is our growing ethical shopping Guide. We will continue to add to is as we find more resources. Fast fashion and our culture of over consumption for all goods has trained consumers to want things cheaper and faster, all at the expense of human safety in factories and everyone’s health everywhere. Consumer goods now have shorter lifespans and longer waste-spans. Consider also the amount of non-compostable packaging that comes with everything we consume. It turns out that throwing them in the recycling bin does little to divert the landfill. Recycling centers have been closing rapidly due to lower demand for recycled materials and higher costs to recycle them. We agree with Alden…
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WHY BUYING NOTHING THIS HOLIDAY WILL SAVE THE PLANET
A thoughtful gift is something someone could remember for a lifetime. We all appreciate the loving intentions that gifting carries. But the commercialization of holidays has added not only stress but tons of waste to gift giving. Wildlife Works protects the most remote forests in the world and we can’t ignore the impact of our consumption on the health of our planet. This holiday season, we at Wildlife Works are going to slow down consumption in order to give back to our earth and here’s why it matters. The explosive growth and globalization of the apparel industry has accelerated pollution everywhere. This industry is one of the top five greenhouse…
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Meet Our Seamstresses for Fashion Revolution Week
Do you ask your favorite brands, #WhoMadeMyClothes? Production at Wildlife Works provides full transparency for our clients and their customers. Meet some of our tailors and learn about their aspirations. Meet MAGDELINE (far left). She’s in charge of quality control at the Wildlife Works Eco-Factory. She has one son who is 3 years old who attends our 100% subsidized Wildlife Works Nursery during the day while Magda is at work. She’s proud of being able to support herself and her child through her salary. On the weekends, she takes care of her 15 chickens at home. Yes, 15! Meet ELPINA. She has been working at Wildlife Works for 6 years.…
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Fashion Revolution Day Events: San Francisco Bay Area
Fashion Revolution Day Events San Francisco Bay Area On 24 April 2013, 1,134 people were killed and over 2,500 were injured when the Rana Plaza complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. That’s when Fashion Revolution was born. On 24 April every year, Fashion Revolution Day brings people from all over the world together to use the power of fashion to change the story for the people who make the world’s clothes. We want fashion to become a force for good. In San Francisco, California, where Wildlife Works corporate offices are located, we got together with a few ethical fashion leaders to organize and promote these inspiring events. Get involved! If you can’t make these…
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5 Steps to Green up Your Closet
5 Steps To A Sustainable Closet Believe it or not, having a sustainable wardrobe is crucial to our planet’s health, and to yours. According to surveys, most people only wear about 20 percent of the clothing in their closets. Coupled with the fact that the average woman has $500 worth of unworn clothing in their wardrobe and you can see that there is clearly a problem. Fast fashion has trained us to buy throw away fashion that’s worn once and thrown out. The average American tosses 82 pounds of textile waste each year, which adds up to 11 million tons of the stuff from our country alone. It’s time to convert…
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Fair Trade USA Committee Uniform Donation
Last week, members of the Wildlife Works’ eco factory Fair Trade Committee had the pleasure of making a trip to two local schools within our project area. As part of the eco factory’s Fair Trade USA certification, each of our Fair Trade USA certified clients contribute a ‘premium’. This is around 5-10% of the overall production cost which is paid directly to our factory workers. Students at Itinyi Primary School holding up their new school uniforms Our Fair Trade Committee then decides how this money is spent. This time, they allocated a portion of their premium to the community for worthy causes. (Read here stories about how our employees have…
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Meet Alfred, Master Tailor and Leader
At Wildlife Works, job creation is central to our success as a community. The Wildlife Works eco factory is one of our larger departments here at the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ project, with more than 60 current employees. In such a large group, we love to set aside the time to realize some of the very special individuals we are lucky to have on our team. Meet Alfred Alfred Karisa works as a machinist on the skilled tailor team that produces for our high-end clients such as LaLesso and Raven and Lily. Before joining us in 2012, Alfred worked for a private firm as a tailor. He brings several years of…
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Allan, The Screenprinter
At the core of Wildlife Works’ conservation strategy is job creation for people in wildlife-rich areas. In Kenya, at our Kasigau REDD+ project, we finance the development of several business operations, such as an eco-factory and the production of sustainable charcoal. In 2010, Wildlife Works started a screen-printing facility. In the beginning, this facility was in a single room, outside Wildlife Works’ premises, with four workers. Six years later, our screen-printing facility has developed into a renowned facility doing big orders for global clients, such as GlobeIn, Threads for Thought and Greater Good. Meet Allan Allan Kiplimo is one of our screen-printing assistants. He comes from the Nandi hills, in…
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Fair Trade USA Certification – One Year On
The Wildlife Works’ factory, on the edge of Tsavo East National Park in Kenya, became Fair Trade USA certified in the spring of 2015. We were the first carbon neutral, fair trade factory in Africa! Now, just over a year later, we have been producing Fair Trade USA certified garments for clients around the world, such as Threads for Thought. Our factory was founded in 2001 on ethical and fair trade policies – back before the fashion industry even had the words to describe sustainable fashion. Buying ethically made clothing is a meaningful way to vote with your dollar for a healthier planet and happier people. Buying Fair Trade USA…