Great news, our Manifesto Greeting Cards are back in stock! Thanks so much for your patience through the delay, we were in the process of minimizing the packaging for the cards which caused for the pause in stock. We are happy to report that the Cards are now back and better than ever! We've replaced the original insert and bio-degradable plastic packaging with brown craft butcher paper and a sticker--all bio-degradable and recycled materials that slim down the impact. Snag some and spread the love :)

We are fervent admirers of Patagonia and their consistent role as an industry pillar for the environment, mindful consumerism, and corporate responsibility. Their latest Common Threads Initiative, and this video put together to promote it, just blew our minds. As a brand that seeks to design with a conscience and produce with a positive impact, this initiative articulates everything that Holstee seeks to be and the lifestyle we seek to contribute towards.

The Common Threads Initative recognizes the need for a dramatic shift in the way in which we consume, realizing the responsibility to protect the world around us through the decisions that we make:

Our Common Threads Initiative aims to close the loop on the product life cycle - to make old clothes into new and keep them from ever reaching a landfill or incinerator. Reduce what you buy. Repair what you can. Reuse what you no longer need. Recycle what's worn out. Reimagine a sustainable world. -Patagonia

Adapting this way of thinking and living is not only better for the world around us, it is better for us. Dr. Andrew Weil recently wrote an article that was featured in Newsweek entitled "Spontaneous Happiness: Our Nature Defecit Disorder." In the article he notes the finding that the more stuff we have, the less likely we are to be happy. Instead, happiness is found in what cannot be bought--relationships and nature--and all of the benefits to be found as a result of cultivating the place of each within our lives.

At Holstee, we want the products that we offer in our shop to not be things that you buy on impulse. If you don't need it, don't buy it. We do not want to exist to add more stuff to the world. We want the products that we design to contribute to the values we want to incorporate into our lives. This means first and foremost that everything we make is produced in such a way as to respect the environment and create a positive impact. It also means that we want each purchase to be made as mindfully as the product was produced. Together we can make this world a better place, reduce our footprint, and live fuller lives based on more than the "stuff" we acquire. 

"When you eat, appreciate every last bite." This line of the Manifesto has been forefront in our minds today as Food Day is celebrated throughout the world (it may be our new favorite day of the year). For us, appreciating every bite means eating with the knowledge that our food was produced in a sustainable way that is good for our health and for the environment. The food movement has made amazing progress in changing the way we think about how and what we eat, but there is still much to be done. We are thilled to join in the celebration of a day centered around these goals:

• Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
• Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness
• Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
• Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms
• Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
• Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way. -FoodDay.org

Where to start? Check out these simple steps on "9 Ways to Fix our Food System", get recipe ideas to start Meatless Mondays, and find activities going on near you at FoodDay.org. Happy Food Day!

 

While we do love October for its Pumpkin Ale, Haunted Houses, and colorful leaves, we also love October for being Fair Trade Month. It stands as a great reminder to take the time to think about what it means to be conscious consumers in our everyday lives and how our seemingly simple decisions at the check-out counter have the potential to make an impact. One of our strongest values at Holstee is that everything we make and sell is produced fairly. Buying Fair Trade goods means placing value in ethical production: protecting the planet, improving livelihoods, ensuring fair working conditions, and empowering sustainable business worldwide. Check out Fair Trade USA's Top 10 Ways to Celebrate Fair Trade Month and join the celebration of making each purchase matter. Happy Fair Trade Month!

Happy Friday! Dave is headed off to Berlin this weekend for Hello Etsy, A Summit on Small Business and Sustainability, where he will be joining a panel of brilliant minds including Matt LeMay (Bit.ly), Caitlin Coble (TOMS), and Charles Festa (Formerly of Threadless). The panel will discuss topics including how to use social media for social good, best practices, and how to build community for brands large and small, moderated by Etsy's amazing Dave Brown. 

We are thrilled & honored to have Holstee represented at such a great event, and Dave is stoked for all of the creativity, energy, and great food (of course :) to be found in Berlin this weekend. He will also be visiting Prague and Rome on the trip, so if you know of any stores that would dig the Holstee vibe, be sure to connect with Dave through email or twitter. Thanks!

Do you have a question for the panel to discuss? We'd love to hear them! Post a comment here or tweet using the hashtag #helloetsy.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Have you noticed all of the plastic stoppers and aluminum screw-top closures creeping into the wine aisle? These artificial stoppers use materials that consume fossil fuels and take much more energy to produce than the corks they are replacing. Unlike sythentic counterparts, cork is an all-natural sustainable product and we need it back in those wine bottles, please.

100% Cork is demanding just that. They are pioneering efforts to raise awareness for cork and demand wineries and retailers to stop using artificial stoppers. The benefits of cork are widespread: it is a biodegradable and renewable resource that is sustainably harvested without cutting down a single tree. The use of cork preserves the livelihoods of the farmers who harvest the forests, and the cork trees themselves promote biodiversity in their habitat.

So, next time you are in the wine aisle, bypass the artificial stoppers for the real deal and drink a toast to the Earth. It is a simple step that makes a significant impact. :)

Cork Trees are gently harvested to generate regrowth.

Plastic Stoppers are manufactured to generate landfills.  - 100% Cork

Check out 100% Cork to sign the petition to wineries and learn more.

 

We recently received a letter here at Holstee HQ from a woman in west coast who questioned our ecological values and the choices we have made. We love these types of letters as much as we do the ones of encouragement. It is letters like these that will continue to force us to re-examine ourselves and our approach. I wanted to share our response on this blog, because I think it captured a lot of valuable information about the decisions we have made and the values we have. Its a long read, but an important one for Holstee history.

Hi B, I love spontaneous research, questioning things is the first step in forwarding innovation and society at large. You covered some great topics in your email so I will do my best to cover them all and please, do let me know if I missed anything! The shirts in our prototype round are what are currently shown and described online. We are in the process of transitioning our sourcing of materials as well as our production. First I will give you the back story on our prototype shirts, and our current process for our new shirts. Prototype shirts: Once we had the original concept to make our shirts about a year ago, we wanted to make the design quickly and see what happened, for us it was more of a side project. So we shopped around to locate the softest, best fitting eco-shirt we could find. We were never blown away by the selection of eco-shirts available, but for what we were looking for Alternative Apparel offered the best option. The Alternative Apparel is firm on its fair working condition policies which were very important for us. Additionally, the shirts used a blend of cotton (6.25% organic), 50% polyester (6.25% recycled) and 12% rayon. Because of the small size of our production and the desired fit, our desired style, and our hope to get shirts quickly to market our options were narrowed to American Apparel or Alternative Apparel. It was a tough decision but we thought Alternative Apparel was the most ecological choice. All the while keep in mind we were learning as we went - we are very new to this :-) In the past few months, we have decided to take this pet project and turn it into a full time venture. In doing so we have taken a step back to look again at our shirts and production. It seems that you have a very thorough knowledge of the industry and environmental impact and I am eager to hear your thoughts on our new process. Upcoming shirts: We are still playing with the exact blend, but our new shirts will most likely be of 100% recycled materials. A blend of polyester (post consumer waste / plastic bottles) and cotton (post industrial waste / textile and fabric scraps from production floors). I was surprised to read your concern regarding recycled plastic bottles: “But polyester isn’t a local ingredient. It comes from oil. And it isn’t clean and green for the planet in any way shape or form, even if recycled from bottles or whatever.” As much as I hate soda, there are tons of people who drink soda and throw out their bottles. Rather than letting those bottle accumulate in landfills they are brought back into a functional state as yarn, then fabric, extending their life cycle. I could not agree more that oil is nor clean nor green. But I assure you we are not creating plastic bottles for the sole purpose of making T-shirts. These are plastic bottles that would otherwise collect in landfills. You make a valid point that organic cotton is great source of fabric creation. Like I mentioned before we are new to this, but in our research we have learned how much water is required to grow cotton (both organic and regular) - I have heard about as much 2,700 liters of water for one shirt. Also as you noted the best organic cottons come from Turkey, India and China, the issue then is the footprint of transporting - which may in the end be worth it, however it is another element to evaluate. As you mentioned, we have come to learn that Soy, Bamboo and Hemp are other alternatives. However, Bamboo and soy as you noted tend to require heavy chemical processing. We love HEMP too! Out of these options we were leaning most towards hemp. If you know any hemp providers please share their contact information, would love to incorporate some Hemp products going forward. We have learned about a few, mostly in Canada. Do you have a name for the American hemp company? What is Romanian hemp? At the end of the day though, we thought we would be leaving the best impact on the planet by not sourcing “virgin” fibers but rather by reusing materials that would otherwise be discarded to a landfill. I absolutely can not wait until people stop using plastic bottles (hopefully since it may mean people will not be drinking more high-fructose fizzy water!) and switch to a fabric source like hemp. On another note, I think its important to mention something. We would have never made it to our second round of production without a first. While our second puts the ecological standards of our first round to shame, we would have never been able to run with out walking first. Even now the control we have over our production is, in a few ways, limited by the amount we produce. As we continue to grow we will continue to do what makes sense to continue to make progress for our company and the planet. We have a lot of big competition who have a completely different set of morals than we do, we are trying our hardest to introduce people to a new way of looking at the effects of their purchasing decisions. Having a focus on design will help us in the long term to have a focus on the impact we are making on this planet. I want to thank you again B, for asking such pressing questions and I encourage you to continue asking us, and others how they define their ecology. Knowledge is the power that enables change. Many wishes with all the passions you are pursuing! Warm regards, Dave Radparvar Co-Founder, Holstee