Unlike Haiti, I have connections to Chile through my close college friend whose children live there.  It was with his family in mind this morning that compassionate tears rolled down my face.  I hope for good news and soon.  But in the meantime, I can be there for my friend and make sure that he gets the support that he needs while so far away from his much loved little ones.  I can rally our friends to make sure that if he wants to or needs to that he can either fly his kids to the States or can head down to be with them.

My heart goes out to my friend because I know him.  It is hard enough being seperated from  your children without having a disaster happen.  Now?

In this moment while I am aware of my compassion I think also of the people of Haiti and those around the world whose lives are affected by natural disasters.  My actions are clear in the case of my friend, less so when there is not a personal relationship.  How do we positively act on our compassionate desire to help when faced with poverty, catastrophe, and injustice?

I know my path right now includes flying to Haiti and rallying support around my friend’s beautiful children in Chile. Understanding that there are others around the world whose lives also need help, I will continue to do my best in my daily work to find ways of addressing this need.

Why?
DEM Collective monitors the entire process of production, from the picking of the cotton through the dying of the fabric and the assembly of the clothing.  Owner Annika Axelsson is on the ground in Sri Lanka and knows what’s happening every step of the way and is therefore able to make sure that no one is mistreated during the process.  Owner Karin Stenmar manages operations in Sweden.

Waste
Excess from the manufacturing process is currently turned into reusable bags that customers are given to take their purchases with them.  What about when the t-shirt’s life is over? Well they can be returned to the store and recycled into the same bags or other products that are in development.

To me, the justice in the working environment is evident in this creative and fearless development process.  You see, the factory workers are the ones who come up with additional ways to re-use extra scraps.  While at the store Annika showed me two repurpose possibilities.

And why is this important?
Because most of clothing produced today takes advantage of the workers and pollutes the environment.  Before you say – pollution and injustices on the other side of the world don’t affect me, think again.

But back to DEM Collective…
Annika had her life change on a trip to Sri Lanka to visit a penpal at age 13.  While there, she visited a factory while bringing her penpal’s sister lunch at the factory because she couldn’t leave the factory to eat.  The factory’s poor conditions inspired Annika to revolt against the clothing industry in colorful and not so colorful ways over the years eventually landing her as the owner of her own factories and business in Sweden.

One in a thousand…
The hot, new, handwoven, numbered jeans that DEM produces were brought to existence after some frustration that Annika couldn’t own a pair of new jeans without doing harm to the environment or others.  The jeans they sell are currently the only environmentally friendly pair available.  The dies are non-toxic indigo and the pants themselves are handwoven.  Possible the coolest part about them is that the reason they are numbered is so that their sustainability can be tracked through a local university.

So is DEM Collective a fair trade company?
No, they consider themselves more than fair and don’t think the fair trade standards are enough.

And DEM? It stands for Don’t Eat Macoroni an anti-fast and junk food slogan from Jamacia.

Currently available in New York at Ekovaruhuset it appears that with effort you can also make purchases at DEM Collective’s online store (no Swedish language skills necessary.)

In case you are interested in more…
An article on Treehugger talks about where this company was in 2007.
An appearance by the Company in EcoChic Magazine which goes more into some of their great practices.

Despite the remote nature of this beautiful place, the Maasai people have made contact with the rest of the technological world. While the Maasai still dress in their beautiful bright clothing as they roam the land with herds of goats, sheep and cattle many of them also carry cell phones. While I was unable to determine whether this connection to the rest of the world was helpful or detrimental, I do know that i can now contact a wonderfully friendly man in his early twenties named ‘Dickson’ to chat.

While volunteering during a visit to Mara West, a side trip to the local Maasai village gave an inside view of the still viable semi-nomadic culture. The enterprising community which we visited or more like paid to visit gave us a warm welcome, a tour, and then laid out their hand crafted goods for sale. The community supports its chosen traditional lifestyle and a school for the village’s children with the proceeds from tourists. Who is behind this smart thinking? The college educated, handsome chief.

Yes, even after going to school and living with a ‘more civilized, modern’ group, traditional ways of life can be preferred.  In this case traditional life has been bolstered by the knowledge gained.

Basically, fame plays a factor in being held accountable for sharing how you feel.  For those who have seen Food, INC. and its reminder of what Oprah went through when she indicated her new found aversion to meat, you know what I mean.

From Adam Porter’s Basic UK Libel  Law for Idiots ‘If something has been in the public domain for some time and no action has been taken then that means it becomes much harder for anyone to claim defamation.’

As I understand it that means that I can say that I won’t eat factory farmed chicken because Russia has banned US chicken for not adhering to food safety regulations in that country and also because I cut into a whole roaster once that was green on the inside, ONLY if I am unlikely to be influential.  Interesting.

Could being able to create pockets of awareness eventually have an effect on driving changes in the market?  Absolutely.  If there are too many people to ‘blame’ and the information has been around for a long time, it seems that it would reduce the liability on any one person to make a statement that is truthful and yet potentially damaging to the services of a business that have negative environmental or social practices.

Imagine that instead of Oprah, 1,000 people trumpeted to their friends that they would no longer support X because of its polluting practices.  X would in all likelihood not sue all 1,000+ people.  It is no longer cost effective that way.  Especially if it is truly detrimental to the business.

Based on this, I believe that we as individuals should continue to share our knowledge with others to help spread the word.  Just be careful to go to a source article or document in order to make sure that what you are sharing with your community is not a rumor.  Snopes is always a good one to check for the veracity of claims.

We all see initiatives and products advertised as being green or sustainable.  Whether this is done as a component of corporate strategy or arises from a true belief of inherent ‘goodness’ most of the time on the scale of true worldwide sustainability, they are not without some impact.

My answer is that there is no black and white definition.

Within communities, corporations, small businesses, governments, and families there are different degrees of progress.  When a corporation is announcing a greening strategy or movement, good for them.  They have made progress.  But by no means are they now officially GREEN with nothing left to do.

Think of this situation like being in a dim room.   In a room that the occupants are used to they can see and because that is what they know, they accept it as being good, normal or right.  There is no questioning whether or not the light can get brighter.  They think it’s as bright as it can be perhaps, or they might not even question that more is possible.

If additional lights were added to the room it would be obvious to the occupants that at first the room was dark and now there is more light.  Who is to say that it can’t get brighter still?  Why settle for what we have if we can have and create a better world and society for ourselves?

It’s obvious when you see a green product.  It’s obvious when you see a sustainable community.   I think the question that we need to ask is can it get brighter?  Can it get greener?  And I believe it can.