These Great Tees Make Great Gifts
Giving someone clothes as a gift can be a little iffy, but T-shirts are usually a safe bet. Tees are on the more relaxed side of the fit issue compared to most clothing, and people usually wear them more than anything else in their closet. Now add in organic, good for the earth, fair-trade, and a contribution to a fantastic cause and you have the perfect gift! Here are a few extra-ordinary tees that we think would make eco fabulous gifts that you can feel good about giving for many reasons.
Save the Sea Tee by Katharine E. Hamnett for the Environmental Justice Foundation
This 100% Organic Cotton tee is part of the EJF collection of designer tees to raise money for their work protecting the environment and defending human rights. EJF is a registered charity established in 2000 to empower people who suffer most from environmental abuses to find peaceful ways of preventing them. EJF provides film and advocacy training to individuals and grassroots organizations in the global south, enabling them to document, expose and create long term solutions to environmental abuses. EJF campaigns internationally to raise awareness of the issues our grassroots partners are working to solve locally. Today EJF has a team of campaigners and film-makers based in London, and works internationally with partners in Brazil, Vietnam, Mali, Uzbekistan and Indonesia.
Plant More Trees Tee by Tippitappi
Inspired by the basic message of veganism and the need to spread awareness, Tippitappi was created by Jenni Shortt, a compassionate vegan graphic designer, at the urging of her friends.Tippitappi’s t-shirts try to convey important and powerful messages about animal rights and environmental matters, without pointing fingers or coming off as offensive. While Tippitappi itself is based in Italy, the shirts utilized are composed of organic cotton that is grown on independent and family-owned farms in Turkey. As opposed to the tactics of bigger commercial venues that would do anything to keep costs down, including exploiting laborers, ethical trade like this gives the laborers an opportunity to work their way out of poverty and depend less on aid. In addition to caring for animal and human well-being, Tippitappi is interested in making a lesser impact on the environment by using 100% organic cotton, recycled materials, and also supports waste recovery. All packagings are made with recycled and recyclable paper.
Beginning with the design process in its New York studio, Loomstate directly manages all stages of manufacturing, from the fabric mills, to the cut & sew facilities and finally the laundries to ensure all partners are participating in responsible manufacturing processes. Loomstate works with factories representing the “Gold Standard” or model of excellence of responsible production methods. All Loomstate factory partners are required to adhere to a code of conduct and Terms of Engagement in our company manufacturing agreement. These factories must use the highest environmental and labor standards, controlling factory pollution, and enforcing fair labor as the cornerstone of the effort.
Loomstate is fully committed to organic farming. Organic cultivation requires managing and preserving the sensitive ecosystem as opposed to stripping the land of its resources as conventional farming does. Loomstate uses 100% certified organic cotton from various regions of the world such as Turkey, Peru, Africa, India and the USA.
This is one of 4 tees designed by Luella Bartley for Tonic. Tonic promotes and helps people participate in a variety of campaigns like the Green Dimes program to end junk mail. The proceeds from the Luella tees are specific and you can select your tee by its goal: Provide children in Haiti with shoes to wear to school, provide children with dental care in Columbia, protect endangered coral reef in the Pacific Ocean, or send soccer balls to school children in Kenya.
By buying this shirt you donate €5,- to the c,mm,n initiative that supports getting c,mm,n on the road. What the heck is that? c,mm,n is an innovative mobility concept; a new way of developing, manufacturing and using cars. By making the blueprint of the c,mm,n car publicly available under an open-source license we are able to develop truly sustainable mobility. Just like open-source software, c,mm,n focuses on services around the product. You can use c,mm,n to offer people a lease car, rental car or other mobility services. It is allowed to sell c,mm,n too. Just as long as you make any derived work publicly available again.
In order to fully unleash the power of the community we aim to develop c,mm,n in such a way that it is optimized for the costs-of-ownership: value depreciation, repairs, maintenance, fuel costs, etc. Therefore c,mm,n is remanufactured. That means that – for example – the body of the car is made from disposable, bio-degradable material that only lasts for three years. After that period the car is taken back to the factory and rebuild to suit the needs of another mobilist. WOW!
Sold in major stores like Nordstrom, JC Penny, and Urban Outfitters, $1.50 of every purchase of their tees goes back to The World Wild Life Fund. WWF has been protecting Nature for over 45 years. WWF’s mission is the conservation of nature. Using the best available scientific knowledge and advancing that knowledge where we can, we work to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth and the health of ecological systems by
- protecting natural areas and wild populations of plants and animals, including endangered species;
- promoting sustainable approaches to the use of renewable natural resources; and
- promoting more efficient use of resources and energy and the maximum reduction of pollution.
By 2020 WWF will conserve 19 of the world’s most important natural places and significantly change global markets to protect the future of nature.
Zooey and Love & Eight Bamboo & Cotton Peace Tee
The collaborative between Zooey and Love & Eight came together to raise awareness for global warming as well as contributions for Healthy Child, Healthy World. $2.00 from every tee goes to the organization dedicated to protecting the health and well being of children from harmful environmental exposures by educating parents, supporting protective policies, and engaging communities to make responsible decisions, simple everyday choices, and well-informed lifestyle improvements to create healthy environments where children and families can flourish.
Artifex Organic Cotton Windmill Tee
Brothers Tim and Chris Reagen founded Artifex Shirts in 2007 to bring quality organic t-shirts to consumers at a reasonable price. But they are not just another t-shirt company. Artifex Shirts partners with like minded organizations such as Native Energy, to offer the customer more than just a t-shirt. For example, if you purchase a Windmill shirt/hoodie, $3 is donated to offset 500lbs of CO2 emissions.
Made from pure African cotton in Lesotho, Africa, proceeds go to the Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS project, which provides education and medication for AIDS-affected families in Lesotho. For each shirt sold, $10 goes to the cause, in conjunction with Nordstrom’s donation of $100,000 to ALAFA. Available only at Nordstrom.
So there you have it! I am sure that you know someone that would love one of these tees as well as the cause they are attached to. Happy shopping, Happy Holidays. Peace.
