Heather, Co-Founder of Allégorie
My name is Raquel Busa, and I am a Queer Latinx illustrator. I like introducing myself as a Queer Latinx artist because representation is important. There is a person out there who needs to see me achieving goals and building a company.
I have always made art, but I have had a lot of self-doubt about supporting myself through my art. I come from an immigrant family that made so many sacrifices so that I could have opportunities. I thought, "Who was I to gamble with those opportunities and risk failure?"
It wasn't until I came out that I realized how important it is to tap into who you are. What makes you happy? What do you value most? That I decided to support myself through my artwork. But I don't just want to make pretty things; I want to make art that helps people heal, brings them joy, and moves them to create a more inclusive world.
Realizing my intention gave way to confidence and an understanding that failure is part of growth. My perception shifted; I was not gambling with my opportunities but carefully investing in myself.
Before I started my company, I worked in Human Resources. Unfortunately, the companies I worked for did not adequately support their employees. The result was a lot of turnover. I hated firing people, especially when I felt it could have been prevented. These companies were not in line with my values and my ideas. They undervalued me, so I decided to take a chance on myself.
I got my master's in business and started working as an office manager at a private investigation firm. I enjoy helping them build administrative systems and protocols that support their growth. But I still longed to make something that was my own, so I officially established my LLC in December 2020. The firm I work for supports my endeavors and even commissions my illustrations services. It is a great place to work as my business continues to grow.
I am passionate about creating art that promotes kindness and inclusivity. My goal is to showcase pieces that celebrate diversity and encourage understanding and acceptance. I believe in treating others with respect and honesty, and I am always searching for opportunities to uplift underrepresented communities. Together, we can make the world a better place by embracing diversity and promoting positivity.
Whenever a queer person picks up my LGBTQIA+ for Kids coloring book, gets teary-eyed, and says, "I wish I had this book when I was little," or "This is important work," it makes me proud.
Time! There is never enough time. Between work, a creative small business, and a family, there aren't enough hours in the day. But I remind myself to take things one step at a time and prioritize what needs to be done. It's important to find a balance. Slowly but surely, I'll get everything done.
You can purchase my art at www.maquina37.com. If you want to commission custom art or collaborate, email me at info@maquina37.com.
Yes, Happy Pride Month! This project was really meaningful to me, and I'm so grateful that Allegorie helped me share my story with a bigger audience. I wrote a blog post to share a personal story about my journey as a lesbian. For a long time, I struggled with repressing my sexuality, and that had a really negative impact on me growing up. It took a lot of work to accept myself and come out. But being true to myself has been so worth it. I hope that by sharing my story, I can help others who might be going through something similar.
You can read my full story here.
I was just recently hired to teach a workshop series in 2024. It's a massive opportunity for me, and I can't wait to announce the details. I am busy preparing for the workshop and focusing on creating a more expansive collection of surface pattern designs.
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Explore the limited editions that Raquel created for Allegorie here.
Check out Raquel's other works here.
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Rescuing Leftover Cuisine is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit food rescue organization, focusing on redistributing excess food to people experiencing food insecurity. RLC is headquartered in New York City and operating across the United States.
My name is Luke Petronella, and I am the photographer, videographer, and brand ambassador for Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. I am a recent graduate of Brooklyn College, with a degree in Film Production, and I currently reside in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I am extremely passionate about filmmaking and music, but beyond that, I have found my purpose in helping my neighbors and community.
At the beginning of my freshman year of college, I had a lot of trouble making friends. I felt alone, isolated, and hopeless inside of a large school, and an even larger city. My mental health was poor to say the least, and I believed that I had no purpose outside of my lonely pursuit in wanting to become a filmmaker. I seriously contemplated dropping out of school altogether. But before deciding to leave, I wanted to engage in at least one positive action to help out my surrounding community. Otherwise, my last few months at school would have felt pointless. I remember sitting in the school library of Pace University, and searching “volunteer opportunities NYC” into google. It was then that I found Rescuing Leftover Cuisine’s website. I remember thinking that it was extremely easy to make an account and subsequently sign-up for a food rescue event. All I had to do was sign-in with Google, confirm my phone number, and then click the next available volunteer event on the calendar page. It was a Saturday night when I decided that I was going to do my first event. I met two volunteers in Downtown Brooklyn at a bakery, where we delivered a few dozen pounds of baked goods to a nearby homeless shelter. We started the event as complete strangers, but along the way we had some great conversations. It was a wonderful time. Afterwards, on the subway ride back to my dorm, I noticed a complete shift in my mental health. The rescue made me feel grounded and important for the first time in a long time. I decided to stay in school.
There are honestly way too many memorable experiences to count. Transporting food on-foot through the streets of New York City never gets boring, and each food rescue event presents its own unique challenges. Whether it’s fitting giant tin trays into a tiny metal cart, marching through the snow, or driving across boroughs with a trunk full of produce, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine never ceases to amaze me with how much fun it is. The experiences I have had have been so diverse, that I feel like I could write an entire book about it. One of my most memorable experiences was recently, after delivering food with my younger cousins to a non-profit called Project Rousseau. Normally an educational nonprofit which tutors ESL students, recently Project Rousseau has been supplying resources (including RLC donations) to recent arrivals to the U.S., during NYC’s ongoing migrant crisis. We delivered enough food to fill 2 entire refrigerators, and within 4 days, all of it was gone. We saw families including young children staying at shelters in the surrounding area, and we felt proud to have a small part in supporting them in their time of need.
My proudest moment at RLC actually comes from how I’ve noticed my behavior change in my everyday life. In my neighborhood in Crown Heights, there are oftentimes people on my block who ask if I can buy them some food. Before RLC, I would have walked past these people, honestly because, simply put, it is much more convenient to shut down and ignore people in a city as large as ours. Today, I'm not embarrassed to talk to a stranger and help them out. My proudest moment is when a random stranger gave me a gigantic hug after I helped buy them some dinner.
One simply has to create an account on our website, confirm all of their contact information, and sign up for an event. We try to make it as easy as possible for people. There is no long-term commitment, and we also have the option for you to become a Lead Rescuer, where you can sign up to lead your own events. After that, you have the option to become a Paid Rescuer, where you can receive up to $15 per rescue! I became the brand ambassador for RLC after I became a full-time staff member. I applied to a Rescuing Leftover Cuisine internship back in 2020, through a website called Handshake. I started out just taking photos for the organization, however, because of my passion and dedication (and because they liked the videos I was making), they decided to hire me part-time, and finally full-time.
One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced when it comes to food rescue is a lack of volunteers. There have been many times when we simply don’t have anyone sign up. When that happens, full-time staff members have to step in and lead food rescues, which can take them away from their position for hours at a time.
Personally, I love this nonprofit called Collective Focus in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They are a mutual aid center which provides food, clothing, and creative community activities which are free for the public. I’ve seen countless families helped by them, and it is even more wonderful that we are able to provide them with donations even though they work with many organizations. Every week, there is a line around the block made up of people from the community who are looking for their resources. City Harvest, New York Cares, and St. John’s Bread & Life are a few others which inspire me.
RLC has a goal of rescuing 4 million pounds of food this year alone. We’d also like to expand to other areas of the country, perhaps even California!
The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given is to pack extra reusable grocery bags, and to make sure that I have an RLC cart with me.
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Sign up here and start your first rescue.
]]>Vanessa is the Founding Artist and Director of Coral Projects, an underwater art installation program that aims to provide physical support to revitalize under-water ecosystem by introducing homes to oysters, corals and other filter species.
I’m Vanessa Albury. I’m an eco-visual artist, Akashic Records reader and energy coach. I grew up in Nashville, TN and landed in Brooklyn, NY in 2006. I moved here the day before my interview for the MFA in Studio Art program at New York University. I got in! I also have two BA’s with honors from the College of Charleston in Studio Art and French with a minor in Art History. My artwork is image-based taking form as photographs, sculptures and interdisciplinary collaborations, expanding the traditional view of photographs as “windows into the world” to objects in space and time. I am the 2022 Deutsche Bank NYFA/ NYSCA Photo Fellow. Ken Johnson for the NY Times describes my work as “haunting,” which I take as a complement. In 2014 my art practice took a life-changing turn. On the Arctic Circle Residency and I began to “green” my studio practice and with the pandemic my whole life. I speak to audiences around the world on the physical, emotional and spiritual healing power of art and being eco-friendly. I’m the Founding Artist of Coral Projects. I also host a podcast The Power We Hold available on all platforms with the delightful and talented Caleb Williams.
Coral Projects, my most favorite thing ever! As Coral Projects, I’m creating the first-ever underwater, eco-friendly art exhibition to rewild filter species like corals and oysters around the world. The art pieces act as supports for new specimen and are made from 100% ocean-friendly and eco-friendly materials. FYI concrete is NOT eco-friendly! I collaborate with marine scientists and our first permanent site is in Southern Italy. We site in July and I’m raising funds now to create a feature-length documentary walking the view through the process, with key interviews by famous eco-artists, spiritual leaders talking about the healing power of this work and water and marine experts. We will end it with animation to take you through the vision of Coral Projects as the reef develops around the artworks!
My mission is for an eel to make a home in a 100% ocean-friendly artwork! In short!
I’m all about integrity and authenticity here. I believe in the exponential power of diversity, on the seafloor and among humans! So that means, the best eco-friendly materials I can use, collaborating with other underrepresented artists, engaging local communities so that they know the project is theirs too, working with marine scientists and protected regions and so on. I am also discussing with a materials researcher how to use carbon-sink materials that are eco-friendly and ocean-friendly. I am also very interested in the ideas and power of art. I do not need to see more mermaids underwater. We as a species have done a lot with mermaids. What else can we do? Art is a dialog. I don’t want to tell you the same sentence over and over. Powerful art is new each time you see it because you are new each and what ideas come from that encounter are my stepping off point. If the artist is working with engaging ideas and beautiful imagery, art can transform the world by inspiring more new ideas and actions! I want you to see the work and think wow, that’s beautiful and what is it? Why is it? Who am I here seeing this?
Where to begin, yes? This is my purpose in life, Coral Projects. I’m here for healing for people and the planet through art and the oceans. We can go back to when I first dove on the Florida Reef and felt at home in a way I didn’t know what possible at age 5. Or that residency in the Arctic when I almost gave up on my 3 year project because my photo chemicals for my sailboat darkroom would kill microorganisms. I did give up, but the Captain found a solution right afterwards, so I stayed with it. Or the day I saw 10,000 inch-long baby fishes of the large angelfish, parrotfish, yellowtails that I grew up visiting in the Keys at the Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary. Then I heard the story of the place and I was filled with awe and admiration for the way in which they left no humans behind in saving the reef. After that dive, I sat on the beach with my friend Harry and we were talking about a hut-sized camera obscura I made from all organic materials in a fjord in Norway the previous year. He said “wouldn’t it be cool to see art here.” Like lightning I did see it! I downloaded the whole thing! That was May 2016. I’ve been learning and growing to become the steward Coral Projects needs since then. So in short the ocean. It’s all for my deep, beyond-words, oneness love of the ocean.
We start filming in late April with interviews locally. Then in July we fly a team of 4 to Italy to film the underwater siting of this work, interviews and an event with locals at a museum. We need a minimum of $15,000 to get over there and get this properly underway. If you know filmmaking you know that’s not much. Our goal is $160,000 to complete filming. So first step $15,000 to capture the magic of siting the first ever eco-art underwater! A bargain :)
I’m going to be really honest with you. It is my relationship with money. As a visual artist, we are socialized to believe that we are extra, like the opposite of an essential worker; that what we do is the food coloring in the icing, not even the icing on the cake. There’s no minimum wage for a visual artist. You can work professionally your whole life and never earn a penny. What other occupation has this hurtle? I know this project is powerful. I know it is here to heal and inspire the whole world. So, I work everyday on healing my relationship with money and self-love so that I can again, be the best steward of this project that I can be. I heal inner child wounds, social programming, worthiness; it’s a lot of healing work. Coral Projects came to me for a reason. It is worthy and I work everyday to know I am worthy of it. I’m here to serve!
There have been so many moments. I love knowing I have a piece made of plant debris flowing in the Everglades and feeding fishes and hosting plants, but so far, the proudest moment… it was swimming in the temporary siting I made in Santa Caterina di Nardo, Italy knowing that I raised the funds from grants and trust that it would all work out. And it did! The President of the region of Apulia, Michele Emiliano even thanked me for this work! I’m looking forward to topping that this Summer!
I have 3 milestones in mind: 1) Eco-underwater art permanently sited off the coast of Southern Italy and a healthy mussels colony thriving on it, setting records for growth and health! 2) Filming the documentary begins! 3) Refreshing my biodegradable mural on the LES Porthole Waves (Svalbard) from Stream to Sea which is up through September 2023.
It’s all about awareness and the biggest help, funding! We are fiscally sponsored by a nonprofit organization so all donations are tax-deductible. Also follow us on IG @coral.projects and share the project with anyone and everyone you know!
Follow your authenticity. Don’t listen to everyone telling you the odds of what you know you are meant for working out. Trust that you are here for a reason and follow with your full heart and integrity. Feel all your feelings and don’t let fear stop you. See the fear as a guide in the night, a light post showing you the way to your biggest growth and achievements.
I mean this was really thorough!
From both my work as an eco-artist and as an Akashic Records reader, I have learned that every little thing you do matters. Going green is a healing journey with the planet. YOUR healing journey with the planet. Each small step gets you a healing. For a gateway to going green action, buy a food-waste wallet from Allegorie and get bamboo toilet paper. Every time your spend money or whip you’ll feel so good about yourself and that reinforces your motivation to take action again. It’s easy and fun!
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Thank you all for the support for this special collaboration! With the sales of these handmade greeting cards, Coral Projects was able to move forward with the installation. Stay tuned for more updates.
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Love, follow, share and give them a shoutout. Nothing is too small to support a women-owned business.
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ERICA RECTO ART by Erica
After 17 years working in design, Ceramic artist Erica returned to her studio in late 2019 in a more intimate capacity. She set out to create and explore more intuitively and freely, drawing inspirations from ancestral studies, spirituality, mysticism, functionality and most recently motherhood.
Expressed interest and talent for jewelry making at a young age, Genevieve started her own practice, Eden's Harvest, inspired by this world preoccupied with stories, from ones we've read to those we share, and what is still being written.
Many of Genevieve's jewelry-making methods are self-taught and every piece is handmade in New York City.
Lot28 by Jocelyn and Emily DeSisto
Lot28 was born from a love for jewelry and the natural world. The name comes from a plot of land on a small island in Maine. Family summers at Lot28 sparked the DeSisto sisters interest in climate change. Their designs are inspired by immediate climate issues and the beauty of our ecosystems.
All Lot28 pieces are designed by founders Jocelyn and Emily DeSisto and are responsibly made in the heart of New York’s historic Diamond District.
Naomi Nomi by Naomi
Trained as a glassblower, Naomi spent a decade making sculpture before looking around her studio and realizing that all of her sculptures had sleeves and hemlines and were meant to be worn and worked in, not just looked at. As the granddaughter of a wedding dress manufacturer and the great-granddaughter of a pattern cutter, the schmatte life was apparently hard to shake.
In 2018, she launched Naomi Nomi, a made-to-order and small batch garment line based in Brooklyn, New York.
Art of Steacy by Nicole Steacy
A fashion stylist-turned high school visual art teacher-turned independent artist, Nicole's art is part impressionist exploration, part abstract puzzle, expressing harmonious moments of human connection.
One of her favorite artists is Edward Hopper and she finds a kinship with his use of light to frame the modern human condition.
Explore our limited edition, hand painted collaboration with Nicole here.
St. Evens by Alex
Inspired by the stories vintage clothes tell, Alex started St. Evens to honor the work that goes into well-made pieces that are made to last. When she's not shopping, Alex can be found reading, writing, eating bread, or walking several blocks in the wrong direction.
T.W.I.N. by Isabella and Alicia Serrani
Founded by Isabella and Alicia Serrani, T.W.I.N. (That’s What I Need) is a twin-owned, Toronto-born, New York-based company focused on making sustainable, inclusive products. No matter your feelings about your body or your relationship with fashion, you can feel secure that you will find what you need at T.W.I.N.
Yogaromas by Quinn
A yogi-turned registered Aromatherapist, Quinn channels her passion for self-empowerment from yoga to holistic healing in both body and minds, by creating Yogaromas. Combining the science and power of aromatherapy and yoga, Quinn looks to help others empower themselves.
Floriconvento Flowers is the floral design company founded by Emily Scott. Now living in New York City but originally hailing from South Florida, Emily had the warmth and eccentricity of the tropical flora & fauna she was used to experiencing embedded into her artistic framework.
At just 28 years old but with 8 years of floral industry experience - fast forward the years spent working with some of the largest and most reputable florists in the New York Metropolitan area, Emily has made a name for herself in the industry.
For Us Cookies by Shin
With culinary training at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education and experience at some of New York's finest Michelin-starred restaurants, Shin started launched FOR US COOKIES in 2021, after the coronavirus pandemic forced her to close her catering business.
From day one, FOR US COOKIES is about caring for the environment, the animals, and our own health. Shin's amazingly delicious, vegan and gluten-free cookies are made with sustainably sourced, better ingredients and sent in compostable/recyclable packaging.
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Photos credits:
Gloria Lee™ is a womenswear brand that offers elegant, minimum waste, day-to night outfits. Inspired by mythology, nature, and history, Gloria Lee designs each and every garment with the purpose to highlight women's innate elegance, beauty, and love for all.
DiFiore NY is an accessory brand that offers Italian-made, eco-friendly scarves. With Mother Nature as her muse, Andrea DiFiore mixes contemporary photography and photo-illustration with traditional fashion. Ms. DiFiore’s permanent works of art displayed in the United Nations FCU building and in several mental health organizations around the country. She was also commissioned by the City of New York to use her talents for the beautification of her Lower East Side neighborhood, with two art pieces on display in Straus Square.
From left to right: The talented Gloria Lee, carrying our Gala Clutch Bag, with stylist @ydesir, the gorgeous Analia carrying Allegorie's Rose Gala Crossbody Bag, and Gloria Lee with amazing LuLu Romano.
POV: Allégorie team from preparation to runway:
Allégorie Rose Gala Tote as seen on the runway:
Allégorie Gala Clutch as seen on the runway, featuring the amazing TONY nominee actor and author Brenda Braxton.
Allégorie Gala Tech Folio as seen on the runway, featuring the gorgeous Shannan Ferry from News NY1 news.
Follow us on Instagram for more information on this show.
Shop the looks here.
Support DiFiore NY's fundraise for the children of Ukraine here.
Photos by Oliver Archer and Allégorie Team.
]]>"Over the past 3 and a half months, my team and I have been working on curating this beautiful exhibit for everyone to enjoy and feel empowered by."
- Eliza Rotante, Creative Director of the Fashion Gallery Exhibit
We are excited to announce that Allégorie is featured in The Marist College Fashion Program’s Sustainable Gallery!
Ethereal is the new Sustainable Exhibit opening at Marist College’s Steel Plant Gallery which will be running through the summer of 2022. The exhibition highlights innovative sustainable design and practices currently happening in the fashion industry, including brands such as Stella McCartney, Gabriela Heart, Ralph Lauren, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Eileen Fisher and many many more.
Many thanks to the group of Fashion Merchandising Seniors, alongside Marist Fashion’s Director John Bartlett, and sustainable enthusiast, Professor Jamie Ross, for making this happen.
Please visit the exhibition website here for more information.
Check out our highlights from the exhibition.
]]>Born and raised in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, Nicole's beautiful brushstrokes on birchwood explores the harmonious moments of human connection to land, to self, and to one other.
Nicole’s paintings conveys a sense of uncomplicated peace people experience just being with themselves in beautiful light. Through her meditative brushstrokes, Nicole aims to document the hopefulness of honest work and the simple pleasures it provides, and to offer a different narrative about what deserves our attention and what we stand to lose if we no longer invest time in contemplation and camaraderie.
Find out more about Nicole and her works at her website and Instagram.
This collection is no doubt inspired by nature, especially the beautiful elements that sooth the soul and brighten the mind. Daisies, synonymous to positivity, innocence and new beginnings, became a perfect fit, especially after 2-year of social distancing during a global pandemic. So when Nicole presented this colorful floral design, it's immediately a "yes" to move forward.
Part of Nicole's signature technique is flattened color-blocking to refine natural forms until she feel it resolve of balanced color and weight. The Daydream collection highlights such technique with abundance of playfulness. The bold color complements the design of the bag and brings everyone back to childhood where cotton candy and clouds are just the same thing, sweet and fluffy.
This design highlights Nicole's mesmerizing transformation of clouds, water and forests into meditative color blocks that explore the human connection underneath the abstract forms. Complementing the navy color of the material, these flowing forms lead the viewers to explore more, reflecting a harmonious relationship between human and nature, where everything is in balance.
Check out the Allégorie X Nicole Steacy Collection here.
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Fashion is a wondrous thing: a means of self-expression, a vital part of humanity’s artistic spirit. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch, least of all in the fashion industry—and the price?
Plastic.
Plastic is an integral component in the making and maintenance of fashion, particularly when synthetic fabrics are involved. Much of this waste ends up in the world’s oceans. Plastic knows no borders, and the effects of pollution in faraway India and Bangladesh have consequences that ripple all the way to bayside California.
Environmentally speaking, experts regularly cite the fashion industry as a hot mess. The World Economic Forum estimates that fashion accounts for ten percent of global emissions and is the second-largest consumer of water worldwide. Many clothes, especially those made with polyester, shed thousands of minuscule plastic pieces when washed, endangering plant and animal lives. The amount of plastic released in this manner is equivalent to tossing up to fifty billion plastic bottles into the sea each year.
The disposal of used clothing is another issue. Fast fashion produces astonishing amounts of waste; for example, Zara presents an astounding twenty-four collections per year. This encourages consumers to buy, buy, buy. And what do they do with last season’s hottest new trends? According to the EPA, the average American discards more than sixty-eight pounds of clothing and textiles per year—and since some fashion outsiders (like me) discard much less than that, this figure implies that others must be tossing even more.
That clothing, and any plastics therein, must go somewhere. Sometimes it rots in a landfill, where it may eventually be burned and release harmful materials into the air. Often the journey stops at the ocean. Dissolving clothes release microplastics that are carried by currents to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which extends over 1.6 million square kilometers between Hawaii and California and from which microplastics smaller than five millimeters in diameter are extremely difficult to remove. The long-term effects are uncertain.
The origins of plastic pollution are complex, compounded by global income inequality and the imbalances of a postcolonial world. High-fashion retailers have long pushed environmental and social costs of production onto manufacturing countries in Asia and Africa. Yet as such countries become increasingly wealthy and assertive, the Western World will have to engage with other societies (as well as its own) to examine the root causes of global plastic pollution.
Some private companies engage in dishonest schemes to reap the benefits of a green image without the associated costs: a phenomenon known as greenwashing. Aware that consumers will pay premiums for sustainable products, companies try to increase profits by emphasizing image over substance. (As a lifelong Gulf Coast resident, BP’s cheery green-and-yellow sunflower logo ain’t foolin’ me.)
The distinction between “with” and “of” matters in the corporate world, and fashion is no exception. Something labeled Made with *blank* may in fact contain negligible amounts of such material, recalling several infamous lawsuits in which “beef” products were revealed to contain significant amounts of filler. (They were made “with” beef, not “of” beef.) Always check the precise makeup of your fabrics.
Misleading marketing terms abound. Plastic marketed as biodegradable might only biodegrade after more than fifty years in a landfill—or floating in ocean currents. Something made of 100% “organic” cotton may seem ecologically friendly, but manufacturing even a single cotton t-shirt requires huge amounts of water and may not be sustainable. Greenwashing often relies on this sort of connotation-based misdirection, emphasizing facts that are technically true but rely on consumer assumptions to communicate something different.
Loose plastics pose problems for all life on Earth. Not only have we all seen photos of turtles choked by plastic bags or seabirds strangled by beer rings—or, in the age of coronavirus, trapped by discarded masks—but smaller plastics are even more insidious because they are hard to detect and remove. The effects invariably come back to bite us; a 2020 study found microplastics present in thirty-two percent of sampled fish in the North Atlantic. Humans ingest these plastics while consuming seafood, exposing themselves to potential health problems such as inflammatory or even neurotoxic damages—and research indicates that the problem will only worsen as microplastics continue to accumulate in the world’s oceans.
Plastic pollution also generates severe social issues. The developing world is especially maligned for its trash output—a German study conducted in 2017 concluded that ninety percent of all riverine waste to enter the ocean comes from ten rivers located in Asia or Africa—but less discussed is that Western nations ship containers of garbage to some of the world’s poorest countries. Often plastic discarded in this manner enters the ocean anyway and is carried into international waters, eventually finding its way to debris-filled gyres like the Great Pacific Ocean Patch. The Western World cannot wag the finger at developing countries when we encourage and exacerbate their failings, which harm us all in turn. This strains international cooperation at a time when international efforts are desperately needed to solve the problem.
In the age of coronavirus, it can be hard to remain positive—not to mention the rampant climate doomism. But while this mess may be of our own making, our better qualities of cooperation, self-discipline and ingenuity cannot be counted out just yet.
There are positive developments. The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 sailed through the U.S. Congress with bipartisan support to become law. Ocean cleanup efforts based in the EU are gaining increasing support, with international collaboration to produce sophisticated removal technology. China passed a slew of landmark laws in early 2020 to reduce pollution of all kinds in the Yangtze River, in the basin of which lives nearly a third of China’s enormous population.
As everyday consumers, our actions too can effect change. Recycling cannot achieve the benefits of non-use. Did you watch Emily in Paris? Take a leaf from the French and purchase fewer, better-made pieces. Your clothes will look better and last longer, and it’s très chic.
Look for plant-based solutions. Natural fibers are kinder, with alternative materials such as hemp and bamboo increasingly available. These fabrics often lack the microplastics that accumulate in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Communicate your desires via your wallet. Do your research. Hold companies accountable. (Trust me, they’re listening. There’s a reason greenwashing is a thing.) Reward those who make strides toward a greener future.
And remember that, together, we can make a difference.
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About the Writer
Bennett Boyd Anderson III is a writer, editor, and linguistic activist. A Louisiana Creole with knowledge of French and German, he has lived and worked at various points in Vienna, Singapore, and Oxford. Currently he resides in New Orleans.
See Bennett's previous blogs: Fashion in a Digital Age
]]>The food you choose and the way you consume it affect our health and that of our planet.
It has an impact on the way agri-food systems work.
So you need to be part of the change.
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Driving food system change is an essential part of Allegorie’s mission to help build a more sustainable future. While there are many big issues around food security and food waste, we decided to talk about something closer to home on this World Food Day.
Our co-founder, Heather, invited her friend Alice W. who is a food safety & quality expert at an international food & beverage company, and asked for her candid opinions on everyday food purchase and consumption.
Small changes can lead to big impact. By talking about, and hopefully clarifying, the common misunderstandings in everyday food consumption, we hope to help you make more informed decisions in your next grocery run, save some money, and build a healthy relationship with your food.
See below the Q&As between Heather and Alice.
A: I have worked in the food industry for about 8 years and have been auditing for 6 years. The main scope of my work is to assess, manage and mitigate supplier risk properly, which could be based on supplier’s documentation like 3rd party audit certificate, hazard assessment, and/or food safety plan, etc.
Part of the job includes supplier audits. We are responsible to perform physical audits in the supplier’s facility to evaluate their food safety management system, to ensure they meet all the food safety regulatory requirements, and to determine if their product is fit for use.
A: Yes, It has been quite an interesting experience. For some categories, like fresh produce cutting facility, chicken broth facility, and homemade sausage facility, the process is pretty straight forward, just scaled up from what you and I do in our own kitchens. Others might be hard to imagine if you are not physically there. For example, I was invited to get into a mine during an audit for calcium hydroxide. Another example is to audit a sun-dried tomato supplier to see tomatoes lying on hundreds of wood trays in the drying yard for days to reach a certain moisture level. And to be honest, before I started auditing, I didn't know the difference between cane sugar and beet sugar processes.
A: Some food defects are considered as part of the normal process of growing and processing, as long as they remain below a certain level and do not present health hazards to consumers. For example, insect parts are allowed in ground spice, and moldy fruits are allowed in juice, sauce and canned products.
A: Yes it sounds gross sometimes but it’s like most things, there is always an acceptance level. There are two key aspects of food: safety and quality. Safety always comes first and has the most stringent rules. The biggest priority is to ensure that the food product hitting the market does not present health hazards.
A: So this is where things can be more flexible but of course it still has to meet the regulatory requirement. One big thing is that the nutrition levels must meet the label claim in the back of the packaging.
H: Can you elaborate on that?
A: If you are concerned about safety and quality, my first suggestion would be to buy food that has legit seals. As I mentioned, seals are regulated and require the food producer to follow all mandatory regulations from USDA or FDA. Some brands could mislead you by having descriptions that include words like “organic”, “all natural” or “plant-based” etc. but don’t have any legitimate seal certified by USDA or FDA.
If you are concerned about health and nutrition, the nutrition facts table should be your primary focus. The nutrition facts table is strictly regulated, so everything in it should be either required (mandatory) or allowed (voluntary). Calories, carbs, fat, protein, minerals and vitamins, you can find pretty much everything you care about in that table. One red flag, which has already become pretty well-known, is trans fat. High intake of trans fat would pose a potential threat to your health, I would recommend buying packaged food that has been labelled to be 0 trans fat, in the nutrition facts table, not just described in the front of the packaging.
It’s also worth mentioning that “serving size” vs. “servings per container” are sometimes tricky. A family-sized bag of chips may show the nutrition facts based on a serving size of only 8 pieces of chips, and that could be problematic.
There is one product I generally tell friends to avoid. Do not use juice to replace fresh fruit. Liquid form will easily result in overeating. We would not normally eat 4 oranges or 5 apples at once, but with juice, it’s too easy to consume the same amount of calories at once. It’s true that juice is healthier than soda, but I would still not recommend drinking juice unless you are purposely having a high calorie diet.
A: It depends on your purpose of buying organic food versus non-organic food. The key aspect of regulations on organic food is the process of production including use of certain pesticides and additives, but has no implication on nutritional differences. And for non-organic food, there are still regulations and procedures to ensure, as mentioned before, it does not present health hazards to consumers. Are there cases where things went wrong? Yes, of course, and in both organic and non-organic food categories. So in short, eating organic food is a personal choice. People choose organic food for different reasons. Whether you choose organic or non-organic food, you can still eat in a healthy way.
A: One popular thing I noticed are “cage free” and “free range”. If you look at the rules on these, the animal still lives in a confined area and is only required to have access to the outdoors. And unfortunately, “having access” can mean a lot of things in practice. Also, there is no study showing a significant difference in nutrition facts between a “cage free” product and non “cage free” product. It’s worth pointing out that it is more ethical but not as great as the label may suggest.
A: When it comes to food, it can be very complicated and confusing. USDA publishes a lot of food guidelines and we can use them as a resource to navigate through those misleading wordings on food packaging.
Personally I think having a healthy eating habit is very important. Ethical concerns, every type of food presents some types of nutrition that our body needs. How to consume it in a healthy way, while keeping yourself happy, matters a lot. Eating deep-fried organic cauliflower everyday is not good for you in the same way as eating deep-fried free range chicken wings regularly. Occasionally drinking a can of soda is fine but drinking it everyday leads to health issues. Food itself is neither good nor bad, the way we consume it is.
H: Thank you very much for your time!
Check out more on how Allégorie fights food waste here.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this article are personal opinions of Alice’s and should not be taken as medical advice. Please consult your doctor if you have any questions about your health and diet.
]]>After 17 years working in design, Erica returned to her studio in late 2019 in a more intimate capacity. She set out to create and explore more intuitively and freely, drawing inspirations from ancestral studies, spirituality, mysticism, functionality and most recently motherhood.
Introduced by a mutual friend, Heather, Allégorie's co-founder, and Erica bounded over their similar upbringings, passion for sustainability and love for Zen-inspired styles, which eventually led to this collaboration to explore human's relationship with nature. From the changing of seasons to the pink beach in her childhood memories, Erica’s poetic depiction of nature’s fleeting moments brings a sense of meditation, harmony and belonging, a perfect balance we thrive to achieve between ourselves and nature.
Erica created the Splatter collection to accentuate the power of life, positivity and hope. By manually splashing colors on the natural material, the creation process itself becomes a journey of self-reflection and an adventure into the unknown.
Inspired by the pink beach from her childhood life in the Philippines, The Pink Sand Collection is a true embodiment that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The abstract and fluid forms can be viewed as many things and what you see is perhaps the natural state of you mind.
Check out our Instagram for more.
I think what has changed is urgency…The one thing you are made aware of when you have a child is the passing of time and how quickly it happens…So when you see all these resources getting depleted, it really lights a fire under you to try to do the most and to try to turn back the damages been done.
Motherhood changes people. For Erica, it also changes how she views her relationship with nature and brings more profound understanding on what sustainability means for her as a person and for her studio practices. From small batch production, recycling materials, sourcing locally to support communities, reducing environmental impacts has become a huge part of her practice, as she puts it in a spiritual way: taking care of the planet is a huge part of taking care of the mind.
Shop Allégorie X Erica Limited Collection
]]>Going back to its birthplace, TEDMonterey hosts the conversations that matter. This special TED event focuses on building a brighter future for everyone.
Created to solve food waste problems and push boundaries on sustainability, Allégorie is proud to be part of this event. We are delighted that our signature Gala Tote - ethically crafted from 400 upcycled apples - is selected by TED as an example of a sustainable path forward. Together, we look forward to a future where both humans and the environment are taken care of.
More details about this event will be provided. Follow us on Instagram or subscribe to our email list to receive updates.
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Food waste is a major problem in the United States. Americans throw away 150,000 tons of food per day. That’s one pound per person. It’s a daunting number and there’s a statistic that makes me cringe: the healthiest Americans are the most wasteful.
This is because people who are eating healthy diets tend to buy fresh, whole foods. Produce often spoils faster than we can eat it. Cooking from scratch leads to having extra scraps and peelings needing to be thrown away. All these factors all up to contribute to an excess of food waste.
As someone who eats gluten and dairy-free due to food intolerances, I eat a healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables. Sometimes when grocery shopping, my eyes are bigger than my appetite and it’s a scramble to eat our produce before it goes bad. Other times, I’m simply creating food waste while cooking due to chopping and peeling vegetables for recipes. It’s not an intentional attempt at being wasteful, but when I reflect on food waste I see that I’ve been part of the problem.
Up to 40% of food in the United States is wasted and at the same time, according to the USDA, there are still 35 million people who had difficulty obtaining or affording food in 2019. This is before COVID-19 and the additional effects on our economy and the poorest among us.
If we have more than we need, we are truly in a position of privilege and it’s up to us to be good stewards of the abundance we have. The money we waste on thrown-out food has the power to impact our communities for the better while also protecting the environment.
When thrown away, our food isn’t breaking down the way it is meant to do. To prevent leaking, landfills cap or cover our waste, which protects it from the elements. This means that it takes decades longer for food waste to break down than it would in nature.
All these statistics were startling to me. It gave me a new perspective on the problem of food waste and challenged me to get creative in solving this problem in my kitchen. We all play a part in the big impacts made on our planet. From buying sustainable fashion to remembering to freeze food to preserve it, all our baby steps truly add up.
One practical way to reduce consumer food waste is composting.
Composting sounds scary and intimidating - how the heck am I going to create dirt from my food waste? Yet the more I researched it, the more I found that I don’t need to spend a ton of money or overhaul my whole life to try composting. It’s simpler than I made it out to be in my head. As a bonus, the process of composting creates high-quality soil that can be used in my first-time garden and to support my houseplants. This is the kind of win-win situation that makes being eco-friendly beneficial for not just the planet, but my own lifestyle.
I’m taking you along on my composting journey and sharing how you can get started too in 5 simple steps!
You don’t need to have a pile of garbage in your backyard to be able to reuse your food waste. You don’t even need a yard! You can make this as simple or as extra as you desire. You can do it outside or inside. For more information on the different types, you can read more in-depth here.
In my yard, I have a patch of tall grass that’s covered by trees and makes a great little spot for composting. Originally, I was going to make a simple pile, but upon reflecting realized I needed something to guard against wind and garbage blowing through my pile. I’m keeping my process very simple and affordable, so I’m using a rubber tub until I have time to build a wooden box.
You can simplify your process even more and get started with a system that is more aesthetically pleasing. There are many options available at various price points, starting at less than $100. From systems that can be outdoors or in your garage to indoor composters and worm factories that are apartment friendly. If any of these options gross you out or seem like too much hassle, you have other options.
You can also directly put some of your food scraps into the ground beneath your garden - putting them in raised beds or pots as well underneath at least 6 inches of dirt.
There are a few ways you can save your greens before adding them to your compost for ease and convenience. You can get a white odor-free bin, a stainless steel smell-proof bin, or a green freezer bin. You can also go the easy route like I do - simply put the scraps in a reusable plastic bag in your freezer before transferring them to your compost pile.
Tip: it’s best if your produce waste is no thicker/bigger than the size of your thumb.
This is where I’ve made a few mistakes so far. First, I froze an entire apple. Oops! That’s definitely thicker than any scraps I’m supposed to use. Next, I ran out of space to save my items before getting the rest of my space set up. This is easy enough to adjust, but no one wants a freezer full of scrap food. The biggest struggle is getting started and continuing to move forward to the next step.
This helps the compost break down properly and have all it needs to thrive. You use two to four parts brown for each part green material. That ratio lends itself to the most success. You might need to think harder about finding these materials, but you can always reach out and ask friends if you can help them recycle their Amazon boxes and other cardboard products.
Whether you’re using an open composting system like me, you’re going to layer the brown material and the green material on top of each other. If you’re using a tumbler, you can add everything in and give it a spin. Now you let it rest.
This step is simple. Once a week, you are going to turn the compost with a shovel, garden hoe, or pitchfork. Or if you’re using a tumbler, you’ll just give it a good crank. The tumbler compost will be ready to use for dirt in just a few weeks, but the outdoor compost pile can take up to a year to fully break down and be ready.
Bonus: Feeling confused about what you can and can’t compost? You can use this handy guide from "Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook" by Dana Gunders. This post also contains great information on why certain items shouldn’t be composted.
If you followed these steps, you are now along for the journey with me - learning to compost and reducing our food waste together. The planet thanks you and so will all your plant babies when you plant them in nutrient-rich soil that’ll help them thrive.
Even if you’re not a gardener or have a house full of plants, you might have a friend who will be happy to take that compost off your hands and use it for their plants. You can see if there’s a community garden in your city that would use it for a good cause.
You can advocate for food composting in your city if it’s not yet available. You can only purchase what you’re actually going to eat. You can freeze foods getting close to expiration. There are so many ways to actively cut down on your carbon footprint and the way you support or harm our environment.
It doesn’t have to be complicated, even if it is a sacrifice. We each need to take responsibility for the role we play in reducing food waste. I’m starting with composting - what are you going to do?
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About the Writer
Olivia Alnes is a writer, advocate, and entrepreneur based in Moorhead, Minnesota. Her work is focused on empowering and encouraging women. She blogs at oliviaalnes.com about all things intentional lifestyle - from food to justice. When she’s not working, you can usually find her working on DIY projects or walking her fluffy foster pup, Pepper.
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Vincent Chin was brutally murdered by Robert Ebens and Michael Nitz on the night of June 19, 1982. His White assailants thought the young Chinese-American was of Japanese descent, and beat him to death in a racially-provoked attack. They were each asked to pay $3,000 and serve three years of probation, but did not receive jail time for Chin’s murder. On October 24, 1871, a mob of White and Hispanic men carried out a massacre in LA’s Old Chinatown which left 19 Chinese immigrants killed. Out of the 500 rioters, only 10 were prosecuted and 8 were convicted. All convictions were eventually overturned, and the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed into law the following year. After the attacks on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps from February 19,1942 to March 20,1946, effectively stripping them of all personal property and excluding them from American society. After years of forced imprisonment, poor living conditions, and enduring decades of racist attacks, Japanese-Americans were officially given reparations in 1988. That is 46 years after a government-backed campaign of xenophobic and racist ideologies.
The tragic events that took place in Atlanta on March 16th have been largely perceived as part of a sudden wave in violence targeting Asian Americans. The senseless killing of 6 Asian women sent shockwaves throughout the country, leaving many of us asking how we got to this point. Was this motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic? How could someone feel this much hate? Why them? We might never get a clear answer as to why these innocent victims lost their lives that day, but our society can try to search for answers by first educating ourselves on the Asian American experience.
The story of Asian communities in our country is one plagued by scapegoating, false stereotypes, and a lack of understanding from its neighbors. In times of national crisis, such as the ongoing pandemic, WWII, or economic declines, Asian Americans have consistently found themselves on the receiving end of populist animosity. But regardless of whether the national narrative chooses to turn on Chinese, Japanese, or even Vietnamese Americans, Asian people of all backgrounds are continuously grouped together in the eyes of the racist. We saw this with Vincent Chin, we saw this with Vicha Ratanapakdee, and we saw this in Atlanta.
The grouping together of Asian identities means that the fight for social justice transcends cultural lines. But even with a diversity of voices calling for change, the community still struggles to be heard. Attacks against Asian Americans have notoriously failed to be labeled as hate crimes, sparking public outrage from people of all backgrounds. A simple explanation for this could be the lack of hate symbols that target Asian communities, or at least any that carry the same weight as a swastika or dangling noose. Another could be Westerners’ historical disinterest in the Asian experience, leaving many to wonder what it will take to increase awareness of what this community has endured. In fact, the idea that Asian Americans have quietly navigated society without causing any “trouble” plays directly into what we know today as the “Model Minority” myth.
Depicting all Asian Americans as law-abiding, well-educated citizens that never spark public disorder might seem amicable on paper, but in reality, only promotes harmful generalizations. For example, the experience of an average Japanese-American might be entirely different from the experience of an average Vietnamese or Korean-American. A second-generation Asian American might face a different set of barriers than that of a recent immigrant. To portray Asian Americans as a “model minority” is, in fact, to pardon systemic racism towards other groups. It claims that if Asian Americans can “make it”, so can you. But the realities of the Black, Latinx, or LGBTQ+ communities are innately different. This stereotype only emboldens the differences between Asian Americans and other groups, therefore isolating them and creating a breeding ground for anti-Asian sentiments. To use Asian Americans as a model is to not only generalize them, but silence them in the process. The message is: you’ve cracked the code to the American Dream, therefore you must demand no more or no less.
When I was asked to write about AAPI Heritage Month, my initial reaction was: why me? For the record, I’m not Asian nor do I have any ties to Asian culture. It seemed, frankly, out of place for someone like me to speak on the matter. However, the more I dwelled on what to say, the more I found myself discovering parallels to my own experience as a first-generation American. I am the proud son of Latin American immigrants who grew up in a predominantly White Phoenix suburb. Living in a border state meant that the national dialogue surrounding immigration was something constantly circulating around me, and at times became even deeply personal. Racial jokes, meant in jest or as insults, were common. Verbal attacks towards my family in public spaces for speaking in Spanish happened. Being told that my accomplishments were a result of me being Mexican and not of my own merit was something I experienced more than once. But more often than not, I bit my tongue and laid low. It’s best to not provoke, I thought.
What Asian Americans are currently experiencing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic brought back vivid memories of my teenage years when anti-immigrant sentiment reached a peak in Arizona. After the passing of SB1070, people within the Hispanic community were genuinely afraid for both their futures and personal safety. Many chose to take to the streets to fight for immigration reform, but others hid away in silence out of fear. It was a fear of deportation, a fear of violence, and a fear of only further provoking a system that has already labeled you as the problem. My experience of living between these two polarized worlds has profoundly shaped who I am today, but also taught me what it feels like to be silenced or left unheard.
I call upon everyone who is not a member of the Asian American community to do their part this upcoming AAPI Heritage Month. It is time we collectively amplify the voices of all Asian Americans, regardless of background, during such a dark time in our nation’s history. It’s time to educate ourselves on the Asian American experience and to support our Asian friends, communities, and local businesses. It’s time to tell our Asian American friends that we see them, hear them, and care for them. If we continue to interpret these hate crimes as momentary tragedies or isolated incidents, we will never acknowledge the root issue that has caused Asian Americans so much pain. To be defined by your otherness is to be misunderstood, and the Asian American community has struggled to rally the needed support in its fight for social change.
As we’ve witnessed in many civil rights movements over the past century, there is true strength in numbers. However, the Asian American community has historically lacked the helping hand of its fellow minorities and constantly faces the danger of history repeating itself. There is no “model minority” in America because we are more than just minorities. It’s time to speak up but to also listen. It’s time to forget otherness and promote openness. It’s time to stop scapegoating and ask yourself why a certain group makes you feel a particular way. The problem doesn’t necessarily lie solely in them, but rather within yourself. #StopAsianHate.
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Staff Notes:
If you are unfamiliar with the complex issues that AAPI community faces, we highly recommend We Need to Talk About Anti-Asian Hate by Try Guys. In this video, YouTuber celebrity, Eugene Lee Yang, led an in-depth conversation about the complex, often untold history of the Asian American community, the unique struggles they face, and find out how you can help.
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About the Writer
Sylvio Martins is a writer, blogger, editor, and actor based in Los Angeles, CA. After graduating from UCLA with a B.A. in English, he decided to pursue his creative endeavors full-time. Besides his work on-screen, Sylvio writes on a variety of lifestyle beats, as well as providing social commentary on current events and cultural trends. He now produces his own blog, Amalgam, which launched in April of 2020.
When he’s not writing, he enjoys cooking, binging Netflix, foreign films, and calling random friends to catch up at random hours of the day.
Profile picture sourced from iStock.
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At this point, everyone knows at least a little about climate change. Buzzwords like “sustainability,” “carbon neutral,” and “environmentally-friendly” have flooded the internet. These words can be difficult to define because modern marketing techniques often twist them to suit their own needs.
Carbon neutrality is the perfect example. A company or individual is carbon neutral when they offset their carbon dioxide emissions so that the total net emissions for the person or group equals zero.
As part of their green initiatives, more and more companies are going carbon neutral. But going carbon neutral is not the same as reducing the carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere. A company can claim carbon neutrality by investing in projects that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere without making any changes to the amount of fossil fuels they burn.
Of course, carbon dioxide is a natural and essential part of human life. Every breath we take produces carbon dioxide. However, environmental leaders warn that if we do not find ways to stop burning fossil fuels, global warming will reach “the point of no return” as soon as 2042.
So the question has to be asked. Is the term carbon neutral nothing more than a marketing scheme? Does going carbon-neutral help the environment? Let’s expose some of the common carbon-neutral misconceptions to see if this environmental buzzword is worth the effort or simply another scheme to soothe the masses.
Often carbon neutrality is portrayed as a green initiative, but this can be misleading. A company can claim carbon neutrality without actually making any changes to its infrastructure. For example, Delta airline has a new feature on their website that allows you to calculate the carbon emissions from your flight and allows you to donate money to a carbon offset program of your choosing.
Unfortunately, Delta and other carbon-neutral airlines have made it clear that the technology to switch from fossil fuels to biofuels or batteries is still a long way off. Instead, airlines invest the money in carbon sinks. Carbon sinks remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they put out. Forests are a natural carbon sink since trees absorb carbon dioxide and expel oxygen in their place.
Carbon sinks are the equivalent of slapping a band-aid on a gaping flesh wound. Airlines still produce too much carbon dioxide, but investing in carbon sinks allows them to market themselves as carbon neutral. However, studies have shown that companies that invested in carbon neutrality either use carbon offsetting to eliminate carbon usage that they cannot eliminate internally or to create a price on carbon to incentivize less carbon usage in the future. This implies that companies that advertise carbon neutrality are taking climate change seriously.
The idea that trees could save us from our carbon addiction is an appealing one. In an ideal world, we could plant enough trees to use fossil fuels without any infrastructure changes. This misconception is overwhelmingly false. While it is true that planting trees can help us reduce carbon in the atmosphere, that doesn’t negate the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels.
If the point of no return is only 21 years away, we do not have time to wait for trees to save us. New forests take about 100 years to mature. Not only that, but healthy forests require diversity. Most carbon sink projects are not focused on creating a robust ecosystem. Instead, they focus on planting as many of the same trees as possible, otherwise known as a monoculture. Scientists do not know if monoculture forests will be as productive at absorbing carbon as the old ones.
Instead of planting new forests, we should focus on preserving the forests we already have. Unfortunately, preserving forests appears next to impossible since 18 million acres of forest are lost every year due to human expansion.
Relying on the trees to save us is outdated and inefficient. Trees cannot reverse climate change on their own. Planting new trees can reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, but we should be focusing our efforts on finding a way to reduce the release of greenhouse gases we are using right now.
Committing to renewable energy seems like the logical next step. The benefits of switching from fossil fuels to renewable resources like solar or wind are well-documented. However, renewable energy still has a long way to go before it can completely offset our carbon footprint.
Many corporations who claim to use 100% renewable energy do not use it 100% of the time. To say that they use 100% renewable energy, they need to purchase enough renewable energy to match their yearly energy usage. When it comes to solar energy, power can only be generated in the hours when the sun is shining. Any excess energy gets stored in the local power grid for later use.
If the grid does not have enough storage for renewable energy storage or energy generations are too small, the grid uses electricity from fossil fuels to supplement it. The efficiency of your local power grid and how often you calculate your energy usage are both vitally important when calculating the actual benefits of renewable energy.
Our very infrastructure needs an upgrade if we want to effect change on a large enough scale. Over 50 percent of carbon emissions in the United States come from two sources: 1) power plants that supply electricity and heat and 2) transportation. By focusing on improving these two sources, we could dramatically reduce our carbon emissions on a large scale.
Removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is not something quick or easy. We can make small changes to our daily carbon output by choosing businesses that act responsibly, buying fuel-efficient cars, and selecting electricity companies that use green sources like wind or water power. But the modifications necessary to stop global warming require massive changes to US infrastructure and policies.
Offsetting carbon output is only a piece of the puzzle. Instead of focusing on breaking even, we need to commit to actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
You can start by doing research. What is your contribution, and what changes can you make as an individual? Calculating your carbon footprint is easier than ever before. The EPA has an easy-to-use calculator that can show your exact carbon output.
The EPA’s calculator also has tools that show how much carbon you can offset by introducing energy-saving methods into your homes, such as using energy-efficient light bulbs or recycling. You can also improve your carbon footprint by reducing the energy you use to heat/cool your home, buying an environmentally-friendly car, using public transportation, and reducing waste.
Increasing demand for environmentally-friendly heating and transportation has already begun to effect change. We can no longer do the minimum amount to get by, and that includes going carbon neutral. Carbon neutrality is not enough to stop global warming. We need to focus on actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere instead of breaking even. We must hold ourselves and corporations responsible for the state of the world, and only then will we be ready to make the necessary changes that will save our planet.
Sources
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About the Writer
Emma Matthies is a lover of stories, nature, and people. When she is not reading or writing, she is spending time in the great outdoors, baking, practicing yoga, and having adventures. Read more on her blog.
Profile Picture by Ville Heikkinen sourced from iStock.
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When people hear the terms “fast fashion” or “unethical fashion labor”, right away their minds go to outsourced garments from places such as China or Bangladesh, amongst many other developing countries or poverty-ridden places around the globe. The global fashion industry has exposed the exploitation of workers in sweatshop-like conditions in the past, and consumers from all over the world have taken note of the low-wages and concerning working environments. Many Americans have vowed to shop the “Made in the USA'' label only, without realizing that this does not stop them from supporting sweatshops and the exploitation of workers.
The definition of a sweatshop is any factory that breaks two or more labor laws, according to the US Department of Labor. These labor laws are set in place to ensure the ethical treatment of factory workers and working conditions, but a lot of the time, factories are able to get away with breaking these rules.
The most prominent violation in garment factories in the USA is the workers being paid below the federal minimum wage and not receiving any overtime pay. In other words, workers putting together pieces of a garment are being paid by the “cut” or by how many products they are able to produce, rather than by the hour or the effort it takes to produce high volumes of clothing items. Factory worker’s days span between 10-12 hours of intensive labor, without getting paid the adequate amount for their work.
In America, about 1.8 million people are employees in the fashion industry. The fashion industry is in no doubt one of the biggest industries, yet the pay gap is huge between people who do physical work and those who work in sales or marketing of the products. Factory workers rarely work a standard 40-hour week and typically work way more overtime in order to make money. Despite there being minimum wage laws in every state, factories usually go by the “pay by piece” system, meaning they go around the minimum wage laws by paying their workers by the number of pieces they make. This leads to workers being paid far below what they should be receiving, which has been said to be around $5 an hour. Many former factory workers in Los Angeles have stated that they would have to work 60-75 hour weeks just to earn $300.
The highest concentration of these violations is found in California and New York, and these factories typically employ immigrants. Los Angeles is the biggest fashion production “hub”, employing over 46,000 factory workers from Mexico and Central America. The stigma around immigrant work is highly visible, and unfortunately, large companies still believe that immigrants are much more easily taken advantage of. When workers are desperate to find jobs to provide for their families, but have language barriers, no social network, lack of education, amongst many other reasons for staying, they will take the harmful reality of sweatshop work in order to make an income. The US Department of Labor raided ten garment factories in the fashion district in Los Angeles, California in 2012 and found that the factories owed nearly $400,000 due to wage and overtime violations. Most of the factory workers were women from Mexico that had major language barriers with the authorities. This comes as no surprise, because over 70% of factory workers in Los Angeles still to this day are immigrants. After another U.S. Department of Labor investigation in 2016, 77 garment companies in the city of Los Angeles were found to be cheating their workers 85% of the time in terms of money. That’s a major hourly wage and overtime gap.
Most factory workers are contractors, meaning they could easily be let go or fired, as manufacturers don’t take into account their workers’ job security, they just want to match production demand. There is no sense of security or benefits, so not only are the workers getting cheated by how much money they make, they also have the thought of losing their jobs lingering in the back of their minds. This was especially apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, as millions of garment makers did lose their jobs. The workers had no safety nets, and companies had to cancel huge orders of garments not thinking of the impact this would have on the workers in their supply chain.
The majority of workers in the fashion industry don’t complain or bring these issues to light for reasons such as fear of deportation, anxiety over losing their jobs, the fear of abuse, or lack of resources. Although there are labor unions and worker retaliation, most workers take the unethical treatment and it is up to the consumer to make decisions about purchasing from various brands in fashion.
The USA is a capitalist hotspot. It would simply be naive to think that the fashion industry in America isn’t willing to compromise quantity for quality. The label is meant to take the consumers’ worries away by slapping on “Made in the USA” and for consumers to turn a blind eye towards the injustices that workers face each day. People believe that places such as China, Vietnam, and India are meant to be the pioneers for fast fashion, America would never. But this is just not so.
Let’s think of a scenario where you walk into a store and find a gorgeous $15 jacket you know you’ll be wearing everywhere for the next few months. However, behind the $15 jacket is a $6/an hour worker, working 12 hour days to produce 700 pieces in a Californian factory. The garment factory that the piece came from is not owned by any specific brand, they were just told to produce the jacket, and so they did. The large quantity order was then bought by a big American fashion brand and sold for cheap in their stores, in order to make high revenue since it is so cheap and appealing to consumers. If the pay rate for the workers even slightly increased, the overall cost of the jacket would be much higher. Companies are not willing to compromise their sales for paying factory workers more.
Brands have been quite secretive about what percentage of the price of their garments go to the worker, and from what we know from investigations, it definitely is not a lot. Although there are laws that are meant to ensure workers minimum wage, over 85% of garment factories in California have not abided by the laws. Statements from multiple former garment workers in California stated that the factories they worked for went by the “pay by piece system”, paying them around 3 cents per piece.
There are ways that consumers can stay more mindful of their purchases and limit the number of garments that are purchased from sweatshops.
Here are some ways you can stray away from the unethical fashion industry in America:
Allégorie is committed to protect the rights of garment workers by exercising strict due diligence on manufacturers we work with. We ensure that our workers are treated fairly, paid fairly and provided with social benefits. To learn more about this, click here.
Sources:
https://www.greenamerica.org/index.php/fair-labor-home/does-made-usa-mean-not-sweatshop
https://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2012/fashion/
https://fashionunited.com/global-fashion-industry-statistics/
https://archive.attn.com/stories/18483/made-america-how-sweatshops-exploit-immigrants-make-your-clothes
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmajohnson/2015/01/15/the-real-cost-of-your-shopping-habits/?sh=6a95b1ab1452
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/garment-workers-paid-piece-say-they-ll-keep-fighting-change-n1237810
Profile picture by renserafoto, sourced from iStock.
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About the Writer
Emily is a writer from Chicago, Illinois. Her lifestyle blog focuses on millennial content, ranging from pretty much anything that has to do with beauty, fashion, product reviews, advice and food. As a former Environmental Protection Agency intern, she wants to continue writing more about sustainability and raising awareness for global issues. In her free time, she enjoys trying out new restaurants in Chicago and spending time outdoors. Check out her lifestyle blog here.
]]>In more recent times, the term “sustainability” has unquestionably become a buzzword in the fashion world. With knowledge of the industry’s environmental impacts increasingly permeating the public consciousness, companies are scrambling to earn a green reputation. The abundance of conversation and information on the subject is an invaluable tool for transparency and change. But with an abundance of information, misinformation is inevitable. That’s why we scouted the internet to discover these five myths that need to be debunked immediately.
False: There isn’t enough research to create a ranked list that’s actually valid, which means #2? Well, it’s a fantasy figure, and any list that gets too specific without acknowledging these data limits might as well be imaginary. The Pulse of the Fashion Industry’s yearly reports—a collaboration between the Global Fashion Agenda and the Boston Consulting Group—is one of the few resources that compiles and analyzes data in order to provide a concrete idea of the fashion industry’s environmental progress and damage for a given year. In 2017, the Pulse of the Fashion Industry report begins their analysis by stating that there is a lack of data to substantiate the claim that the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world.1 This is probably the reason why a google search for a list ranking the most polluting industries produces a lot of variable and conflicting results, most of which include a lack of credible sources. The truth is that there is not yet enough comparative data to create such a list. So why has this unsubstantiated claim become so popular and widely accepted? According to the New York Times, who cites Linda Greer, former senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, it largely comes down to relatability: the fact that fashion is a consumer-facing industry.2 One that is wildly successful at appealing to our psychology. So, while many people are interested in talking about the impacts of fashion, they’re generally not so interested in talking about the cement industry. Key point? We don’t know the order of the ranking, but we do know which industries are significant enough to be on the list. Let’s fix the fashion industry without allowing other problematic industries to slip under the radar just because they’re not as relatable to our daily lives.
False: Although a company’s focus on not contributing to the exploitation of animals is great, these same companies all too often fail when it comes to being environmentally aware. It might be tempting to think vegan = good, period. But this is simply not the case. There are issues with many of the vegan materials commonly used in terms of biodegradability. Additionally, the processes of creation and the chemicals released from vegan products can be just as—or more—unsustainable when compared to nonvegan materials.3
Vegan leather, for example, is most often made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and polyurethane. Since PVC is such a rigid material, phthalates are added in production, and these phthalates can often leak out over time as the material becomes degraded, which is not only toxic for the environment but depending on the phthalates used can be directly toxic to human health as well. By comparison, while the current method to create polyurethane is less toxic, both of these materials largely contribute to the millions of tons of synthetic fibers that end up in the ocean every year, of which only a small fraction are from a recycled source. Despite all of these pollutant factors, companies advertise the term vegan as if it absolves the material and the company of any ethical issues.
The misleading marketing that many companies use when cashing in on their vegan label is very common, which makes it a great example of greenwashing. “Greenwashing” is in essence a marketing strategy that either makes sustainability claims that the company doesn’t live up to, or overemphasizes the small changes in order to distract from much bigger issues in their production methods.4 Convincing? Yes. Sneaky? Most definitely.
If you are interested in learning more about the greenwashing phenomenon or want the full low-down on vegan leather, check out our previous blog posts.
Yes and No: As a plant material, cotton is much more biodegradable than synthetic clothing materials like polyester, nylon, acrylic, etc. It is also an extremely gentle material for skin, especially for those with allergies or sensitive skin.
On the other hand, production of cotton can create issues when it comes to its effect on the environment, namely in terms of pesticide and water usage. Cotton is a resource-demanding plant: it takes 20,000 liters to grow enough cotton to produce a shirt. Cotton is sometimes grown on arid land that does not receive enough rainfall for the plants, making water waste a major issue.5
However, implementing more sustainable agricultural practices like advanced irrigation technology that reduces water use and reducing the use of pesticides substantially mitigates these environmental impacts. For example, in 2011 WWF reported that they helped farmers growing cotton in Pakistan reduce their water usage by 39% and pesticide use by 47% through alternative irrigation practices. These changes also resulted in an 11% increase in profits.6 Cotton is predominantly grown in countries where it is the main source of income for many families. Working to reduce waste benefits both the environment and those who rely on the cotton for income.
False: It’s tempting to assume that a higher price tag means that the workers who create these products must be more fairly compensated, but research on the topic shows otherwise. According to a report by the Clean Clothes Campaign, numerous eastern European countries have become a major location of the exploitative production common within the fashion industry.7 This is because in many of these countries the minimum wage is significantly below the living wage, creating the ideal conditions for companies to take advantage of the workers. Additionally, numerous companies have switched their production from Asia to countries in eastern Europe, not just for the similar cost of labor, but so they can use the “made in Europe” label, which does not yet have the connotations of exploitation that countries like China and Bangladesh already have. Many luxury companies such as Prada, Hugo Boss, and more are taking advantage of this fact. Consumers see the high price tag and the “made in Europe”-approved label and assume this means good ethics are in place. If you dig a little deeper, you find the facts: that the workers who create the products for a significant number of high-end brands are being paid much below their living wage. The only real difference is the location of where this exploitation is taking place.
False: The process of turning recycled materials into a product is actually much more costly than one would think. For example, if the recycled content comes from used material such as fabric, the process of making sure it is completely sanitized and consumer-ready is already an immediate cost there, and this is before labor needed for reconstruction has taken place.8
Products made from recycled materials are often made from unconventional materials. Sewing a bag out of tubing is a lot trickier and more labor intensive than using polyester or nylon. Oftentimes brands that use recycled materials take extra measures to keep their waste and pollution levels low, and unfortunately more sustainable manufacturing can also be more expensive. An example of this is companies that recycle the water they use during production. This is a very sustainable practice that takes plenty of labor and capital to do successfully, thereby increasing production cost. Finally, many companies that use recycled materials are smaller companies that don’t have the established scale of economy to survive lowering their prices while remaining profitable. The more aggressively these smaller companies try to expand, the more they are forced to choose: keep the prices that compensate for greener production costs or sacrifice ethics in order to lower prices.
We hope that debunking these myths has been informative. However, consumer awareness is just the beginning. Taking action is the best way to change the industry, whether that’s through new laws or everyday purchases, the potential to make a difference is seen most when it is demanded.
Economic incentives can make a huge impact when the system is motivated by profit. For example, when the U.K. mandated a 5-pence charge on plastic bags, there was a 90% decrease in amount of use.9 In the U.S., California was the first state to ban plastic bags in 2016, and within that same year plastic bag litter was reduced by 66%.10 A handful of states have quickly embraced the ban since then, with New York passing it into law as recently as March 2020. The major effects of these measures on plastic bag waste emphasizes how quickly meaningful change can occur when we embrace it so fully it becomes law. Faster industry change is imperative and offering direct financial punishments and incentives to companies is a tool that is currently being underutilized.
That being said, we should never underestimate our own influence. Everyday purchasing choices have the potential to be just as instrumental as direct mandates. We as consumers can and absolutely should embrace the power we have to influence when we invest in the future by purchasing from more sustainable brands.
Sources:
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About the Writer
Lauren graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in English, after which she began working as a writer and editor. If she isn't writing, she's likely playing with other people's pets, expanding her playlists, or researching topics she'd like to learn more about.
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When I first learned about zero-waste I remember feeling immensely motivated and also incredibly overwhelmed. Just the term “zero-waste” felt daunting. As a movement zero-waste aims to create as little waste as possible, with everything tossed away being able to go in the compost or recycling bin. But if you take one look at your trash can it’s easy to struggle to comprehend where you should even begin. I came up with a false narrative that I needed to go zero-waste overnight. But I quickly learned that zero -waste, or rather just minimizing your waste, is a journey in which the process is as equally important as the destination.
One important aspect of “zero waste” is to reduce waste produced. The zero-waste movement is rooted in protecting the planet. In the United States we have a well-established “solution” to our trash. We simply put it out on the curb or down a garbage chute and that’s the last we see of it. It’s such a well-run system that I found it easy to not think twice about the amount of trash I was producing. But whether we see where our trash ends up or not, it still exists and it still creates greenhouse emissions. Every minute an entire truckload of garbage is emptied into our oceans, which is why it is estimated that by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans.
Amount of trash accumulated in one month, at 2-year mark of my zero-waste journey.
Another big part of zero-waste is about reducing consumption, especially the ones that are toxic to the ecosystem, like plastics. This simple action can help reduce the amount of oil fracking, resulting in less greenhouse emissions, and keep plastics out of landfills and our oceans. Recent studies have shown that plastics have been found in hundreds of species in wildlife, including up to 86% of all sea turtle species. It’s easy to feel like we are just one person, and that our actions don’t matter. But moving towards a zero-waste lifestyle has the ability to keep plastics out of our oceans and save the wildlife it has been harming. In the United States, the average American produces 4.4 pounds of trash every single day. Over the course of the year that totals to 1,606 pounds of trash, with only 34.5% of that waste being able to be recycled. So, even if you were to cut your waste in half, these actions would still have a huge impact on the planet.
But even after understanding the term “zero-waste”, I was still intimidated as the word “zero” sounded so intense. I decided to look at this as an opportunity and started with something that felt like an easy first step. As time went on, I realized that most of the waste I produced came from when I was out and about, away from my zero-waste home. Here are some sustainability essentials that helped me start my journey of reducing my waste, both at home and while I was out.
There are so many incredible products out there to help you along your zero-waste journey. But it is important to purchase and use items that you thoroughly enjoy. After all, the more you like them, the more likely you are to continually use them. When I first started my journey, I would feel quite guilty if I forgot any of these items, as if I was failing the entire movement. But we must remind ourselves that while our actions do matter, it’s equally important to feel good during the process.
The perfect time to start a new journey isn’t tomorrow, but rather right now. If I had waited until I felt absolutely ready to start my zero-waste journey, I would have never started. The beginning of the new year offers a time for reflection and a time for goals. Let this be the year you start your journey, the year you stop waiting to feel ready and starting making changes. You are never alone on this journey, and the zero-waste community is here to help you every step of the way.
Learn more about how Allégorie helps solve food waste problems here.
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Sources:
EPA, Municipal Solid Waste. (n.d.).
World Economic Forum, 27 Oct. 2016, “Every Minute, One Garbage Truck of Plastic Is Dumped into Our Oceans. This Has to Stop.” by Pennington, James.
World Economic Forum, January 2016, The New Plastics Economy Rethinking the future of plastics.
Environment America Organization, Wildlife Over Waste. (n.d.)
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About the Writer
Marie Wilson is a Sustainability Blogger, Freelance Writer, and Climate Activist. Her writing focuses on the intersectionality of sustainability and the outdoor/travel industries. She was born and raised in Washington State near the city of Seattle. Her goal is to ensure that sustainability is accessible for all individuals. When she is writing she is often found trail running, hiking, biking or skiing. She currently resides in Bellingham, WA.
Blog | IG: @mindfulpeaks
Leather has been praised for its durability and style over the centuries, but before there was leather, silicon, and cellophane, our ancestors utilized plants as robust tools and clothing. And they sure knew what they were doing!
While many people think of plant textiles as being flimsy, like cheap cotton that will pill and deteriorate with use, plant fiber has been used as a highly durable material for centuries! In fact, it is speculated that rope-making from plant fiber predates even stone working. In ancient Egypt, the papyrus plant had a hand in the creation of the iconic pyramids. The fiber was woven into sturdy ropes that lifted heavy limestone blocks that make up the pyramids that stand today. Even thin strings made from the stems of the papyrus plant have been discovered in cordage from the Giza Plateau, and the tips of the building phases of Khufu’s pyramid.1
Egyptians weren’t the only ones who recognized the utility of plant material. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spanned through modern day Afghanistan all the way to India, was considered the first civilization to utilize jute fiber in the 3rd millennium BC. Since then, jute has been known for its durability and utility. It was even heavily used in WWI by the United States as a sturdy sacking material that could withstand the wear of excessive friction and extreme conditions.2
Another example of robustness and versatility is bamboo. First thought to be utilized in ancient China, the bamboo tree is a highly versatile plant found in many ancient artifacts from the Neolithic period, which was around 8,000 BC. Rich in cellulose fibers and lignin, bamboo is highly durable, pliable, and even water resistant! Since a large variety of bamboo is native to China, the ancient Chinese utilized bamboo for a vast array of items. Most notably, the ancient Chinese would weave freshly cut bamboo into large bowls and buckets, which were used as a durable and reliable container to haul food or other heavy materials. Additionally, bamboo was used to make hundreds of daily items in ancient China and other East Asian countries, including weapons, raincoats, rafts, beds, chairs, arrowheads, and sawblades.3
Alright let’s get into a little science lesson. Plant material is durable due to its concentration of two main components: cellulose and lignin.
Cellulose is present in all plant life on Earth, and it is a structural protein that mainly lives in the cell walls of plants and algae. While all plants are biodegradable, if a plant has more cellulose content, it will not deteriorate as readily. For example, bamboo fibers are made up of almost 50% cellulose, which is why the plant exhibits so much durability. In fact, a study found that bamboo can withstand almost 9000 pounds per square inch (psi), or 60 megapascals (MPa) before cracking. Comparatively, Portland cement has a psi of only 3000, or an MPa of 14.4
Modern residential building constructed using bamboo designed by IBUKU
Lignin is another important aspect of plant durability. It is a unique hydrocarbon that also exists in the cell walls of plants, and it aids in the rigidity of plant material. Interestingly, lignin gets its name from the Latin word lignum, meaning “wood”. Like plants containing high levels of cellulose, plants that are abundant in lignin take longer to break down. Lignin content is an important player in tensile strength, which is the amount of force needed to pull something apart. A material that doesn’t break apart as easily when stretched will have a higher MPa for tensile strength. Jute, for example, has a tensile strength of up to 700 MPa, proving the material to be resilient when strained.5 In comparison, the US standard structural steel has an average tensile strength of up to 550 MPa.6 And yes, that’s the steel used for buildings and bridges.
Largely driven by the pursuit for efficiency and profitability during industrial revolutions, synthetic fibers and materials became widely popular for their low cost and permanence. The first totally synthetic fiber to be fashioned into consumer products was nylon, by DuPont in 1939 7. It was a much cheaper and easy to produce alternative to silk and cotton, and became wildly popular for use as stockings and was even used as ropes and parachutes in the US military.
Since the 1930s, thousands upon thousands of synthetic materials have been created, helping companies expand the boundary of materials, create ideal materials for a given task, and cut costs. However, while improvements in materials science are most often welcome, the detrimental impact that many of these products have on our planet were gradually shown. Because many of these new materials are not biodegradable, and some involve extremely toxic chemicals, the demand for more eco-friendly materials increases every day.
The result of legislations introduced over the years and the growing concern for the wellbeing of our planet is the return of plant fiber. Many companies have turned to the wisdom of our ancestors, and have begun producing products with plant or recycled materials. Breakthroughs have been made every day, some mold plastics into threads which are then turned into fabrics, some turn fruits and vegetable skins into durable and flexible leather, and some adds plant fiber into cars and even airplanes to improve performance.8 Boeing, for example, set out to improve the environmental performance of airplane interiors through novel use of flax in 2014. Plant fibers, with its intrinsic strength and eco-friendly qualities, are making a grand comeback! Who knows, maybe we can one day replace plastic completely with plant fiber!
Ford's Model U concept car utilizes bio-based materials from soy-based seating foam and body panels to the corn-based carpet mats, canvas roof and tires
Are you convinced by the power of plant fiber? Check out our collection of high quality accessories that are made from fruits and plants.
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Source:
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About the Writer
Sarah is a researcher and writer, with two separate degrees in linguistics and communicative disorders. Having worked in several research labs herself, she is passionate about sharing new findings on sustainability and the environment. Sarah enjoys vegan baking, illustration, and hanging out with her pet snake, Ollie.
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Have you heard about greenwashing? I learned what it was and wish I had known sooner. For the past few years, I have been looking for more environmentally friendly clothing brands on my journey towards creating the perfect capsule wardrobe. This proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be and I quickly learned that not all brands are authentic.
So what does greenwashing mean? This term first made its appearance in the ‘80s from environmentalist Jay Westerveld and refers to a company using misleading practices to appear concerned about the environment. Basically, a company can label their products as green or eco-conscious but not actually commit to that statement. It’s like the word “diet” in diet soda. It sounds healthier than regular soda but that is not necessarily the case.
Greenwashing works by appealing to our conscience. When I hear one product is more environmentally friendly than another, I want to purchase the green product even if it costs a bit more. This is problematic if brands aren’t delivering on the promise that their goods are better for the environment. Consumers usually end up paying more than needed without achieving their goal of doing something beneficial for the environment.
For example, it’s easy for a clothing brand to say their new line is made from recycled polyester. That sounds like a great alternative to buying products made with newly created plastics. But, what percentage of their clothing are they making from recycled plastic? Does this initiative extend to all products or just this one line? It is common practice for companies to use a small percentage of recycled materials or only use it on non-performing parts and call the product green in their advertising.
Another common example of greenwashing is found in vegan leather. Vegan leather sounds like a great ethical option that doesn’t harm animals. And it could be. However, most vegan leathers are still being made of plastic. The number one culprit is Polyvinyl Chloride or PVC. Polyvinyl Chloride is extremely toxic and harmful to the workers making the product and, if not handled carefully, harmful to the environment and animals. So while it may seem like a better alternative from a vegan standpoint, it is not necessarily a better alternative for the environment. Learn more about vegan leather here.
Likewise, there has been a movement to get rid of plastic straws with many restaurants opting for strawless lids. This sounds like a great way to cut down plastic, but it’s not as straightforward as it sounds. There are concerns that straw-free lids actually contain more plastic than the straw and lid combination. The plastic used to make the straw-free lids is said to be a better option as it’s easier to recycle. However, only a small percentage of plastic is actually recycled worldwide. So is this option really better or would we be better off using paper lids or reusable cups? There are excellent options out there. Greenwashing just makes it difficult to determine which ones to use or purchase.
Thanks to technology, many options are becoming readily available. But sometimes the labeling is still confusing. For example, it’s a common practice to use faux leather, or vegan leather, to refer to any leather-like materials that’s not made from animal skin, but it does not distinguish between PVC-based materials and other eco-friendlier options such as plant-based materials or recycled materials. Similarly, “100% natural” could refer to animal products or products that include animal-derived Ingredients.
So how do we avoid greenwashing with it being such a common practice? A good place to start is with Futerra's 2015 Selling Sustainability Report. This report outlines 10 basic rules to help us avoid greenwashing.
1. If possible, avoid fluffy language. Words like “green” sound great, but what do they mean?
2. Don’t buy supposed environmentally friendly options from dirty companies. Energy-efficient appliances from big manufacturers may not be very energy efficient.
3. Don’t let suggestive pictures get to you. A plastic water bottle with a picturesque mountain stream on the label is still a plastic water bottle.
4. Irrelevant claims are irrelevant. Brands can advertise using recycled cardboard in their packaging without switching to recycled materials for any of their products.
5. Claiming to be the most green of any brand in that industry.
6. Sources that just aren’t credible. Environmentally friendly and gas-powered vehicles just don’t go together.
7. Try to avoid “gobbledygook.” We should beware of complex words that only scientists or doctors could easily research.
8. Steer clear of imaginary friends. Sometimes a brand might make up an endorsement to appear more legitimate.
9. Look for the proof. Don’t purchase the goods without the proof.
10. Beware of lying. Blatant lies are common practice.
It can all sound overwhelming. When I first started to do my research, I didn’t know where to look. I wanted to purchase ethical and environmentally friendly clothing but had a hard time finding brands that fit the bill. But they are out there. Keep your head up and keep looking. More and more brands are making the authentic switch each day. Together, we can be conscious consumers and make a difference for our environment, our workers, our animals, and our world.
Editor's note:
Want to learn more about building a sustainable wardrobe? Check out this article by Adriana Lopez.
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About the Writer
Miranda Neely studied literature and has since worked in various industries before returning to her passion for the written word. She enjoys researching clean alternatives to incorporate into her lifestyle and home that she shares with her husband and sweet pup. In her free time, you can find her crafting, reading a good book, or absorbing podcasts and nerd culture in mass.
Image Credit: Olga Strelnikova
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BY ANNA SPROUL
Talking about leather in the fashion industry is as taboo as politics at a dinner party. Most of the time, “vegan leather” could be used to stop these usually confrontational discussions, but is it really the perfect answer?
But is it?
The word “vegan” can be misleading. Most would simply assume that since there is a “vegan” in the name, vegan leather is healthy and sustainable. It turns out the answer is like most adult life, complicated.
What Is Vegan Leather
There is no one authority that holds ultimate correct answer to this, but many agree that, on principle, vegan leather refers to any leather-like materials that’s not made of animal skin.
Sounds great, isn’t it? Thousands and thousands of animals can be saved by the adoption of vegan leather. But to all the savvy-minds out there, you must have noticed how loose and ambiguous this definition is. And in any business, where there is ambiguity, there is a catch.
The Catch
Because of the loose definition, companies could produce vegan leather with unfriendly materials. Ironically, bypassing animal welfare does not automatically land us in the safe zone. To date, two of the most widely used synthetic materials for vegan leather are polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU), both are plastic-based materials.
Yes, plastic.
While technology never stops improving, PVC and PU are still criticized for the hazardous toxins released during the manufacturing process, which is harmful to the workers producing them and the environment where they end up. And for all your animal lovers out there, these plastic-based materials are similar to the plastic straws that harm the sea turtles.
Other Options
Lucky enough, there are natural and organic materials available to replace, or at least reduce, the use of PVC or PU, like cork, mango, mushrooms, apple peels and so on. Recycling is also a way to minimize the environmental impact of the plastic-based materials.
Many start-ups are exploring this path. Big textile companies are also looking for better alternatives too. Wearable fruits, or edible clothes, however you’d like to call it, seems to be an inevitable future.
Interested in non-plastic vegan leather? Check out our collections of accessories made from recycled fruits and plants. Also, here is one that discusses the power of plant fiber that makes our collection possible!
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About the Writer
Anna works as an editorial and personal stylist; previously with Vanity Fair in London and prior to that Prada, as well as freelance throughout.
Anna has a known and deep fondness to style herself and everyone in close vicinity every day. She also has found a love to write about style, fashion and everything in-between that tickles her fancy.
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BY ANNA SPROUL
Leather is old.
Simply put. Leather outdates all of the haute couture houses that use it as a beacon and shining light to their collections, it is older than all of us reading this combined.
Our ancestors already knew the influx of popularity leather would have in the fashion industry working it into their clothing even at that pre-historic era. Sure, they outplayed it as a method against harsh conditions, but I think we all know they were secret fashionistas even back then. Yes, it was a vital role in human survival, but by Ancient Greek times it was being used as a decorative piece for armor. Leather was becoming the sign and aesthetic draping of taste and style that it is used for in this day.
A take-away from this is the original street style influencers were in fact the ancient Greek gladiators.
Why Is Leather burning a hole in our pockets?
To be obvious. It’s basic economics. Don’t worry you need not have a mathematical brain. Take it from me, the most in-mathematical person one can find. It’s simple, a bag made of cow leather is cheaper than a bag made of alligator leather. An Alligator is rarer than a cow.Sorry cows, but the Alligators are like the popular foreign exchange students back in the day at school who everyone wanted to befriend. It takes more effort and skill to make the alligator into leather, it takes more literal labor, therefore it’s more expensive.
In the same sense, a leather bag is more expensive than a plastic bag. 'Well obviously' is probably running through your mind right now. However, neither of the two examples consider other costs that are eventually baked into the price tag that consumer pays. This is why sometimes a name brand plastic bag is more expensive than a real leather bag!
How do they even make leather? The lowdown.
A process called tanning is used to transform the raw animal skin and hides into the leather used for said bags, shoes, accessories and trousers galore.
Then leather can be dyed into various colors and tones in order to uniquify the product. This process can be incredibly lengthy to ensure perfect even tones and color transitions. The journey from a cow to final leather products has long been criticized for animal cruelty, pollution and a huge waste of natural resources.
You think that’s all the insider secrets? Not really! There are huge social issues being raised in the industry from inhumane work conditions to toxic chemicals used. So not only is it harmful for the animals in our world, but it’s harmful for human also.
Doesn’t this make you seriously question, is it worth it? Do those shoes worth it?
Vegan Leather = Eco-Friendly?
Simply use vegan leather then, and its fine, right? Well, not so much as it turns out.
There is a wave of finding more sustainable alternatives to leather, which is great. Among all the efforts like vegetable dyes, which try to make the process less damaging to environment, there’s a big limitation for colors, prices, etc. Leather has enjoyed thousands of years of popularity for a reason.
“Faux leather”, a.k.a. “vegan leather” is essentially a material that does not use animal skin. A range of materials that can be used to make vegan leather including synthetics like plastic and natural materials such as cork.
The most commonly used are polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU), both are plastic based materials. These are both hazardous, and themselves sometimes extremely toxic. So really, we find the same social issues occurring with true leather. PU is relatively more modern and less damaging to the environment. But both are not completely eco-friendly as they are portrayed to be! This is so important to understand. In this day it is almost completely advertised that vegan leather is eco-friendly. Full stop. No further explanation needed. Well we need more.
Many have taken another route and developed “vegan leather” using natural non-animal materials, such as cork, pineapple leaves, mushrooms and coconut. We’ve all been taught about getting you fruits and vegetables in, this becomes an ease when one can wear them too! So, tackling food waste also! That we all commit on a daily occurrence, no blame here, have you seen the portion sizes in the USA? This is a relatively new field with many innovative start-ups committed to reshape the industry.
So, while many products claim to be made of vegan leather, they do not necessarily reveal the exact material they use, cheeky. It all depends on how exactly the vegan leather is made, there is a high chance it’s not as eco-friendly as hyped up to be I’m afraid.
Interested in learning more about vegan leather? Check out this blog.
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About the Writer
Anna works as an editorial and personal stylist; previously with Vanity Fair in London and prior to that Prada, as well as freelance throughout.
Anna has a known and deep fondness to style herself and everyone in close vicinity every day. She also has found a love to write about style, fashion and everything in-between that tickles her fancy.
Image credit: Sarah Pflug
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