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REDRESS: U R WHAT U WEAR

Schlafly Art Outside Fashion Show by Boutique Chartreuse
7PM Friday, September 5th at the Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, MO

Forecast: partly cloudy, dry and 75 - perfect for a late summer evening outdoors!

It is Boutique Chartreuses second annual fashion show for Art Outside and they are doing a little wordplay with their theme.  Starting off with a short slide show, “U R WHAT U WEAR”, to challenge the audience to “redress” followed by a runway full of sleek modern fashion for fall.  Redress means to correct or reform, to set right (abuses or injury).  Commonly, we think of redress as simply meaning getting dressed again, i.e. “After the mess was cleaned up, I redressed for the party.”  Boutique Chartreuse asks, why get dressed again if you don’t “redress.” How do you begin to think about a redress?  Here is the Boutique Chartreuse top 10 list of how to Green Your Style. 

Boutique Chartreuse is a green fashion boutique devoted to ecological and justly made fashions with style. The Boutique is a cleint of Pioneer Technologies Consulting, founded by the author of this blog.

It’s not too late to registar for a 3-part Fair Trade class with yours truly and other amazing experts and special guests hosted by the Missouri Botanical Gardens.

The Basic of Fair Trade - Thursdays 7-9 pm September 18, 25 and October 2, 2008 Tastings of Fair Trade Chocolates, Coffees, and Teas

Learn how Fair Trade works and how it can help create a greener environment, develop sustainablity, and lead to greater social justice. In this series of classes we will explore the workings of Fair Trade and sample a selection of Fair Trade products.  

September 18 In the first session social entrepreneur Kellee K. Sikes will explain the basics of Fair Trade and we will sample exquisite chocolate from around the world. Special guests Peruvian Artisan Dionisia Ramos, and Carrie Hawthorne, Executive Director Partners for Just Trade provide first hand Fair Trade artisan stories. (Dionisia and Carrie will also be speaking September 16 at the Social Justice Speaker Series.)

     September 25 

In the second class, chef, commodities broker, and coffee entrepreneur David Hilgeman will take us from coffee bush to cup on a journey of a coffee bean. You will learn and taste what makes coffee the world’s most complex drink through aromas, flavors, and a coffee tasting. David will also instruct us on how professionals conduct a coffee cupping.

 

October 2 

We will conclude the series with Lori Allen a green boutique owner and green fashion guru as we learn the differences in social and environmental costs between conventional and green fashion and how Fair Trade clothing is helping to change the world. You will see, feel, and marvel at some of the luxurious and surprising clothing being made from sustainably grown bamboo, recycled, post-consumer plastic bottles, and other materials. We will sample some of the many fine Fair Trade teas available in St. Louis.

Cost for all three evenings is: $25 for Missouri Botanical Garden members or $30 for non-members 

Registar online today or call (314) 577-9441 to reserve your spot!  

Be The Green, the first article in my green Vital Voice newspaper column debuted this week.  Pickup a free copy if you are in the St. Louis metro area.

Is green a new economy fact or marketing spin fiction?

Read the article and let me know what you think.

If you have been thinking about the growing plastic bag issue - because Plastic Is Forever - here are some things to consider:

- from the Austin’s Got a Brand New Bag campaign

Full and partial bans on plastic bags are at work in China, Ireland, Uganda, South Africa, Russia, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Tibet. 

Friend and client, Lori Allen, of Boutique Chartreuse blogged yesterday about the use of corn-based plastic bags in her post Getting Corny.

Reusable bags are in almost every major box store in the U.S. these days.  In this week alone I have spotted them in Home Depot, Trader Joes, Target, Walgreens, Whole Foods Market, our local groceries Schnucks and Dierbergs… each has their own related story and not all reusable bag cultures are made the same.

So, are you Trashy or Reusably Bagged?

Before forming my own company , I had several life-altering business experiences while working for other firms. In Europe for four of nine years, my work took me to 29 countries over five continents. Often I flew solo as the consultant expert, but more often I flew in crowds, managing teams of five to 125 consultants. Orienteering environments as a manager (and den mother) in foreign lands was a course in the human and business condition.

As Dickens wrote, “it was the best of times and it was the worst of times” — the benevolence of humanity astride the dregs of “let them eat cake” indifference. Cultural, political and environmentally-motivated chapters were dog-eared in my mind. Business and consulting practices spanned successful-and-sustainable to sleazy-and-illegal. The warp-speed and ever changing nature of the experience was thrilling, addictive, and chockfull of mental vertigo.

Eventually I returned to the U.S. The lure of a good peanut butter n’ jelly sandwich and a permanent closet eventually out-weighed the lust for platinum waiting room cards. I returned determined to leverage the best of what I had experienced and work for transforming the worst I had seen. I wanted more for myself, for my work, for my consultants, for my clients, for humanity, and for the world.

When I formed Pioneer Technologies, I started out with a focus on honesty, ethics and integrity which quickly expanded to a commitment to striving for socially and environmentally responsible business.

My research and work since my travels has led me to investigate, test, and implement many forms of responsible business. One practice in particular seems to offer the best of the responsible business models. Fair Trade.

I settled on Fair Trade as the model for my business and the coaching methodology for my clients because it reflects:
- the sensibilities of Abundance Economics and Agile Methodologies,
- a premium on the environment as found in Green and Organic models,
- care for humanity as displayed in Social Entrepreneurship , Slow Food , and True Cost models, and
- the benefits of collaboration over colonization found in For-Benefit (Fourth Sector) and Human Development models.

Currently Fair Trade is focused on trade from persons in developing nations to persons in developed nations. The International Fair Trade Association has established ten principles to guide fair trade transactions.

We have found success using these principals with any project or organization striving for social and environmental responsibility, regardless of the location of their operations or supply chain. Paraphrased Fair Trade principles:

1 Opportunities: Create opportunities for producers disadvantaged or marginalized by the conventional trading system.
2 Transparency and Accountability: Transparent management and commercial relations.
3 Capacity Building: Develop producers’ independence.
4 Promoting Fair Trade: Provide consumers with Fair Trade education and honest marketing.
5 Payment of a Fair Price: A fair price in the local context agreed through dialogue and participation.
6 Gender Equity: Women’s work is properly valued and rewarded.
7 Working Conditions: Safe and healthy working environment for producers.
8 Child Labor: Children’s well-being, security, educational requirements and need for play are key.
9 The Environment: Encourage better environmental practices and responsible methods of production.
10 Trade Relations: Advance payments are made when possible, and profits are not maximized at producers’ expense.

– the International Fair Trade Association

Hardcore executives and entrepreneurs often dismiss these principles sighting supply and demand, free market economy, share holder earnings, or other monetary-only bottom line measurements of success. This rhetoric comes from eyes that have not yet seen and ears that have not yet heard the label reading, publicly commenting hyper-growth of the conscious consumer movement. Even the corporate elite who don’t grasp this moment’s power buy biodegradable cleaning products, consider a new bamboo floor, and drive hybrids. In developed countries, anyone can become an eco-chic, justice-concerned trend setter for the mass consumer base.

When there are multiple forms of success to be had, why would you settle for just one? Stay tuned for my next few posts where I’ll explore the ten Fair Trade principals through practical applications, the conscious consumer movement, and their impact to monetary, human and environmental bottom lines.

Kellee K. Sikes, serving social entrepreneurs and social enterprise
http://www.pioneer-technologies.com

A simalpost with my FastCompany blog “The Business of Social Responsibility“

Are you marketing to Scuppies?The conscious consumer (a consumer actively concerned about the environment and social justice) is one of the fastest growing consumer markets, remarkably gaining a foothold in almost every socio/economic demographic in the developed world.Capturing the attention of this market requires integrity and substance, to gain a Return On Investment that can be significant.

Commenting on Elizabeth Spiers post Benefits of Buying Local; A great blog post about “Exploding the myths, presumptions, and pretensions of the bullies.”

Different models like buying local, Organic, Green, etc help organizations and individuals get at responsible principles more easily, but the onus is still on each of us to be asking alert and precise questions that provide answers and change.

In sharing the models and principals of socially responsible business and the conscious consumer, we ask organizations and individuals alike to consider Fair Trade principles when buying. When Fair Trade is not possible we suggest buying local in a context where you can talk with the retailer or producer who knows the provenance of the good or service.

By speaking with someone local connected to a short and/or transparent supply chain, a conscious consumer can determine if they are participating in a fair trade. In its essence a fair trade should reflect true cost providing a living wage (not a sweatshop or slave labor wage) to all who had a hand in producing the good. A true cost also reflects care for a factors of environmental sustainability. This is complicated. For many of us it will require an evolution in the way we select and consume goods.

Questions Conscious Consumers should ask:

1 Transparency and Accountability: is it possible for me to learn where the materials to make the good came from and who made, transported, distributed, and retails the good? Can I contact anyone of these organizations if I want to learn more?

2 Capacity Building: is this good helping to build the economies of where it is made and sold or is it holding those economies, workers, or consumers hostage in some way?

3 Payment of a Fair Price: is each person in the process of making and getting this good to me paid a fair price in the local context agreed through dialogue and participation?

4 Gender Equity: if women participate in this process, is women’s work is properly valued and rewarded?

5 Working Conditions: is each person in the process able to work in a safe and healthy working environment?

6 Child Labor: if children of working age are working, are the children’s well-being, security, educational requirements and need for play met?

7 The Environment: is each person in the process of making and getting this good to me using and encouraging better environmental practices and responsible methods of production?

8 Trade Relations: is each person in the process of making and getting this good to me being paid on time and able to learn what I am paying for the good as the end consumer if they choose to investigate?

– Adapted from the IFAT Fair Trade Principles by PTC

If everyone began to participate in the conscious consumer movement by focusing on just one good each – would buying local be a focus? If everyone were being paid a fair trade wage, would buying local be a topic of discussion and concern? While you enjoy your next sip of coffee, in your favorite t-shirt and savor a nip of your favorite chocolate bar will it be at the expense of the chance for a happy and productive life for the grower, the habitat of an animal, or a school education for a child?

Kellee K. Sikes, serving social entrepreneurs and social enterprise
www.pioneer-technologies.com

A simalpost with my FastCompany blog “The Business of Social Responsibility“

St. Louis’s Only Green Boutique Moves to Old Orchard in Webster Groves

Boutique Chartreuse, St. Louis’s only Green Fashion Boutique, will celebrate the Opening of their store in Webster Groves Saturday, March 22, 2008 from 10 – 5 p.m. at 8135 South Big Bend Boulevard, Webster Groves, MO 63119.  Boutique Chartreuse will join the dynamic and eclectic mix of locally owned stores in Webster Grove’s Old Orchard shopping and dining district including other local green businesses.

Boutique Chartreuse successfully opened in their Maplewood location in May of 2007, quickly gaining a loyal following of both eco- and fashion-conscious shoppers.  Owner Lori Allen focuses on providing every customer personal attention to find the right styles for her lifestyle, body type, and personal tastes. Allen’s mission is to provide women with clothing that meets their needs: fashionable, wearable clothing for work and play that is also ethically produced and ecologically friendly. 

Organic cotton, hemp, soy, bamboo, cashmere, and silk natural fibers grown and produced without synthetic chemicals, as well as new sustainable fibers like lyocell and Recycled PET grace the labels of clothing carried at Boutique Chartreuse.  The stocklist includes  “IT” eco-lines Passenger Pigeon, Sustainable Collective, Sworn Virgins, Perfectly Imperfect, Habitude, Del Forte, Eco-Gan’ik, Of the Earth, Covet, Texture, Chesterfield, MO- based Dancing Yogi, and many more.   The boutique stocks apparel in sizes 2 to 14 priced from $25 to $250.

“It is a thrill to be moving to such a great location, where we’ll be surrounded by other green and unique locally-owned businesses,” shared Allen.  Webster Grove’s Old Orchard district features some of St. Louis’s most eclectic establishments including Boutique Chartreuse (green), Daisy Clover, Salt of the Earth, Cyrano’s (green), Serendipity, Earth Designs (green), Krueger Pottery, Cravings, Euclid Records, Stratton’s, D’vine, The Grove Deli, Rogers Produce, Weber’s Front Row, and others.

Boutique Chartreuse is the first Green Boutique in St. Louis focused on fashionable ecologically and ethically made apparel and accessories.  They are located at 7298 Manchester Road, Maplewood, MO 63143 through March 7, 2008 and will reopen March 10th in Webster Groves at 8135 South Big Bend Boulevard.  New store hours in Webster will be Tuesday – Friday 10AM to 6PM, and Saturday 10AM to 5PM.  For additional information see the website at www.boutiquechartreuse.com or call (314) 458-2410.
Boutique Chartreuse is a social entrepreneur client of Progressionary’s author Kellee via Pioneer Technologies Consulting

–Fair trade flourishes
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Wed, 13 Feb 2008 7:03 PM PST
Milwaukee’s first fair-trade-certified roses arrived at two fair trade shops Wednesday - just three dozen in…  

–For some consumers, Fair Trade chocolate a bit sweeter
The Daily Free Press Thu, 14 Feb 2008 4:58 AM PST
After reports of labor abuses by major chocolate corporations recently surfaced, smaller businesses and some consumers are moving to purchase chocolate that meets Fair Trade standards for worker treatment and wages.

–The Robertet Group Invests in Plantes Aromatiques du Diois
PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance Thu, 14 Feb 2008 6:00 AM PST
The Robertet Group, a global supplier of flavors and fragrances, announces that the company has taken an equity position in Plantes Aromatiques du Diois, a French company specializing in organic essential oils and aromatic plants, as well as the implementation of sustainable development and fair-trade channels of organic aromatic plants around the world.

–On Education: A ‘Fair Trade’ Approach to Licensed College Gear
New York Times Tue, 12 Feb 2008 8:03 PM PST
Joe Falcone’s company pays garment workers abroad bonuses, and provides them medical, environmental or educational programs.

–Does the fair trade deal smell of flowers or manure?
Irish Examiner Wed, 13 Feb 2008 4:56 PM PST
SEVERAL supermarket groups and markets in Ireland import Kenyan flowers and will this week sell thousands of roses from the African country to Irish consumers.

–Fair-trade, organic gifts are popular Valentines
Pacific Daily News Wed, 13 Feb 2008 9:13 AM PST
There was a time when it was politically correct to hand your loved one a valentine, a box of chocolates, a bouquet of flowers and, perhaps, a bottle of perfume on Valentine’s Day.

–The Fair Trade Future
Global Envision Wed, 06 Feb 2008 3:02 PM PST
The authors of the book ‘Fair Trade: The Challenges of Transforming Globalization’ suggest some key changes for the Fair Trade market.

–1-800-FLOWERS.COM(R) and Fair Trade Certified(TM) Guarantee a ‘Green’ Valentine’s Day
PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance Wed, 06 Feb 2008 8:45 AM PST
1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Inc. , the world’s largest florist and a leading multi-channel retailer, is painting this Valentine’s Day “green” thanks to Fair Trade Certified flowers. In addition to showcasing beautiful buds and stems for Valentine’s Day, Fair Trade Certified flowers allow customers to take part in a larger global movement to support healthier living, concern for the environment and care …

–Shoppers care more about animals than climate
Money Observer Mon, 04 Feb 2008 0:56 AM PST
Animal welfare and fair trade are far bigger concerns to UK consumers than climate change, according to a huge new poll of UK shoppers.

–Natural Skincare Leader derma e Launches “The Paraguay Project” Non-Profit Initiative
Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance Mon, 04 Feb 2008 5:12 AM PST
derma e®, maker of over 90 high-quality, results-oriented skin care solutions, announces the launch of The Paraguay Project, a unique non-profit initiative that creates fair trade, economic opportunities for the people of Paraguay and benefits Paraguayan non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting the country’s children and rainforests.

–Europe’s first fair trade expo takes place in France
EuroNews Sun, 03 Feb 2008 10:59 AM PST
The first European Fair Trade Fair has taken place near Lyon in France.

–Weekend Beat/ Hoping to help producers in developing nations, customers embrace fair-trade products in Tokyo
Asahi.com Fri, 01 Feb 2008 5:37 PM PST
Fashionable boutiques and stores dot the Jiyugaoka area in Tokyo’s Meguro Ward. A branch of a fair-trade chain called People Tree is a five-minute walk from Jiyugaoka Station.

–A New Line of Organic, Fair Trade Certified(TM) Gourmet Whole Bean Coffee From Celestial Seasonings(R)
PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance Tue, 29 Jan 2008 6:06 AM PST
Celestial Seasonings®, a leader in the specialty tea category, recently launched a new line of gourmet whole bean coffee. These 100 percent natural coffees are USDA Organic and Fair Trade Certified, and are available in five distinctive flavors.

Did you know there are several Green web site hosting companies who use solar or wind power to generate all the power needed to host your web site or blog? We know that reliance on fossil fuels requires destructive drilling, significant energy to refine fuels for consumption, and toxic emissions issues. Why not type “green web hosting” in your Internet search engine today and begin hosting your web sites and other web based services on a greener, cleaner energy source.

If you have a Socially Responsible Business Tip to share - please share them as a comment!

—–

Kellee K. Sikes, serving social entrepreneurs and social enterprise
http://www.pioneer-technologies.com

A simalpost with my FastCompany blog “The Business of Social Responsibility“