We’ve all heard the saying “Vote with your dollar”. We know by now, that as consumers, we have the power to influence change. We know that what we buy matters. And this is all well and good until we become so paralyzed about buying anything that shopping “the right way”, becomes a huge hindrance to our lives. How are we really to know who’s doing what they say they’re doing? How are we to know what companies to support? What fair-trade and ethical and organic REALLY mean?
My name is Sensi Graves and I’m a professional kiteboarder and founder of Sensi Graves Bikinis, a swimwear line for active women. And I’m here to say that it’s time for companies to truly step up. It’s time we took some of the burden off of ourselves as consumers and put the expectations on the companies to do business the right way. It’s time for founders and partners and board members to be the change and commit to having impact.
I almost didn’t start my company. I didn’t want to be another manufacturer. I didn’t think that producing things was necessarily the best way to have a positive impact on the world. But it turns out, I was wrong. Brands can have tremendous impact, it’s just up to the founders and managers and CEO’s to have a strong value of protecting our planet built into their ethos.
From the outset, my company has had sustainability built into the core of our brand. But our vision of becoming the most ethical, transparent and sustainable swimwear brand out there hasn’t happened over night. Years have gone into evaluating every aspect of our product and working towards greater sustainability every step of the way.
Today we manufacture everything in our home state of Oregon, we package in compostable poly bags, we use all recycled hang tags and labels, we donate 1% of our sales to environmental groups, we off-set all of our carbon and starting in 2020, we’re making all of our swimwear out of recycled fabrics from reclaimed fishing nets and recycled plastic bottles. And the support we’ve gotten on our crowdfunding campaign toward this transition simply affirms that, we as a brand, are on the right path.
What brands choose to develop matters. And if you are the producer of a product, it’s up to you to make it the best it can be; for our planet, for future generations, for the end-user, for each of us wanting quality, sustainability and transparent business practices.
I almost didn’t start my brand because of hesitancies around manufacturing but I looked to Yvon Chouinard and the impact he’s been able to have with Patagonia and it got me thinking “we can do this, we should do this, why aren’t more brands doing this?”. Patagonia’s ethos is to do the least amount of harm and here at Sensi Graves Bikinis, we’ve taken that up as a call to action. And we’re hoping to influence others along the way. Brands can have impact as manufacturers and producers of goods, if they have sustainability values to guide them.
Should you continue to be discerning with whom you purchase from? Yes. It’s still up to us, as consumers, to shop consciously and responsibly. But there are no more excuses. Brands need to step up. It’s time each of us realizes the impact we can have, as individuals, as groups and most pressingly, as companies building products.