Committed to the cause 🌎

You may have seen that earlier this month we posted a blog entry about Earth Month. If you did not read it (which you definitely should, we think its pretty good), it detailed a list of small but effective changes the average person can make to ‘green’ their lives and become a little bit more eco-friendly. Now here at ALPAKA, we like to think that not only can we talk the talk, but we can walk the walk also. We feel we can encourage others to become a bit more eco-friendly because we ourselves are taking steps all the time to become more eco-friendly. So that is what this blog post is all about, highlighting our environmentally conscious efforts for you all to read, and hopefully convincing you to see us as a brand that genuinely does care. It also won’t hurt that a few of our favourite charities will get a shoutout too.

1% for the Planet

Its pretty much exactly how it sounds, all the members of 1% for the Planet, which are primarily businesses that want to do their part for the environment, donate annually 1% of their revenue for, you guessed it, the planet. These donations are spread across the globe, to numerous non-profit organizations that exist to help a variety of causes including land protection, forest protection, river protection, ocean sustainability and energy production.

in 2021 we donated 1% of our revenue to was donated to seven non-profits, ranging from organizations that provide clean drinking water to Bangladesh to the protection of 950 ancient trees in Peru’s rainforest reserve. Here is a little bit about the work of the seven organizations over this past year:

One Tree Planted

This incredible organization is built on a network individuals, schools and businesses alike who donate money to help ensure that more trees are planted around the world. One Tree Planted operates in six regions around the world including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America and the Pacific. The planting of a tree might seem like a relatively small effort, but when we remember that a healthy tree has the power to offset carbon emissions and provide shelter to thousands of types of animals, lets just say that we are very happy to contribute to this amazing charity.

Karrkad Kanjdji Trust

The Karrkad Kanjdji Trust brings together Indigenous ranger groups, communities and philantropists to address some of the nation’s most pressing issues, including native biodiversity and climate change.

Drip by Drip

Drip by Drip was able to provide 204 Bangladeshi households with clean drinking water from two new biosand filters.

501C3

501C3 provided 110,780 gallons of safe drinking water was distributed to eight disadvantaged communities in the U.S, replacing 886,243 single use plastic bottles.

WECF International

480 Female advocates were trained to change the land and forest law to guarantee tenure rights for women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Support + Feed

Delivered over 90,000 plant-based meals, thus reducing the impact of the meat industry on the environment.

Arbio Peru

Adopted over 950 ancient trees to ensure the long-term protection of Arbio Peru’s rainforest reserve.

Upcycling

With just a bit of creativity, we were able to turn some of our ‘trash’ (AKA off-cut fabrics), into treasure (AKA accessories). We were able to rejuvenate what otherwise might have been scrap fabric, to instead be turned into our zip pouches, the zip pouch max and the modular phone pouch. Pretty simple really, but definitely a step towards become less wasteful, which we will always try to aim for.

X-Pac® VX21

No, this isn’t the name of Elon Musk’s new baby, this is actually the name of the world’s most popular climate neutral fabric, that we are proud to use here at ALPAKA. X-Pac’s VX21 fabric is a laminated pack fabric that is low stretch, waterproof and highly durable, but perhaps even better than that is that it is also 100% climate neutral, meaning that the production of this fabric does not harm the environment as it does not cause any greenhouse gasses to be released during its making. In addition to that, it's also made with recycled components and carries X-Pac's cleenTEC® seal. Our goal is to achieve complete climate neutrality by the end of 2023 and we're happy to include this eco-friendly fabric into the production of our products in the meantime.

You can check our X-Pac® VX21 range HERE.

Onwards.

Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash