Well Made

Every time you order an item from a seller on Etsy, the company offsets the emissions created from shipping that order. Since the start of this initiative in February of last year, Etsy has invested in offsetting 173,000 metric tons of CO2. While offsetting these emissions accomplishes a big goal for the Etsy Sustainability team, Director of Sustainability, Chelsea Mozen says it's not the first or last item on their to-do list.Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

On our podcast, we talk about changing patterns of consumption to mitigate the risk of climate change, but we've overlooked a huge blindspot — how climate change disproportionally and profoundly harms communities of color.Full episode transcript available.

A fridge that's full of Methodology meals isn't stacked with disposable trays. A Methodology fridge is stocked with columns of colorful foods, visible through glass jars.Founder Julie Nguyen knows that the Methodology audience is niche — busy people who value high quality, sustainable ingredients — but since they launched five years ago, she's seen their dedicated customer base grow.Every week with her co-founder Stephen Liu and their R&D team, Julie is sourcing new ingredients, while keeping their supply chain quality consistent. She's testing new menu items while continuing to produce customers' go-to favorites. And she's making health swaps while keeping their meals comforting and fulfilling.In this episode, Julie talks about walking the line between keeping standards incredibly high while staying sustainable, finding a stride with automated marketing, traveling to expand the palate, and her discoveries about people's relationship with food.Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

The tile industry moves slowly, but when Eric Edelson joined the Fireclay Tile team, he was set on speeding things up. They were making a phenomenal product and it felt like they’d hit their limit in wholesale. In a sort of eureka moment, Eric penned a new manifesto/business model for a going direct to consumer. That was in 2008.With new flexibility and freedom, Fireclay Tile has experimented with all kinds of upcycled materials (from toilets to monitors), software for customization, sample processes, and sustainability initiatives. In 2015, they became the first tile company to be B Corp certified. Even in the midst of a pandemic, they didn’t lose speed. They were prepared with a plan of action, grounded in their core values: the health and safety of employees, business and client stability, love and kindness. Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

If you already know that kombucha is fermented tea, you're in the minority. If you drink it, you're in an even smaller minority. In the US, only 17% of US households drink kombucha. The idea of a fermented tea made from a hunk of slimy-looking culture is not immediately appetizing, but the taste and health benefits have appealed to people for thousands of years — it's only in the past decade that it's become a mainstay in every health foods store.When Health-Ade Kombucha launched in Los Angeles farmers' markets in 2012 Vanessa Dew and her co-founders had to explain it to health food early adopters. Fast forward eight years, and you can find their bright, colorful, nautical-themed bottles in grocery stores and health food stores across the country, but Vanessa realizes they still have a lot of space to make kombucha a household name. In this episode, Vanessa shares their strange path to kombucha, how they've seen buying habits shift dramatically since people have quarantined, and what they're doing to make kombucha as approachable as possible.Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

The very nature of an emergency is that you don't know when it's coming. It's this vast unknown that paralyzes most people from making plans for worst-case scenarios. Simon Huck, CEO and co-founder of Judy says that people who are unprepared often fall victim to thinking that emergencies could never happen to them or being overwhelmed by all the preparation that has to be done. Judy’s emergency kits and preparedness content are setting out to change that. Judy launched weeks before the spike in coronavirus cases in the U.S. On one hand, a pandemic is certainly a worst-case scenario, so the prevalence of an emergency is not hard to imagine. But on the other hand, Simon and his team had a huge responsibility to build a genuine brand that isn't fueled by hysteria, but instead, guided by facts.In this episode, Simon shares how bite-sized guidance plays a huge part in preparedness, how COVID-19 affected their supply chain, and plans for expanding their product line.Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

Another Tomorrow launched in January, and already they've built an impressive criteria of sustainability standards to keep their supply chain ethical for human, animals, and the planet. Those are the three pillars of their business.Vanessa Barboni Hallik didn't start in fashion. She started in finance, but as she was researching more sustainable finance, she uncovered the huge disparities in the supply chain ethics of fashion fashion brands and luxury sustainable brands. The gap felt unsurmountable, but Another Tomorrow is taking on the challenge, backed by science, data, and an incredible eye for fashion design.In this episode, Vanessa shares how are patterns of apparel consumption can shift and she takes us into the depths of a carefully considered, ethical apparel supply chain.Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

Davis Smith is the founder of Cotopaxi and to grow his team, he's built an environment where people can create. One of the most physical manifestations of those creations is the Del Dia Collection of bags. They're repurposed from remnants of fabric and each bag is a one-of-a-kind colorway, designed by the craftspeople sewing them.As they've grown for the past six years, the Cotopaxi mission to Do Good has extended to new geographies with systemic supply chain shifts to start eradicating poverty in communities around the world. In this episode, Davis shares how he's always faced tough decisions by focusing on people first.Go to the Lumi blog for links and images.

In the midst of a pandemic, businesses and consumers are prompted to hurry up and wait. Meanwhile, the definition of essentials is governed, retail locations are ordered to close, and more and more people are out of work. While a period of in-between can feel stagnant, Rhone founder Nate Checketts decided to take action. He recruited 20 brands to join BRANDS × BETTER — a new coalition of companies that have pledged to donate a portion of their funds to COVID-19 relief organizations. This not only supports to relief efforts, but keeps businesses up and running. From "Not another coronavirus email" to unwavering product launches, Nate and his team at Rhone have opted for action instead of reaction and adapted with solutions that are right for their business and their customers.Links and images on the Lumi blog: https://www.lumi.com/wellmade

With fewer cars on the road, COVID-19 could lead to the biggest drop in emissions since WWII, but this stat doesn't paint a full picture of the pandemic's environmental impact. Sustainability is complicated, and journalist Alden Wicker is an expert in navigating the nuances.Alden worries that the strain on businesses could set back environmental progress by a decade. In Bangladesh, one million apparel factory workers have been laid off due to a shortage of new orders and huge businesses like JCPenney, Kohl's and Walmart declining to pay for orders — over $3B worth. Through the lens of sustainability, Alden is not only concerned about where those clothes might end up, but how these dire circumstances have already lead to the suspension of significant environmental regulations.In this episode, Alden and Stephan discuss how these challenges have magnified issues in the apparel supply chain and Alden shares her three-prong solution for true environmental impact that's not solely reliant on conscious consumerism.Find links and images for this episode on the Lumi Blog.