One of our founding principles is that green is best.  And we haven’t waivered from that in our 35 years.  So it was truly exciting to all of us at hessnatur to receive a Best of Green award from the readers of treehugger.com.

We arrived in the U.S. a short time ago, bringing our message of responsibility to the planet and its people with our very beautiful, wearable clothes.   It takes time to introduce yourself in a world filled with many messages and lots of apparel choices.  We didn’t realize we had made so many fans – and friends.  (Of course, that’s what we hoped!)

Thank you to those of you who voted for hessnatur.  Thanks also to treehugger, a real supporter of ours since we landed in the U.S.  And to those of you who are just becoming acquainted with hessnatur, please join us in changing your clothes.  Because clothes are more than what you wear, they’re how you choose to live.

To celebrate winning a TreeHugger Readers’ Choice Best of Green Award, we’re offering 15% off all purchases until 4/10/2011 using code NTH123 Enjoy shopping here.

Over eight million people, 95% of them women, are both stockholders and beneficiaries of Grameen Bank. All of them stand unified behind Yunus. Hundreds of demonstrations over the last few days have shown the people’s support for Yunus and the Grameen Bank. NGOs, scientist, and many more have openly declared their support for the Nobel Prize Laureate. So have Hillary Clinton, Kerry Kennedy, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, and Belgium’s Princess Mathilde. Ireland’s former president, Mary Robinson, has founded Friends of Grameen to pool international support.

hessnatur has worked with Yunus and Grameen Knitwear, a Grameen Bank company, since 2008. Our statement T-shirts are manufactured there out of organic cotton from Burkina Faso. The techniques behind hessnatur’s high standards of production were introduced and taught to the people at Grameen by Rolf Heimann personally. An upper floor of the stitching facility was recently gutted by a fire of unknown origin. A hard blow against Grameen and Yunus, whose goal is a world without poverty, where the very concept has been relegated to museum exhibitions. hessnatur also actively supports students through Grameen Shikkha, a subsidiary company of Grameen Bank which commits itself to the education and training of the poor. While most of Grameen Bank’s beneficiaries are illiterate, their children can enjoy a better education, and with that, the opportunity to work toward a more stable existence.

Yunus, whose appeal before Bangladesh’s Supreme Court was refused, has humbly beseeched his people for help. You can help too. Let’s all voice our support of Yunus together.

Our blog post got a question from a customer, asking how the social standards were here, and if we could interview an employee. And we just did. We went right to a seamstress who was sewing a coat for hessnatur and asked her how she liked it here, if she was well, and if she enjoyed her work.

Watch video with caption.

Called into being by the Stockholm International Water Institute, this week is World Water Week! The flooding in Pakistan and the Niger was not, of course, intended to be part of the weeks events, but it does make it clear that too much water is just as threatening as too little. The areas’ elementary housing, as well as the few cultivated fields have simply been washed away by the deluge. Unimaginable, and paradoxical: there is never enough water until there is too much. UNICEF estimates that 1.5 million children are suffering from severe diarrhea in Pakistan alone from contaminated drinking water. The newly sown rice crops of Niger have been swept away – her already hungry people will have no harvest.
And at the same time, water is life. A tremendous multiplicity of life. And for that very reason, the thoughtless pollution and waste of water has consequences for us all. Worldwide. The decline of biodiversity in the oceans and rivers at our very own doorsteps are living proof of these consequences. It does not just happen “somewhere else”.
Staining baths awash with a soup of chemical additives and so-called finishing agents for the textile industry (among others!) leave behind waste water heavily laden with contaminants. Suppliers which carry out dyeing processes for hessnatur’s collection must not only work with dyes free of heavy metals, but must also account for a two stage wastewater treatment procedure. Many of the otherwise common finishing agents for fibers, yarns and fabrics are not to be found in our collection at all. One way to give clean water a helping hand.
I’d like to commit myself to the rest of World Water Week with the thought that there is no waste water. Water is part of a never ending cycle, and can therefore never be a waste product. When we start thinking in those terms, we might treat our precious water resources differently.

You may wonder, why check on social standards in Lithuania when, as a member of the European Union, the standards should be exceptional.  But, as we say at hessnatur, trust is good, but checking is better.  Even in Germany and the U.S. there can be social grievances.  So everywhere that hessnatur has a supplier must be audited.

Lovely promotion video with Matthias Hess, the son of hessnatur’s company founder, who lives in Peru and invites YOU to apply for the hessnatur ambassador to discover Peru! Enjoy watching!

For a more detailed trip description and easy to follow instructions on how to apply, please visit www.hessnatur.com/ambassador

Recently our Peru Ambassador Project was nominated for an IFF Award 2010 (Intelligent Finance Foresight) in Switzerland.  These awards are given for brand communication, customer service and financial service in visionary companies dedicated to sustainable growth.

The ceremony in Zurich, Switzerland was attended by Ingo Bittner (Head of Sales) and me, representing hessnatur.  Though we didn’t win, we were delighted and honored to have been one of the 6 finalists.  The categories that we were nominated for were “Care instead of Control” and “The Customer as a Person”.  This is certainly the philosophy of hessnatur, believing that the more you are involved in what we do and how we do it, the better we are as a brand.

If you would like to become a hessnatur ambassador to Peru, the details are on our website.

I’ve really pushed myself again. This morning, we were with Ramesh, the dyer. Everything for New SADLE is dyed here, including the products for hessnatur. Bit by bit, I have converted his dyes from “local dye stuff” to European varieties, which are produced under more transparent criteria. From the European producers, I receive reliable framework conditions. After extensive tests for heavy metals, formaldehyde, etc. we were able to approve the dyes. Today we were once again able to optimize a dye, as Ramesh has access to a new dyeing apparatus.

Then we had a really crazy appointment: I toured a wool felt production center. Deliciously colorful, wonderful products! I found just tons of great stuff there, from felt hats and crazy handbags to felt-ball necklaces. We’ll see what our designers have to say about this assortment. Speaking of designers: Anette Hoffman, our designer for women’s fashions, is looking for embroidered cotton fabrics. Hari introduced me to a few samples made from organic cotton, and I was impressed. And scores of cartons full of organic cotton are loitering around New SADLE’s office as we speak! Let’s get a move on!

This afternoon I had a meeting with Dr. Massmann, of the GLS- Foundations for the Future. I set upon her with all the charm I could muster and spoke with her about the urgent need for a well to be dug in Kapan near New SADLE. There was no further need to stress the necessity of an ultrasound with her, as we have, dear readers, already talked about that.

This evening, we had a general meeting to wrap up the whole visit. That’s always important after being inundated with new information and ideas. After that, diner in the company of my friends here, and a heartfelt farewell. I’m off to India, where I will meet with a partner in our Burkina Faso project. It’s a small world. “Namaste” merely becomes “Namaska”.

Do you know what it’s like to be in a garage where the thermometer has just slipped past 90 degrees, next to a car with a running motor? I do. I’m in Kathmandu at the moment, and that is exactly what it feels like here. It’s madness! I’ll admit that what you’re reading is not completely politically correct, but indulge me. I’m allowed, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve been involved in the project New SADLE for many years. It’s an impressive undertaking, working with former leprocy victims on the edge of the Kathmandu Valley.

Before I tell you about the project, though, I want to wade into my Love-Hate relationship with Nepal. This country leaves an emotional mark on you. The filth, the complete chaos in the streets, the smog – it’s unimaginable. Okay, I haven’t been to Mexico City, but I’ve been around, just the same. The airport was chaos, and my ride seemed to have evaporated into the hot air. Then I promptly fled my hotel for another. I know, it’s all ‘business as usual’ if you’ve been to Kathmandu. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying.

But then, of course, there are the things I love: I’m at New SADLE today. And I’m surrounded by people whom I have known for as long as 14 years. People who tirelessly commit themselves to helping “their people”, under the hardest of conditions in this impoverished country. And I know again now, why I am here.

For years, New SADLE has made hessnatur’s wonderful Pashmina-Scarf. But New SADLE is also a nursing home, caring for aged, former victims of leprocy. These people are healed, but frankly, what’s gone is gone. With sometimes massive loss of extremities, the people here need assistance, and support. These people would otherwise be on the streets, begging, and wasting away under wretched conditions. It is always impressive how these people now live in their home at the edge of the Kathmandu Valley. The air polution is noticably less here, by the way, as the New SADLE compound perches high on the slope leading into the valley.

If it doesn’t bore you, and if I can manage to get on-line again soon, I’ll write some more. Until then, Nahmaste (I greet the God in you). Nice, isn’t it? God, I love this place!

We are honored to announce that hessnatur has been certified as a B Corporation based on our commitment to the highest social and environmental standards.

B Corporations are purpose-driven companies, benefiting employees, the community and the environment as well as shareholders.  In order to be certified, hessnatur was assessed by B Corporation according to their strict legal and performance standards.  In order to meet those standards, the environmental and social practices of hessnatur were rigorously evaluated.  Our long history in caring for the environment and our social responsibility to all whose lives we touch, were examined thoroughly.  Additionally, we had to meet contemporary guidelines of standards and practices.

B Lab, the nonprofit organization that certifies B Corporations, also oversees the evolution of those standards and the auditing of B Corporations.  There are over 300 Certified B Corporations from over 50 industries, representing a diverse multi-billion marketplace.  hessnatur is the first European Union company to become a B Corporation.

We are proud to be in such good companies.