LOHAS company CEO’s and Founders discuss innovation in LOHAS businesss at the 2009 LOHAS Forum.

See all videos here.

Last year the Miguel Adrover for hessnatur exhibition at New York Fashion Week captured the attention of the fashion world as it focused on the the beauty of organic fabrics in unique and exquisite designs.

This year, hessnatur kicked off Fashion Week with a tee shirt that can change the world.  Designed by fashion icon and hessnatur creative director, Miguel Adrover, “The World in Your Hand” tee was introduced at the Whole Foods Market Tribeca and is on sale at 130 Whole Foods Markets around the U.S.  Proceeds from the sale of the tee will benefit the hessnatur Scholarship Program at the Grameen Shikkha Project in Bangladesh, a program that helps eradicate poverty through education.

Take a look at the video interviews of Wolf, Luedge, CEO of hessnatur and Miguel Adrover.

hessnatur’s philosophy is not only about using natural fibres and producing under fair working conditions. It’s also about giving back something to people who have specials needs. Like people in poor countries.

My blog today is about our social business with Grameen Knitwear in Bangladesh. It all began when I met Dr. Yunus – he’s the founder of the Grameen Bank and nobel peace price winner from 2006 – in Berlin. We said right away that we should do something together. Dr. Yunus is famous for microcredits and fighting against poverty – and hessnatur is famous for organic cotton. We agreed on bringing our organic know-how and his know-how in social business together.

Grameen Knitwear is based in Bangladesh, which is one of the worst countries for making clothes: poverty of the people working in the garment factories, a lot of factories producing „one dollar“ T-Shirts. They don’t care for organic or environmental standards, they don’t care for social issues and fair working conditions.

Grameen Knitwear is different. Good working conditions, fair wages. And they are open-minded to do something completely new – this was the premier of our Grameen T-Shirt made of organic cotton. Our creative director Miguel Adrover did the design – a strong statement saying „The world in your hand“ – for the T-Shirt. You can order it in our webshop. We produced the Tee at Grameen Knitwear in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The money we make by selling this T-Shirt to the customers gets back to Bangladesh – not only to Grameen Knitwear, also to the Grameen Foundation and the Shikkha project to support the education of young people, especially young women.

This is what is called social business. It’s not about „I want to make money, I want to make profit“. It’s about others – doing something good for them by making and giving money.