Corporate social responsibility has emerged as a buzzword over the last several years. For organic industry veterans Bena Burda, founder and president of Maggie’s Clothes, and Scott Leonard, CEO of Indigenous Designs, this concept is nothing new. Burda’s company, begun in 1992, was founded on the basis that all workers should be treated ethically, and that clothing can be “functional, beautiful and affordable and also environmentally sustainable materials.” Started two years later, Leonard’s company had a similar vision to “design fashions that honor both people and planet.”
In the years since then, both Burda and Leonard have demonstrated that their commitment to fair and sustainable business practices continues. Not only have they developed an extensive line of high-quality fair trade and organic products, but they successfully improved the lives of hundreds of workers in the apparel industry along the way. Burda, for example, identified early on in her career the poor conditions under which such workers worked. In response, she established a partnership with Jubilee House, a community development organization, which led to the development of The Fair Trade Zone, a sewing cooperative in Nueva Vida, Nicaragua. One hundred percent worker-owned, The Fair Trade Zone became the first worker-owned cooperative to gain Free Trade Zone status.
Leonard took similar steps to improve the working conditions of textile artisans living in Peru. Having recognized the challenges such workers face in not only producing products but also realizing the full market value of their work, Leonard partnered with foundations and non-profit organizations to provide workers with the materials they need to conduct business and expose them to more complex—and more financially rewarding— production techniques. At the same time, through these partnerships, Leonard sought to educate workers about the true, fair-market value of their labor and thereby enable them to take charge of their financial futures.
More recently, Leonard’s commitment to effecting positive social change has taken the form of partnerships with World of Goods Inc. and Whole Foods Market. Emphasizing “[the transformation of] the market into a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom,” World of Goods Inc., with eBay, launched WorldofGoods.com, an online marketplace for eco-friendly goods. As the site’s “inaugural seller,” Leonard hopes Indigenous Designs’ participation in and support for WorldofGoods.com will expose eBay’s 84 million active users to “the message of fair-trade values” and “empower them to make socially responsible purchasing decisions.”
Similar goals underpin the Indigenous Designs-Whole Foods partnership, which will center on the Indigenous’ new, fair-trade, 100 percent organic color-grown cotton sleep set. The set, which will be marketed as part of Whole Foods’ Whole Body™ Holiday Collection, “fits directly with our core values,” Leonard says, noting that the product is “good for people and good for the environment.”
Forward-thinking, socially and environmentally conscious projects continue for Burda as well. After years of wishing to bring the success of the worker-owned cooperative to the United States, she has helped to 
establish Opportunity Threads, an independent, worker-owned in Morganton, NC. The cooperative, which grew out of a collaboration between Maggie’s and the Southern Appalachian Center for Cooperative Ownership/Ownership Appalachia, employs an ethnically diverse workforce that dedicates its time and resources to the production of Maggie’s newest product: sock monkeys. A modern version of 1950s children’s toy, the monkeys are made from “slightly irregular” versions of the company’s popular crew socks. In this sense, Burda says, the sock monkeys embody much of what her company stands for. “We care about our environment, so we develop creative uses for materials that would otherwise have to be scrapped.” Plus, she says, the increasing demand for Maggie’s sock monkeys creates new opportunities for co-op workers to hone their production skills and earn a fair wage for their labor. “It’s really a win-win situation, as the co-op workers enjoy better working conditions from which they profit and our company benefits from a steady supply of high-quality, handmade products and a dedicated workforce.”
To learn more about the steps Maggie’s Organics/Clean Clothes and Indigenous Designs are taking to promote fair and sustainable business practices, visit the companies’ websites at http://www.maggiesorganics.com/maggiesstory.php and http://www.indigenousdesigns.com/section/company/.
