Holiday Guide: Ocean-Friendly Gifts
The bottom line needn’t always trump the conscience, as these companies prove. Environmentally friendly products mingle with missions to help conserve the ocean, and today’s consumers can do everything from washing the dishes to getting dressed to having a tipple, all while helping out the world’s oceans.
United By Blue
Founded in 2010, clothing and accessories company United by Blue is dedicated to cleaning the world’s oceans. For every product sold, the company removes a pound of trash from waterways and oceans, so dress yourself in comfy tees (or buy your dog that collar he’s had his eye on).
Banrock Station
Drinking for a cause sounds pretty good to us. Australian winemaker Banrock Station has partnered with Australia’s World Wildlife Fund to help the country’s green sea turtle population. The winemaker will donate about $750,000 to the Rivers to Reef to Turtles research initiative through the Banrock Station Environmental Trust.
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Baking for good
Baking for Good is an online bakery that gives back. Turn those Instagram photos into personalized cookies — or go with more traditional choices like chocolate chip — and the company will donate 15 percent of the net profit to a cause of your choice. Past recipients include the ASPCA and the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Blu Kicks
Frequent visitors to Hawaii, mother and son team Victoria Fay and Will Leonard witnessed overfishing and destruction of the population of reef triggerfish, the Hawaiian state fish, and decided to help protect them. They founded shoe company Blu Kicks — and modeled their designs after fish — and now invest $1 from each pair sold into ocean conservation and preserving the triggerfish’s habitat.
Method
You might already know that this popular soap brand uses 100 percent biodegradable ingredients and 100 percent recycled plastic in its stylish packaging.
But what you might not know is that Method employees, along with volunteers, have hand-collected more than a ton of plastic from Hawaii’s beaches in the past year, and it’s been turned into bottles for a 2-in-1 dish and hand soap, along with other recycled plastic.
