Designers: Put on your thinking cap!
Hessnatur and Planet Green are hosting an online “Eco-Tee Design Challenge” judged by Miguel Adrover, Toms shoes CEO, Blake Mycoskie, Eco-model Summer Rayne Oakes, and Miranda Purves, lifestyle editor at ELLE. The announcement for the call for entries is live NOW at www.planetgreen.com/ecotee.
The public will vote for the design they feel is most creative and original. After the pool is whittled down to five finalists, the esteemed panel of judges will choose a winner. The winning tee will be produced by Grameen Knitwear, a subsidiary of the Grameen Foundation, created by Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Dr. Muhammad Yunus. 50% from the sale of each tee will be donated back to the Grameen Foundation, to continue its work in eradicating poverty through micro financing. In addition, the winner’s tee will be sold, internationally, at www.hessnatur.com. This is a rare opportunity for budding designers and green crusaders to make an environmental statement and a name for themselves at the same time.
Hurry up and get creative, this contest ends September 1st.
“The commitment to the environment from everyone involved in the Eco-Tee Design Challenge has made this project possible,” states Wolf Luedge, CEO of hessnatur. “We hope the American public will join us in creating a design and realizing that their global message, and changing their tee shirt to organic, can make all the difference in the world.”
A pioneer in the sustainable and social responsibility movements, hessnatur was recognized with the 2008 Public Eye Award at the World Economic Forum in Davos for its work in improving the social conditions of workers around the globe. hessnatur recently merged the revolutionary microfinance program of Dr. Yunus’ Grameen Knitwear, with its expertise in organic farming to help improve both the living and health conditions of workers in Bangladesh, one of the poorest regions in the world.
Luedge states, “It is a little known fact that the growth and harvesting of conventional cotton causes some of the world’s worst environmental pollution — one third of a pound of pesticides and fertilizers to create just one of the 2.4 billion tees produced globally every year. If we can highlight this in an engaging way, we are one step closer to making a healthier world.”
The German-based hessnatur, which was founded in 1976, launched in the United States in September 2008 at New York Fashion Week with Miguel Adrover as their newly appointed Creative Director.