Sustainability Policy

Why is my order shipped in a used box?

Like many people, we are parents. Our life values are reflected in the world we will pass on to our children. We are retailers in a country known for out-of-control comsumerism and wastefulness. How can we best serve both the needs of our customers and also the needs of the planet?

Susan Weir took a course on "Voluntary Simplicity" with the Northwest Earth Institute to explore ways to make work green.  We continue in this vein to minimize our footprint in the ecosphere:

We try to ship in a used box whenever possible to save on trees. And we remove the tape from boxes and haul them to the recycler.

We buy sustainably. We not only look for eco-friendly natural fiber products to carry, but also buy them locally whenever possible. Some of our fiber comes from a local group of spinners and farmers. Our wool core fiber comes from Mennonite farms. We buy many of our cotton fabrics from suppliers in North America - even if it costs a little more than overseas, less petroleum is used in transport, to say nothing about preserving jobs.

When we moved into a larger commercial space, we purchased sturdy, used office furniture including our conference table and chairs, a vacuum cleaner from a Habitat for humanity Restore, and tools from Goodwill. And a closing yarn store was a rich supply of cabinets and more.

In the office, reduce, reuse, and recycle is a daily practice. Keeping the doors open in the summer greatly reduces the need for air conditioning, and keeping the thermostat down in the winter and dressing warmly has become second nature.

Many of our customers express that it is important to them that the places they shop at care about our planet. After all, striving to become ever more conscious about how we live and work is an expression of loving our families and communities.