case studies
Earth Day 2023: Invest in Our Planet with tendlyn's Sustainable Community
Since its creation in the 1970s, Earth Day has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon celebrated by 193 countries all over the globe. From promoting climate literacy in young generations to providing Green Grants in the billions to countries in need, Earth Day and its founding organization are proof that communities keep movements alive.
At tendlyn, we’re proud to host and be part of a community of businesses across the globe making sustainable business practices a part of their founding principles. The Eco-Alliance gives businesses, makers, and brands who are committed to being better a place to find resources, help, and like-minded producers to drive sustainable business practices forward.
That’s why, this Earth Day, we’re choosing to highlight our Eco-Alliance community, the importance of gathering around sustainability, and a few of the many incredible members who are driving change one piece of packaging at a time.
The Impact of Sustainability as a Community Effort
Ana and Arturo are co-owners of Gusto Bread and Eco-Alliance members making change in the baking industry. They’re just one example of the hundreds of community members pushing for sustainable growth.
Historically, social change movements have been driven by communities at the center of the necessary change. Where individuals may struggle to enact widespread change, communities that birth movements have the staying power to keep moving where a single voice would tire. Over time, good activism - good sustainability - becomes a practice, a habit, something we instill in the generations that come after us for decades hence.
To make sustainable change, we must create places where people who choose to use sustainable practices can find help, support, and validation for their choices. We founded the Eco-Alliance to create such a place for organizations both big and small.
How does it work?
Eco-Alliance members join a worldwide community of organizations all working toward the same goal – a healthy planet. Members can show their support for the alliance both in-store or online using the Eco-Alliance badge, marking themselves as a business dedicated to sustainable practices while driving other customers and businesses who see the badge to learn more about the movement.
Simply download the Eco-Alliance asset pack and display the badge on your physical or digital storefront to show your commitment to sustainability! Members will also receive benefits like:
· Contributing to reforestation: every order made by an alliance member will contribute a tree to our global reforestation efforts. Every order placed is a tree planted!
· Access to exclusive rewards: Online member perks, exclusive Eco-Alliance promotions, and the chance to be featured on our online publication ‘The Wrap’ all become available!
· Being part of a community: Stay up to date on the latest sustainability news, get helpful hints from those who have gone before, and find new community initiatives to make your business greener than ever before.
Thus far, the Eco-Alliance has driven over 876.56T of carbon reduction since being founded, and we’ve planted 26,986 trees worldwide (at the time of writing)! Investing in our planet this way has never been more important, so if you’d like to become a member of tendlyn’s Eco-Alliance and bring sustainable packaging to your business, you can sign up here.
Members of the Eco-Alliance, Unite!
Our Eco-Alliance is populated with many amazing businesses doing their part to push the sustainable packaging movement forward. While talking about sustainable business practices is crucial to creating awareness, nothing is better than walking the walk.
Today, on Earth Day, we’d like to highlight a few of the members of the Eco-Alliance using tendlyn products to not only revolutionize their branding, but also how they approach sustainability as a business.
A glimpse at the delightfully sustainable knitwear range from Eco-Alliance community member, Avail Knit.
Avail Knit
Hailing from the muggy climes of Texas, Avail Knit is proof that real, undiluted goodness can come in the smallest of packages. Ashley Victoria Valsin-Luu runs the show here, selling a delightful range of knitted gifts and donating a portion of her profits to local children’s charities.
What began as a creative outlet quickly transitioned into an online business when she discovered that people wanted what she could create! Avail Knit has been on an evolving sustainability journey, with the core value of ‘giving back’ naturally translating into using sustainable, natural materials for both her products and her packaging.
We’re proud to be part of her packaging suite with our custom tissue paper, rendered in a beautiful duotone with uplifting messages emblazoned across every inch of the page.
Get to know Avail Knit’s brand story.
Vaulchen, an Eco-Alliance member, is bringing her love of the earth to the fore with natural designs and sustainable materials.
Vaulchen
Next is another member of the maker’s community, an independent artist operating out of Berlin, Germany. Viktoria, who goes by Vaulchen online, creates vibrant nature illustrations with a unique style to sell in her sustainable stationary shop. Her style is incredibly distinctive, relying on acrylic markers and her fine-tuned sense of shape and color to create fantastical, high-saturation versions of members of the Animal Kingdom.
Her watchwords are fun and whimsicality, and she brings that approach as much to her art style as she does her sustainable packaging. As an independent artist with an affinity for all Earth’s creatures, Viktoria makes an effort to be as sustainable in her business practices as possible. Nearly all of her packaging – from her shipping boxes to her tissue paper – is fully recyclable. Even her postcard prints use vegan ink, constantly looking for earth-friendly alternatives that put the earth first in a way that echoes her brand’s values.
Get to know Vaulchen’s brand story.
With sustainability at the core of their business practices - and their origin - Heilala Vanilla is a proud member of tendlyn’s Eco-Alliance.
Heilala Vanilla
Finally, we have another member of our Eco-Alliance, one founded from disaster to bring relief and light to communities experiencing difficulties. Heilala Vanilla came to be after a cyclone devastated the Kingdom of Tonga in 2002, originating as an aid project that sold local vanilla to bolster humanitarian efforts.
Many years on, Heilala Vanilla is a humanitarian vanilla brand selling sustainably-sourced vanilla all over the world. Not only is the quality top-notch, the vanilla is grown thanks to the expertise of local communities who bring years of artisanal vanilla growing experience to the craft. Sustainability lies at the core of this company, including both sustainability of the earth and sustainability of community, putting Anga Fakatonga (‘The Tongan Way’) first.
Heilala challenges the idea that vanilla has to be boring, both with their products and their chosen sustainable packaging. Sourcing a new color run of custom packaging tape and custom tissue paper each time they order, this company is living proof that sustainable, community-based values can drive incredible success.
Get to know Heilala Vanilla’s brand story.
Feeling inspired? Whether you donate, adopt a single sustainable practice, or share an Earth Day post on social media this April 22nd, take a moment to do what you can for our planet and the world’s largest environmental movement!
We’re better together.
We aim to support and empower the shift to sustainable business practices, making it as easy and practical as possible for makers, businesses, and organizations to access high-quality packaging that fits our sustainability framework.
Learn more about our sustainability framework, or explore tendlyn’s sustainable packaging range for ideas on how you can bring circularity to your business.
