NATIONAL OUTDOORS.NET names Naturally Bamboo as one of the
National Outdoors Top 10 List for the Summer 2008 Outdoor Retailer Show.
http://www.nationaloutdoors.net/top-10-summer-outdoor-retailer-show
Come check out the Fall 08 and Spring 09 collections at the following trade shows.......
MORE show in Madison, Wisconsin, July 22-24
Monona Terrace Community and Convention Center, Booth #204
Fashion show on the rooftop, 6-8pm, Tuesday July 22
OUTDOOR RETAILER, Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, Utah
August 8-11, Booth # ESA517
NATURALLY BAMBOO FEATURED IN WOMEN INC. MAGAZINE
NATURALLY BAMBOO RECEIVES HONORABLE MENTION FOR THE WILLIAM JAMES FOUNDATION SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITION
WASHINGTON, DC., March, 2008 -- The William James Foundation is pleased to announce our winning teams in the 2008 Socially Responsible Business Plan Competition.
The 1st place team is *Green Pieces*, who are offering attractive sustainable modular homes that are healthier and more affordable than current options.
The 2nd place team is *BioDiversity and Company*, who align commercia and conservation objectives to manage and protect the critically endangered Choco rainforest in Ecuador.
The 3rd place team is *Atayne*, who is developing a line of planet and people friendly clothing that performs better than the market norm - synthetic, virgin polyester-based apparel.
*The Honorable Mention Teams included:
*Ghonsla*, who will provide housing insulation products made from agricultural and urban waste to under-served markets in Pakistan.
*Akan Energy*, who will create a distributed network of biofuel production facilities in rural Ghanaian villages.
*Naturally Bamboo*, who will offer comfortable, stylish, natural bamboo fiber products made from sweatshop-free manufacturers and employ office practices that have the lowest impact on the environment. They received hosting services from Think Host, Inc .
*Universal Acupuncture*, who will be a community for-profit acupuncture clinic in San Francisco, CA, offering acupuncture on a sliding scale basis ($20-40), in community treatment rooms.
*WaterPLUS,* which is a low cost, point of use water purifier for developing communities, based on newly developed UV Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology.
*Investors Without Borders,* which is designed to address the missing middle of finance - small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are too large for microfinance, but too small to attract the attention of large financial institutions.
*The March 7th Event* A standing-room only crowd of competition judges, current and past entrants and the general public joined the foundation staff at the World Resources Institute to help decide the final winners. The three finalists gave Presentations and participated in a question and answer session from a panel of judges and audience members. After the winners were announced, finalists and honorable mentions and teams receiving honorable mentions got to select from a basket of in-kind prizes. Details on each prize and donor can be seen at www.williamjamesfoundation.org/prizes.
It was a great accomplishment for these teams to have made it through the competition this far. More than sixty teams entered the competition from all over the world. These enterprises are working in international development, organic clothing, green building, energy efficiency, internet technologies, household energy consulting, green real estate, medical care, wind energy, financial literacy, education, leadership training, and local business development.
More than 110 reading judges evaluated the plans, and each plan was read at least six times during the competition, with those making the full plan round receiving an average of twenty pages of expert feedback. The readers included experts in both social ventures and traditional business plans, community activists, Wall Street professionals, academics, and CEOs of national for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. A list of judge backgrounds can be found here.
The Foundation congratulates and commends all entrants and winners for their hard work throughout the competition process. The William James Foundation helps support entrepreneurs who are committed to multiple-bottom line businesses (people, planet, profit) by providing entrants to our competition with resources to move forward in their ventures and goals and maintaining an ongoing network of participants and contacts. The William James Foundation also hosts and supports a series of events including a speaker series and tours of sustainable business in the DC area. Please visit www.williamjamesfoundation.org for more information and www.wabas.net to view a common calendar of events among the sustainable business community in DC. *Ian T. Fisk* is the executive director of the William James Foundation. He can be reached at 202/462-2943 or ian.fisk@williamjamesfoundation.org.
ARTICLE FEATURE IN THE MANKATO FREE PRESS 2/3/2008
BAMBOO CONNECTION, By Sara Gilbert Frederick
Special to The Free Press
Last spring, April Femrite found an
article in the newspaper that changed
her life.
Femrite had been thinking about
starting her own business for several
months. But none of her ideas, from
opening a restaurant to building a
kid's gym, seemed to stick. Then her
brother dropped by with an article
about textiles made out of bamboo
clipped from The Free Press.
"That was the first time I read
anything about it," she remembers.
"That article is how it all started."
Within a matter of months, Femrite
had turned the basement of her
family's Mankato home into the
headquarters of Naturally Bamboo,
her line of clothing made out of
bamboo fabric. Metal shelves are
stacked floor to ceiling with different
colors and styles of shirts, pants and
socks. The designs for her fall line
hang from the shelving, and fabric
samples are spread out on the huge
table in the center of the room. That's
where she packages orders, tying tags
to each piece before shipping them
out.
"Sometimes I get discouraged because
things aren't selling as fast as I'd like
them to," Femrite admits. "But then
my husband has to remind me to slow
down - it hasn't even been a year yet."
Femrite has hardly slowed down
enough to take a breath lately. In the
past nine months, she has designed
clothes, found suppliers in China,
contracted with manufacturers and,
with the help of her best friend,
designed an identity for her new
business. She's created a Web site to
sell her clothing to consumers and
developed relationships with a
handful of retailers, including Pieces
Boutique in Mankato and the St.
Peter Food Co-op.
"I stay up late," she admits. "I get a lot
of my work done after the kids go to
bed."
The kids, Kallen, 4, and Noah, 2, were
the impetus for Femrite's career
change last year. She had been
working at St. Olaf in career
counseling until Noah was born,
when she decided to stay home with
the boys. "I had been home with them
for about a year when I started itching
to do something," she says.
The entrepreneurial spirit runs in her
family - her father and brothers have
all run their own businesses - so it was
only natural that she start thinking
about a business of her own as well.
Her primary guidelines were that the
business be both environmentally
and socially responsible.
Naturally Bamboo fits both criteria.
The moso bamboo used in her fabric,
one of about 1,200 species of the
plant, is grown by family farms in
China. It can grow as much as three
feet overnight and can get as tall as 75
feet in three months or less. And
because it stands so tall, it's not a
favorite food of pandas. "It's not the
type that pandas like to eat," Femrite
confirms. "The leaves are too tall for
them to reach."
Femrite has also hired a third-party
certifier to verify that the working
conditions at the manufacturing
plant in China, where her clothes are
sewn, are fair. "All my workers get
paid fair living wages," she says.
"That's important to me."
Her hope is to bring production of
the Naturally Bamboo line into
Minnesota soon.
Although her days are long, Femrite is
convinced that she's in the right
business. She's already so busy that
she's been looking for sales reps. "I
can't do it all myself," she admits. "I
need help. I need someone to get out
there and sell it. I'm more focused on
development, and I don't have as
much time to think about marketing
and selling."
The best thing is that she wakes up
each morning eager to get to work.
"This is the first time I've ever really
felt that way," she says. "I get excited
to wake up and work at this."
For more information about
Femrite's bamboo clothing, visit
www.naturallybambooclothing.com.
An article featured in the Post-Bulletin in Rochester about our first retailer - Wild Ginger
Eco-friendly boutique opens in Zumbrota 11/2/2007 4:07:28 PM By Dawn Schuett Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN ZUMBROTA -- Eco-fashion defines the style at the Wild Ginger Boutique. The new boutique for women in downtown Zumbrota opened earlier this month and offers an eclectic mix of clothing made from natural fibers by manufacturers following fair-trade practices. It's a shopping experience that is both environmentally friendly and socially responsible, in a store named after the owner's favorite wildflower. "I want people to come in and leave with a smile on their face after finding something they couldn't find anywhere else," said Roxanne Bartsh, who undertook the retail venture with her husband, Dave Zimmerman. Bamboo activewear, hemp shirts and organic cotton T-shirts are some of the apparel on the store's racks. Customers may be familiar with some of the clothing labels found at the boutique, including Nomadic Trader and Royal Robbins. Others, like baabaaZuzu, Naturally Bamboo and Tianello, they may be seeing for the first time. A Michigan company creates the baabaaZuzu collection of sweaters and jackets made from recycled wool sweaters and tweed jackets. Naturally Bamboo, a Mankato-based company, markets clothing made from the grass by sweatshop-free manufacturers. Tianello's clothes are made in the United States from Tencel, the brand name for the natural wood fiber generically known as lyocell. Bartsh is committed to selling clothing made in the U.S., but the boutique also carries some imported items. The clothing line Eucalyptus comes from Guatemala and donates a portion of its profits to health care and educational programs for the women and children in a village there. Tabask handbags are handcrafted in Peru from alpaca hair. Jewelry from Minga Fair Trade Imports is made from nuts grown in South America. Wild Ginger also has lotions, cards, vintage jewelry and other accessories. The boutique is one of three downtown retailers, along with Lochner's Department Store and Phenomenal Woman Consignment Shop, that sell women's clothing. The stores are a complement to each other rather than competitors, as they offer different products, Bartsh said. Bartsh, who recently retired as the director of probation services for Wabasha County, said it wasn'T her lifelong dream to have a boutique, but she believes this one can thrive in Zumbrota. "It's serving people in a different way than I served them before," she said. "This feels really good. This is the right thing to do right now." Going Wild What: Wild Ginger Boutique Where: 320 S. Main, Zumbrota Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Grand opening: Nov. 16-18
OUR FIRST PRESS RELEASE 11/01/2007
Minnesota Eco-Entrepreneur Launches New Clothing Line Made From Bamboo
Mankato, MN-Bamboo is the world’s fastest growing grass. Ironically, the only thing you can’t do with it is cut it with your lawn mower. You can write on it; cover your floor with it; recline in it-even ride a bicycle made from it. You can also wear it. Just ask April Femrite, the Mankato-based eco-entrepreneur who recently opened Naturally Bamboo, an online clothing store featuring eco-friendly clothing and accessories made from bamboo fiber. “After reading an article about the natural benefits of bamboo fiber - biodegradable, sustainable, hypo-allergenic, odor-resistant, pesticide-free and to top it all off - extremely soft, the idea for Naturally Bamboo was born. Everyone has to wear clothes. Why not wear something that looks good, feels good and is good for the planet?” A nature lover and mother of two young boys, Femrite was attracted to the sustainable aspects of bamboo. She runs Naturally Bamboo based on the principles of a triple bottom line-people, planet, profit; The company sources fabric processed without toxic chemcials and contracts manufacturers who abide by fair labor standards. Products bear names like Tettegouche Tee, Palisade Polo, and St. Croix Capri, which showcase Minnesota and reflect April’s love for hiking local trails with her family. “We can all make a positive impact on our environment by purchasing clothing made without chemicals and pesticides, such as bamboo, soy, hemp and organic cotton. I wanted to start a company that was not only concerned about profits, but had a responsibility to our environment and for the people that work for our company.” Textile designers are betting that the performance, aesthetics and eco-friendly attributes of bamboo clothing will strike a harmonious chord with consumers. If so, the environmental payoffs could be big. According to a recent report released by trade group, shop.org, last year consumers bought a staggering $18.3 billion dollars worth of clothes and shoes online-a number projected to grow. Businesses and non-profits are finding Naturally Bamboo clothing an effective marketing tool. Minneapolis-based Aveda recently bought a large number of units, and had them imprinted with the company’s logo as a way to promote the company’s commitment to sustainability. Logos on Femrite’s tees will also be promoting the Northland Bioneer Conference in Minneapolis this weekend. The environment isn’t the only cause benefiting from Femrite’s line. Naturally Bamboo recently partnered with the Minneapolis-based, Think Pink Collection (www.thinkpinkcollection.com) to develop an exclusive line of bamboo clothing designed to help fight breast cancer, with 30% of the proceeds supporting breast cancer research. Barb’s Pink Ribbon Collection was created in honor of Femrite’s mother-in-law, who passed away from breast cancer in 1997. Naturally Bamboo clothing is available for wholesale and retail purchase at www.naturallybambooclothing.com and through select independent retailers. For more information contact April Femrite at (800) 987-3309 or email her at info@naturallybambooclothing.com -###-