Green Girl Guru Beth Doane of Raintees
Beth: Hi everyone, this is Beth Doane. I am the Founder and Director of the company called Rain Tees and Rain Tees is an apparel brand that we created by donating school supplies to children that are living with some of the worse environmental destruction in history. And we send the school supplies to children that are living specifically in endangered rain forest across Central and South America.
We had them draw what they see happening and then we took their art work and put in on a hundred percent organic eco-conscious apparel. And for every t-shirt that we sell, a child in Costa Ricas must endangered biological corridor get a tree to plant to replace one that’s been destroyed in their homeland to an organization called Kids Saving the Rain Forest. So Rain Tees with all the reforesting and educating people about the importance of reforestation.
And I became a GreenGirls Guru because I love Apple’s work. I love what she’s done with GreenGirls and I thought it was a great way to educate people in what we’re doing with Rain Tees as well as spread the message that planting a tree in the Amazon is so effective when it comes to combating things like climate change. So I’m honored to be a part of Apple’s work and I wish I was there at the bash that you’re all having. It sounds fantastic. You can learn more about what we’re doing at raintees.com. Thank you.
By the year 2040, the world’s rainforests could be gone. Andira is a fashion company fighting to change that.
I wanted to create the apparel collection that would create change on the global level and educate consumers about environmental destruction. So that led me to create Rain Tees.
So I donated school supplies to children that lived in endangered rainforest across Central and South America and I had them draw what they see going on around then and then I took each of those picture and I put them on the apparel collection. And so for every piece sold, the children that lived in these endangered rainforest get a tree to plant to replace one that’s been destroyed in their homeland.
I actually met Bethany on a flight from LA to New York. We were able to come together and fuse our talents to really bring Rain Tees to life and make it something so much more amazing and then just another apparel collection.
Bethany: Not enough people really understand how important the rainforest is to the rest of the world.
Beth: Like for example in the United States, 70% of our rainfall is generated by trees in the Amazons. So times of immense drought can be correlated directly to times of mass destruction in place like Brazil. So it’s kind of showing through this apparel collection how we’re all connected.
Costa Rica is really important to our brand because the children that lived here are the ones that are planting the trees in part of this huge reforestation process going on right now.
Bethany: It was wonderful drawing with the children because you’ve got to see what they feel their world looks like.
Beth: It’s absolutely beautiful to interact with children from a completely different culture, coming from a completely different perspective and watching them unfold through their artwork and having the chance to really get into their lives and learn as much as we can from them.
I guess the other really important thing about coming down to Costa Rica specifically is that these are the children that are actually, yes, planting the trees.
Bethany: Right.
Beth: It takes such an educational process to fully and completely understand what goes into rebuilding and reforesting a tropical environment that’s been destroyed.
We’re just a small company, a small organization but I think that if everyone realize that even though each of us are individuals, we’re part of this thing that’s so much there.
We really have the power to make mass of change in an industry that’s really toxic.
Bethany: It’s all about doing something rather than doing nothing.
Beth: And reminding ourselves that each one of us can take small steps to create great change.