Philadelphia-based United By Blue (UBB) is a sustainable apparel and accessories company that is environmentally-friendly in general and ocean-friendly specifically. So dedicated to ocean conservation are they, that for every product sold they remove one pound of trash from the world's oceans and waterways.
UBB Founder and Chief Trash Collector, Brian Linton, an avid scuba diver who was raised in Southeast Asia but now resides in Philadelphia, founded the company in 2010 with the idea that UBB would not contribute money to support other’s conservation efforts, but instead associate the sale of each UBB product with a concrete environmental action of their own.
For each men’s or women’s article of clothing or accessory sold, UBB removes one pound of trash from oceans and waterways through company-organized and hosted cleanups. The majority of cleanups are held around the Philadelphia area but they have even branched out to places as far as California. Using this business model, UBB is on-track to collect 100,000 pounds of trash by the end of 2011, and 1 million pounds by the end of 2012. (As of 6/16/11, UBB has removed 17,933 pounds of trash.)
“By combining every business transaction with an environmental action, we are able to use our business to do the most good possible,” says Mr. Linton. “The sale of our products allows us to host cleanups at needy waterways and beaches on an ongoing basis.”
Because UBB is deeply concerned with and devoted to helping the environment, they only use organically-grown fibers in their products, therefore they avoid damaging the waterways and oceans with harmful chemicals found in pesticides and fertilizers usually used. Taking things even a step further, unlike most apparel companies, UBB does not wrap their finished garments in plastic bags after production. Instead, their shirts come wrapped in banana-fiber bags and the hangtags are made with seeds that grow blue flowers when planted.
But here’s the really cool part. UBB is so dedicated to recycling and reusing items, if – for whatever reason – you no longer want or need your UBB product, regardless of how worn or torn it is, you can return it and receive your deposit back. You may ask, “What deposit?” Look closely at your garment or bag. It will have a dollar amount printed somewhere on there. That’s the deposit amount. Send the item back, get some money back. It’s a win-win.
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