That second-hand fake fleece full zipper jacket I picked up for $5 at a PTA thrift store is me being ethically and ecologically responsible, right?
It's used, so I didn't add to demand for new ones. It's synthetic, so no animals were harmed in its manufacture. And it was cheap, so I didn't need to go out and exploit the proletariat to earn gobs of money to afford it.
Well, there's still a not-so-teeny problem. One that today's guest explains with great clarity, urgency, inspiration, and love.
Jeff Scult is founder and CEO of One Golden Thread, a regenerative clothing company seeking to improve the fashion industry, contribute to restoring planetary health and harmony, and inspire the wearers and beholders of its garb to remember that we are precious, worthy, and wonderful beings.
Our conversation began by examining the harms “fast fashion” is doing to our world. For example, how many new pieces of clothing do you estimate are manufactured every year? Take a moment and say a number. I'll wait.
Now, was your number higher or lower than 60 billion? That's right — every 12 months, the fashion industry makes over 7 new articles of clothing for every human being on the planet.
What percentage of those items will we dispose of within 18 months, either into a landfill or an incinerator?
You'd better be sitting down for this one.
87% of those new clothes will be trash or ash within a year and a half.
That fake fleece I bought? I've had it for about a decade and a half, so I'm not responsible for any problems, right?
Well, not so fast. According to Jeff, about 97% of new clothes contain polyester, which is actually a plastic material derived from petroleum. And when polyester breaks down, it ends up as microplastic.
38% of the microplastics in the sea come from polyester clothing. Fish eat the plastic. We eat the fish. And just like that, we're part plastic ourselves. And there's no universe in which those materials do anything other than cause shit for our biology.
And here's the thing about my 15 year old jacket. Every time I wear it, it's sloughing off plastic into the air and soil. Every time I wash it, even more microplastics end up in the water supply.
And eventually it all leaches into the ocean, where it toxifies marine life and threatens the entire web of life.
Jeff and I then turned our attention to how One Golden Thread is turning the fashion industry on its head. I admit to being pretty jaded about commercial solutions to ecological and spiritual problems, but Jeff quickly turned me into a raving fan.
A fan of his vision of clothing that returns to the earth.
A fan of the idea that we own many fewer pieces of higher quality clothing.
A fan of his design esthetic.
And a fan of the “Humanifesto” that informs every aspect of the business, from planting 108 trees for every tree they harvest to make their clothes, to paying not just a living wage, but a “benevolent wage” to the employees who make the clothes.
I hope you'll be as moved and excited by Jeff's spirit as I've been. If you have the means to spearhead the fashion revolution and purchase an item or two from their online store or their Los Angeles or Miami locations, you can use this link to save yourself 11% and support this podcast through the affiliate commission Jeff will donate to the show.
Links
One Golden Thread
Replant Capital
The Century of the Self documentary
Biet Simkin – meditation teacher
Dr Howie Jacobson
This podcast is a labor of love and a way to give back to the world that has given me so much. That's why there aren't any sponsors (except me :).
My day job is helping leaders and their teams master their mindsets to remove all obstacles to heart-centered high performance.
Here are three gigs that I do:
1. Trigger-Free Leadership: Executive and Senior Leadership Mentoring and Facilitation
I work with high performing executive teams in organizations — and executive teams that need to become high performing. My focus is mindset mastery, because it’s our mindsets that either support high performance or get in the way.
At this level, everyone’s got the skills and experience to excel and contribute at the highest level. What holds people back is mindset stuff: specifically the triggers that get them out of creative engagement and into fight-or-flight defensiveness.
My practice is all about teaching people to respond differently to those triggers by updating old maps — essentially removing the glitches that the triggers grab onto.
2. Executive Coaching: Quick Wins for High Performance
I work with individual executives and leaders, one on one. The program is called Quick Wins for High Performance, and what we do is, we work strategically on one or two areas that are holding you back and keeping you from performing at your best.
We reverse engineer the presenting problems — too much work and not enough time, underperforming employees and teams, maddening organizational inefficiencies, etc — and identify and rewire the suboptimal mindsets that are behind those problems.
The work is all about updating your mental maps so your actions and responses are always appropriate, proportionate, and strategic.
3. High Stakes Conversations for Fast Growing Small Business Teams
I help small business teams have high stakes conversations with skill, humor, and grace. When people feel safe, they can do their best, most creative, most collaborative work.
So that's what I do. If you'd like any of those results, drop me a line and tell me about yourself.
You CAN Change Other People!
Well, that's what Peter Bregman and I claim in our provocative book of that title.
What we really mean is, you can bring out the best in the people around you. If you think you're powerless to help people change, it's because you've been going about it the wrong way.
Discover our straightforward, replicable process here: You Can Change Other People.
Music
The Plant Yourself Podcast theme music, “Dance of Peace (Sabali Don),” is generously provided by Will Ridenour, a kora player from North Carolina who has trained with top Senegalese musicians.
It can be found on his first CD, titled Will Ridenour.
You can learn about Will, listen to more tracks, and buy music on his website, WillRidenour.com.
Gratitudes
Thanks to Plant Yourself podcast patrons – Kim Harrison – Lynn McLellan – Brittany Porter – Dominic Marro – Barbara Whitney – Tammy Black – Amy Good – Amanda Hatherly – Mary Jane Wheeler – Ellen Kennelly – Melissa Cobb – Rachel Behrens – Tina Scharf – Tina Ahern – Jen Vilkinofsky – David Byczek – Michele X – Elspeth Feldman – Leah Stolar – Allan Kristensen – Colleen Peck – Michele Landry – Jozina – Sara Durkacs – Kelly Cameron – Janet Selby – Claire Adams – Tom Fronczak – Jeannette Benham – Gila Lacerte – David Donohue – Blair Seibert – Doron Avizov – Gio and Carolyn Argentati – Jodi Friesner – Mischa Rosen – Michael Worobiec – AvIvA Lael – Alicia Lemus – Val Linnemann – Nick Harper – Bandana Chawla – Molly Levine – The Inscrutable Harry R – Susan Laverty the Panda Vegan – Craig Covic – Adam Scharf – Karen Bury – Heather Morgan – Nigel Davies – Marian Blum – Teresa Kopel – Julian Watkins – Brid O'Connell – Shannon Herschman – Linda Ayotte – Holm Hedegaard – Isa Tousignant – Connie Haneline – Erin Greer – Alicia Davis – Heather O'Connor – Carollynne Jensen – Sheri Orlekoski of Plant Powered for Health – Karen Smith – Scott Mirani – Karen and Joe Crabtree – Kirby Burton – Theresa Carrell – Kevin Macaulay – Elizabeth Rothschild – Ann Jesse – Sheryl Dwyer – Jenny Hazelton – Peter W Evans – Dennis Bird – Darby Kelly – Lori Fanney – Linnea Lundquist – Emily Iaconelli – Levi Wallach – Rosamonde McAtee – Dan Pokorney – Stephen Leinin – Patty DeMartino – Mike and Donna Kartz – Deanne Bishop – Bilberry Elf – Marjorie Lewis – Tricia Adams – Nancy Sheldon – Lindsey Bashore – Gunn Marit Hagen – Tracey Gulledge – Lara Hedin – Meg from Mamasezz – Stacey Stokes – Ben Savage – Michael K – David Hughes -Coni Rodgers – Claire England – Sally Robertson – Parham Ganchi – Amy Dailey – Brian Tourville – Mark Jeffrey Johnson – Josie Dempsey – Caryn Schmitt – Pamela Hayden – Emily Perryman – Allison Corbett – Richard Stone – Lauren Vaught of Edible Musings – Erin Hastey – Sean Owens – Sagar Naik – Erika Piedra – Danielle Roberts – Michael Leuchten – Sarah Johnson – Katharine Floyd – Meryl Fury – for your generous support of the podcast.
Disclosure
This post may contain affiliate links. I may receive compensation from your actions on such links. It don't cost you a dime, tho.
