Collective Snapshot

The results are in, and this month’s winner of Collective Snapshot is Jessica Helvey, whose quiet pic of tea and journaling in Iceland captures the quiet pleasures of late fall—whether in the Pacific Northwest or North Atlantic—when the rain returns and forces us inside:

“We traveled to iceland last year and could not do without tea and the nau down shirts….perfection! 120 film, and very out of focus, it was too early in the morning…excuses excuses.”

No excuses neccessary, Jessica. For sharing our favorite pic this month, Jessica wins a new Down Vest, plus a mounted print of her image from our friends at Plywerk. Didn’t win but still want to mount your image on a beautiful eco-conscious bamboo or maple panel? Check out Plywerk’s website at www.plywerk.com to upload and order, or buy blank panels and D.I.Y. Of course, you can always enter another image for a shot to win by emailing a pic of you or a friend to share@nau.com.

One Of Us

As for our Monthly Trivia, in October we asked you: Nau’s new pop-up shop in New York is on Howard at the end of which other street?

This month’s winner? Shelly Zimmer, who we selected at random from all the people who correctly answered Crosby Street. For her geographic savy, Shelly wins a Down Vest, perfect for keeping warm on the wind-swept cobbles of Soho.

Want a chance to win our monthly trivia contest? You’ll have to know the question, and to do that, you’ll need to read Off The Grid—so subscribe today!

Today in The Thought Kitchen, we sit down with our Director of Design Peter Kallen to talk about the new down jackets in the Fall ’11 line. For the complete Design Eye series, click here.

The Thought Kitchen: How do you approach designing with down?

Peter Kallen: The main inspiration for working with down has always been that it’s this airy, cloud-like material. When designing around down, you just have to allow for that kind of soft volume, which is a great attribute to have since it makes things have a bit more presence to them. That can also be a negative a times if it can make you look like a Michelin man, but we’ve always prided ourselves in sculpting and tailoring the down so you get the benefit of the insulation, you get the sensation of the cloud-like experience where it surrounds you, but you don’t get this visual cue that you look like a stay-puff marshmallow.

The Men's Rheostat Down Jacket

TTK: What do you get about down that other designers miss?

PK: Most people think that if a little down is good, then more is better. For us, it’s about the quality of down that we use, and then using only as much as a silhouette needs. Finding that fine balance is what makes a down piece not overbearing or overwhelming visually. It goes back to how we tailor things and the quality of down that we use: we can use a smaller amount because the quality of the down we use is so high.

TTK: What’s unique about Nau’s new down jackets, the Rheostat and the Fathom?

PK: In the case of the Rheostat we baffled the inside of it and left the outside completely unstitched so that it could be completely waterproof, and it didn’t make you feel like you were in a traditional down jacket. It’s like putting a three layer waterproof jacket on top of a down jacket, but in one silhouette. For women, the Fathom has this stylish, sexy silhouette, but designed so that it doesn’t take away from providing the insulation that women—who are just so much more susceptible to the cold—really need. So the Fathom represents the best of the down world, combined with this very sleek and sculpted vibe that doesn’t look like a down piece, but warms like one.

The Women's Fathom Down Jacket

TTK: What have you learned about down through designing at Nau?

PK: At Nau, we work with the highest quality down, which has this somewhat unpredictable quality: you can squish it down flat as a pancake, and it will just loft itself back into this airy volume. So the key has been to understand how that volume translates onto the human body. But once you understand that, you see that the quality of down that is used in a jacket is the key to a great silhouette. That’s what we aim for.

[Today, on the final day of our week-long pledge to donate 10% of sales on nau.com to our Partners For Change, The Thought Kitchen is pleased to share a  guest posts from Seth Walker from Ecotrust, a unique Portland-based organization inspiring fresh thinking to create economic opportunity, social equity and environmental well-being. -Ed.]

We at Ecotrust were honored as one of Nau’s original change partners because, like Nau, we too believe in the need to build long-lasting communities that are more in tune with nature and the needs of local citizens. Our efforts over 20 years include founding the world’s first bank to lend money on social, economic and environmental priorities; we’ve also created a range of programs to help farmers, fishers, timber harvesters and others create more sustainable economies for themselves.

What inspires us toward this work? Many things, but perhaps nothing more than the lessons we learn from America’s original inhabitants. Tribes and First Nations are more than an ethnic or minority demographic – they hold long-range vision, sustainable societal values and a history of the land and marine ecosystems that goes back to “time immemorial.” Ecotrust works to marshal what resources it can to support tribal leaders because their leadership — and deeply expressed responsibility to community and homeland vitality — is necessary for a long-term sense of place in the growing global economy.

Ecotrust uses financial support from Nau’s Partners for Change program, in part, to support what is perhaps Ecotrust’s most important indigenous program – the Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award. This award has quietly become one of the most important resources for supporting tribal leaders in the West. Since its inception in 2001, the annual award has recognized more than 40 tribal leaders for their work as catalysts for better conditions in their communities.

The award itself makes a modest investment in the community and/or personal initiatives of these amazing leaders ($25,000 to the awardee, $5,000 each to four additional honorees). But the award is much more than money. Ecotrust invests in the involvement with a wide range of indigenous people from California, Nevada, western Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska and the Canadian Provinces of British Columbia and Yukon Territories, because of a strongly held belief that the resulting cooperation and knowledge is beneficial for the entire bioregion. Recipients of the Ecotrust Award for Indigenous Leadership have accomplished great things, including founding an embassy in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the needs of Native Americans.

Without support from organizations such as Nau, efforts such as the Ecotrust Award for Indigenous Leadership simply wouldn’t be possible. Nau’s support is a positive catalyst for change, and it passes thru Ecotrust and to some of the most deserving and inspiring people in our bioregion. The next award ceremony will be held at Ecotrust in Portland on December 2, 2010. Please consider purchasing a ticket on our website and joining us as this important, annual cultural event.

You probably know that clocks were designed with hands to mimic the movement of the sun around the earth. But then, a few centuries back, we realized that things were actually the other way around. Like so many things, it wasn’t the world that changed, it was us.

On a day when we’re all changing our clocks, check out this new perspective on telling time. Jason Linde produces these Wenge veneer clocks in New York; you can find them on Supermarket.

[This week, as part of Nau's pledge to donate 10% of sales on nau.com to our Partners For Change, The Thought Kitchen is pleased to share a collection of guest posts from our Partner organizations. Today's guest is Tyler Spalding from Ashoka, the global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system changing solutions for the world’s most urgent social problems. -Ed.]

This fall, Ashoka entered its 30^th year of pioneering the field of social entrepreneurship worldwide.  This is certainly an exciting moment, but what does it mean?  We know the numbers: since our founding in 1980, Ashoka has helped launch and then provided key long-term support to almost 3,000 leading social entrepreneurs—men and women with system-changing solutions that address the world’s most urgent social challenges.  In over 70 countries, Ashoka has provided these “Fellows” start-up stipends, professional services, and a powerful global network of top social and business entrepreneurs.  Annual Ashoka evaluations show that, five years after their election and start-up launch, 90% of Ashoka Fellows see independent institutions copy their idea and over half have changed national policy.  This is all exciting and powerful, to be sure, but so what?

The significance of leading social entrepreneurs rests in the world they envision and are actively creating—that is a world in which everyone, not just an elite few, can be a powerful changemaker.  As the rate of change accelerates, and as it comes from ever more sources, the model of a few people telling everyone else what to do simply does not work.  It is a broken model, but it is still completely dominant—in how we are organized and in how we think.  The message is clear: for anyone to succeed in the world’s new environment, he/she must be able to positively contribute to change.

Social entrepreneurs are at the heart of this transformation, and they play a critical role in helping the world evolve new systems designed to serve the good of all.  In addition to the pattern-changing and paradigm-shifting solutions they are bringing to bear in all fields of work and geographic areas of the world, they are also role models.  They are mass recruiters of local changemakers because, if their ideas are to fly, the entrepreneurs must recruit local people in thousands of communities to stand up and champion their innovations.  These local changemakers in turn disrupt old ways and are role models and recruiters.  Some will also grow and later become large-scale entrepreneurs.

Ashoka, its inner circle of leading social entrepreneurs across the globe, and its other partners ranging from highly successful business entrepreneurs to 12- to 20-year-old Youth Venturers are all contributors – individually and collectively – to helping the world make the transition to its “everyone a changemaker™” future.  And, as we continue to advance toward this goal in our 30^th year, we pose the question to you: how are you a changemaker?  Let us know.  www.ashoka.org

[This week, as part of Nau's pledge to donate 10% of sales on nau.com to our Partners For Change, The Thought Kitchen is pleased to share a collection of guest posts from our Partner organizations. Today's guest is Kate Heryford from Kiva.org, the world's first micro-lending website for the working poor, and one of Nau's original Partners For Change . -Ed.]

Last month, Kiva marked its 5^th birthday and celebrated five years in which it enabled 490,000 people to lend more than $165 million to 420,000 entrepreneurs in 53 countries. As exciting as the first five years have been, we thought we’d share a little bit of what we have in store for the next five years.

The success of the Kiva model presents an amazing opportunity for Kiva to work with our MFI partners to create and expand innovative loan products beyond the typical micro-business loans that made Kiva famous. The first step in this exciting new phase for Kiva is student microloans. For the first time ever, Kiva users can make loans to students to help them pay for the education that can help them break the inter-generational cycle of poverty.

A post-secondary education can increase income from 10-20% per year–if you can afford it. However, in most countries, government student loan programs simply don’t exist.  With no collateral, no credit history, and little or no job history, most aspiring college students can’t qualify for commercial loans to pay for school.  Ironically, a higher education is the very thing that could enable them to get the higher paying jobs that would enable them to build the track record that commercial lenders require.  As a result, generation after generation remains shut out of the education system, trapped in a seemingly endless cycle of poverty.

Kiva Student Microloans give recipients the opportunity to gain new knowledge and skills through higher education or vocational training. As a result, these individuals will be better positioned to find jobs, support their families and grow their communities — and ultimately make a real difference in the relief of global poverty.

To learn more about Kiva, visit the Partners For Change page on nau.com, or check out this short video:

[This week, as part of Nau's pledge to donate 10% of sales on nau.com to our Partners For Change, The Thought Kitchen is pleased to share a collection of guest posts from our Partner organizations. Today's guests are Carlene Deits and Minda Seibert at Mercy Corps. -Ed.]

Mercy Corps is fortunate to be a Nau ”Partner for Change” since 2007.  Through the  patronage and generosity of Nau’s customers, Nau has donated over $40,000 to Mercy Corps and our ”Where Needed Most” programs which address critical global issues and support our overall mission. Nau recognizes that Mercy Corps is a catalyst for positive, lasting change and has graciously encouraged their customers to help make our work possible. Nau and their community’s donations have impacted some of the world’s toughest places.

When conflict or disaster strikes, families suffer.  People lose their homes,  businesses and livelihoods; they must start again from nothing. For 30 years in places suffering from economic collapse, political transitions, armed conflict and natural disasters, Mercy Corps has been empowering millions of individuals, families and entire communities  to  turn crises into opportunities for long-term change.  We know that societies become stronger when citizens are actively involved in decision-making, so Mercy Corps creates safe spaces where communities can discuss solutions to the biggest challenges affecting their lives.

Donations to Mercy Corps open schools, start small businesses and establish peace in places scarred by conflict. Your support helps hard-working people rebuild their lives and homes. We are thankful to Nau for donating to Mercy Corps and giving us the ability to respond to disasters, to invest in innovative initiatives that maximize the value of our expertise, and to work in places where need is greater than donor interest.

Both Mercy Corps staff headquartered in Portland and international staff around the world know the value of partnerships with globally aware and socially conscious companies like Nau.  On behalf of the Mercy Corps family and the people we serve in 40 countries, we truly appreciate your charitable support of the Nau-Mercy Corps partnership and for allowing change-oriented organizations to make a difference.

-Carlene Deits and Minda Seibert, Mercy Corps