Minimalist footwear company Vivobarefoot and philanthropic organization One Earth today announced Take One Step for One Earth, a fundraising collaboration. The partnership will raise awareness of on-the-ground climate solutions and drive donations to three Indigenous-led projects.
Vivobarefoot will unveil co-branded trainers for adults and kids – the Primus Lite III & Primus Sport (for kids) in One Earth Neo Mint – and will encourage customers to engage with the campaign through social media. Vivobarefoot will also match any donations customers make to these projects through Vivobarefoot or the One Earth landing page*.
“Vivobarefoot’s mission is one of restoring our connection to the Earth,” said Dulma Clark, head of the Livebarefoot Fund, Vivobarefoot’s in-house impact fund that supports programs driving research, innovation and action in regenerative footwear. “One Earth embodies that spirit and identifies organizations that drive regenerative change.”
One Earth is a philanthropic organisation working to accelerate collective action to limit global average temperature rise to 1.5°C. One Earth’s Project Marketplace brings together locally run projects from around the world that are working to solve the climate crisis through renewable energy, nature conservation and regenerative agriculture. Through the Project Marketplace anyone can support on-the-ground climate solution projects.
For Earth Day, funds will be donated to three projects chosen through the One Earth Project Marketplace that are providing meaningful solutions to the climate crisis: The Rainbow Fiber Co-operative, an Indigenous lead Navajo- Churro Wool Cooperative that is preserving biodiversity and traditional Navajo methods; the Agroecology Fund and MELCA, which is reviving Indigenous farming practices to support traditional communities in Ethiopia; and Amazon Frontlines and the Ceibo Alliance, who are pioneering a new model of Indigenous-led conservation in the Upper Amazon.
“Many Indigenous communities are on the front line of climate change, protecting the land that we are destroying,” said Clark. “Having lived in harmony with the land for many years they are often best placed to know the best ways to restore it. These projects support meaningful connection between people and the Earth and show us that it’s not too late to protect and restore the climate.”
“Vivobarefoot is a partner that understands the urgency of listening to Indigenous wisdom and uplifting climate solutions,” said Justin Winters, Co-Founder and Executive Director of One Earth. “This collaboration reminds us that making change isn’t a fanciful dream. We’re pragmatic. Our ground-breaking science shows it’s possible to solve the climate crisis with solutions that exist today. It’s the people who are the game-changers – not politicians.”
Customers will be asked to engage in social posts, with donations to organizations increasing based on likes, comments, sharing and tagging @vivobarefoot and @oneearth. Vivobarefoot and One Earth will match donations up to $30k*. A series of blog posts will introduce each grant recipient and customers can learn more at www.OneEarth.org.
“The United Nations recently said that it only takes 10-30% of the population taking action to create meaningful change,” said Clark. “You can be part of that 10-30%, and support regenerative principles to tackle climate change. Everyone can act to protect and restore the Earth.”
About One Earth
One Earth is a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring the collective action that’s necessary to rebalance our climate and create a just and vibrant future. The latest science, led by One Earth, shows we can achieve the 1.5°C goal through three pillars of action – a just transition to 100% renewable energy, protection, and restoration of half of the world’s lands and oceans, and a shift to regenerative agriculture. Through groundbreaking science, inspiring storytelling, and an innovative approach to climate philanthropy, One Earth works to rapidly deploy urgently needed resources to frontline leaders and organizations directly implementing on-the-ground climate solutions today.
ABOUT VIVOBAREFOOT
Vivobarefoot, is a natural health lifestyle B Corp on a mission to reconnect people into the natural world and human natural potential, from the ground up, foot by foot, person by person.
Created by two cousins from a long line of cobblers, Galahad and Asher Clark, Vivobarefoot draws upon simple barefoot design principles: wide, thin and flexible, for optimum foot health and natural movement. Check out the science and start your barefoot journey on VivoHealth, a growing body of courses and experiences guided by natural health experts.
On a quest to become a net-positive business for regeneration of human and planetary health, Vivobarefoot also runs ReVivo, the first of its kind secondary market for professionally reconditioned footwear to keep them on feet and away from landfills; and the Livebarefoot Fund, an in-house impact hub catalysing mission-aligned innovation, research and advocacy programs. See the latest Unfinished Business impact report to learn more on what it takes to create a regenerative business.
About The Livebarefoot Fund
The Livebarefoot Fund is Vivobarefoot’s in-house impact fund for the incubation and deployment of programmes driving research, innovation and action in regenerative footwear and experiences. We believe the future of planetary and human health relies on the lessons to be learned from indigenous peoples; traditions congruent with the best of current science can help guide humans to care for and with the earth in healing ways.
About the Grantees
Preserving the Navajo Agro-Pastoral Lifeway, An Indigenous-led Navajo- Churro Wool Cooperative
Region: Northern America
Partner: Rainbow Fiber Co-operative
https://rainbowfibercoop.org/pages/about-us
While there is a sizable niche market for Navajo-Churro wool and weaving yarns, most Navajo-Churro products available for sale online are from non-Dineì shepherds. In 2020 the pandemic brought marketing activities like farm visits, classes, art shows, and fiber events to a standstill. This project is a response to the compounding need to support these culturally essential flocks and their stewards. This project focuses on traditional Navajo shepherds living and grazing on the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico. The Navajo pastoralists who continue to preserve T’aìaì Dibeì (the First Sheep) do so with inspiring purpose and determination. The impact of these shepherds on their community brings food security as well as social and cultural connection to traditional land tending. Navajo-Churro shepherds deserve support to continue conservation efforts for their unique breed of sheep and their ancestral lifeway connected to the land. This project will allow them to initiate a self- sustaining online market channel to provide reliable income, donate yarn to organizations focused on preserving traditional weaving arts among Navajo youth and elders, support the operation and expansion of a non-profit Navajo-Churro mill, and initially support three shepherds in this cooperative whose flocks encompass 500 sheep impacting stewardship on 3,000 acres of land, ultimately promoting economic health for families and communities.
Reviving Indigenous Farming Practices to Support Traditional Communities in Ethiopia
Region: Afrotropics, Ethiopia
Partner: Agroecology Fund & MELCA
A new project in Ethiopia will work to revive Indigenous farming practices that are better suited for a changing climate, providing vulnerable communities with access to healthier, more nourishing food while simultaneously protecting biodiversity. Indigenous elders teach at local schools so that younger generations may gain ancestral knowledge alongside their formal education, focusing on a return to seed sovereignty. The goal is to inspire and inform a new generation to create communities in which people and nature live harmoniously together. Although the pandemic has caused significant disruption, it has presented an opportunity to revive traditional leadership.
In recent months, Indigenous communities have come together to support each other and people who are unable to grow their own food. The crisis has also revived age-old traditions, bringing newfound respect for intergenerational knowledge. For example, the Mijikenda, Kikuyu, Kamba, Maasai, and Tharaka Elders held separate ceremonies to build solidarity and protect the community.
Pioneering a New Model of Indigenous-led Conservation in the Upper Amazon
Region: South America: Amazonia, Ecuador
Partners: Amazon Frontlines & the Ceibo Alliance
Across the Amazon, Indigenous rainforest territories are being degraded at an alarming rate. While the forest’s ancestral guardians have the experience and incentives to steward millions of acres of standing forest, they lack the resources, tools, networks, and institutional capacity to defend against the 21st century’s mounting threats. This project will support a pioneering, new model of globally backed, Indigenous-led conservation of the Upper Amazon, one of the most biodiverse regions in the world. Amazon Frontlines works directly with Indigenous communities and organizations to ensure that they have the tools, resources, and networks needed to protect their rainforest territory and their ancestral culture. Over the last eight years, Amazon Frontlines has worked alongside Indigenous peoples to amplify their voices and build political power to protect the Amazon. Their on-the- ground, listen-first approach has earned trust and respect from Indigenous nations across the Upper Amazon region, informing an innovative partnership model that builds locally driven solutions and brings them to scale and has so far succeeded in saving over 700,000 acres. A key to this success was the formation of the Ceibo Alliance, a first-of-its-kind alliance between the ancestral nations of Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia. With over 35 full-time indigenous activists working out of an organizing center in the jungle, it now operates across 80 villages and 5 million acres of primary rainforest. The Ceibo Alliance is developing and implementing strategies to protect these rainforest homelands and way of life. With Indigenous peoples at the helm of every strategy and decision, this pioneering model of frontline organizing, and Indigenous-led conservation is poised to scale, helping to solve climate change by protecting some of the highest biodiversity ecosystems on the planet.
