Community

We're committed to doing our best to generate positive environmental and social change through our collections and our ongoing work both within the business and beyond it.

Alongside community initiatives like helping keep our most vulnerable warm in winter, we support a few key ongoing projects which promote long term and lasting positive change.

Our belief is that although we are small in global terms, we can still have a large impact. Our successes simply encourage us to continue to challenge ourselves, to remember that we do have a voice, and know that anything is possible.

We believe everyone deserves access to basic human necessities. The essentials required to enable a person to thrive and fulfil their potential.

We understand how privileged we are in New Zealand as a business with the power and means to help others.

B1G1 is an initiative that enables businesses to give back, just by doing what they usually do. B1G1 offers over 500 projects, ranging from health to education, which companies can support, to integrate giving into their business. And what's even better, is it comes at no extra cost to you.

Through our partnership with B1G1, for every CoolTree™ garment purchased, impoverished villages along the Mekong Delta in Vietnam are given access to clean drinking water for a day. This small act is a big step that empowers people with hope for tomorrow.

ProjectU™ is a not-for-profit capsule collection that supports two great causes, while you sport signature Untouched World™ style.

Each garment is ethically made in Kolkata, India, by women who were once marginalised and trapped by poverty and prostitution. They are empowered with new skills and offered jobs in a dignified, caring environment, where they are paid around twice the going rate for an equivalent job elsewhere. Women are also provided with health insurance and a pension plan, giving them hope for the future and helping to set them and their families up for a better quality of life.

All profits from this collection also help to fund the Untouched World Foundation, which provides practical 'Leadership for a Sustainable Future' programmes for young adults. These programmes aim to empower the next generation with the knowledge and life skills to be active change-makers championing a brighter future for the people and the planet.

Our Untouched World™ Foundation is something we are super passionate about. It was formed back in 2000 after a whole lot of research into what we could do to make the biggest difference beyond the business.

This research shaped our core belief: educating young adults on key issues facing society, unlocking their unique leadership potential and inspiring them to become active change-makers is how we can make the most positive impact on our world.

A percentage of all company profits go towards funding the Untouched World™ Foundation, which runs, UN recognised 'Leadership for a Sustainable Future' Programmes for young people. To date we've engaged with over 2500 secondary and tertiary students, and this number continues to grow.

These practical week-long programmes have proved life-changing for many of our participants, with a number going on to champion sustainability in their communities and careers.