Conscients project is to offer beautiful products that tell beautiful (and true) stories and preserve our ecosystems. Beautiful organic and ecological products for kids and family, beautiful products to offer… An ecological gift is so powerful, we believe it may change how people look at the world they are living in.
Carole Piette (Alter Eco & Pur Projet co-founder) and Hélène Long founded Conscients, with the help of friends and family in 2011.
Our baby clothes are in organic cotton. We use organic pima cotton from Peru. This materials is known as the south american “silk”, as it is extremely soft and resistant. The cooperative is located in the North of Peru, it is GOTS (organic) and FLO CERT certified (fair trade). The clothes are made in a small workshop located in Lima. This workshop is held by Cesar, a man passionate about organic pima cotton. Cesar coordinate all the fabrics process : making, dyeing and print. The dyeing is Oeko-Tex certified which means it is heavy metals free. We also use ecological ink for the print.
Looking at our kids growing with their trees is more than a romantic image to us. Planting trees is a part of Conscients’ DNA. Being conscious means looking at the world with brand new eyes just as kids do. Being conscious means focusing on the solutions rather than the problems. Being conscious means acting with pleasure. Planting a tree is an efficient way to act against global warming as deforestation is responsible for 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Planting a tree for a new baby is a happy birth gift. It’s also a way to encourage kids to focus on the solutions rather than to being stressed by climates issues. The reforestation project is held by the Fundacion Amazonia Viva in the peruvian Amazonia. Trees are planted following agroforestry systems improving the yield whilst preserving the biodiversity, soil and water quality.
It's quite easy to stimulate a kid with a tree.. Even those whose trees are planted miles away feel close to it, many parents have told us their child were proud to have a tree in the Amazon :) Loving trees is a good start in life, it helps understand how biodiversity works. To explain agroforestry, tropical forests and the stakes related to reforestation we wrote a book (in french only) for children from 4 to 8.
A pioneering reforestation and agroforestry project developed initially by Pur Projet in partnership with Acopagro small-scale cocoa farmers cooperative, certified organic and fair trade. Locally, the project is now coordinated by the Fundacion Amazonia Viva that worked directly with local cooperatives to undertake reforestation and agroforestry activities with local San Martín farmers.
San Martín region was heavily deforested in the 1980’s as Peru experienced a strong increase in illicit coca cultivation and many Amazonian regions were ruled by drug traffic. As a consequence, soil productivity and ecosystem services have decreased in an area recognized as a hotspot of biodiversity. Local cooperatives were created in this context, to develop alternative cultures. The cooperatives gather families of small-scale fair-trade and organic cocoa and coffee farmers, who plant trees following forestry models, on degraded and unused lands, and also on cultivated plots where they develop agroforestry practices.
The main objective is to protect ecosystems by developing agroforestry systems to ensure long-term sustainability of cocoa and coffee plantations and enhance farmers’ livelihoods by providing alternative sources of income. The project fights deforestation and its consequences, such as soil erosion, decrease of water availability, natural disasters, landscapes degradation, and decrease of biodiversity. It helps people reforest and therefore bring an added value to their lands and ensure them a longterm income that can be used, for example, to pay the studies of their children or their retirement pension.
Fundacion Amazonia Viva website