2023 Sustainability Review

"Sustainability is a resource that meets present needs without compromising those of future generations"

Way back in 2005 in the midst of burnout the need to center values in what we are offering became the key to continuing doing this work. This idea to connect the needs, style, community, and collaborations that were happening while emboldening the future. Sustainability became the focus and all including all of the ways we can interact with that idea. What we were engaging in, what we could encourage and what we discovered along the way. At that time there was no agreed upon definition of sustainability. To fill that need Ellie created a working definition of Sustainability.

This definition became the way we wanted to create a bridge between what we had cultivated and our hopes for the future. As a brick and mortar shop in a small city in the early days of the internet. We were a resource to our local community. We saw the impact of connecting customers to makers that are together trying to be gentler on the planet and encourage creative expression. We saw the circular benefits are shared. Even though this idea was not always embraced. Some thought it was impossible, not going to work, maybe a silly idea. Regardless we kept working towards this idea of Sustainability and have continued coming back to this idea have found it to be way of supporting our decision making process.

Every year we reflect on what we are curating, part of that is checking in on what we have offered through the year and what the makers and creatives we work with are up to. This year we have taken a deep dive and done an extensive sustainability review. have discovered so many stories from the talented makers we offer. We are inspired by the work they are doing and are excited to share it. There are so many stories and projects happening it will take us a while to share it all with you. Here we begin...

Sustainability Review

The Bootyland Kids Sustainability Review for 2023 is finally complete, and we must say it’s been hard but rewarding work! It was one of our team’s main goals for 2023 and we are very proud to share this collective engagement in sustainability with our store community. 

What Is A Sustainability Review?

As you might already know, Bootyland Kids is a sustainable children and family store. We pride ourselves with carrying organic, plastic-free, sustainably- and ethically-produced products, and a sustainability review is a way to ensure that all our vendors, old and new, meet our store’s standards for sustainability and ethics. 

We went through each of our vendors and looked up information about their labor and production practices. Then we filled out our Sustainable Criteria Checklist for each of them and have compiled all this information into a deck of spreadsheets, together with links to short paragraphs highlighting makers and founders’ stories.

Why Do We Need A Sustainability Review?

Even though we vet all our vendors to make sure they meet our sustainability criteria before placing orders, as our catalog has been expanding over the last few years we have been looking for a way to and place to have that information accessible to our team and available to share with the community. This reflective process has been how we connect to our values: Nurture, Sustainability, Wonder. This is a tool of reflection and discovery that inspires us and keeps us true to what we are setting out to do. 

The Criteria that we used in this years review:

• Sharing the Results of the Review

You can see the results from the sustainable review list for each of venders to the product pages under the tab Maker Info. There your will find a list from the review or a bit about the maker. For some of the creative brands and makers we have created info pages that you can find linked on the product pages. Through out the year we will be sharing the highlights we have discovered in the process

Cover photo by Alec Mills ~ @alecmillsphotography ~ www.alecmillsphotography.com