Clothing can be 'green' on several levels. Clothing can be manufactured out of sustainable fabrics like organic cotton, bamboo, or hemp. It can even be made from recycled products like plastic bags, or from reclaimed or recycled materials, so that no new energy or resources are used. Proceeds of such clothes can go toward environmental causes. Clothing factories can use labor that is fair-trade by first-world standards. There are many ways in which clothing can be "green," but in order for a product to be truly eco-friendly, it has to be eco-friendly in every step along the production chain. Clothing must be produced as well as delivered in a way that is not harmful to the environment and manufactured in a sustainable manner that can be repeated without depleting resources. Korchinsky cautions consumers to watch out for clothes that is fraudulently labeled as sustainable, when in fact the label is merely a ploy to get consumers to fork over extra cash.

What if your dress claims to be made from recycled old materials, but really is patched together with brand new material left over from a factory? What if a company uses eco-friendly fabrics, but manufactures its clothes in a plant that doesn't utilize fair-trade standards? There are some simple questions consumers can ask themselves, Mike explains. "What are the materials? Are they truly produced in a sustainable way that is not harmful to the planet? And the labor: is that labor fair-trade? Does it meet the emerging world's standard for fair labor? My definition encompasses both the material and the human element. China is using the term 'eco-friendly' in its exports, but their labor standards haven't changed lately so I wouldn't consider something from China eco-friendly unless I knew the conditions of how it was produced."

While sometimes, eco-friendly is used by marketers in such a tenebrous way that it's barely meaningful, Wildlife Works is clear about their message. When I asked Mike to tell me exactly how Wildlife Works was eco-friendly, he gave me a step-by-step explanation of his production methods. "We started on a philosophical level by trying to save wildlife." He looked toward Kenya, a country once rich with wildlife that includes elephants, zebras, rhinoceroses, cheetahs, and lions. Much of Kenya's wildlife was in peril of endangerment because of the enormous jump in Kenya's human population, which increased fivefold in the past 50 years. With humans and animals competing for the same limited resources, animals began to die off as areas became increasingly urbanized, deforestation snowballed, and humans began killing off animals for food.

Mike started Wildlife Works in Kenya by purchasing a 20,000-acre ranch on the border of Tsavo National Park and built an eco-friendly factory and a wildlife sanctuary on those grounds. Wildlife Works is surrounded by the 80,000-acre Rukinga animal sanctuary, home to 47 species of mammals. By paying rural Kenyan women 3 or 4 times what they could earn in the local communities, people working for Wildlife Works make well above living wage, and they began to stop poaching for money or killing off endangered wildlife for food. Mike and Wildlife Works voluntarily reached out to a non-profit organization called Verité, which audits corporations to ensure that they are in compliance with labor laws and operating under the fair-trade standard, and Verité gave Wildlife Works their seal of approval. In addition to using fair-trade methods of production, all the fabric used at Wildlife Works is environmentally sustainable. Said Mike to the SFBG, "All of our materials are organically grown, and we only use fabrics from organically certified fibers like organic cotton. Certification is done by a third party, and there are well accepted international standards. Our products are certified by USDA organic certification."

With Wildlife Works, Mike found that an environmentally conscious business venture could, in fact, not only be a success with consumers, but also reward initial investors who provided the seed money for non-profit businesses like Wildlife Works to grow. Wildlife Works now employs 65 people, starting from only five employees in 1997. In 1997, the elephants had left the Rukinga animal sanctuary. Now, ten years later, they have returned. Just a simple fact like that says a lot.

Wildlife Works sells women's, men's, and children's clothing, as well as home decor, all of which is available on their Web site. Wildlife Works is also available at select retail stores, and you can call 866-629-0172 to find one near you.