Our Story

Greenlight Organic was founded by five business school classmates at UC Davis with a passion for eliminating child labor and helping under privileged children around the world achieve a better lifestyle. The idea for Greenlight Organic first came to the team after working on consulting project for Professor Wunderman’s class in South Asia in the summer of 2006. During their visit, the founders visited various apparel manufacturing factories that were producing products for leading name brands. During these visits, they realized the wide spread use of child labor in the apparel industry and wanted to do something to help.

The world child labor crisis was one of the largest problems facing humankind, but the average person wasn’t aware of the problem. In the Fall of 2007 after putting together a business plan and reaching the finals of the Global Social Venture Competition, the team was presented with an opportunity to fulfill a large marathon order (Silicon Valley Turkey Trot). The team grasped the opportunity to create an apparel brand to use corporate and consumer demand in developed countries to address the world child labor crisis and act as a platform to raise awareness and emotional involvement.

Greenlight Organic has since grown by word-of-mouth and become the brand of choice for corporate event planners, race directors and most importantly the consumer.

Business As Unusual

We were inspired to design a company that from the ground up would be committed to fighting child labor, sustainability and positive change.

Our mission at Greenlight Organic is to raise awareness of the world child labor crisis and empower consumers and corporations to make purchasing decisions that lead to a better life for people around the world. By manufacturing our clothing in Fair Trade factories that pay adult workers a fair wage, we ensure that parents make enough to care for themselves and their children. By using sustainable fabrics, we ensure that toxic chemicals aren’t harming people, animals or the earth we share. And by donating 5% of each sale to UNICEF recognized charities, we ensure that a better life is created for children and their families in rural and impoverished areas across the globe.

Every time you purchase a Greenlight Organic product, 5% of the sale price goes towards our goal of making $1 million in grant commitments towards fighting child labor programs by 2012. To date the company has helped an estimated 673 children around the world and avoided more then 37,000 child labor hours.

Make choices that make a difference.

Greenlight Organic is among a unique and growing group of triple bottom line companies who understand that profit is not the only way to measure business success. People also matter. And so does the planet on which we all live.

For Greenlight Organic, the triple bottom line comes in lots of forms. From helping rescue 12 children from bonded labor in a factory in Vietnam to sponsoring over 400 children in schools in India, to donating school uniforms for an entire elementary school in Zimbabwe to offering carbon neutral shipping on every shipment, doing good is not just a part of Greenlight Organics’ business-it is the business.