A few weeks ago I was assigned a website brand presentation for a brand from an emerging market. I ended up profiling Osklen, a high-end Brazilian sportswear company. The brand was started in 1989 by Brazilian entrepreneur Oskar Metsavaht. Metsavaht was a mountaineer who designed his own outdoors gear after noticing a lack of gear being sold in Brazil. Soon thanks to his publicity after becoming the first Brazilian to scale Mont Blanc his brand took off. They began a “lifestyle” fashion line that was inspired by the laid back surf lifestyle of Brazil.
The brand takes the laid-back beach inspired look and makes it urban. They do an excellent job representing Brazil as a beautiful country renowned for its beaches and beautiful people, as well as one of the fastest growing nations that is increasing its global presence every year. Even I could appreciate what Metsavaht was doing with his clothes, and I know almost nothing about fashion. So I was even more surprised while exploring Osklen’s website to discover that they are also extremely committed to sustainability.
Metsavaht created Institutio e, is an institute whose mission is “transforming and positioning Brazil as ‘the country’s sustainable human development’, through the creation and management of a network that leverages synergies between different initiatives and actors in society.” It’s quite an impressive goal, but what does it mean exactly? The organization is 
working to create an online community of “e-brigaders” to support sustainable development in Brazil through a variety of means, but mostly through empowerment by sharing information through social media (check out their Twitter).
The biggest initiative the institute has undergone is the winter collection for 2012. COLECÃO A21 OSKLEN – INVERNO 2012 was inspired by the 20th anniversary of the Rio-92 Conference, and specifically by Agenda 21 which was signed there. The document, which established the importance of each 
country to seek solutions to the socio-economic and environmental problems of the world, has been one of the most influential international consensus made concerning sustainable development. The collection will be released before June when the Rio +20 United National conference on Sustainable Development will be held. The collection highlights one of the main focuses of Institutio e, to develop “e-fabrics” by “identifying sustainable raw material for use in the textile and fashion supply chain, creating a culture of conscious consumers.” The e-fabrics displayed in this collection are Arapaima and salmon skin, silk and organic cotton, and canvas eco.
I’m excited to see what Osklen will bring to Rio +20. This is the kind of initiative that Agenda 21 was created to do, to help create eco centered companies to cater to eco consumers and help solidify the triple bottom line and create a truly sustainable world. Clothes are what we live our lives in, so why not live life in a sustainable way?
Taylor's Sustainability Blog 