This article is part of an editorial collaboration with BCorporation. The BCorp Series can be found here. The original publication can be found here.
Clear Your Mind and Expand Your Horizons With These Purpose-Driven Lifestyle Businesses
Operating a purpose-driven business requires ongoing thought and attention toward goals and strategy. But how many of us give the same attention and intention to our everyday actions?
By adapting mindful behaviors, we can work more efficiently, live more healthfully and create a more purposeful life. Think of it as a way to Vote Every Day for ourselves — by taking care of our own needs, we’re better able to take care of the needs of others.
Several Certified B Corporations are ready to help you on the path to mindfulness, through trainings, events and tools for your purpose-filled journey. Through their products, these B Corps also help improve others’ lives — a mental lift for all involved. Read on for more about B Corps that can help you reset your mindset.
Wanderlust
A healthier tomorrow drives Wanderlust, which produces events and instructional media focused on transformational yoga, mindfulness, fitness and wellness. From multi-day festivals in locales such as Stratton, Vermont, and Squaw Valley, California, to more than 50 events around the world, the Brooklyn-based B Corp brings together thousands seeking to find “their true north” through movement, music, education and other activities. In addition to events, Wanderlust offers apparel and promotes a Wander Without Wasteprogram, an Earth-friendly festival movement to support a greener planet. To enable more people to attend its events, Wanderlust provides full-ticket scholarships for some events to applicants who meet certain criteria and embody values of seva, or selfless service. By connecting personal well-being with the well-being of our planet, Wanderlust uses the inspiration of powerful experiences to bring people together and create a brighter, healthier future.
Zen Life Center
Lead by example is the mantra at the Zen Life Center, which offers training in martial arts, physical fitness and wellness, meditation and breathing, plus business consulting and life coaching — to ease and lift your mind, body and spirit. The Florida-based B Corp and benefit corporation strives to benefit its local community by developing strong individuals and families in a healthy and diverse environment. In addition, the Zen Life Center makes its services available to disadvantaged individuals, with an emphasis on girls and impoverished children.
Lulea
Using yoga as a force for change, Lulea holds its clients, collaborators, community and nature as stakeholders. As “yogis making clothes for yogis,” Lulea creates simple and stylish apparel that’s also durable and multi-functional. With co-founders who previously worked in the fashion and finance industries before discovering yoga, the Argentina-based B Corp encourages its customers to act consciously for the planet. A portion of Lulea sales goes to community social service organizations.
Athleta
While premium performance and technical apparel for female athletes is Athleta’s primary business, the Gap Inc. brand celebrates inclusivity with its Power of She campaign to encourage active women and girls to uplift one another. And Athleta is a leader in sustainability efforts in its products and stores. As progress toward its goal to have 80 percent of its apparel made from recycled and sustainable materials by 2020, Athleta this year introduced swimwear made from H2ECO, a high-performance, recycled swim fabric. In 2017 Athleta supported nearly 10,000 hours of employee community service. And good news for guys: Its new Hill City subsidiary brand of men’s performance products also has been reviewed and independently meets the performance requirement for B Corp certification.
WE-AR
WE-AR markets yoga and casual men’s and women’s wear made from materials that have gone through a life-cycle analysis that considers the environmental, health and social impact of the growth and processing of plants, fibers and textiles. The New Zealand B Corp has built a network of partnerships with suppliers and craftspeople near its creative workshop in Canggu, Bali, in turn helping strengthen their community through social and economic development. These artisans incorporate low-impact dyeing and local fabrics in their products to protect the ecosystem. The company partners with other businesses committed to sustainability as part of the Sustainable Business Network and is an Accredited Living Wage Employer. WE-AR also sponsors the Yoga Education in Prisons Trust through its Social Profit Program.
