Blue Business of the Year Finalists:
Award Recipient - MANG - West Palm Beach, Florida
MANG is an incredible family owned business that strives to help the environment and help in marine conservation. Every purchase helps keep the waters clean and makes the environment a better place. With each purchase, a mangrove is planted. On their website they mention the following: "Mangroves don't just improve our water quality and provide life for thousands of marine life species, they also stabilize our coast and trap carbon to keep our planet healthy."
Their cotton t-shirts are biodegradable and made without chemicals. MANG sometimes partners with nonprofits to raise awareness for certain issues happening in the marine world, such as coral reefs through the Coral Reef Foundation. They have a special collection dedicated to aid the mangrove forests in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian hit. Aside from selling clothes, masks, stickers, and hats and more, MANG has several opportunities to help plant mangroves as a volunteer in the community, in education by partnering with schools and teachers for field trips and more, and also to become a brand ambassador. MANG is a great company that truly cares about the ocean and does an amazing job spreading the word about marine conservation.
Inspired by a passion for conservation, two brothers started a business with the goal to better our planet. Since 2015, for every clothing item sold through their company, MANG propagates and plants mangroves that help improve water quality, serve as important habitats for thousands of marine and terrestrial species, stabilize our shores, and trap carbon to help protect our planet. From their first mangrove forest planted in North Palm Beach, MANG now has now planted over 353,213 mangroves totaling 142 acres mangroves across the globe including the Bahamas and Madagascar. Additionally, MANG is not only focused on directly restoring mangroves, but on educating their customers on the importance of mangrove habitats and how we can all work together for a better ocean planet.
Sand Cloud - San Clemente, California
Sand Cloud has shaped their brand from the beginning to promote ocean conservation by donating ten percent of all proceeds to ocean minded organizations (including LMC). This lifestyle brand is most recognized for their beach towels which are made of turkish cotton and are shipped to businesses with the Blue Vendor minded attitude. In addition, Sand Cloud has a sustainable clothing line knowing customers want to make purchases that reflect their values concerning the environment.
They have built a company culture of giving and love of the ocean. Their ambassador team is large (250K) and loves promoting this loved brand.
From the website:
Our Story
We founded Sand Cloud on the sunny beaches of San Diego, inspired by the ocean around us. At the time, we were just three friends with a dream to reinvent an age-old product: the beach towel. We committed ourselves to using sustainable materials and donating a portion of all sales to marine conservation charities as a way to protect the beaches we love. When you purchase a beach towel from Sand Cloud, you not only get a sand-resistant, ultra-absorbent Turkish cotton towel, but also help us in our mission as a portion of every sale goes to a worthwhile environmental charity.
HIVE Brands - Chatham, New Jersey
Hive is an online grocery company founded by Scott Morris, Katie Tyson, Thomas Ellis and Steven Annese. These four believe that companies have a meaningful role to play in creating a more equitable and sustainable world. They've been thrilled to see just how many brands out there are doing the right thing from the start.
But they realized a big problem. Many of these brands are struggling to make it in the sea of traditional retail. They saw an opportunity to do things differently with a chance to set high standards, build a collective of people working together to help build each other up, and finally favor these small companies by offering their products to be purchased on the Hive website.
The company established the "Hive Five" criteria to be sure the products are making a positive impact on the world. The Hive Five include 1) Ingredient integrity, 2)Recyclable packaging, 3)Low carbon footprint, 4) Committed to social good, 5) Rave-worthy, that taste great and does the job, they try every product.
In addition, 769 of their products are verified for fair or direct trade practices and sustainable agriculture. 100% of their shipments are carbon neutral, they use 100% recyclable shipping materials, and 99% of the product packaging they carry is recyclable, compostable or TerraCycle-able.
Hive is an ideal candidate for the Blue Business of the Year for their outstanding commitment and conservation practices.