Giving Back
We want to make a difference, not just a profit. We believe in a holistic approach to business—the better choices we make as a company, the better off we all are as a community. From our local community, to the Great Lakes that surround our state, we pride ourselves in the importance that M22 has placed on giving back.
Our Community
1% of all M22 sales goes toward preserving our area's natural resources. From our first day in business, M22 has donated 1% of all sales to the Leelanau Conservancy. Together with your support, we have given over $200,000 to help protect the land and water that we all love. We arranged our charitable contribution this way to express our team's devotion to preserving our natural environment—not just some off-the-cuff marketing scheme but a true initiative. This means that for every product sold a portion of the proceeds is given away—not based on profit, but on gross sales. So even if our company made no profit, we are still committed to our donation.
Our Planet
As a company owned and run by a handful of Michigan natives, it’s our wish that everything we source be as local and sustainable as possible; we want to protect the land and water we love. We design and print all of our products right here in northern Michigan, and source them locally whenever we can. If we simply can't make it here, we work with world-wide producers who meet our ethical standards. We use U.S.-based distributors working with ethical manufacturers across the globe (never sweatshops). As a result, all of our apparel is sourced through WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production) certified companies helping to promote safe, lawful, humane and environmentally friendly manufacturing. We believe these practices allow our business to both make a positive impact right here and throughout the world.
Our Future
We do everything that we can to make sure our company's environmental footprint is small, and keep looking for new ways to increase sustainability. Our shopping bags are recyclable and compostable, our M22 Challenge is a zero waste event, and we print our catalog on FSC certified paper. Because we hate the idea of plastic polluting our lakes, we recently installed a water station in our downtown Traverse City store for anyone who wants to stop in and get a refill.
We’re not perfect, but we’re trying, and we’ll keep trying to improve as the apparel industry progresses and more resources become available to us. Sometimes it’s not possible to source everything local. Sometimes we wish we were able to make an item more environmentally friendly. We strive to keep an ethical business philosophy at the forefront of our company. It’s only through your continued support that our small operation can keep heading in the right direction.