From its founding, Earthwise Beauty has been all about celebrating nature’s healing gifts. My aim is always to formulate skincare products from the best natural ingredients the earth has to offer, all while doing no harm to the environment and, wherever possible, supporting the livelihoods of local indigenous populations that use sustainable and regenerative farming techniques. In addition to the care I take in sourcing and growing our ingredients, I also feel that it’s so important to give back to organizations that are working to protect and preserve our natural ecosystems. To that end, we run an ongoing donation program that allows our customers to give back with every purchase they make at Earthwise Beauty.
This month, we are updating the discount code affiliated with our donation program to ForOurPlanet. You can use this code at checkout to save 10% off your order, and we will donate 10% of your order value to a carefully selected nonprofit. Previous donation recipients have included The Orangutan Project, Amazon Frontlines, and The Amazon Forest Fund, all of which do excellent work toward protecting the world’s rainforests. Beginning this quarter, we will be turning our attention to the sea and supporting Coral Restoration Foundation™.
I recently learned about Coral Restoration Foundation™ while watching a nature documentary with my children, and I was impressed by their hands-on approach to restoring Florida’s coral reef. In addition to their research and educational outreach, the foundation has also developed a method of actively restoring coral reefs on a massive scale. Working in collaboration with universities, aquariums, NGOs, and government agencies, they grow a variety of critically endangered species of coral in offshore nurseries, then rehome them on carefully selected sites. Since 2007, the Coral Restoration Foundation™ has returned more than 170,000 critically endangered corals to Florida’s coral reef, many of which have now grown into thriving, actively self-regenerating colonies.
Florida’s coral reef is the third largest barrier reef in the world, and the only barrier coral reef in the continental United States. It was once dominated by reef-building staghorn and elkhorn coral, which sadly became some of the first corals to be included on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. Today, Florida’s coral reef hosts just 2 percent of the staghorn and elkhorn coral it had in the 1970s, and both species are considered “critically endangered”—which means they are just one step away from becoming completely extinct in the wild. Regenerating these reefs, which are home to an incredibly biodiverse collection of sea life, is vital to ensure the ongoing health of our oceans. To date, Coral Restoration Foundation™ has restored more than 25,000 square meters of coral reef off the coast of Florida, using a unique method of “farming” finger-sized fragments of coral on Coral Trees to produce colonies large enough for outplanting in just six to nine months.
I would encourage all our customers to visit Coral Restoration Foundation™’s website to learn more about this incredible organization, and follow @coralrestorationfoundation on social media to stay up-to-date on their latest efforts and find out how you can help. To learn more about Earthwise Beauty’s give-back program and some of the other nonprofits we support, visit the Philanthropy page on our website. And don’t forget to use discount code ForOurPlanet at earthwisebeauty.com to help make a difference every time you shop.