Rula al-Nasrawi

Staff Writer

A Sustainable Biz Model for Santa Cruz Clothier

Jaylyn Brendlen models a Doja T-shirt at her Portola Road storefront. Photo by Curtis Cartier.

In November 2008, Jaylyn Brendlen finally decided to live her dream and start her own clothing company. There was just one problem: how to do it without exploiting children, women or the people of a third world country. So she decided to begin her own venture and do things differently. Doja—which stands for Defining Our Jobs as Americans—is a clothing company based on a sustainable model, using materials grown and produced in the United States as well as American labor, with the goal of supporting the economy and improving manufacturing standards in the clothing industry.

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Transition Santa Cruz Hosts Reskilling Expo

Transition Santa Cruz wants to teach you how to raise bees. Photo by Jenn Ireland.

Coined four years ago at the onset of Britain’s Transition movement, the term “reskilling” refers to learning long-forgotten basic sustainability skills to help reduce energy use and preserve our natural resources. In the words of Michael Levy of Transition Santa Cruz—which, like the British movement, endeavors to prepare for a post-oil economy—“It’s based on the idea that we have lost a lot of our basic skills. All of these skills will be relevant with energy becoming scarcer and more expensive.”

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