You will not find blue giraffes anywhere in Africa. But on Emmanuel Moggio’s clothes, they never fail to put a head. From espadrilles to hats, including t-shirts and short-sleeved shirts. At the same time, it’s the brand’s logo that the 29-year-old launched in July 2019. The name too. “Or the combination of the animal that fascinated me since I was little and my favorite color,” he explains.
Like many textile brands to have launched recently, “Blue Girafon” seeks to produce more sustainable in a fashion sector regularly singled out for its heavy carbon footprint. “We try to produce as close as possible to France, mainly in Portugal, and to use a maximum of recycled or labeled organic materials”, slips Emmanuel Moggio.
Euros to Niger giraffes for every item sold
But the creator of Girafon bleu pushes the environmental approach even further. For each item sold, part of the turnover is donated to Association for the Safeguarding of Giraffes in Niger (ASGN). “5 euros for the majority of items, 2 for those sold at lower prices, such as socks,” he explains.
This is the first raison d’être of Girafon Bleu, the one that prompted Emmanuel Moggio to quit his position as digital project manager in an advertising agency. In 2016, the giraffe swung from the category “Least Concern” to “Vulnerable” on the red list of endangered species
the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is because the total population of the emblematic animal of Africa has shrunk by 40% in thirty years, to number only 97,562 individuals in 2015. “I wanted to do something”, explains Emmanuel Moggio, who finished by falling on
the “Save our species” campaigns that the Lacoste brand had organized in 2018 and 2019. The operation consists, occasionally and on polo shirts produced in limited editions, in swapping the crocodile of the logo with the silhouettes of endangered animal species. The profits made on these sales are then fully transferred to the IUCN.
Donations for microcredits
“The idea is very good, I wanted to make it something lasting, in the very DNA of a clothing brand,” continues Emmanuel Moggio. It is with this idea that he knocks on the door of Pierre Gay, managing director of Biopark of Doué-la-Fontaine (Maine-et-Loire). The latter then takes her to the Kouré region, in Niger, to meet the “white giraffes”, nicknamed because of their lighter coats, and the ASGN, a local association that the biopark has been supporting since 2001. Good news: “the population of these giraffes in Niger has increased over the past twenty years, from 78 individuals to nearly 800 today”, points out Pierre Gay. But in an unstable region, marked by the rise of jihadism, their status remains precarious and the ASGN still has a long way to go. “Especially since the association considers that saving giraffes also involves helping the men and women who live with them,” explains Pierre Gay. It grants microcredits twice a year, which help several thousand families to start agricultural and / or craft activities. “
It is for this project that the donations of Girafon Bleu are used. “That is 10,500 euros since 2019, and we are hopeful to add 5,000 by the end of the year,” says Emmanuel Moggio. It is still far from being the main entry of money for the ASGN, which has an annual budget close to 100,000 euros, but the Girafon Bleu only asks to step up and regularly expands its range of articles in this direction.
Above all, donations from the Blue Girafon have the advantage of constituting a regular inflow of money. Too rare in the field of wildlife conservation? “Support is often sporadic, confirms ecologist Franck Courchamp, research director at the CNRS “Ecology, systematics and evolution” laboratory. Highlights, such as the death of the lion Cecil [tué à l’été 2015 par un chasseur américain], create attention spikes that result in
an influx of donations. But it generally falls back very quickly, so that it is complicated to perpetuate the action programs. “
Too often irregular cash receipts in conservation?
In April 2018, with an international team of researchers, Franck Courchamp published a study on the paradox affecting the ten most charismatic animal spaces. Contrary to what their virtual omnipresence may suggest in our daily lives (films, advertising, toys, etc.), they are no less in danger than others. The ecologist then submitted the idea that “companies using endangered species for marketing purposes contribute to information campaigns on these same animals and donate part of their profits to their protection”.
Three years later, the idea gained a little ground in the English-speaking world, in particular with the launch in September 2018 from the Lion share fund, points out Franck Courchamp. This fund encourages brands that use the image of endangered animals in their marketing strategies to pay it 0.5% of their communication expenses, which it then transfers to animal protection NGOs. With the goal of raising $ 100 million per year over the next five years.
“But in France, the idea does not really take,” regrets Franck Courchamp. For large companies, it is limited to a few initiatives limited in time. Latest example to date: Sophie The Giraffe. This year, for its 60 years and for the first time, the brand of the famous infant toy has marketed a special box for which 1 euro is paid for each sale at the
Giraffe Conservation fundation (GFU). The operation raised 57,552 euros and should spill over into 2022.
The Blue Giraffe, but not only …
Anyway, the Blue Girafon is not too much. It is not the only fashion brand to have launched a similar concept in recent years. Emmanuel Moggio quotes Meeko,sneakers brand which donates 3% of its turnover to local initiatives for the protection of endangered wildlife. In particular the
Sumatra Rainforest Institute, who works to protect orangutans on the Indonesian island. Pierre Gay also evokes
Fauna, jewelry brand which distributes 5% of its profits [soit 6.000 euros en 2020] between eighteen wildlife protection associations. We could add
Animal Kids , by Benoît Richet, whose baby clothes are printed with a dozen endangered species. Here again, the Poitevin donates 15% of its turnover to animal protection associations, with the originality of allowing customers to choose it from a list of ten.
These approaches do not always draw attention to endangered exotic species. “With us too, there is life on the way to disappearing,” recalls Florent Horber. He launched with Gautier Tardio, both 25 years old, Whosnxt. The brand’s t-shirts and sweaters honor four animals present in Alsace, their region: the wolf, the lynx, the
Athena’s owl and
barn swallow. For each sale, Whosnxt gives back 2 euros
at Alsace Nature or LPO Alsace. Two local NGOs therefore, Florent Horber and Gautier Tardio having pushed their logic to the end.
It’s not just clothes, it’s also Papa Outang spread
Hazelnuts, unrefined sugar and cocoa. There are no more than these three ingredients in Papa Outang, the spread preparation developed by Lillois Thibault Manent and Marseillais Loïc Guichaoua. And especially no palm oil.
Here again, Papa Outang does not only seek to produce “sustainable” and goes further by reserving part of its profits for Kalaweit, an association which acts to safeguard biodiversity in Indonesia. For ten years she tries to acquire hectares of forests put up for sale before they fall into the hands of the palm oil industry, which it then makes natural reserves for local biodiversity. “A mission that requires regular inflows of money, which Kalaweit had difficulty with”, according to Thibault Manent, who thus explains the why of Papa Outang.
Kalaweit has managed to protect 1,400 ha of forests to date and has struggled for two years to gradually add 1,400 more. ” Those of the Dulan project, a pocket of primary forest surrounded by palm oil plantations and charcoal concession that has become a refuge for a large number of animals, ”explains Thibault Manent. It is for this purpose that Papa Outang helps the association by giving it 10% of its profits since its launch a year and a half ago. “That is nearly 10,000 euros to date,” says Thibault Manent, who hopes to increase these donations in the future, while Papa Outang should soon arrive on the shelves of supermarkets.