My first blog pertaining to my new venture - Rewkachu Green. It's exciting, it's something I've wanted to do for a long time, probably two decades. Two decades is a rediculously long time to think about an idea and not get stuck in, but here it is in fruition and I'm glad.
Back in my early teens I dreamed of changing the world somehow, the earth is a beautiful place and so much of it was being destroyed at an alarming rate. I felt helpless yet passionate to try and make a difference. For years I would tell my family and friends of the planets plight and how fixing it is very simple on paper. It would just need everyone to understand and do a tiny bit of readapting their life to become more green. This was back when the green issue was a joke and in it's early stages. It wasn't yet of social importance, it was never news worthy and it was highly mocked by most of the worlds population. Yes, these days it's very different as there has been a social awakening, global conciousness has been raised and it's now at the forefront on many news topics. So back in my early teens I felt I was completely out-gunned, and as I got myself into large student debts I found myself losing the will to fight about it. I left university and needed income, so I started working in various jobs just to try and stop the debts growing. The debts continued to grow however, and I found myself caught up in meaningless jobs again and again. I continued to talk to co-workers about the green issue and tried talking to managers about how they could make the workplace more environmentally friendly, but I was simply told that it's not efficient for the business etc. After ten or so years I made a concious decision, the amount of flippant remarks and lack of compassion from most of the people around me was making me unhappy - so I decided to just keep it to myself. I believed that I couldn't make a difference and life was passing me by. So I fell into the rat race to pay off debts and gave up on my planet saving mission. My personal ethics and green practices remained, I had just given up trying to convert people.
It's now 2010, I'm older, wiser, slightly worse looking and most importantly to me - free of debt. Over the last seven years I've owned my own company, Rewkachu a photography and design business. I feel I've learned my trade pretty well, and have a photography education of six years prior to the dead end jobs I fell into when I left university. I have a client base that I'm proud of, and I'm doing pretty well. It's now time for me to launch my endeavour - Rewkachu Green.
The idea is simple, I give spare time to non-profit organisations who are working to better our planet. Obviously the time I give will be based on my skill set, photography and design. I've purposefully called the business a relative name to my original business because it makes sense. I see two major benefits to doing so as I do more green/charity work:
1) I will prove my personal ethics to a larger audience of non-profit organisations, and therefore hopefully be able to help out on larger projects to do more good for the planet.
2) My business portfolio will reflect this and I become a more attractive company to do business with. In a way, Rewkachu Green will pay for itself.
This is all new to me, I'm unsure if I need to get the idea registered as a non-profit company or not. I'm not sure how this works, I guess I need to do some reading!
I have a few people to thank in inspiring me to go ahead with this. I recently volunteered at Telluride Photography Festival 2010, and I met alot of very like minded people. I was lucky enough to get my portfolio reviewed by Cristina Mittermeier who is the president of the iLCP - The International League of Conservation Photographers. She praised me and was extremely inspiring to talk with. She also critiqued my work honestly and I have come away with some very handy advice. The second person I need to thank is Emily Loose, who is the director of communications at The Wild Foundation. She gave me some valuable tips on how to help out in a non-profit world. Rewkachu Green was born from my inner longing to make a difference, and inspired by these two commendable women.
Let battle commence!
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