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When it comes to company give-back programs, contributing one percent of your annual revenue to environmental causes is fantastic. Of course, 100 percent is a lot better. “I always respected that with Newman’s Own,” says Joe Basta, founder of Fort Collins–based Tellus. “Here’s a guy, Paul Newman, who had everything: He was an Oscar winner; he raced cars. Yet [he] took the time to go even further by giving back 100 percent from his food company. That very much resonated with me.”
When the time—and the funding—was right, Joe and his wife Melissa followed in the actor-advocate’s social enterprising ways. Except, clothing designed for the rigors of outdoor pursuits (and made in a sustainable fashion) was a better product fit for the pair of decades-long Colorado residents.
This past January marked Tellus’ one-year anniversary. To celebrate, the Bastas didn’t get a present; they gave one, of course: nearly $23,000 in net profits to the Boulder arm of The Nature Conservancy. “You are what you wear,” Joe says, noting that Tellus gives consumers a chance to think beyond the style of their apparel to the moral fabric of its producer. “What brand do you want to align with that fits your values and your ethics?”
Tellus isn’t the couple’s first foray into living generously. Basta fell in love with the wilderness at age 16 after a 21-day program with experiential and outdoor education organization Outward Bound. After college, he became a trip leader himself and spent a summer in Silverton giving 16-person groups of disadvantaged youths their first taste of green rather than urban grays. In the mid-90s, he joined the Peace Corps, worked alongside cacao farmers in the Dominican Republic, and met Melissa, a fellow Peace Corps volunteer helping a mango cooperative in Haiti connect with exporters and new market opportunities.
While serving the populations in these developing countries, the duo saw the extent of textile waste. Basta remembers going to markets where coffee-table-size bales of donated clothing—the 66 percent (or more) of apparel that thrift stores in wealthier countries deem unsellable and ship elsewhere—were unpacked and sold for pennies on the dollar. The one-half to two-thirds of these garments that weren’t sold were then dumped in the landfill or burned. “That really etched into my brain as far as, ‘Wow, that’s a big impact,’ ” Basta remembers. “You just see the waste firsthand.”
When their assignments with the Peace Corps concluded in 2000, the couple soon settled in Fort Collins, drawn primarily by the state’s reputation as an outdoor playground. Joe worked in retail food manufacturing for 20 years, eventually selling his business to a Fortune 25 company. That 2019 payout gave the Bastas enough financial cushion to dream of doing something good for the world on a bigger scale. “After living in places like Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where you can see the impact of what climate change is doing,” Melissa says, “we just knew if we were going to start [a business], then we had to do it differently.”
Donating 100 percent of net profits certainly met that criterion. So, when the Bastas committed fully to the concept in early 2021 and began meeting with a clothing designer, selecting materials, and hand-picking factories in Vietnam, they established the business as a social enterprise dedicated to environmental causes. Tellus, the Latin name for Mother Earth, uses its revenue to cover basic business expenses like rent and utilities for the brick-and-mortar location in downtown Fort Collins and compensation for contracted clothing designers and manufacturers. Joe and Melissa, however, don’t draw salaries. The net profits then go to the customer’s choice of three different focus areas within The Nature Conservancy: land and forest restoration, ocean conservation, and wildlife protection. “At checkout, you get to pick which cause is dear to you, and those profits for that item go to that particular cause,” Basta says. “It’s a really fun engagement with our customers who actually pick where this money goes.”
Those dollars aren’t the only green aspect to the Tellus business model. Additionally, every item in the lineup is made almost entirely from recycled and organic materials. Many products are bluesign-approved—meaning the materials were produced in a safe, environmentally responsible, and resource-efficient manner—and waterproof pieces like their Women’s Cameron Pass Parka ($450) and Men’s Timberline Soft Shell Jacket ($230) use a PFC-free durable water repellent finish.
Plus, these high-quality, ready-for-anything pieces are designed to last a lifetime. “There’s a lot of room to make some positive change here,” Melissa says, pointing to the statistic that the fashion and textile industry contributes 10 percent of carbon emissions globally. “Because we’re small and we’re new, we felt like we’re just going to come out of the gate doing it right.”
So far, Tellus’ growth has been “slow and steady,” Joe says. The brand hit its sales goals last year and plans to continue broadening its reach in Colorado and beyond organically. The coming year will see an uptick in social media and marketing efforts, along with more partnerships with nonprofits like the Larimer County Search and Rescue (who all wear the Longs Peak Waterproof Rain Shell [$260] out in the field). The Bastas will also pursue B Corp Certification. Ultimately, they hope other brands in the outdoor industry use their social enterprise model as a compass. “If the industry overall starts to give more to environmental initiatives, good on us,” Basta says. “I hope we can convince other companies down the road to give more. That would be a huge compliment.”
