A series of life-changing events turned Barret Ward, a Nashvillian, from being a career and money-driven man to one that cares about something even bigger.
Barrett Ward is the CEO and founder of ABLE, an accessory and apparel lifestyle brand that is focused on ending generational poverty through the empowerment of women. Ward aims to do so through sustainable employment opportunities for women who are struggling under difficult social and economic circumstances. Able currently employs women in Ethiopia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico and the United States as Ward believes that giving women jobs is the best way to fight poverty and spur economic progress in their respective communities. Through the creation of jobs, Barret has the goal of ending the dependability on charities and rather give these women long-term stability that will help them reach their full potential and self-fulfillment. But what differentiates Barret’s business model and social action from others who have the same or similar goals is that he is not only willing to help these women have jobs but the fact that he wants to do so in the most transparent way possible. To do this, he developed AccountABLE, a “social impact measurement platform” that evaluates the true impact ABLE is having in its workers. It measures this impact in terms of safety, wages and equality (think of it as the nutritional information of clothing).
Barrett’s story behind his motivation to start ABLE is surprising and it truly reveals his character and virtues. His traveling experiences had a huge impact on him as they completely changed his views, motivations in life and ultimately his goals. He was able to reflect upon himself, change what was no longer important to him and take action on his new concerns. In 2005, he started Mocha Club, a nonprofit that focused on clean water and vulnerable children and women in Africa. However, when he moved to Ethiopia in 2008 and was exposed to the commercial sex industry of women in this country, he realized that he needed to create something that had a bigger impact than a charity. This is when ABLE started.
But why was charity not enough for Ward? Although he recognizes that charity is critical, he does find it limiting in the way that it helps people. What he means is that charity is only helping people get a leg up as opposed to giving them something long term and sustainable. Even though unethical practices in the fashion industry, such as minimum wages for outsourced manufacturing workforce, bring more revenue to companies by significantly cutting costs, Ward prioritizes good business for society. He does so by allowing the women to create different pieces using their creativity, by teaching them new methods and techniques to work with new materials and to create different garments, and by paying them above minimum wage and above what he calculates to be the living wage so they have a comfortable life and can reinvest into their families and communities.
AccountABLE! Creating this business model wasn’t enough for Barret. He had a greater vision of not only empowering women in his company but also of making sure that all companies take care of their employees and act ethically towards the environment. Ward came up with AccountABLE as a way to be completely transparent with consumers. This detailed audit, which is done by a third party will include employee interviews, surveys and an inspection of working conditions, will be focused on wages, safety and equality. A summarized version of it will be added as a tag on the clothing item or accessory as a way to create exposure so that consumers are aware of what they are buying and the actions behind it.
There is no doubt that Barret Ward is a person and a CEO to admire. It is now in our hands to support ethical fashion!
If you wish to meet Barret, know more about his life and hear more on the importance of publishing wages, he will be speaking on Campus in the Jordan Auditorium, Mendoza College of Business at 7 p.m. on October 2.
Follow HCND on Twitter, like us on Facebook, Pin with us and show our Instagram some love!