How Woolrich is helping to restore New York’s oyster reefs

Woolrich has established the Woolrich Outdoor Foundation under whose wings they frequently support projects and purposes that protect and safeguard nature and wildlife. It has been created “to protect and preserve the outdoors for communities globally, giving back to the people and the planet”. The foundation is built on three pillars: protecting forests, urban space renewal and coastal maintenance. Through a partnership with 1% for the Planet, an international organisation whose members promise to use at least one percent of their sales to support environmental causes, Woolrich has made the idea of giving back a steady factor in their brand strategy.

As such, the brand teamed up with Billion Oyster Project, a nonprofit organisation that was called to life in 2014 by Murray Fisher and Pete Malinowski. The project aims to restore biodiversity in New York Harbour through public education and volunteer projects.

Oyster reefs – a guarantor for healthy marine ecosystems

During the past 100 years, New York's oyster reefs have been gradually destroyed, taking away their abilities to maintain a natural marine ecosystem. With the decline of oyster reefs, their beneficial qualities – filtering gallons of water, providing a habitat for many marine species and ultimately shielding New York City’s shorelines from storm damage – have disappeared as well. Together Woolrich and the Billion Oyster Project are working towards restoring oyster populations and the reefs where they reside to rebuild the self-maintaining mechanisms of the marine ecosystem.

To actualize the restoring of the oyster reefs, the Woolrich Outdoor Foundation and the Billion Oyster Project engages with students, communities, volunteers and scientists, putting their knowledge and goodwill to practise and giving back to their own communities. By giving grants to the Billion Oyster Foundation, Woolrich has enabled their project to grow – building a sense of responsibility and stewardship for the environment one oyster at a time.