At LyZadie Design Studio, we strongly believe that being a sustainable business is also about giving back to our community.
“Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth.” — Muhammad Ali
Lyzadie Renault, the studio’s founder and director, believes a true leader must lead by example. Her belief is that “there’s a responsibility to the environment and the community that goes beyond just designing beautiful objects. I believe when the environment, animals and people thrive then businesses thrive too.”
Ka ora te tangata, ka ora te whenua
“When the land is well, the people are well.”
To that end she has committed to personally supporting a number of charity events. The first, in January, Hike for Starship, supported New Zealand’s national paediatric centre and raised over $125,000. The next, run throughout May, is the Youthline Walk The Talk event. It recognises Youthline’s counsellors spend an average of 31 minutes with each young person who reaches out to them in crisis, and challenged participants to raise money by exercising for 31 minutes a day.
Next month, between June 6th and 12th, Lyzadie and hundreds of other kiwis, will participate in Shine’s Light It Orange campaign. For too many Kiwis, home is not a place of safety. It’s a place of fear and shame, hidden behind closed doors. The Light It Orange campaign aims to raise funds and awareness and show victims kiwi’s really care.
As a design team, we recognise our privilege: our work is fulfilling both emotionally and financially. Our business is about enriching lives through sustainable, beautiful design, and consider it our responsibility to help enrich and support the lives of others. We strongly believe we must look at where we’ve come from and where we want to be if we are to grow together towards an ethical and supportive future.
To that end, the studio has pledged to link each of our collections with a specific charity, so your support, means their support. To date, our collections are connected with charities that either focus on people or the planet:
The EARTH&SKY Collection supports ShineNZ, a national New Zealand charity that runs a hotline to keep people safe from domestic and family violence.
The DANCEOFGEOMETRY Collection supports Youthline, which offers a free 24/7 Helpline service (text, phone, webchat & email), free face-to-face counselling services, youth mentoring, programmes in schools and communities to help people grow and develop.
The FLOW Collection supports Forest and Bird, who advocate for New Zealand’s flora and fauna, providing a voice to vulnerable species and environments since 1923. Their work has saved countless acres and species from extinction and they continue to advocate for better legislation and protections for our threatened species and places.
The WHITECLOUD Collection supports Amigo Nutrition, part of the Medicine Mondiale group which aims to make innovative medical technologies and products available and accessible to all through advocacy, development and origination worldwide.
The TUI Collection supports Trees that count, which seeks to directly counter climate change by simply, importantly, sustainable and consistently planting native trees.
The BLACKTREEFERN Collection supports The Starship Foundation, the leading provider of paediatric care in New Zealand and the Pacific. It’s also a major teaching centre.
The ReLEATHERED Collection supports Homeless No More Aotearoa, which recognises the need to serve the growing number of New Zealander’s struggling to find shelter, warmth and food on their own terms
For all of your support of those collections, the team thank you. As our planet faces unprecedented environmental changes, so too do our people. Your support has meant the support of others, one of the greatest truly sustainable practices possible.