Well....

Energy

Here in the South Island of New Zealand we can be positive that our energy supply is fairly benign. Obviously energy production has a continuum in terms of environmental impacts and here in New Zealand we have the Resource Management Act which ensures that any development doesn't harm the environment.

Without getting into an argument about the merits or otherwise of various energy generation methods - we can be pretty comfortable that the energy our factory uses to make products is many times "cleaner" than that used in Third World countries.

Employee Rights

Recently we saw a movie about denim factories in China where workers are paid 6cents/per hour and have no guarantee that they will actually be paid. Our workers have much legislation protecting their rights, earn an honest wage and have regualr holidays and extra entitlements. We also encourage them to take part in discussion about how we do things and what would make our workplace better - again this is vastly different to the reality in other manufacturing countries.

Local economy

New Zealand has a huge balance of payment defecit - this means we buy lots more from overseas than we sell overseas. Every time you buy a locally made product you help - albeit in a small way - to redress that balance. Furthermore the economics are simple - even if we use raw material from overseas, we add value to that raw material and sell an added value product where the added-value has been produced in New Zealand.

We have now helped add to the multiplying effect - basically every $10 thats gets spent by us in local manufacturing adds many times that $10 to our economy by the time it trickles on down the food chain - our fabric cutter gets his haircut, his hairdresser buys some locally grown vegetables, the vegetable grower goes to a local restaurant and so on and so on....

Viability