Icebreaker Founder Jeremy Moon Helps Launch Pure Advantage

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Lee Weinstein
Icebreaker
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Icebreaker Founder Jeremy Moon Helps Launch Pure Advantage
– New nonprofit organization will foster a green growth strategy for New Zealand –

Wellington, New Zealand (20 July 2011) – Jeremy Moon, founder and chief executive officer of Icebreaker, the New Zealand company that pioneered the merino wool adventure apparel category, has teamed up with other respected Kiwi business leaders to form Pure Advantage. The nonprofit organization, which launched on July 7, 2011, aims to protect and restore New Zealand’s pure, environmentally responsible image, which, according to the Pure Advantage founders, is in rapid decline due to neglect and is affecting the bottom line for the country’s tourism and export sales.

“Pure Advantage is common sense. As New Zealanders, the environment is a core part of our psyche and is reflected in everything we do, and is expressed through the businesses we create and the products and services, which are unique internationally. People want what we have. However, our environment is taken for granted, pollution is increasing and our reliance on petroleum is increasing,” said Moon. “Pure Advantage is a think tank of committed people who are facilitating a plan for New Zealanders to engage around cleaning up our environment and making New Zealand as pure as it can be, and then ensuring we get commercial advantage from that.”
Moon is one of 11 founding trustees of the organization, who have formed Pure Advantage through their own funding. In addition to signing up supporters online, the organization plans to commission an economic study to define the opportunities for green growth in New Zealand, and to highlight the threats of inaction. This will be followed by a “road map for change” by the organization.
Pure Advantage is in directly line with Moon’s philosophy about environmental responsibility and transparency, which are the cornerstones of Icebreaker. Said Moon, “It’s about our relationship to nature, and to each other.”

Moon established Icebreaker, New Zealand’s largest adventure-wear exporter of 100 percent New Zealand merino wool, in 1995. Icebreaker was number five on the 2010 Deloittes Fast 50 and was recognized as the fastest growing mature business out of the 50 fastest growing companies in New Zealand.
In addition to his responsibilities with Pure Advantage, Moon is the chair of Better by Design, a non-profit group assisting other New Zealand businesses to increase export earnings through integrating design more successfully into their business, strategy, and products. In 2008, Moon was appointed Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business.
About Icebreaker
Launched in 1994, Icebreaker was the first company in the world to develop a merino fibre layering system for the outdoors. It was also the first outdoor apparel company in the world to source merino directly from growers, a system it began in 1997. The Icebreaker apparel system includes underwear, mid layer garments, outerwear, socks and accessories. There are outdoor, technical and lifestyle categories, each with its own specific fabrics and design details. Icebreaker is sold in more than 3,000 stores in 37 countries.

Based in Wellington, New Zealand, Icebreaker uses only pure merino handpicked from 140 high country stations in the country’s Southern Alps to create adventure clothing for women, men and kids that combines nature’s work with human technology and design. The company is committed to sustainability, ethical manufacturing and animal welfare. In 2008 the company launched “Icebreaker Baacode,” a pioneering supply chain transparency and traceability program. Each Icebreaker includes a unique Baacode, which enables customers to trace the garment online from rearing the sheep through to each stage of the supply chain process.