What is Sustainability?
You might think that “sustainability” is just a buzzword. You probably hear it used all the time in all kinds contexts. There’s sustainably-sourced clothing products and food, sustainable business growth, and sustainable treatment of the Earth. You might call this word trendy and common and be tempted to throw it out. But we never will, because the truth is, sustainability is at the very heart of everything we do.
As a community minded organization, here is an idea of what we DON’T want: to spend endless donated resources on a system we created that relies on us, creating a culture where the only time good things happen is when we show up with lunch. What happens if we can’t be there? What happens when we drive away at the end of the day?
In everything we do, our heart is to create sustainability. We want to empower people to stand up and take ownership of their villages and cities. We want to give people everything they need to continue the work we’ve started, creating jobs and opportunities for people who would have otherwise stayed lacking.
When we’re the heroes, only we win. When we make them the heroes of their own story, everyone wins.
With this kind of sustainable growth, villages are transformed and nations are changed. This is the heart of Marked. In everything we do, our heart is to champion the ones that are often ignored, and encourage them to go farther and dream bigger than their circumstances should have allowed.
For Marked as a whole, our focus has become to create sustainability in every single thing we put our hands to. We’ve been dreaming of bringing in resources above and beyond the generous donation of churches, businesses and individuals all over the world. We’ve started to use our gifts to create things that will propel the mission forward. We wrote a cookbook, dreaming of feeding families in Mexico with the proceeds. Our artisan shop where moms from our communities are creating custom leather goods. The Marked store and barber shop are other ways we are breaking cycles and empowering lives. We have begun community gardens, clean water programs and became a wholesaler to smaller family run businesses that had no way to purchase supplies from the city.