Clinton invites Kiwi clothing firm to talk on sustainability
06 May 2008
Former US President Bill Clinton has invited a New Zealand clothing company to address Asian leaders on sustainability.
Untouched World founder Peri Drysdale has been invited to speak at the Clinton Global Initiative in Hong Kong this December. The conference will focus on education, energy, climate change and public health.
Drysdale said she was asked to address the conference because of her company's integrated approach to sustainability.
''Sustainability is in our DNA … We're a business organisation working at a grass roots level in a philosophical way, and I think that's what makes us different,'' she says.
Drysdale first met Clinton when she supplied luxury clothes for the then-United States President and other Apec leaders in 1999. Unlike the other leaders, Clinton braved driving Auckland rain without a jacket to show off the Untouched World logo on his shirt.
''He got up on the podium and said: 'This is the smartest outfit I've worn in all my years as President'. I just wanted to hug him,'' says Drysdale.
She had approached Clinton at a function, and he promised he would one day go to her shop. He was famously photographed honouring that promise by shopping at Untouched World's Auckland store in 2002.
However, this won’t be Drysdale’s first big speaking engagement - in May, she addressed the United Nations about corporate education for sustainability.
Untouched World is owned by Christchurch-based company Snowy Peak.
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