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The Wildlife Works EcoFactory

Without the Wildlife Works EcoFactory, Consumer Powered Conservation^sm simply wouldn't work.

Our EcoFactory, where we make our most popular tee designs today, represents the link between wildlife conservation and consumer demand. It's what allows the local community to see that wildlife is worth more to them alive than dead. Today our economic activities in the community have generated 56 full time jobs.

We employ a team of eleven women sewing machine operators from the local community. We taught them the skill of using modern electric sewing machines, which they now use to produce Wildlife Works' tees. Click here to read their stories.

To build the EcoFactory's two buildings, we employed 150 local people for two years. We chose a novel and very environmentally friendly construction technique known as Rammed Earth, and our construction team learned the skill of building thick, rammed-earth walls that keep the temperature constant and cool inside, no matter how hot it gets outside. The beauty of this eco-friendly solution is that it uses mostly soil from the site and doesn't require any wood in construction of the walls, demand for which puts more pressure on the already depleted forests in Kenya.

Got Water?
Located just two degrees south of the equator, Rukinga receives nearly 365 days of scorching sun each year. So, when the natural water holes on Rukinga dry up, as they often do, we provide water in the old cattle tanks. We provide water in our tanks when we have to, because a single elephant can drink 50 gallons a day, and will continue to search for water until it finds some - even if this means tearing up water pipes or barging into the surrounding communities where they get into all kinds of trouble!