Parks Project Guiding Principles
Reflections on culture, connectivity, purpose, and purveying harmonious coexistence
~ A continual work in progress ~
By Co-founder Keith Eshelman
Parks Project Guiding Principles
Reflections on culture, connectivity, purpose, and purveying harmonious coexistence
~ A continual work in progress ~
By Co-founder Keith Eshelman
One: The Embers - Getting involved in habitat restoration provided a pivotal moment that got me understanding the support needed for all the outstanding underfunded projects, which birthed the idea of a social enterprise that could use commerce to solve a problem. Then spending more time in parks and working more projects cued me into understanding nature's brilliance and ability to establish harmony and balance. In a pristine natural world, no one organism has an upper hand, everything works in concert, and we are all interconnected.
We have changed the earth so much that it has come full circle and is now changing us. We have lost a connection with the natural world and it excites me that more and more humans are finding connection with nature through Parks. Parks Project exists to inspire people to leave parks better than we found it, that is our mission, and it connects to our vision, a better, more healthy natural harmonious natural world. We are all here to serve something that is bigger than ourselves, and be a part of something we can’t necessarily achieve on our own.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can
change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead
Parks Project is committed to funding, volunteering, and advocating for habitat restoration projects. We are grateful for our supporters’ beautiful presence and consider them friends, not customers. I personally give them hugs, not handshakes. We have a unique structure in that our customer is part of the greater solution we try to put into place. And, most importantly, the more we can grow as a tribe and business, the more impact we can create.
Two: Our Core Values - We felt it was necessary to put in place core values to guide all of us in staying aligned. These values have guided us to today, and this approach should be fluid in all aspects of the workforce, present in our actions in how we are representing parks. The core values that guide the company's actions and decision-making include:
Progressive: Always moving forward, evolving, changing and improving.
Inclusive: Built by our community, for our community, collaborative.
Intentional: Purposefully driven, intentionally executed.
Loving: Affection and compassion for parks, people, and projects.
Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of volunteers and park adventurers journeying in style. The approach we take toward creating products and affiliated impact stories, demonstrates appreciation for design and progressive art, it purveys the love of the wild and beautiful iconic parklands. It encourages participation in reversing the intense impact we humans have put on these environments, which in turn also affect our planet and ourselves.
Three: Our Vision for Harmonious Coexistence - A healthy ecosystem puts balance into place, where we can find both our nurturing of nature and nature nurturing ourselves. A harmonious coexistence. Where reciprocity becomes widespread and humans work with the land, not against it. This will require resetting, time, effort, energy and sensitivity.
By definition, harmonious coexistence refers to a peaceful and balanced relationship between individuals, communities, and all species, where they can live together in mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation. It involves promoting tolerance, empathy, and the recognition of the rights and dignity of all beings. It is about fostering a sense of unity, inclusivity, and shared responsibility for creating a peaceful and prosperous world both with the environment around you and the environment within you..
“I see a time of Seven Generations when all the colors of mankind will gather under the Sacred Tree of Life and the whole earth will become One Circle again.” - Crazy Horse
We can be given restoration by our time in the parks and in return, the parks are given restoration by us. We can create a symbiotic relationship with the ecosystems we are connected to and the earth will be given grace, time and space to heal itself so we can continue to habitat this beautiful planet and thrive together. A harmonious coexistence is ahead of us, we just have to wake up to it.
Four: Our Mission to Leave it Better and Restore Park Habitats - Problems exist with parks being short in funding, lacking volunteers, and needing more educated allies, warriors, and caregivers. We have worked on hundreds of projects and will complete thousands in our first decade of existence. We encourage our supporters to join us and support their parklands so we can leave it better for the next generation.
In some cases it involves both reversing the negative effects we’ve made, like removing invasive species, and encouraging the propagation of healthy native contributive species to re-balance the natural ecosystem to a healthy state. Balance. In other cases, it's preparing for climate change and supporting projects that will be a part of nature driven climate resilience programs. And across all situations, it involves working to create access for all humans to be active participants in getting the healing benefits of time in our common grounds. Social justice and environmental justice are intrinsically interconnected. It’s all for parks and parks for all, and when this philosophy becomes ubiquitous, we will become an evolved, elevated, and better society.
“A society grows great when elders plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit” – an ancient Greek proverb
There are countless projects across thousands and thousands of parklands. Centuries of disruption will take maybe just as long to properly restore, but not as long with Parks Project and you involved. Humanity can accomplish amazing feats, so I'm optimistic. The symbiotic relationship where we can heal parks and parks can heal us is brilliant, so our mission is to drive that forward one project at a time.
Five: How We Do This - Parks Project has a commitment to our purpose through a passion for our employees, customers, suppliers, buyers, partners, and greater community. One of the foundational priorities for Parks Project is that healthy business can help drive healthy parks and in turn, create healthy people. It’s a continual build, and our build will always be a work in progress, nothing is ever finished, and it's all an eternal reach towards betterment, higher efficiencies, and fluid, sustainable growth. In our dealings these three attributes, that tie into our core values, are paramount.
Firstly, we hold ourselves to very high standards and put forth only our best work in the pursuit of excellence. Secondly, we are honest in our dealings with each other and the public, always promoting transparency and honesty. Thirdly, we are entrepreneurial, self starters, we take ownership, and seek opportunity to build.
We aim to scale a responsible business that makes goods in the most sustainable way possible for the capacity of business we have, which will evolve and only get better as the business grows and gets bigger. We encourage the world to buy quality not quantity, buy something you can love and represents a memory, as so much the product can take you back to a park and revitalize a priceless adventure or bonding event with people or place.
Six: On Innovation and Growth - At our first tradeshow we found that a well designed park product could fund an important project in that park. The original idea was assembled with the intention to be able to evolve, and make room for innovation within the products we made, and the types of park projects we could support.
And since those early days, continuous improvement, or being 1% better each day, has been at the root of our success as we have always stayed one step ahead of the curve in creating progressive graphics, mixed with category expansions, and on trend collaborations to show how we can all do cool things together to benefit parks. And our simple monetary give back morphed into a more holistic support vehicle combining project funding with volunteerism and advocacy. It's not just one of the three pillars that will be the mark we leave on the world, but how all three intertwined can drive a bigger change, and complete park projects not only across the nation, but one day across the world.
“Evolution is the single greatest force in the universe; it is the only thing that is permanent and it drives everything.” - Ray Dalio
We started with just t-shirts, but then we realized we could bring the parks into your home, or make camp goods so you could bring parks with you. All these at-the-time seemingly risky moves contributed to the uniqueness of Parks Project and our success history to date. Trying new things is the lifeblood and breath of the business, and will keep us connected with change makers who are looking for something unique, progressive, purposeful, and one of a kind.
Seven: Step into Nature - I did my best to draft these ideas and this document in or around the parks so that it transmits the purest intention of my perspective on how business and creativity can drive philanthropic and wellbeing for our common grounds, the parks. We all walk upon these lands with respect for previous generations and native people prior who inhabited and safeguarded these areas before us. We are humbled, respectful and hold highly how before us there was a more harmonious existence. We have the opportunity to amplify these ideals and integrate the approaches into our business too.
As I have shared in this manifesto, these natural lands can serve as healing grounds and if we take care of these places, they will take care of us. No matter how we decide to live our lives, all are welcome, respected, treated with compassion and grace, and hopefully leave the experience a better person.
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
It's an ethical code: leave It better than you found it. We are all just stewards for the next generation, just holding place so we can pass it down hopefully in a better state. So, venture out to explore and protect, to grow, to adventure and preserve, to find your connection with the natural world. Allow yourself to slow down, feel the earth breathe, and understand our interconnectivity to one another, and this natural world, and thereafter, we will all be better off for it, and with it.
