What are you doing for Veterans Day?
If you're like me, it probably doesn't look that different than a normal day. For a lot of people, myself included, life in the military is something we read about or watch, but never experience personally and therefore can't really comprehend. There is an understandable gap between everyday civilians and military personnel or veterans.
This is a gap the world attempts to bridge on Veterans Day (or Armistice and Remembrance Day, outside of the US). But I’ll admit that, for me, it's a pretty complicated task. I need to see faces, hear stories, be inspired, in order for a larger, more nuanced and significant point, to really drive home.
Which is why I was so excited when I stumbled upon Sword & Plough, a company that helps bridge the civilian-military gap through social entrepreneurship in a very tangible, impactful way. Sword & Plough takes its name from an ancient saying: “To turn swords into plough shares,” which is about taking military technologies and supplies and applying them in a peaceful, civilian way.
This is what, at its core, Sword & Plough does; it take thousands of pounds of military surplus--fabrics, materials and gear that would otherwise be burned or buried--and turns it into fashionable bags an everyday person would want to wear. The company’s mission is simple but incredibly wide-reaching and powerful: It is to empower veterans through employment opportunities (Sword & Plough hires veterans in every step of its process), to reduce by using exclusively recycled materials, and to strengthen the connection between civilians and military personnel and veterans.
Founded by sisters Emily and Betsey Núñez, when Emily was just a college senior, the company is an awesome example of how young people can actually start their own businesses and promote positive change. That’s right global citizens, your seemingly ambitious daydreams could become a reality!
I was lucky enough to email with Emily Núñez about her inspiration for starting the company, the meaning behind Sword & Plough’s work, and any advice she has for the many global citizens out there looking to make a change! Who knows, it may serve as the needed kickstart for any budding social entrepreneurs out there.
What was the inspiration for creating Sword & Plough?
The idea for Sword & Plough was really the result of growing up in a military family and wanting to give back to the military and veteran community. I was inspired to serve in the Army after seeing the positive impact my Dad created through his 30 years of Army service.
When I first arrived at Middlebury College as a freshman student, as well as the only Army ROTC cadet on campus, I was curious to see how my classmates would respond. The majority of my close friends were incredibly supportive of my desire to serve, even though many of them had never met someone in the military. I would often receive questions about what my training entailed, but sometimes I was met with looks of complete confusion. I was always trying to find ways to increase conversation and understanding between military and civilian communities.
After my sophomore year at Middlebury I attended the US Army Airborne School, where I spoke with Soldiers who had just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of them expressed an interest in leaving the military, but were concerned about finding civilian employment. I didn’t know what to say at the time, but I never forgot those conversations.
Fast forward one and a half years and I’m sitting in Middlebury College’s Mead Chapel listening to Jacqueline Novogratz, the founder and CEO of Acumen, give her Keynote Speech during Middlebury’s first Social Entrepreneurship Symposium.
She was telling us about a business that had incorporated recycling into its business model, and the way she described that model made me reflect on my own experiences and ask myself, “what in my life is wasted on a daily basis that could be harnessed and made into something beautiful with a powerful mission.” Having grown up with a military logistician as a dad, I immediately thought back to the huge piles of military surplus I used to see waiting to be burned or buried in a landfill somewhere.
As I looked around the audience, I noticed that every student had a backpack or bag of some kind propped up next to them. And then... it clicked! Why don’t I take rugged, durable military surplus that would otherwise be discarded and turn it into fashionable bags that could appeal to people like my classmates!? I tried to attentively listen to the rest of Jacqueline’s talk, but my mind was running 100 miles an hour as I began brainstorming all the possibilities.
A big part of your mission is empowering veterans by involving and employing them in every step of the production process. How and why did you decide to model your business this way?
We decided to incorporate a lifecycle business model by empowering and giving back to the original users of our products’ materials. To our team, it just made sense. We have this amazing opportunity to create positive impact for the veteran community. Why not create as much as we possibly can!? It might be easier if we were simply focused on making a profit, but then there would be no point. What drives our team forward is the constant desire to increase our impact by furthering our veteran employment, amount of repurposed military surplus, conversations started between veterans and civilians, and dollars donated back to veteran organizations.
Sword & Plough supports and creates veteran job opportunities within our own company and also within our suppliers and manufacturing partners. Additionally, we support veteran entrepreneurship by partnering with veteran owned businesses. We have veterans in every stage of our business from product design, to sewing, quality control, management, and even lookbook models.
We encourage any job-seeking veteran to send his or her resume and cover letter to jobs@swordandplough.com so we can try to help secure an employment opportunity either internally or within our expanding supply chain.
What messages do you hope your work sends to everyday citizens?
We hope Sword & Plough inspires all citizens to believe in and act on their dreams and passions. We hope that our bags spur conversations that begin based on the high quality nature of our products, lead to sharing Sword & Plough’s mission, and end with the mention of an inspiring veteran in someone’s life.
Having an impact on society is a big piece of what Sword & Plough does. What does this impact look like and how does sustainability fit into the picture?
Sword & Plough operates with a quadruple bottom line business model (people, purpose, planet and profit), meaning that we have three main goals in addition to being a functioning business:
1. To empower and employ military veterans
2. To reduce waste and repurpose military surplus material
3. To use fashion to strengthen civil-military understanding
Since we launched on Kickstarter in 2013, Sword & Plough has supported 38 part or full time jobs for veterans in the United States, as well as 10 non-veteran jobs. We have also repurposed over 35,000 pounds of military surplus that would have otherwise been thrown away.
Please see our impact page for a list of all the ways in which we are proud to create social impact: http://www.swordandplough.com/pages/impact
What advice do you have for other global citizens looking to make an impact? Anything you wish you’d known before starting out?
Do not be afraid to start something new in a field in which you might not have a lot of experience or a specialized degree. Leading a business, just like being a military leader, is all about motivating a group of people to accomplish a purposeful mission. The most critical part of making an impact is taking the first step.
Getting people to take that first step is what we at Global Citizen are constantly trying to encourage. From reading an article, to signing a petition, to starting your own business, each of us contains the individual power to make a change in the causes we care most about. While countless people have undoubtedly tried and failed, many have tried and succeeded. Their stories are the ones I get most excited about sharing.
Tell me about the people you know who are doing great things to change the world in the comment section.