All sectors / Sustainable products / Eco Femme
Eco Femme, founded in 2010 by Kathy Walkling and Jessamijn Miedema in Auroville, Tamil Nadu, is a pioneering women-led social enterprise dedicated to sustainable menstrual health. Rooted in the goal of creating positive environmental and cultural change, Eco Femme produces and sells GOTS-certified organic cotton washable cloth pads. These eco-friendly alternatives prevent millions of disposable plastic pads from polluting landfills. Beyond manufacturing, the organization provides vital menstrual health education and facilitates open dialogues to break taboos across India. Eco Femme operates impactful non-profit programs like Pad for Pad and Pads for Sisters, offering free or subsidized cloth pad kits to adolescent girls and economically disadvantaged women. By empowering rural women with livelihood opportunities through stitching and training, and by fostering a global Eco-Sisterhood, Eco Femme beautifully merges environmental sustainability, women's empowerment, and dignified menstrual hygiene management.
Kathy Walkling and Jessamijn Miedema
CEO
Operating since 2010
11-50 Members
Eco-system
Cities and Towns
Villages
Sub-sectors
Health and Wellness
Cosmetics and Personal Care Industry
Circular Economy and Waste Reduction
Social Enterprise
Type Of Product
Made From
Sustainability Claim
A women-led social enterprise offering organic washable cloth pads and pioneering sustainable menstrual health education.
Method and technique
Method and Technique of Eco Femme are:
Organic Cotton Textile Procurement: The enterprise utilizes a highly rigorous ecological sourcing method, actively procuring premium, GOTS-certified organic cotton fabrics directly from ethical suppliers, successfully ensuring the foundational textiles remain completely free from hazardous agricultural pesticides and harsh synthetic dyes.
Localized Cloth Pad Hand-Stitching: Eco Femme employs a deeply empowering and localized manufacturing technique, deliberately partnering with skilled rural women artisans in Tamil Nadu to manually cut, layer, and stitch the highly absorbent cloth pads, successfully maintaining exceptional quality control while championing ethical labor practices.
Cross-Subsidized Impact Distribution: They utilize an incredibly progressive socio-economic funding method, actively leveraging commercial retail sales generated from international and premium domestic markets to successfully subsidize the cost of manufacturing and distributing free educational kits and pads to marginalized communities.
Comprehensive Menstrual Literacy Workshops: The organization employs a highly specialized community education technique, carefully facilitating open, judgement-free educational sessions for adolescent girls and boys in rural schools, successfully teaching biological facts, proper hygiene management, and sustainable product usage to break deep-rooted cultural taboos.
NGO Partner Network Integration: Eco Femme utilizes an expansive and highly collaborative outreach method, systematically partnering with over eighty distinct grassroots NGOs across various Indian states, successfully utilizing localized expertise to distribute their Pad for Pad and Pads for Sisters programs effectively and respectfully.
Zero-Waste Product Lifecycle Design: They employ a highly responsible environmental engineering technique, meticulously designing their durable cloth pads to withstand up to 75 washes, successfully ensuring that the product provides years of reliable use before naturally degrading, entirely eliminating the need for single-use plastic disposal.
Certificates & compliances
1 Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)
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