Our Social Responsibility

At Ikaria Design Company, we are in the alignment business. We strive to create solutions that help our customers enjoy more of their lives upstream of chronic pain. We have found that we do a better job of helping folks keep their spines in line if we also put attention toward aligning our organization's actions with our values.

This is the spirit we bring to our social responsibility commitments. Our choices of where to make contributions stem from our deepest values. In the same way that our customers choose our products, we choose to support projects and initiatives that are taking preventive, upstream approaches to social change. We hope you’ll share with us the projects you know of that align with the three areas we are currently focused on: Climate Change, Education, and Social Justice.

Through a combination of in-kind and financial contributions, each year we commit 10% of profits to these three general areas of concern. Sometimes the projects we support touch all three focus areas, and we’re always on the lookout for more such high leverage strategic opportunities.

Climate Change

From fires in the US and Australia, drought and famine, to species loss globally, the effects of climate change are devastating economies, communities, and the ecosystems we share with our fellow creatures. Though developed nations are the biggest contributors to global warming, the steepest price is being paid by people in developing nations. The path forward for modern humans to live equitably with our kin has been known now for decades. We have the technology to do it. Resolve among those who can change policy is sorely lacking. Ikaria Design Company supports organizations working towards a carbon negative future, climate justice, reversing deforestation, and economic equality. Through our product offerings and lifestyle education, we are encouraging folks to live and work with less furniture, lengthening the years that we can stay mobile and inspired, in better shape to care for the natural environment in our midst.

Education

Just as our journey through the education system sets us up for sedentary lives, our schooling systems are mirrors of inequality in our society. We support initiatives aimed at eliminating opportunity gaps hindering students of color, girls in STEM, and increasing movement and activity in the classroom. An example of a project in this area is the ButtOn Chair initiative. We help produce and distribute an open-source chair designed by Dr. Osler, an academic trauma surgeon and research epidemiologist, that helps keep students active in the classroom.

Social Justice

Economic inequality is a global disease held in place and spread through the social viruses of white supremacy, human caste systems, and binary notions of gender and misogyny. As an organization, we understand that the very culture through which we operate our business can perpetuate this if left unchallenged. We welcome feedback about our blindspots. We also welcome learning about vendors, suppliers, and networks with whom we can partner to be more effective in bringing about positive change for LGBTQIA+ communities around the world, for the Black Lives Matter movement, and for addressing economic and environmental racism. We give direct support to unionizing efforts, and to organizations such as Southern Poverty Law and the Movement for Black Lives. We are proud of the role one of our local upholsterers had in setting up our county's bail bond fund, offering relief to neighbors being victimized by our criminal justice system.