When Paul Towle talks about his future plans for the Green Fashion Line, the T-shirt distribution company that he founded last year, he makes a brief reference to the tenets of a traditional business plan: turn a profit, expand the business, and so on. Then he gets to the part that he really cares about.
"The big dream is doing good in a bigger sense," said Towle.
He goes on to talk of his dream of buying a ranch somewhere to operate as a therapeutic riding center; letting disadvantaged kids gain confidence on the back of a horse and reconnecting people with the environment.
It's a goal that reveals his degree in social work, with which he graduated from UNH in 1993. But what that degree doesn't suggest is his ability to speak like a scientist on the various environmental problems of the day, his legal know-how that shows when he talks of trademarks and patents with, or the ability to assume the role of a businessman as he discusses profit margins and what it takes to start a business during a recession.
Towle has combined all these differing roles in his newest venture: Green Fashion Line (GFL). The Portsmouth-based company is a global mail order clothing line with an environmentally friendly and socially responsible emphasis. And there's not an aspect of the business that doesn't make its way back to UNH.
Towle, who considers himself a "social capitalist," got the idea for the company during his time at UNH when he was studying macro-social work, which focuses on positively changing larger systems in society. He wanted to do something that would have both environmental and social benefits.
"I thought, ‘I'm going to find a mill that can produce recycled clothing that's top quality,'" said Towle.
is a member of the 
1 comments
have you seen the "this cat gets it" tee on campus yet?