When you slip into your favorite tee-shirt, you probably don’t think about where it came from and at what cost. You just enjoy the soft fabric and the fun pattern.

But that comfy shirt required a third of a pound of chemicals and 700 gallons of water to produce and another 700 gallons of water to wash over its lifetime. The fashion industry as a whole accounts for more than five percent of global carbon emissions, second only to oil and gas. And the fashion marketplace operates inefficiently; more than 87 percent of clothing produced ends up incinerated or in a landfill.

Being a for-profit business is important, Stephanie says, because bringing about meaningful change requires the participation of C-suite executives. “We need the CMOs who are worried about storytelling around good work, the CIOs and COOs who are responsible for technology, procurement, and managing the supply chain day-to-day, and the CEOs responsible for setting the corporate agenda. That’s the beauty of how we built our business. We have the economic piece so our customers are not just doing well for good’s sake, but because it makes good business sense.”

Stephanie has always felt she is fulfilling a destiny. “I knew from a very early age I’d be doing this,” she says. It wasn’t just that she grew up in the family business or that she attended an all-women’s school for 13 years that encouraged her to be an entrepreneur. It was also the accidental death of her brother two years before she was born. “I never knew him. But I was named after him. I looked like him. I know from that experience that life is short and I am going to take full advantage of my time here to make the world a better place.”