Working Together Toward A Sustainable Future
We collaborate with climate-friendly companies on purpose-driven strategic marketing and design initiatives in FinTech, CllimateTech, AgriTech, infrastructure, renewable energy (solar, wind, electric vehicles), apparel and textile manufacturing and material reuse, nature conservation, plastic pollution education, and climate action publishing.
Climate Tech is Booming
According to a 2023 McKinsey report — Investments in climate technology are still increasing, defying the headwinds that affected most capital markets.
We leverage our established tech marketing acumen to drive powerful change for people and the planet.
Climate Justice for All
We support climate action initiatives that address racial and economic disparity and slavery-free material supply chain management. We help organizations craft and amplify messaging for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Equator Principles (EP) communications.
No Greenwashing — No Hype
Images of wind turbines, solar arrays, and sustainable infrastructure development here may seem like industry cliches. That they are not. They represent actual projects we’ve worked on for clients doing authentic work around the globe to reduce carbon emissions and bring services to vulnerable communities.
In an ever-growing sea of confusing jargon, we aim to help our clients, collaborators and partners communicate authentically about the impact they are making. No greenwashing here.
TESTIMONIALS
Nice things people have said about our strategic work on projects together in climate action, ESG infrastructure investment, solar, wind and renewable energy.
“You’re a rock star. Persist.”
Founder, The Carbon Almanac & best-selling author
“We hired kHyal to rebrand our institutional image … The result was outstanding.”
Chief Investment Officer, CIFI Asset Management
“… one of the most accomplished, intelligent, professional, creative and talented people I have ever worked with.”
Investment Banker, Serial Tech Entrepreneur
OUR WORK + WHO WE WORK WITH
We collaborate with entities at local, regional, national, and international levels to develop and enhance brand identity, positioning, messaging, visual design, content strategy and creation.
Our partnerships span a diverse range of industries, including ESG investment and asset management, material reuse in the built environment, climate action education and publishing, cross-sector sustainable design initiatives, and environmental conservation efforts.
- A Better World by Design
- AIGA Design Educators Community
- AIGA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force
- Architectural Art Reclamation Fund
- Brown University
- Cifi
- Cifi Asset Management
- Climate Gist
- Design Ignites Change
- Etsy Handmade
- Felt & Wire
- Tree Conservancy of Darien
- Hasbro
- Ink Publications
- Irreplaceable Artifacts
- Living Energy
- Microtech
- MoCA Westport
- Mohawk
- Project Storefronts, New Haven
- Rhode Island School of Design
- Sprouting Spaces
- The Carbon Almanac Network
- The Steelyard
EARTH-FRIENDLY PROJECTS
THE CARBON ALMANAC
(Difference Maker) Invited by best-selling author Seth Godin to help promote The Carbon Almanac, named Data Literacy’s “Most Insightful Data Book” of 2022. Spearheaded the online fashion sustainability resource guide. Contributed to the creation of the LinkedIn course “34 Things to Know About Carbon and Climate.” Produced a standalone event for the global book signing, created content for “The Daily Difference.” Initiated outreach efforts to leaders in sustainability and climate action. Created an independent project and launched it at Art Basel Miami Beach / Miami Art Week and ARCO Madrid.
HASBRO PROJECT UPCYCLE
(Judge and Grand Prize Award Designer) Invited judge for Hasbro Corporation’s internal upcycling design competition at the Providence headquarters. Designed Grand Prize Award using reclaimed Hasbro plastic toys and other objects and materials from a collection we rescued from the local landfill.
BOOKDRIVE
(Cofounder) An ongoing collection of curated industry books donated by agencies and creative professionals then distributed to students enrolled in design programs at high schools, colleges, and universities. The program gives a second life to books that contain career-critical information and creative inspiration to aspiring creatives and emerging professionals.
PUSH DESIGN CAMP
(Cofounder) A 3-day design camp for creative professionals on picturesque Block Island — packed with design workshops, salons, talks, and hands-on activities. Special events included farm-to-table gourmet meals, a natural-clay spa at Mohegan Bluffs, a for-good design project with the Ocean View Foundation, a felting workshop at North Light Fibers micro yarn mill, and a private design talk by former Crate and Barrel visual design director Carolyn Collins, followed by a tour, wine-tasting and shopping event her one-of-a-kind shop, the Lazy Fish.
MEGAGLAM & MEGAGLAM VINTAGE
(Founder) MegaGlam® is a sustainable on-demand streetwear and upcycled apparel brand. MegaGlam Vintage is a pop-up, online vintage and secondary market apparel reseller with personal shopping and styling services. MegaGlam Landfill Luxuries™ is a line of one-of-a-kind accessories from high-quality goods and materials we rescue for reuse. Our regenerative approach aims to keep textiles out of landfills, reduce carbon emissions and chemical pollution caused by clothing production, and lower water consumption.
REJECT FOUND + MADE
(Cofounder) Concept reuse store dealing in vintage apparel, used books, mid-century art, and furnishings — plus lighting crafted from natural stone, scrapyard metal, and acrylic by FreshBeam. Reject’s circular economy model has been actualized as a brick-and-mortar store, through strategic retail pop-ups, and as a dedicated seller at a 75,000-square-foot antique market.
INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT
ONGOING EDUCATION
- Circular Economy Sustainable Materials Management, Lund University
- ESG and Climate Change, Wharton, UPENN
- The Sustainable Development Goals, University of Copenhagen
- Design for Sustainability, SCAD / PMI Institute
- Sustainable Design Entrepreneur Program, FIT, 2011-2012
SUMMITS / WORKSHOPS / CEU credits
- NESSBE Justice of Place, Yale School of the Environment
- Yale Clean Energy Conference, Aligning Innovation, Equity, and Investment
- The ClimateTech Founders Summit
- Innovative Climate Solutions, NY #TechWeek
- Engineering Change: Combatting the Climate Crisis, NY #TechWeek
- New Climate Futures, Newlab
- New York Climate Week
- AI + Finance Summit, Climate Risks and ESG Concerns
- Design For Freedom Summit, Grace Farms
- Factory45, Sustainable & Ethical Fashion workshop
- Kelley Drye In Fashion, Fashion & Retail Law Summit
- BUILD, New York
- Sustainable Global Sourcing Forum
- Sustainable Textile Summit, New York
- Swissnex Zero Power Smart Fashion, New York
TRAINING
- Certified Climate Reality Leader, Climate Reality Leadership Corps
- Terra.do
- The Oxygen Project Cooperative
- Acrylic Recycling Workshop with Off Cut Studio, MakeHaven / Yale CEID
- Beyond Plastics, Grassroots Advocacy Training
- Kombucha Leather Workshop with Yale microbiologist Nora Pyenson, Ph.D.
- Certified Brand Safety Officer, Brand Safety Institute
MEMBER / SUPPORTER / CONTRIBUTOR
- Women And Climate
- Creatives For Climate
- Clean Creatives
- Plastic Pollution Coalition
- The Carbon Almanac Network
- Save the Sound, Cleanup Captain, International Coastal Cleanup
- The Climate Reality Project Southern CT Chapter
- Sierra Club
- Ash Creek Conservation Association
- Horseshoe Crab Recovery Coalition
- Project Limulus, Citizen Member (Tagging, Tracking, Reporting)
- Brooklyn Fashion + Design Accelerator (BF+DA)
MODERATOR / CONTRIBUTOR
- SHIFT Summit: AIGA Design Educators Community in partnership with AIGA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Task Force
FOUNDING MEMBER
- Manufacture New York, NYC
Promoting ethical work practices and sustainable fashion
JOURNALIST
- Soundly Caring — A Long Island Sound Love Story
- Fashinnovation Worldwide Talks, New York
- RefashionNYC
- Freestyle Fashion Conference, LIM College, NYC
- Manufacture New York Sustainable Textile Summit
- City Source at FIT Manufacturer’s Showcase
- 3D Print Show
- Swissnex Boston, Zero Power Smart Fashion symposium, NYC
- FashTech NYC Mini-conference, World Trade Center, NYC
- City Source at FIT Manufacturer’s Showcase
- Decoded Fashion Summit, NYC
- Billie Whitehouse, Wearable Experiments, NYC
- Reinventing New York Fashion + Market Week, NYC
SPEAKER
- 2024, Yale Office of Sustainability, “Realism meets Optimism”
- 2023, Climate Gist podcast, Mexico City
- 2023, Women And Climate, Speaker Database
- 2023, “Character Development: Illustration + Activism,” School of Visual Arts (SVA)
- 2023, “Creativity and Climate Action,” MoCA Westport
- 2018, Closing Keynote, A Better World x Design, RISD/Brown University
MAKER / DESIGNER
- 2010–present, MegaGlam® Vintage, Landfill Luxuries™ and Plastic Horse Rescue™
- 2010–present, The Weather sKwirl™ — the world’s only pink weather-loving climate superhero
- 2011/12, A Better World by Design Expo Showcase, Brown University, Providence
- 2012, “We Want Your Trash,” A Better World by Design RISD/Brown University Gala, The Steelyard (1 of 5 artists chosen from 100+ entries for an exhibition of art produced from discarded materials.)
- 2010, Project Storefronts, Elm City Handmade, New Haven
- 2010, Design Ignites Change, an invitational sustainable design project with Mohawk
NEED A CLIMATE-FOCUSED SPEAKER?
FIND ME AND OTHERS ON THE WOMEN AND CLIMATE SPEAKER DATABASE
Environmental Advocacy through Art: Annmarie Sculpture Garden / Smithsonian Institution
“Crimes Against Nature 4 Money” made from discarded plastics and plywood has been chosen for the 2024 exhibition “Metamorphosis: Recycled, Repurposed, Reimagined” at the Kay Daugherty Gallery within Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center in Association with The Smithsonian Institution.
🗓️ Exhibition Dates: February 9, 2024 – April 21, 2024
🌍 Featured at Earth Arts Fest: April 20, 2024
Curated by Siobhan Starrs, Exhibition Developer and Sustainability Champion from the National Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian Institution.
An introduction to The Carbon Almanac by kHyal and a conversation among three other artists focused on work toward a more sustainable world.
We produce educational content, talks, projects, and events about climate change, plastic pollution, horseshoe crab conservation, fashion sustainability, and more.
PRESS
Climate action, conservation, plastic pollution activism, sustainable, upcycled and on-demand apparel and product design, and other creative projects.
The Carbon Almanac Sustainable Fashion Guide recommended by Yale Climate Connections
Robin McLoughlin, “Get to Know kHyal”
Trending, November 2023
Mike Lauterborn, “Highlights from the Bridgeport Art Trail”
Fairfield Hamlet Hub, November 2023
Eric Garcia, “Meet kHyal !”, Mission & Purpose: The stories behind the most meaningful projects
Canvas Rebel, October 2023
Brian Lockhart, “CT DEEP looking into ‘potential violations’ after horseshoe crabs crushed on Bridgeport beach”
Connecticut Post, May 26, 2023
Brian Lockhart, “Horseshoe crabs were crushed at a CT beach. Here’s why officials are now investigating”
Connecticut Post, May 24, 2023
SueEllen Campbell, “Recent articles analyze, assess fashion and beauty”
Yale Climate Connections, 2022
(Mention of The Climate Almanac Fashion Sustainability online resource spearheaded by kHyal.)
“kHyal on the Green Carpet,” ReFashionNYC
MBP.com, 2022
Christina Hennessy, “A green theme, dressed up in pink”
S Magazine, CT Post, December 13, 2015
Amanda Coen, “A Better World by Design Expo Showcases Creative Innovation”
Inhabitat, October 2011
Christopher Arnott, “Project Storefronts Lets Artists Drive the Local Economy”
New Haven Advocate, October 2010
“Bring Design to Underprivileged Youth with These Notebooks”
Design Taxi, September 2010
“Letterpress Printers Create Notebooks for Youth Mentoring Initiative”
Media Bistro Unbeige, September 2010
PROTECTING BIODIVERSITY: HORSESHOE CRAB RESCUE
Thank you to the Connecticut Post and all those who amplified our call to educate Parks and Recreation Department staff and alert conservation organizations to protect horseshoe crabs.
Read more about our work at Seaside Park and other places at Soundly Caring.
A LEADER IN SUSTAINABLE STYLE
Photo: kHyal, Back Bay Boston, ©1981 Ian Churchill
Since childhood, kHyal treasured hand-me-downs gifted from neighbors and collected vintage thrift store apparel. When she moved to Boston to attend college, she sourced and sold curated finds to high-end stores in Back Bay and refashioned vintage and contemporary second-market clothing into new shapes and styles.
LEFT: This 1980s photo of kHyal by Ian Churchill illustrates many current sustainable fashion trends: a redesigned leopard print vintage coat and second-market jeans worn with readapted cowboy boots. While this depicts how cutting-edge taste dictates future mainstream trends, what matters now is that we shift to circular business models at a systems-wide scale.
BELOW: A refashioned thrift store vintage faux fur with over 1500 upcycled zip ties handsewn into the lining in kHyal’s MegaGlam “Spaceage Yeti” jacket as captured by Breaking Fad in the streets of New York in 2014. This jacket was later chosen for a New York gallery exhibition and fashion show by Kelly Cutrone of “America’s Next Top Model.”
kHyal upcycled apparel design on Breaking Fad
COLUMNIST / WRITER & DESIGNER
Ongoing sustainable textile, vintage fashion, and material resuse feature, Ink Magazine.
Launched in 2004.
SUSTAINABLE MATERIALS JUROR / MATERIAL CONNEXION
Invited trade professional to Material ConneXion jury. A world-class materials library and consultancy, MCX helps companies source materials that enhance the performance, aesthetic, and sustainability of their projects.
UPCYCLING, MATERIAL REUSE + ON-DEMAND PROJECTS
kHyal on the ReFashionNYC Green Carpet
Captured on the ReFashionNYC Green Carpet wearing a 1-of-1 signature trench and leggings produced on-demand and a vintage 90s bomber from MegaGlam Vintage.
kHyal’s commissioned found object Christmas Tree sculpture focused on plastic pollution awareness.
Found object Christmas Tree sculpture made from discarded plastics commissioned by Hearst Media for the cover of Sunday Magazine.
kHyal featured in FASHION Magazine wearing her recycled paper dress during Miami Art Week. Photo: Phil Birbaum
Featured in FASHION Magazine wearing a MegaGlam recycled paper dress during Miami Art Week. Photo: Phil Birbaum
kHyal Armory Arts Week NYC Animal Rescue Jacket, vintage leopard coat with reclaimed stuffed animals.
“Animal Rescue” jacket, made from a vintage thrift store leopard coat and reclaimed stuffed animals, featured at Armory Arts Week in New York.
kHyal’s upcycled fashion design at Outsider Art Fair VIP Opening. Photo: ©Getty
Upcycled vintage leather jacket transformed with reclaimed zip ties and art created from found plywood and rescued plastics mounted on the back at the Outsider Art Fair VIP Opening. Photo: ©Getty
Weather sKwirl sustainable letterpress notebook, produced in collaboration with DesignerJournals for an invitational youth mentoring journal project by Mohawk Paper.
kHyal’s recycled acrylic character pendents at A Better World by Design Expo featured in Inhabitat
MegaGlam upcycled scrap acrylic Weather sKwirl necklaces in the invitation-only sustainable expo at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University-based “A Better World by Design” conference. Featured in Inhabitat.
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