ABOUT IAMWILD®
We Believe Art & Beauty Have the Power to
Create Conversation, Foster Collaboration
and Transform Conservation.
WE ARE TRANSFORMING CONSERVATION
IAMWILD® is a new model for conservation
We are a collaborative movement that connects Business & Conservation, Purpose & Profitability,
Art & Action, Experience & Education. With IAMWILD®, everyone everywhere can take action in
protecting all that is wild.
We are a platform of participation and collaboration for leaders, artists, creators and forward thinkers.
A place where we can all come together to raise awareness for all that is wild.
What we do
IAMWILD® is focused on three key areas:
- Art
- Partnerships
- Experiences
IAMWILD.ART
IAMWILDART™ is a global collaborative platform that connects art and conservation. Our online gallery features unique and exclusive artworks from global artists. When you purchase art on IAMWILD.ART or at any of our in-person shows 10% of each sale goes towards conservation initiatives.
Partnerships
IAMWILD® partners with brands to design co-branded products, services and experiences. By partnering with IAMWILD® brands can easily and seamlessly integrate conservation into their existing operations.
Art Experiences
IAMWILD® is working on the launch of the IAMWILD® Mobile Museum — an immersive multisensory art experience that will travel to over 80 cities around the world.
Animal populations
plummeted by over 58% since
1970
85% of all species are
threatened by habitat
destruction
Insect populations in have plummeted by more than 75% in past 30 years
Currently less than 3% of global philanthropic dollars
go to the environment
Art & Beauty can Inspire Action
IAMWILD® believes that art and beauty can create awareness, inspire us to think differently and most importantly simplify how each of us can take action in protecting the environment, wildlife and wild ecosytems.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
HELP. GIVE. MAKE. HAVE.™
We believe conservation requires new partners and new ways of thinking that can accelerate action.
A new approach that understands that for businesses and brands to be truly sustainable, they need to build both ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP and PROFITABILITY into their business.
HELP.GIVE.MAKE.HAVE.™ is that new philosophy. One that unites purpose and profit.
Our mission is for brands and organizations to adopt this model and contribute to conservation causes as an integral part of their operations.
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HELP
HELP is about putting conservation and the protection of all that is wild at the core of our business. Not as an afterthought, but as a key business value and a fundamental way of doing business. Not as words or policies, but a real commitment to action and through financial contribution. IAMWILD® contributes 10% of its revenues towards conservation causes.
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GIVE
GIVE is about responsible sourcing of the raw materials businesses use to create their products. We believe that an integral part of taking action means being conscious about these materials and caring about the environmental impact of production. We believe that every business can make an impact through responsible sourcing and working with like-minded businesses that also believe in the shared responsibility of caring for the environment and all that is wild. For consumers, GIVE is about caring about the choices we make and the brands we support though our purchases.
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MAKE
MAKE is about making businesses run. It’s about ensuring that businesses build solid environmental stewardship initiatives that reduce their footprint on the environment. This includes integrating policies regarding energy consumption, waste reduction and recycling, supporting green transportation methods for employees and digital collaboration tools that reduce the need for travel, as well as greener truck fleets and shipping methods. It’s about making business more efficient while making it more green.
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HAVE
HAVE is about profitability. For businesses to grow, innovate and remain competitive, they need to be profitable. Profitability has traditionally been seen in opposition to environmental sustainability. We believe that today and in the future one cannot be sacrificed for the other. Only when companies are profitable can they make a positive contribution to the world. Only when they become sustainable will they be able to drive profitability.
Every Action Counts™
How IAMWILD® Works
Every time you choose IAMWILD® in your daily purchases, you make a direct contribution in protecting the environment, endangered species and conservation initiatives.
1. Choosing IAMWILD
Smart shoppers and businesses purchase IAMWILD co-branded products and services from their favorite brands. They decorate their homes and companies with art bought on IAMWILD.ART. They attend IAMWILD experiences, talks and events like the Mobile Museum.
2. 10%
10% of IAMWILD profits from cobranded products go to conservation causes through the IAMWILD Foundation.
3. Impact
The IAMWILD Foundation uses these funds to sponsor wildlife, ocean and land conservation projects, build schools, plant trees and empower existing charities.
4. Community
By choosing IAMWILD, consumers become part of a global community that protects all that is wild.
The IAMWILD® Story
Our story is one of discovery, exploration and the beauty of true wilderness. Starting out as an idea of capturing this beauty and sharing it with the world, it grew into a platform that aims to transform business and preserve the beauty of all that is wild for our children and future generations.
A long forgotten island
In 1994, while watching a short film from 1961, produced by the national film board of Canada, our founder Roberto Dutesco stumbled across the story of a long forgotten island that served as a passage and safe haven for explorers on their way to North America and for the pirates looking for riches. It is now inhabited only by a herd of 500 wild horses, descendants of the survivors from over 500 shipwrecks that crashed around the island over its 500-year history.
The journey begins
Over the next 12 years, Roberto visited the island nine times, capturing the iconic images that are first shown to the world in the windows of the SONY Store on Madison Avenue in New York. Numerous shows would follow including the National Arts Club, the United Nations in NYC, the World Expo in Japan as well as in many cities around the world including Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva, Tokyo, Istanbul, Singapore, Washington, Los Angeles, Toronto and Montreal.
The experience brought to life
In 2006 The Wild Horses of Sable Island Gallery in NYC opened, dedicated exclusively to the Wild Horses of Sable Island. Soon after, the gallery was named “one of the 50 art places one must visit” by Art Architecture Design and is currently the longest-running single-themed show in New York City. In 2007 Roberto's journey was captured in the BRAVO documentary Chasing Wild Horses.
The Power of Wild Beauty
Through conversations with the visitors at each show, feedback from collectors and fans, as well as support of political leaders who, through the art, saw the importance of protecting the wild, the power of the art to drive conservation initiatives quickly surfaced. Roberto’s work about the the Wild Horses of Sable Island raised over a million dollars for multiple education and conservation causes, including the building of a kindergarten in Piyungan, Indonesia.
A New Global Platform Connecting Business & Conservation
From this journey emerged the conviction that art & beauty have the power to create conversation, foster collaboration and transform conservation.
In 2015 IAMWILD® was born and work started to shape a new global platform for artists, creators and forward thinkers, a new sustainable business model for the protection of wild ecosystems around the world.
THE INSPIRATION BEHIND IAMWILD
The Wild Horses of Sable Island®
Far from the East Coast of Canada, cast ashore or abandoned by sailors long ago, a small herd of wild horses has managed to thrive, untouched by man, in an austere, unforgiving environment that offers not a single sheltering tree and just grass and rainwater ponds for sustenance.
A Platform for Collaboration
IAMWILD® is a global platform of participation and collaboration for artists, creators and forward thinkers. It is a place where leaders come together to raise awareness for all that is wild. The first expression of this platform is through the unique experience of the Horses of Sable Island as photographed by Roberto Dutesco. But this is just the first step.
Our intention is to extend this concept further to highlight other endangered species around the world and integrate work done by other artists. If you are an artist committed to making a positive difference through your art, we’d love to partner with you. Contact us below.
MANIFESTO
“Wild” is not Out There.
Wild is Here. Everywhere. All around us.
It is among us and within us.
All of us, collectively and individually, are part of wilderness itself.
We all are wild.
IAMWILD is a reminder that the true question is not just whether we care for the Earth, the oceans or the wild lands. Nor is it simply about saving polar bears, gorillas, tigers, whales or dolphins.
As a key part of the global ecosystem, it is also about saving ourselves, our home and the things that make us human.
Because caring for all that is wild
is caring for the future of our children and our children’s children.
Because the diversity and the beauty of all that is wild
is our true legacy for them.
IAMWILD is an invitation to think differently.
To show that business and conservation,
purpose and profitability, can coexist.
It is an invitation to all to HELP. GIVE. MAKE. HAVE.
It is an invitation to reclaim our future and
for each of us to proudly proclaim . . . #IAMWILD
