Since most people’s underwear don’t see much sun, panties and boxers seem like an unlikely match with solar power. But PACT, a new apparel company, is donating 10 percent of proceeds from its winter lights underwear collection to provide solar LED lanterns to households in Haiti.

The company uses organic fabrics and brought fashion designer Yves Behar in to design its organic cotton underwear line for the holidays, said company co-founder Jason Kibbey.

“We started looking for universal themes for the holidays,” Kibbey said of how the project idea was born.

Lights are part of almost all religious and secular winter holiday celebrations, Kibbey said. So the lights theme made sense.

PACT always donates a portion of its revenue to non-profit organizations, he said. For this line, Kibbey said the company wanted to make a difference with light and looked to Haiti.

Kibbey said he’s had experience in developing countries and knows that the inside air-quality is often terrible because families burn kerosene lamps inside their homes.

Kibbey’s first thought was to build a solar array for a Haitian village that would provide power and light.

But the idea grew too complex, and he grew to love the idea of gifting a solar lantern to individual women and families.

PACT partnered with EarthSpark, which is working to provide solar-powered LED lanterns to women throughout Haiti right now.

"The feedback we've received from women using our solar lanterns has been incredible," Dan Schnitzer, founder and director of EarthSpark, said in a PACT press release. "Women are organizing themselves into night patrols and hanging the lamps outside their tents to light public walkways. It's heartwarming to see our distribution efforts providing a direct and visible difference in communities made vulnerable by the earthquake."

In addition to supplying the lanterns, EarthSpark will set aside 10 percent of the money it receives from the PACT partnership, Kibbey said, for future green and sustainable energy projects in Haiti.

“We really liked the idea of helping one family in particular with the project,” Kibbey said.

For every package of designer underwear the company sells, it will donate $15 to the solar lantern project in Haiti, Kibbey said.

Image courtesy of EarthSpark.