BOGOTA, N.J. – Coconut shell buttons on a Triko shirt reflect designer Hector Estrada’s philosophy of using organic, recycled or sustainable materials.

Like the head of an environmental conservation agency, Hector Estrada is concerned with the betterment of the world and the people around him.

The only difference is that Estrada isn’t the head of an environmental conservation agency. He is a clothing designer and the founder of Triko, a unique company that claims to apply a Zen-like approach to clothing design and a socially conscious philosophy to business.

“When I started Triko, I was at a point in my life when I wanted everything I did to mean something,” said Estrada, 34, of Bogota, N.J. “A lot of times as a designer, you’re reminded that this career isn’t rocket science and that nobody’s life depends on what you do. The more I thought about it, though, I thought, “This may not be huge, but I can use it as a vehicle to bring awareness to more important things.’ “

Fifteen years ago, after emigrating from Puerto Rico, where his mother assembled samples for couture designers, including Christian Dior, -Estrada followed in her footsteps and studied art and design at New Jersey City University.

After graduating, he worked for several big sportswear labels but felt stuck in a design rut. So in 2002, he began his own line.

“For a while I was doing both, working for labels and running my own one-man show,” he recalled. “I didn’t have a life for a year or two.”

The lack of a life paid off for Estrada. Over the next several years, with hard work, he watched as his grassroots label gathered an extensive following. Soon, the days of printing and shopping around wares from a car trunk were over.

Employing only word-of-mouth advertising, Triko moved out of Estrada’s basement to numerous independent boutiques across the United States and Japan.

The man behind the worldly label, who once had “no life,” is doing some lively globe-trotting, promoting his line and gaining inspiration in all corners of the globe.

This constant travel plays a major part in the creation of Estrada’s designs, which are drawn simultaneously from the most unlikely and likely of places: the colorful hues of traditional Indian dress, the spicy bite of Eastern fare, the colorful beats of contemporary rock and hip-hop and the coded messages of television programming and political debate.

One T-shirt shows the graphic of a machine gun whose bullets are replaced by calming words inspired by a book on samurai code that Estrada picked up in Japan. One of the line’s logos, a lightning-bolt pattern, is inspired by NASA’s Apollo missions of the 1960s.

Hung from a hanger handmade in India, one of Estrada’s popular denim designs contains a vibrant fabric inlay that’s hand-stitched by the Quechua tribes of Peru, where he encountered the cloth in a Lima marketplace.

Being part of a “green”-minded line, the materials, like the designs, in Triko garments also can be unusual.

“We try to use as many sustainable resources as possible,” said Estrada, as he leafed through clothing in the open closet bays of his Manhattan studio. “In the near future we plan to use only sustainable materials.”

The clothing company, which produces the majority of its products in Peru and the United States, uses organic cotton as well as tagua, a product of South American palm tree seeds, from which buttons are made. Coconut shells and defective beer and soda cans also end up as buttons on Triko products.

Estrada supports a variety of environmental and educational causes, donating to groups such as Defenders of Wildlife, PBS, Solar1 and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“I want people to wear clothes that they feel cool about, but also supporting something bigger than just nice clothes,” said the forward-thinking boss of Triko. “It’s my little way of making a difference.”