SUSTAINABILITY PORTFOLIO KELSEY KEITHLY
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
This portfolio spread centers around the theme of “Full-Cycle Sustainability�. Each spread is broken down into the following categories: Fibers, Fabrics, Dyeing, Printing and Finishing, Product Development, Retail, Consumer and Post Consumer.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC
PAGE NUMBER
ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
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FIBERS: COTTON
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ECOLOGICAL SOLUTION
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FABRICS: WOOL
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ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION
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SUSTAINABILITY: TEXTILE DYEING
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ECOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE: AIR DYE
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MANUFACTURING JEANS
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WATER FREE STONE WASHING
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RETAIL: WHY WE NEED ECO-FRIENDLY COMPANIES
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ECO-FRIENDLY COMPANY: LUSH COSMETICS CONSUMER IMPACT: WATER RESOURCES CONSUMER INITIATIVE: LEVI JEAN CHALLENGE WORK CITED
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FIBERS: COTTON Causes The impacts of unsustainable cotton farming are due to numerous practices. The first issue is the alarming strain cotton puts on water. It takes more than 20,000 liters of water to produce 1kg of cotton which is equivalent to one pair of jeans2. The other contributor is the pesticide and chemical laden runoff from the farms. Both of these contribute to the detriment of both ecosystems and the health of the farm workers and the masses.
History of Cotton Cotton is a natural fiber that is one of the most widely used in clothing today. Cotton is grown in 17 states across the U.S covering more than 12 million acres1. From this farmers harvest around 15 million bales which amounts to roughly 100 million in profits annually nationwide1. In addition to the U.S, China, India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and West Africa account for 75% of global cotton production2.
Environmental Impact Unsustainable cotton farming has resulted in the destruction of many ecosystems around the world such as the Aral Sea in Asia2. This has also contributed to the detriment of inhabitants health in Central Asia. Cotton also depletes numerous large bodies of water including the Indus River, Murray-Darling Basin, and The Rio Grande in the U.S and Mexico. 3
Cotton crops before the harvesting season 4
ECOLOGICAL SOLUTION and require a reduced amount of water in comparison. These crops are also far more resistant to droughts and floods.
Ecologically Friendly Alternative: Why Organic? Organic cotton is cotton that is grown without any pesticides or chemical fertilizers. None of the plants are genetically modified and are not treated with any chemicals during manufacturing and processing. This is a growing farming method that farmers and companies are using. This is supportive of an initiative to not only provide a cleaner and healthier product, but also one that does not cause such great detriment to the environment like conventional farming.
Drawbacks Although there are a lot of positives to growing organic cotton, there are also some negative aspects of the farming method. Due to the higher cost of organic pesticides, fertilizers, and fungicides, it is much more costly to grow organic due to the lower crop yield along with treatment prices. Organic cotton is also in higher demand of manual labor due to the lack of potent chemicals that conventional farming relies on in defense of pest outbreaks5.
Benefits Cotton grown organically uses the natural ecological processes of nature to maintain soil fertility, insects, and microbes. Not only does this prevent pest outbreaks, but it also encourages biodiversity4. Organic cotton crops are also less “thirsty� than conventionally grown cotton 6
Organic cotton farm laborers in Pakistan
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FABRICS: WOOL History of Wool Wool is a natural fiber that comes from the hair of sheep. It is manufactured by the textile industry into fabrics for multipurpose use. The manufacturing of wool fiber into fabric is a lengthy process that involves multiple steps to produce7. •Shearing: Once a year sheep are shorn by professionals that remove their hair into one piece. This is then sorted to remove any unwanted wool and debris. •Classing: The fleece is then examined and graded according to length, diameter, strength, crimp, and color of it’s individual fibers. • Scouring: This is where the lanolin (excess oil) is removed from the fiber by raking it in hot water and detergent. •Carding: A carding machine smoothed the fibers by brushing the wool over a series of rolling drums covered in pointed teeth. •The Woolen Process: After carding the wool is gently twisted into ropes ready for spinning into woolen yarn
Environmental Concerns From the beginning of the process of manufacturing wool fiber into fabric, there are many detriments that begin to affect the environment. The textile manufacturing of wool requires a mass amount of energy from shearing all the way down through the dyeing process that. There is also a large reliance upon toxic chemicals, these are particularly present to prevent lice and other infestations when the sheep are growing out their hair and also during the scouring and dyeing processes. These are two large problems facing the environment. In particular the toxic chemicals end up in water runoff that travels back into large bodies of water contaminating local ecosystems. Although the contamination is not as large a detriment to the environment as other natural fibers it is still a growing concern in the textile industry8.
•Weaving: Yarn is woven into fabric on computerized looms •Dyeing and Finishing: Fabric is treated with heat, moisture and friction to tighten the weave and shrink the fabric. Chemical finishes can be applied to make the fabric washable by coating it with a resin film
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Merino sheep prior to shearing season
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ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTION Faux (artificial) Shearling Faux shearling is a man made alternative to traditional animal hair.
Benefits The majority of faux wool is made from acrylic which is very similar to wool in warmth and texture. Acrylic is actually designed to be softer and warmer than traditional wool fabrics and fibers. In addition to the textural similarities, the cost is substantially cheaper than wool made garments and items. Synthetic wool also has the benefit of not being susceptible to mold, mildew, and moths in the ways that wool is affected. Without these vulnerabilities, the fabric does not have to be treated with pesticides like wool, reducing the amount of toxic chemicals that end up in genuine wool10.
energy consumption, synthetic fibers contain a degree of chemicals that still remain in the processed fabric. Another issue that gives cause for concern is that man made fibers also require large amounts of water for all the different processes that could potentially lead to contaminated water drainage10.
Conclusion Although there are some negatives to synthetic fabric production and their replacement to genuine wool fabrics, there are many positive benefits that could outweigh the negatives. Given the proper manufacturing man made synthetic fibers could potentially prevent the detriment that traditional wool processing causes.
Negatives Just as with the manufacturing of wool, manmade fibers still have an ecological impact on the environment. The process of making acrylic fabrics does utilize a lot of energy in the processing. In addition to the high 11
Production of acrylic fabrics
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SUSTAINABILITY: TEXTILE DYEING What is Textile Dyeing? Textile dyeing is the process of adding color to fibers, yarns, and fabrics. It is traditionally done using chemical solutions that contain dyes or other chemical materials.
Issues with Traditional Dye Methods The main concern with textile dyeing is the water waste and contamination that the processing causes to both ecological systems and civilians. “During the dyeing process an average t-shirt will use 16-20 liters of water. 80% of the dye is retained by the fabric and the rest is flushed out … The global textile industry discharges 40,000 – 50,000 tons of dye into the water system and Europe discharges 200,000 tons of salt” (Cambridge University). The amount of water waste noted by Cambridge University is significantly growing due to the increasing demand of garments from the apparel industry. In addition to water depletion, there is also problems with chemical contaminations. For the past two decades the synthetic dye industry has taken over the majority of processing, although there are still companies producing dyes that contain carcinogenic properties.
Impacts Due to these harmful chemicals being incorporated in the processing it puts all the workers health at risk along with the local eco-system because of improper waste disposal. In the pas few years the textile industry has been working to bring back and utilize natural dyes and pigments into garment processing to reduce reliance on artificial chemicals. Although the popularity of this has somewhat increased, it is not as widespread as synthetic dyes.
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Dye pigments during processing
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ECOLOGICAL ALTERNATIVE: AIR DYE What is AirDye? Traditional dyeing practices waste a substantial amount of water each year, in China alone 9 billion tons are used annually in the textile industry. In an attempt to lessen the ecological burden that textile dyeing is putting on the environment, a company has come up with a new advancement to color textiles. Airdye is a chemical process that prints fabric with pigments and utilizes the air to complete the processing.
The Benefits
• •Companies and customers also have
limitless color choices due to the different intensity levels that are available through this processing method. The process works similarity to that of processing a photo through chemical exposure, the longer the fabric is exposed to air, the more pigmented and potent the color hue will become. It is predicted that Airdye is becoming the future of textile dyeing due to the substantial reduction of an ecological strain that is evident in traditional dyeing methods.
The old processing methods of textile dyeing uses roughly 200 tons of water per garment. Airdye has the capability to reduce water usage down by 95 percent. In addition to the massive water reductions, Airdye also cuts down energy usage down by 86% and greenhouse gas emissions by 84%. Besides the substantial ecological benefits, the color pigments are more vibrant and durable than any other dyeing practice as of late. Due to the nonexistant need of middlemen chemical treatments and typical dyeing methods the cost for Airdye products are a fraction of the cost in comparison to other garment 15 Garments that have been dyed using Airdye production rates. 9
MANUFACTURING: JEANS How is it done?
In order to create denim, cotton plants are heavily treated with pesticides and chemicals, then sent through a lengthy manufacturing process. This processing utilizes a substantial amount of water and results in ecological depletion that impacts our environment from chemical run off with cotton manufacturing, to thousands of gallons of water being wasted on stylizing jeans during the manufacturing process. Many steps can be taken by the consumer to reduce these environmental strain..
Jeans are produced all around the world, with the majority of consumer denim being manufactured in Asia or South America. The yield of most denim processing is up to 2,500 pairs jeans that are manufactured daily depending on the factory capacity16. “About 1,500 gallons of water are required to produce the 1.5 pounds of cotton used to make a single pair of jeans”17, not including the water used to dye and finish the fabric. The ecological impact is so great just in the cotton production, the dyes and finishing are not even accounted into that figure which add up to a lot more water depletion.
Jean Finishing After jeans are completed with their finalized stitching they are sent through the last processing call jean finishing. Such processes can include dyeing, bleaching, acid washing, stone washing, and many others. This processing alone requires the use of many harmful chemicals that are released back into the environment through the completed chemical baths used to stylize the jeans. The impact of this environmentally is the depletion of water sources and the release of harmful chemicals into the environment17.
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Jean stitching during manufacturing
Consumer Impact On average 450 million pairs of jeans are sold throughout the U.S each year from women’s, men’s, and children's18. 20
Industrial washing machines used during jean dyeing
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WATER FREE STONE WASHING What is Water Free Stone Washing? It is a textile manufacturing process that is used to give newly process jeans a distressed or worn in look. The process includes adding large stones to industrial washers that processes the added denim without water by continuously pounding the fabric with the stones21. The result are jeans with a distressed, softened, and worn look without traditional processes methods that require thousands of liters of water in order to achieve.
Ecological Impact of Waterless Finishing If the water free stone washing is used in replace of traditional denim finishing, water consumption can be reduced up to 28% per pair of jeans21. Depending on the jean, some pairs can reduce water usage up to 96% as well21. One company that has implemented this finishing technique in their jean producion is Levi. In 2011 their spring collection included 1.5 million pairs of jeans all manufactured using the waterless finishing method. The result of this effort was astounding, with saving more than 16 million liters of water through the waterless stone washing method. In addition to Levi’s efforts to drastically lessen the strain of their water consumption, they are also urging customers to reduce washing of their jeans.
Why Waterless Finishing? The benefits of manufacturers switching to waterless finishing are endless. Not only would it drastically reduce water usage, but it would also eliminate the need for certain toxic chemicals that typically end up back in the environment. In addition to water conservation, this finishing method could potentially save on electricity usage as well due to the reduced amount of time that denim is required to be processed through wash loads and chemical baths.. If more denim companies were to implement this finishing technique into their denim processing the impact that clothing manufacturing has on the environment could be drastically reduced and that water could be used elsewhere that is in need.
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Stones typically used for stone washing
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Levi stonewash advertisement
RETAIL: WHY WE NEED ECOFRIENDLY COMPANIES Impact of Wasteful Consuming According to the Wall Street Journal, 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used annually by consumers, costing retailers roughly $4 billion dollars23. “When plastics break down, they don't biodegrade; they photodegrade. This means the materials break down to smaller fragments which readily soak up toxins. They then contaminate soil, waterways, and animals upon digestion”23. Many Americans fail to recycle the plastic bags that they receive from the grocery store or retail stores or take bags when they really are not a necessity. Consumers can reduce this grave issue in many ways from using reusable bags to opting out of print receipts and getting them emailed instead. Landfills all across the U.S are overfilled with unnecessary waste that consumers can help to prevent.
If retailers would begin to look at the larger picture of their environmental impact, some major cutbacks could be made to lessen the ecological burden. Some companies like Urban Outfitters have began to opt out of printing receipts for customers, and instead emailing it instead all in an effort to reduce the amount of paper. The clothing retailer H&M incentivises customers via store coupons to bring all their unwanted and used clothing into their store locations to be recycled. Some retailers have begun to make “green” changes to their stores, in an effort to become less of a strain on the environment, and many more need to follow suit in order to cut down on all the unnecessary waste going into landfills.
Retail Store Waste Each year in the U.S, “approximately 12 million tons of textile waste is generated each year in North America”24. From failing to recycling clothing properly to distributing unnecessary packaging to consumers, the textile and retail industry are responsible for a substantial amount of the waste found in landfills. Retailers like Nordstrom and Victoria’s Secret fill their shopping bags with multiple sheets of tissue paper and ribbons, only to end up at the bottom of the customer’s trashcan. 25
Textile waste going through the recycling process 12
ECO-FRIENDLY COMANY: LUSH COSMETICS What is Lush? Lush is a cosmetic store that sells fresh handmade products which can range from: body scrubs, lotions, makeup, fragrances, bath bombs, to facial masks. Their mission is to produce a product that is natural, ecologically responsible, and freshly made for consumers. Their green initiative has grown rapidly over the years and in result they have reduced their environmental footprint substantially.
Lush’s Ecologically Friendly Practices Packaging: Is only used when absolutely necessary, when going “naked”(company’s term for no packaging) is unavoidable 100% recycled material is used for their containers and bags26. Waste: All pots and bottles used by the company are BPA-Free, 100% post consumer plastic. Bags are also made from 100% post consumer recycled paper, and store promote bringing in reusable bags. Buying: This year at LUSH, they were responsible for the buying of recycled supplies for their administrative offices helped them to save over 300 trees, 511, 363 liters of water (135,000 gallons of water), 675 gallons of oil and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 28,000 CO2 equivalents26.
How Lush Encourages Their Customers Lush has several in store incentives to promote customers to recycle and reuse any leftover containers or bags purchased at their stores. For every 5 black pot containers from Lush that customers bring back to recycle after use, they will receive one free facial mask. In addition, Lush also has sweepstakes on Instagram in which customers can win a gift basket if they include a hashtag #lushcosmetics either using a product or composting their bags in their garden. Lush has gone to great lengths to lessen the burden their company places on the environment and promotes customers to do the same. More companies need to follow their lead to help make a big impact on the large amount of consumer and industrial waste.
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Featuring a Lush product called bathbombs
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Company logo and description
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CONSUMER IMPACT: WATER RESOURCES Water Useage The average American laundry cycle uses 45 gallons of water per load, and has up to 400 laundry loads per year. That equates to roughly 18,000 gallons of water used each year on laundry alone. 29 That is a substantial amount of water for just one consumer to be utilizing for at home use when water scarcity is affecting people world-wide.
Improper Laundering of Clothes There has been much speculation and criticism that Americans are wasting large amounts of water on over laundering their clothes each year. The average consumer in the U.S does 9 loads of laundry each week30. Suggested laundering of clothing besides undergarments and activewear should be washed every 4-8 wears, with denim jeans up to 6 months. In addition to over washing clothing, Americans are guilty of using too much laundry detergent. In a research poll done by Methods Products Incorporated found that “53% of people don't use the recommended amount of detergent per washload, preferring instead to guess or, worse, to simply fill the cap up to the top—a practice that wastes more than half the loads a detergent bottle could wash, Method executives say”31.
This is not only wasting money, but the over use of detergent is adding even more toxic chemicals into the environment after each wash. If the American consumer would be more conscientious of how much detergent they are using and how often they are cleaning their clothes, a substantial amount of water could be saved along with lessening the introduction of harmful chemicals into the environment.
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Traditional machine washing by the consumer
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Consumer laundry waste diagram
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CONSUMER INITIATIVE: LEVI JEAN CHALLENGE What is the challenge? Last year at a press conference the CEO of Levi and Strauss denim company insisted that their jeans do not need to be washed after purchase. Instead of traditional laundering the company suggests spot cleaning for stains and odor removal in green alternative methods.34 This is all in an initiative to increase clothing longevity in addition to decrease the fast turnover of apparel in the fashion industry. I wanted to see if this suggestion of no wash jeans was a realistic one that could be manageable and ultimately result in longer lasting jeans. Over the course of two weeks I wore a pair of my Levi jeans without washing them to discover the results of the new suggested care method.
Challenge Results Week 1 The first week my jeans held up well, I luckily did not have any spills or spots to clean nor was there any odor from the wear. Although there was not a cleaning issue, I did start to notice that by the end of the week the jeans had started to stretch out enough for me to notice. The jeans still held their shape up well but there was a noticeable amount of stretch in the waistband. At the end of the week I had decided to place my jeans in a freezer bag to remove any odor that i did not notice so they would be fresh for the upcoming week. I was surprised that the method had seemed to work and the jeans were more crisp upon removal from the freezer. Week 2 Towards the middle of the week I ended up with some stains on my jeans and tried spot cleaning them according to the Levi
I used a dab of soap and water to treat the spot and for the most part the spot was removed but with a close eye it was still somewhat noticeable. At the end of the week I had gone out to a restaurant and after I got home I noticed my jeans had a strong food odor and placed them in the freezer to treat the smell. This time it was not as successful removing the odor as before. Conclusion I am all for conserving energy and recycling when I am able in order to contribute to the environment. In the case of not ever washing my jeans again I would find that to be quite a challenge for me personally. It was very difficult to get stains and strong odors out of the denim without washing them. I also experienced my jeans stretching out somewhat with the lack of washing. I would be able to go a week without washing my jeans but any longer I feel like stains and odors start to set in the fabric making them not feel very clean and hygienic.
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Levi denim example
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Levi Denim lable
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THANK YOU
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