Recycling: So many solutions, so little unity

I recently attended the 2015 International Fiber Recycling Symposium in San Francisco. That title may sound rather specific, and, truthfully, it is. But not specific as in this is a small scale issue - no, the issue of fiber recycling is MASSIVE.
Through out the week, we heard repeated over and over the shockingly large numbers that have to do with waste in the textile recycling space: "over 400 gallons of water to make a new t-shirt"..."the average America throws away 70 pounds of clothing per year"..."producing 14.3 MILLION TONS of textile waste per year"...
The list went on and on.
Besides the numbers, another thing that struck me was how many amazing, intelligent scientists and thought leaders attended this conference - and how specific each person's area of research was. And how little people seemed to know about what everyone else was doing.
Amazingly intelligent people doing incredibly important things - and as each person got up to give their presentation, the crowd would gasp with amazement at what they were achieving all in the same field.
And that's what conferences like this one are for. The amazement and revelations prove this conference did a good job at connecting people working on similar things and sharing breakthroughs in the field. But I couldn't help but wonder how we couldn't connect these researchers, these scientists, these thought leaders on a daily basis. We live in the most interconnected age in the history of the human race - I can see cat pictures from a blogger in Japan in milliseconds with the correct hashtag search on Instagram, and these people were not aware of each others' research projects?

I am excited. I am excited for the possibility of what will happen now that these people have met. While I hope conferences like these will lead to further collaboration and demand for connection, just the existence of this conference - and what everyone there is trying to achieve - gives me so much hope for real, innovative solutions that are coming in the field of fiber recycling and these difference these solutions will make in the world.


Want to learn more? Check out more here.

Circular Economy linked to constraints of resources

The circular economy is built around the idea of economic flow through services rather than ownership, as materials change forms and move continuously through the economy.
This idea seems to be gaining support in today's economy as a viable business model.  But the idea is not new...
If you think about it: nature is the predominant circular economy- where plants, animals, elements change forms and have different purposes contributing to a healthy bio-system. Another example is one in developing economies where materials are scare and therefore used and used and used again to gain the most value out of something.

The idea of creating first world country circular economies is unique because there is a sense that resources are plentiful and therefore accessing new materials is easier and more efficient than reusing existing materials. So without the constraints of the need to reuse materials, the drive for the circular economy feels more academic or idealistic - instead of necessary. But it is necessary.

Luckily there are many who see the writing on the wall that we are living in a resource-constrained planet and are starting to plan companies, products and systems to respond to this.  And while first world nations may not "feel" the constraints on resources just yet, at some point we will and we will have to reexamine how we use our resources.

So when we design our next economy and prioritize access over ownership - we will see some pretty big shake ups to the business models of today which depend on assumptions that this world is resource-abundant and growth is the most important and often only goal. In order for there to be a sustainable future, we need to decouple growth with material use and the circular economy will be a great asset to do that.

Just when you think all your work is for not...

I have spent the better part of this week in Ho Chi Min City Vietnam visiting apparel factories. And part of that visit has been to look at what traceability and certification of certain materials looks like.  Ever wonder, when a brand says that their apparel is ORGANIC or RECYCLED, how they know it is true?  Is it even true? Luckily, there are really great standards and certifications for these things.
The strange thing is very few brands actually require and use these certifications to ensure that is exactly what the end customer is getting.

So for instance a brand can source ORGANIC and the product gets made and could even be labeled that way.  But few brands take the next step and require proof of that claim. A company that I work with requires traceability for all products with claims. There is an internal system for verifying that what is claimed has proof behind that claim.
The next step is to have that certification go all the way through to the brand and they can then label the products.

This brings me back to my visit this week.  While walking around a factory that makes apparel for many brands in the industry, we reviewed their new garment factory processes to get certified by a certifier next week. At one point I asked who will benefit from this certification and my contact said, "Oh, just your brand."  I was shocked, we are easily the smallest client of this factory.  How could any of our requirements really get heard.
He answered, "It is the right thing to do and we know that more companies are going to start asking and because this is a requirement of working with your brand, it allows us to test the process."

This moment was a win for me, I have been a [sometimes annoyingly] strong advocate for traceability and certifications for environmentally preferred materials. But it has been an uphill battle to get entire supply chains on board. Now I have my case study that I can refer to, even a little company when persistent enough, can make a change.

Step by step the work gets done. 

Upcoming Events 2015

 

As we continue to speed through 2015, we at Sustainability in Review are going to be attending some great conferences. The presence of so many of these conferences with sustainability, social responsibility, and circular economy themes means things are going well in our world! And while we cannot attend them all, we are excited at the ones we can.




Check out:

5th International Fiber Recycling Symposium in San Francisco, CA  June 8-10, 2015

Textile Exchange's Workshop on Recycled Materials in San Francisco, CA | June 10, 2015

Outdoor Retailer - Summer Market 2015 in Salt Lake City, UT | August 5-8, 2015

Textile Exchange presents “Textiles - A Circular Life” A Global Textile Sustainability Conference in Mumbai, India | October 5-10, 2015

Got some conferences you are attending that you would like to share about? Let us know so we can spread the word. If you'd like to meet with us at any of these events, please us the contact us form on our website to request a meeting!

Small Town, Big Ideas, and the Power of Sharing

I attended a locally sponsored, sustainability themed business plan a couple weeks ago in my relatively new hometown of Hood River, OR. It was incredible how diverse the ideas were, how each contestant incorporated the idea of "sustainability" differently into their business model. And it also reminded me how ideas are a resource that is hard to waste, but it is still possible.

There is a magical thing about creativity and ideas - for me it is represented most accurately in Chef Gusteau's motto in Ratatouille, "Anyone can cook" and his true meaning of, "not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist can come from anywhere."
Ideas are the same. People are amazing. All over the world, in big cities, in little towns, in hot climates, in cold weather, people are coming up with innovative ideas that can change the world. Whether you define that world as the giant globe we live on or your own tight knit community.

And these ideas, in this new interconnected, somewhat democratized world of social media and the Internet and so on, can be shared. And can grow. It is amazing what you can do with an idea.

And these ideas come so easily into your head. Some are tossed aside. Some wake you up in the middle of the night, and convinced you'll never forget such an epiphany, you decide to not write it down only to wake up sadly unable to remember. But the power of ideas is in sharing. As I saw at the business plan competition.

Sharing ideas is not additive. It is not even multiplicative. Sharing your good idea with the right people is like adding an exponent! And who are the right people? You don't know! Everyone who knows someone who knows someone who knows something about exactly what you are trying to do. The power of great ideas comes in new perspectives and pressure tests and disagreements. And that is a very exciting thing, to live at a time when our ideas have greater access to all these things than ever before.

And while each contestant stood up on stage, and her or his plea in one way or another for the prize money, I realized as each person stepped off stage and were bombarded by people with feedback and networking connections, the power of that night did not exist in the winnings, it existed in everyone being there. Listening. Sharing.

John Oliver has a thing or two to say to the Fashion Industry

If you are in the apparel industry or involved in labor rights, I am sure you spent the 17 minutes to watch John Oliver share his insights into the Fashion Industry on Last Week Tonight in the most recent episode.

If you have not seen the video - check it out here:
JOHN OLIVER - Sheds a little light on the fashion industry

As a person who has worked inside the industry for years, it is great to see some obvious thoughts be called out in mainstream media. First is the fact that intuitively we are SHOCKED at the price of some clothes - there is no way they could be that cheap. Well, that is because there are reasons that they are that cheap.

Some of modern lower pricing is achieved legitimately without harming the people making the clothes or the environment directly; scale does play a large part into reducing prices. (Still, scale has its own set of problems, which I won't go into in this post.)

But the other question is: what corners were cut to make clothing this cheap? Working conditions, safe working environments, workers rights, and environmental harm.

It doesn't mean that just because an article of clothing is expensive that it is made in the perfect factory under the best conditions. So the point is to ask yourself, "what do I know about this brand and are they committing to high standards from their suppliers and holding themselves and those suppliers to those high standards?"

If all of us asked the question and demanded that  respect for human rights was part of our buying criteria, it would change the world. Businesses are lead by their customers. Enough market signals and you get brands to wake up and see what customers are demanding.

So if you are interested in demanding human rights for the people who make your clothes - ask the question to the last company you bought a piece of apparel from. Ask them to tell you in detail what standards they are committing to, and how they are verifying those standards, and even ask them how they are ensuring that the way they practice business does not infringe on those rights.

The company may not have the perfect answer, but you asked the question. And just like our intuitive reaction of shock at how incredibly cheap clothing can be and how it could possibly be made for so little money - you will intuitively know if a brand is committed or not.

REPOST: Care2's "The World of Fair Trade Apparel: A Q&A With PrAna’s Nicole Bassett"

REPOST! Read more at http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-world-of-fair-trade-apparel-a-qa-with-pranas-nicole-bassett.html.

The World of Fair Trade Apparel: A Q&A With PrAna’s Nicole Bassett

Clothes may make the man, but who makes the clothes?

This is the question every conscious consumer asks before they make a purchase. Were the farmers that produced the cotton for my t-shirt compensated fairly? Was it sewn in safe working conditions? Fair Trade Certification is still relatively new in the clothing world compared to the food industry, but the growth in availability and demand is steadily increasing. Companies like prAna, Oliberté, Patagonia, PACT and Indigenous Designs are a few of the companies who have set the scene for fair trade clothing.

We talked with Nicole Bassett, Director of Sustainability at prAna to find out more about their company’s strategies and successes in going from a garage-based business in 1992 to a powerful force of good in the industry.

prAna was the first major company to bring Fair Trade apparel to market in the USA. What was that process like?

It was a bumpy ride. There were a lot of questions we had to figure out to see if Fair Trade could even work in apparel. [We] had to make a product and we needed our customers to want it. Luckily all the pieces came together and we now have a wide Fair Trade product offering. Also major brands like West Elm and Patagonia are now doing Fair Trade.

The positive impact of Fair Trade goes beyond workers to the families and communities behind the products. Where have you seen the biggest impacts?

I have seen firsthand how it has changed workers’ lives—giving them access to communication tools with management and receiving funds to improve their personal lives. In addition, we support Fair Trade Organic cotton farmers, with the goal of ensuring that these farmers see organic farming as a sustainable livelihood and take care of their local environment and communities.

Your business has a three-part sustainability focus—from the materials in your products, to the materials and energy servicing your business, to people and their working conditions. Which area has been the greatest challenge? 

Interestingly they have different challenges, so it feels like we have to create three strategies. For our products and supply chain, the challenges in general come from our size and our ability to effect change.  While we have made a lot of progress to access more sustainable materials and better factories, it is slower than we would like as we don’t have a lot of buying power or leverage to change factories or suppliers.  So we chip away where we can.

The resources to service our business come from getting everyone on board to make different decisions every day—to use better materials and make better decisions. Essentially we are educating the whole company to work differently. This is time intensive on top of making sure the business is running well. So our challenge is getting the time of all employees and using their time well. We have made a lot of progress and have leveraged our early adopters, but we are also human and hard to change!

How important is transparency in your business operations?

This is probably one of the biggest drivers for us to be able to have an honest conversation with our customers and our factory partners.  There are so many issues and questions that come up, so we need to know our supply chain and how to respond to inquiries. Some of our supply chains are much more transparent than others, and we have a lot of work to do to get to where we feel comfortable with every garment, trim, fabric etc. But it is an important part of our sustainability program.

What is your advice for new businesses with a desire to operate sustainably?

Build it in from the get go.  It is actually harder to change your business [to become more sustainable] than if you have strong standards from the beginning.  For example, when a company is used to things costing a certain amount, the cost increase of adding in a more sustainable material, dye stuff, or factory is harder to back in.

My other advice is to go for your ideals out of the gate and leverage tools and resources already developed.  Some really smart people have been working on these issues for years, so ask brands that you admire questions, access information through Textile Exchange or the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and if you are in the Outdoor Industry through the OIA Sustainability Working Group. There is no need to reinvent the wheel!

We were recently featured on Care2's blog! Thank you Andrea Moore and Care2 for the great coverage of an important issue.

Please check out the original post and Care2's website at http://www.care2.com/greenliving/the-world-of-fair-trade-apparel-a-qa-with-pranas-nicole-bassett.html