Barbie B-Cause wins greenwashing prize!

I am thrilled to see that Mattel's "eco-friendly" Barbie, which I noted back in April, has won first place in the Green Web Awards' "Worst Greenwash" category.

steps on the personal path to ethical consumption: fresh veggies, local beer and hand-knit socks

There was a collision in the blogosphere this morning. I'd been playing with the idea of listing the changes I'd made just in the last year, and No Impact Man posted 40 steps on the personal path to green, a list of easy first steps for individuals who want to make a difference. (He's a nice guy, but apparently numbers aren't his main thing -- the post says 50 steps and he repeats one, making a Hitchcockian 39 steps.) I've been doing some things on the list for years (or even decades):

• Buy fewer things. Don´t buy on impulse. Ask yourself if the thing you're buying is something that you really need.
• Eat less meat
• Getting your fingers dirty by growing your own food--even if it is just some basil on your windowsill--is
  the quickest way change your thought patterns about other green issues.
• Stopped using my dryer and use a clothes line or drying rack--and enjoy saving the cash.
• Drive less
• Fly less
• Walk more, and walk *to* places.
• THINK about how running the tap wastes water. THINK about how lights on in rooms not
  occupied wastes energy.
• Avoid bottled water
• Swear off plastic bags.
• Don't waste (thanks, Mom)
• Make a detailed budget and track
  spending habits
• Switch to CFL lightbulbs, turn down your thermostat, and put a blanket on your water heater.
• Stop your junk mail

I omitted the steps that were actually mind sets ("Recognize that happiness in
life is related to relationships with other people, not shopping") or, irrelevant to me ("Pray").

Now I'll add the specific things I've added to my life since last summer:

• supported my daughter and son-in-law in planning a green wedding and reception
• joined Freecycle (we used it to donate the IKEA flatware purchased for the reception)
• participated in Wardrobe Refashion for two months
• switched our electric power source to wind
• joined a CSA group for local produce
• purchased about 80% of my produce at farmers markets
• became more informed about ethical fashion options
• informed other about ethical fashion options through this blog, online communities and a TV and radio interview
• contacted dozens of manufacturers and retailers to ask about their green products and claims
• finally made composting a habit
• supported my local brewpub instead of buying bottled beer (most of the time)

Probably the best thing about all of this activity is that it has absolutely changed my life for the better. I have never felt deprived, or impoverished; on the contrary, my life is richer and more satisfying. It's probably the fresh veggies, local beer and hand-knit socks.

My Ethical Roots, concluded

Ok, so this 3-part saga has been too long in the telling. I started with my frugal childhood and then moved on to my years as an impoverished student and (very) small scale environmentalist. For our first ten years of marriage one or the other of us was in graduate school. To be quite honest, it was probably inevitable that a former costume designer and a carpenter who both loved to cook would end up wearing handmade clothing, eating homemade food and surrounded by hand-crafted furniture. What that really means is that both of us got a great deal of satisfaction from making things. Then we had two years of life with two incomes and no kids before embarking on parenthood in 1982. Goodbye, disposable income; hello frugality.

Even as it became easier to afford things (and harder to resist child-generated consumption), I've fought a continuing battle for a simpler, more attentive brand of consumption. I've resonated with the voluntary simplicity, local food and DIY movements because they are consistent with my lifelong values.

Deciding to go public as a blogger was a big step for me, because until the summer of 2007, I had pretty much kept my personal journey separate from my academic pursuits. But something shifted for me one day and I realized that I needed to put my scholarly nature to work to support my everyday living, and to share that story with other people who might be trying to move in the same direction. Ultimately, it's not about consumption; it's about living. In the words of Alfred North Whitehead:

"-The secret to happiness lies in knowing this: that we live by the law of expenditure. We find the greatest joy not in getting, but in expressing what we are. There are tides in the ocean of life, and what comes in depends on what goes out. The currents flow inward only where there is an outlet. Nature does not give to those who will not spend: her gifts are merely loaned to those who will not use them. Empty your lungs and breathe, run, climb, work, and laugh: the more you give out, the more you shall receive. Be exhausted and you shall be fed. People do not really live for honors or for pay; their gladness is in not taking and holding, but in doing, the striving, the building, the living. It is a higher joy to teach than to be taught–it is good to get justice, but better to do it–fun to have things, but more fun to make them. The happy person is the one who lives the life of love not for the honors it may bring, but for the life itself."

Looking for eco-friendly textiles? These tips make it easier.

I've been kvetching quite a bit lately about the lack of information -- and abundance of misinformation -- about eco-fashion's latest darling, bamboo. The short version is that most bamboo on the market is rayon made from bamboo, and that it may or may not have any number of miraculous qualities. My personal take on the general topic of eco-fibers, as a consumer who knows the difference between rayon, silk and cotton, is that I prefer to do business with designers and manufacturers who treat me like a grown-up. My list of tips is still a work in progress, but here's the latest snapshot.

1) What do they call it? Finding "rayon from bamboo" or "bamboo lyocell" on the label makes me feel a whole lot more confident that the manufacturer understands the materials being used and federal labeling regulations. Ditto "azlon from soy" or "corn azlon". There is a reason why the Textile Fiber Products Identification Act exists -- to protect consumers. When someone buys bamboo or soy clothing or yarn, thinking they are "natural", they are misinformed. When their mistaken belief is based on a label or online catalog blurb, that's misinformation. Until the FTC starts enforcing its own regulations, the buyer needs to beware and be wary.

2) Are they honest about the pros and cons and uncertainties? As anyone who's pursued sustainable living knows, it's all about compromises and tough choices. Every day I read a dozen or so fashion bloggers gushing about a new company producing eco-chic clothing. When I look at the website, it's all hype. I appreciate the honesty of companies that are more transparent about the complexities of sourcing and who make an honest attempt to educate consumers.

3) Are they trendiness wolves in sustainable lambs' clothing? What's the difference between some breathless flak telling me that skinny jeans are this year's must-have and her "green is the new black" cousin in ecstasies over some trendy item made from recycled Post-it notes that is designed to be out-of-style in a season? Sheesh. If you want to convince me of your green bonafides, try for well-made, classic, versatile styles, not sartorial one-night stands.

Here are a few of my nominations for companies trying to get it right. Feel free to post your own favorites, as well.

Nike (yes, Nike). Not only are they using their corporate clout to build the organic cotton market, but check the fiber content for their soy jersey line of yoga clothing: "57% soy azlon/38% cotton (5% organic)/5% spandex"

Fashion and Earth. At the other end of the corporate spectrum is this small Canadian newcomer. I sent them one of my NWL "didn't you mean bamboo rayon?" comments and president Adrian Desbarats answered,

"I think this is an excellent point that you bring up AND, you are correct. I have been so busy working on company development that this little, yet important distinction, escaped my notice. However, given that there is some debate regarding bamboo, I agree that there must be clarity when providing bamboo textiles for the consumer – is it bamboo fiber or bamboo rayon? I will have this changed."

And he did. Wow. Integrity and customer responsiveness.

Bamboosa was on the scene when the only bamboo on most people's radar was the stuff invading their back yards. Readers know that I've had some heated email and comment exchanges with Morris Saintsing, their head of sales development and operations. While they don't use the R_ word in their labeling, their website is a model of up-front consumer information about their products and processes, even when that information is technical, such as their explanation of their choice of dyes.

Patagonia's website is more than a catalog, it's a textbook on the environmental impact of clothing. Spend some time on the Environmentalism section of the site (especially my favorite part, the Footprint Chronicles, which lets you see the impact of various products). Their explanation of their e-fibers selections is required reading for the serious green consumer.

Additions to the NWL green honor role are welcome!

scrap knitting teddies

My two month stint with Wardrobe Refashion is nearly done, and although it's been an enjoyable challenge, I'm not re-upping. Between The Book and The Blog, I have enough on my plate! All my recent sewing has been mending -- useful, but not glamorous or inspirational. So instead I've been devoting my creative energies to knitting. The big project is a vest from a few skeins of yarn I found in the sale basket at my local yarn shop, but the fun little ones have been these bears I made using odds and ends of yarn from other projects. they stand about 12" tall, and are fast and simple to make. The pattern is from Knitting for Peace by Betty Christiansen, one of my favorite books.

SolesUnited: Crocs reincarnation program

Love your Crocs but not sure how eco-friendly they are? Treehugger gave them green points for being lightweight and constructed nearly entirely from a single material. They just went up another notch, with SolesUnited, a program that collects well-worn Crocs, recycles them into new shoes and distributes the shoes to people in need all around the world.

Confessors of an Eco Sinner

Item added to my reading list:

Confessions of an Eco Sinner: Travels to Find Where My Stuff Comes From
by Fred Pearce

It should make a nice companion read to Pietra Rivoli's Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy, which I recommend to anyone interested in the supply-chain view of clothing.

building bridges on climate change

Colin Beavan, aka No Impact Man, has a very thoughtful and thought-provoking post today about building consensus on climate change
and getting past purism, us-them talk and the blame game. Do yourself a favor and read the post and the comments. So many of us are just trying to do the right thing, within the limited orbits of our own daily lives. Defining the right thing for myself is not always easy; defining it for others is even harder.

Laundry day -- a little greener, a little better

At the heart of this blog is one person's desire to "do the right thing"; sometimes the first step is to figure out what the "right thing" is. Take laundry.

As newlyweds back in the 1970s, we usually rented apartments without any kind of laundry facilities, and we spent our Sunday afternoons in laundromats. During the two years we lived in Rhode Island, our place had a yard and a clothesline, something that I had not used since my family moved to the suburbs in the early 60s. It was marvelous, in nice weather, to skip the over-heated drying cycle at the laundromat, bring the clean, wet laundry home and hang it out to dry. Sea breezes and sunshine -- you can't bottle that smell!

But then came kids and home ownership and the convenience of a washer and dryer in the basement; beyond looking at EnergyStar washers and using cold water, we didn't think too much about the link between our weekly laundry habits and the environment. Then the dryer died in January and we couldn't afford to fix it. Since then, we've been drying our clothes on racks, either in the basement or on the deck, until finally getting a new unit on sale last month. It's given me some time to think about the environmental impact of laundry and to start to do some research on the subject.

Well-Dressed? The present and future sustainability of clothing and textiles in the UK, a University of Cambridge report, asked the question "What is required to make a substantial change?" in carbon emissions associated with the clothing and textiles industry. The answer, it would appear, is that consumers have a vital part to play.

The sector’s contribution to climate change is dominated by the requirement for burning fossil fuel to create electricity for heating water and air in laundering some completed products – mainly clothing and carpets.

I already knew that most of the carbon footprint of a cotton T-shirt was in its care, not its production. But I hadn't extrapolated to the more general impact of our laundering habits. The entire 84-page report is a available as a free PDF, and, although focused on the UK, offers food for thought for consumers around the world.

More to come as I digest the report!

Organic Clothing bamboo article, green fatigue and a nifty green wardrobe calculator

I am about to officially begin my sabbatical from my university, and will be spending most of my writing time on the book I am supposed to have completed by December 2009. My plan is to aim for a substantive blog post here once a week, with pointers to items of interest on other days.

Today's morsel comes from Organic Clothing, one of my favorite sustainable clothing blogs. They address some of the most prevalent conflicting claims about bamboo fiber and bamboo rayon, leaving the hapless consumer wondering whose advertising to believe.

I have also been following discussions about bamboo yarns for knitting and crocheting on Ravelry (sorry, you need to be a member to read the discussions, but if you are a crafter,go ahead and sign up to be on the waiting list; you'll love it!) and it appears that savvy crafters are catching on to the bamboo labeling dance. Believe me, when they find out it's rayon, they are not pleased. (Though it does explain why their lovely, soft 100% bamboo handknit socks won't hold their shape.) I am worried that the current eco-fashion hype and hoopla (not at all confined to bamboo, by the way) will result in green fatigue or worse: backlash.

Few fibers on the market are 100% eco-friendly, and we all must make choices -- well-informed choices. To help you make better choices, try out the green wardrobe calculator at Ecotextile News. You may be surprised to find that the answer is not so much what you buy, but how you launder it, how long you wear it, and where it goes when you're done with it.

Sustainable Fashion -- An Array of Standards

In any emerging market, there is bound to be some misinformation and confusion. Consider, for example, the decades-long negotiation required before we finally had reliable standards for the term "organic". Before that, producers could make all kinds of claims and consumers needed to arm themselves with information -- and questions -- every time they went to the grocery store. The sustainable fashion market has exploded internationally in the last two years, and with the amount of information and misinformation available to consumers.

In this confusing scene, standards and certifications -- voluntary as well as mandatory -- can be an important consumer tool for sorting out the claims and making informed decisions. What follows is a summary of a few of the most common standards which you may find in advertising and labeling.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations - These are the granddaddies of textile rules, and they should carry the force of law. These statutes define what must appear on a permanently-attached label, in terms of fiber content, country of origin and garment care. I say "should" because, as I have pointed out repeatedly, the FTC has not been enforcing these statutes in the labeling of rayon made from bamboo.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) standards and accreditation - The National Organic Program (NOP) is responsible for the development and administration of the standards for organic agricultural products, including textiles. It is a national program, so does not apply to imported products.

Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) is an important worldwide standard. The international working group developing these standards has a very ambitious agenda which may make it the gold standard of certification for ethical fashion producers and consumers:

The aim of the standard is to define requirements to ensure organic status of textiles, from harvesting of the raw materials, through environmentally and socially responsible manufacturing up to labelling in order to provide a credible assurance to the end consumer.

GOTS looks beyond the fiber harvested in the field and looks at the entire process through a lens of environmental and social responsibility. Serious stuff!

Bluesign is an independent industry standard that particularly focuses on ways to minimize or exclude potential hazardous materials -- hazardous to the environment, worker or consumer. Bluesign certification can be applied to man-made and synthetic fibers and dyes, which the agricultural product standards can not.

Oeko-tex is a textile standard that also focuses on harmful chemicals in the production and finishing of textiles. It is an important standard for consumers to understand, because there are actually different levels of certification. Oeko-tex 100 certifies that the finished material contains nothing that will harm the consumer; Oeko-tex 1000 is more like GOTS and bluesign® in that it concerns the entire production chain. (In other words, bamboo rayon with an Oeko-tex 100 certification is not necessary "environmental friendly" to the worker and the land around the factory.)

I will probably continue with this anon; it's a big topic. Reader questions and feedback are always welcome, but especially now!

Feelgood Style: Kindred Spirit

Imagine my pleasure in finding a kindred spirit! Delia Montgomery, founder of Chic Eco, writes on sustainable fashion at Feelgood Style, part of the Green Options blog network. (My, that's a lot of links...). Her recent post "Bamboo Fiber: Greenwash or Treasure?" reinforces the message I've been trying to get across here. Here's a choice morsel:

Conscious fabric retailers need to look for certification from an independent and reliable certification company. Currently, Oeko-Tex is the most comprehensive label for insuring that the garment is healthy for consumers. Other certification bodies are Soil Association, SKAL, or KRAV. Bamboo fabric buyers are wise to ask specific questions about textile development in addition to a label demand.

Tomorrow I'll be winding up my FTC coverage with a post about certification and standards. Stayed tuned!

Burdastyle: for the emerging homesewer

I meet many folks -- especially young women and teens -- who are eager to learn to make or alter clothing. Like so many Baby Boom women, I first learned to sew from my mother and a rather terrifying middle-school home ec. teacher. Then I taught myself for a few years before heading off to college and majoring in apparel design, where I picked up all kinds of new skills and information and unlearned a few bad habits. But where's the Stitch 'n Bitch for sewers? I've found one prime candidate online: Burdastyle. This site offers free downloadable patterns, photo and video how-to's, a "sewpedia" of terms and (best of all) a series of inspirational challenges and minichallenges.

What about the bamboo ads?

I am having a really existential Nice White Lady moment. What do I do about the bamboo ads that pop up in rotation on my own site? (This is my modest attempt to "monetize" my expertise -- so far it's earned me $11.49 in the last six months, and I won't get paid until it hits $100, sometime in 2013.) Here's what I suggest: send the advertisers a comment along the lines of, "Please label your products according to the FTC regulations: RAYON, MADE FROM BAMBOO." I've been doing this on my own when I get a news alert about a new product, or see another article about the wonders of bamboo textiles. But a few more voices won't hurt.


Additional note after sleeping on the issue: I think I'd also be happy with "Bamboo Rayon". I do think bamboo (the raw material) is a very promising solution to global environmental problems. I'd be even happier to see certification of sustainable processing (there are a few new viscose processes out there) or organic cultivation (ex.- GOTS certification). Many savvy consumers I've talked to are not displeased to find out that "bamboo" is rayon -- they like rayon! -- but they are unhappy with the perceived attempt to mislead them by not using the r___ word.

Bamboo-zled, part 2

On July 15, I attended the 2008 FTC Workshop: Green Building and Textiles in Washington, D.C.; this is the fifth of a series of reports about the presentations and discussions. (To see all, select blog entries tagged "regulation".)

Yesterday, I wrote about the scientific evidence about rayon made from bamboo in the first workshop panel. The final nails for the bamboo coffin were delivered by panelists in the next session, (Tying Up Loose Ends -- Substantiated Green Textile Claims & the Need for FTC Guidance).

Todd Copeland of Patagonia listed the major e-fibers his company uses in its products:

organic cotton
hemp
chlorine-free wool (chlorine is used in the shrink-proofing process)
recycled polyester and nylon
lyocell (the generic name for Tencel®)

Why not bamboo?

"We don't use bamboo because when we went to the processing factories we found out that a regular rayon processing factory is using waste products from the pulp industry to make raw material anyway so substituting bamboo it doesn't give you an environmental story." (source: FTC Workshop transcript.)

Then Kathleen Huddy of The Goodhousekeeping Research Institute took aim at the claims frequently made by designers and retailers of "green" fashion, including those associated with bamboo:

"Proof of substantiation is needed for all claims from ultimate absorbent to antifungal to very vague ones as eco sensitive, good for the environment, and my favorite, beneficial to those with allergies and sensitive skin. If you've got that claim, you better have [large gesture] this much data behind it to tell me that you have really reverend [no idea what this word was -- NWL] it and you can prove it." (source: FTC Workshop transcript.)

Pat Slaven of Consumer Reports batted clean-up and summed up the morning:

"A number of my colleagues have talked at length about rayon manufacturing. It's hardly benign. It includes pulp. Sodium hydroxide, sulfuric acid, disulfide, lots of water, lots of power. I could go on at length. It's really the topic of a textile 101 lecture, it may be a full course. But we'll spare you this. So the question is is this green washing. A number of the previous panelists have pulled the FTC definition of rayon. Nowhere in it do we define what types of cellulose go into the manufacture of rayon. It's not like [lyocell] that is a clearly defined different process that does have some advantages. Rayon can be made from pretty much any sort of cellulose. We've had a number of discussions on cotton [linters], wood pulp. I went to U.C. Davis, one of my colleagues was working on extracting it from rice and turning it to rayon...So in conclusion, the consumer is being led to believe that she's purchasing a green superior product. But the consumer is indeed purchasing is a cotton-rayon blend path towel. She's paying premium price for the honor. And the privilege. And what does she get? She's getting an ordinary bath towel that at best say bit softer than 100% cotton. We would like to see better labeling. Well, rayon, while stating that something's made from bamboo rather than rayon is misleading, this isn't necessarily a hazard to life and limb [as, say] an automotive rollover standard is but it affects the consumer's pocketbook. As long as consumers are spending more money for something with these claims, we should be seeing better labeling and we should be seeing better superior products." (source: FTC Workshop transcript.)

So there it is, friends. if you like rayon, go ahead and buy RAYON MADE FROM BAMBOO. But don't pay extra for it and don't be greenwashed into thinking that all bamboo is good for the environment.