One of the questions we get most often is this: “what fabric is the best for my sofa”? We know they’re talking about durability, which I’ll address below, but it’s also important to think about “best” in terms of livability and health concerns. I mean, you can buy a fabric that has a 1,000,000 WZ …
A new study focused on global water issues, commissioned by an international network of scientists, found that people around the world view water issues as the planet’s top environmental problem – greater than air pollution, depletion of natural resources, loss of habitat or climate change. (click here to read more on this study). That shouldn’t …
I had a blog post about genetically modified organisims (GMOs) all ready to go, but then I got Sunday’s New York Times (September 13, 2009) with a front page story about rising incidences of violations of the Clean Water Act in the U.S.: more than half a million violations in the last five years alone. …
I thought we’d take a look at the dyeing process because so many people ask if we use “natural” dyes. The answer is no, we don’t (although we’re not entirely objecting to natural dyes), and I hope the next two blogs will explain our position! Let’s first take a look at what makes the dyes …
Although most of the current focus on lightening our carbon footprint revolves around transportation and heating issues, the modest little fabric all around you turns out to be from an industry with a gigantic carbon footprint. The textile industry, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is the 5th largest contributor to CO2 emissions …
Discussion of the energy used to produce cloth.
We’re starting a series of blogs on the carbon footprint of textiles. Because it’s such a complex subject we’re breaking it into smaller portions, beginning with looking at the textile industry as a whole. In other words, why the fuss over textiles? Fabrics, believe it or not, have a large carbon footprint. In …
Lots of people are concerned about the transportation costs of shipping fabric from China to the US, because they think the shipping contributes to an enormous carbon footprint of, say, cotton fabric. The thinking goes that the homegrown variety (which doesn’t have the transportation burden) is far preferable because you save so much by not …
This is one of the things we found out early on: Chemicals are used in the manufacturing process – they’re used a lot. The 2007 AATCC (American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists) Buyer’s Guide lists about 2,000 chemical specialties in over 100 categories offered for sale by about 97 companies, not including dyes. The …
OEcotextiles 