As water scarcity reaches alarming rates globally, conservation is becoming as important as alternative energy and oil initiatives. Contrary to common perceptions, the water crisis isn’t affecting developing nations alone: Stateside, California and Texas are both experiencing severe droughts. With California supplying more than half of our nation’s fruits, vegetables, and nuts, we could be facing serious food shortages as a result.

cause and effect

The latest United Nations World Water Report found agriculture accounts for an astounding 70 percent of water consumption in the world. More shocking yet, only about 37 percent of water used for agriculture is actually consumed—the remainder is lost in evapotranspiration (the combined total of evaporation and transpiration). Unfortunately, agricultural water consumption shows no signs of slowing: rapid population increases directly result in higher demands for food and agricultural products, like cotton, which means more water usage to meet growing needs.

In recent years climate change has entered the equation, playing a paradoxical role in agricultural water consumption. Agricultural production contributes heavily to global warming through methane and nitrous oxide emissions. It is also unusually sensitive to the effects of climate change. In effect, as agriculture increases so do emissions, which results in less rainwater and therefore fewer crops, rendering the process more and more ineffective as time progresses.

While it’s true that water is a renewable resource, there are limits to its replenishing capabilities. As population and demand increase, and water supplies plateau, each person is afforded less water for living—a devastating prospect considering one billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water today.

what we can do

Industry needs to design smarter technologies: The U.N. reports that industrial use creates more pressure on water resources through wastewater and pollution than from water used in actual production. In the Eastern European industrial market, demand for water has already fallen as their production technology evolves. As an individual, you can help ease the pressure by conserving water in your daily life, supporting green companies, and avoiding agricultural products that perpetuate wasteful practices.

What measures are you taking now, if any, to conserve?

Map Credit: deCarbonnel, Eric. “Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production.” Market Skeptics. Feb 9, 2009. http://www.marketskeptics.com/2009/02/2009-global-food-catastrophe.html

With so many companies touting green products, it’s hard to differentiate between true green initiatives and (truly) good marketing campaigns. To help you wade through some of the hype, we’ve put together a quick guide to green fabrics.

organic cotton

Twenty-five percent of the world’s insecticides are used on conventional cotton. While organic cotton offers an appealing alternative because it’s pesticide free, it’s not without caveats. First, cotton of any kind requires a tremendous amount of water to grow—about 715 gallons per shirt. Second, since the United States is only responsible for about 2 percent of worldwide cotton production, organic cotton is typically grown abroad and shipped overseas, resulting in a pretty hefty carbon footprint. Your best bet is to buy from U.S.-grown sources. Check out Brand of the Free for graphic tees made from cotton in Texas.

bamboo

Bamboo, as a plant, is unbelievably sustainable to grow—it’s the process from farm to fabric that’s laden with chemical treatments. The result? A very small percentage of bamboo fabric can be certified sustainable. There’s a small segment of bamboo fabric production that doesn’t use chemicals, but the process is labor and resource intensive and, therefore, much more costly.

hemp

Hemp is naturally a very sustainable crop that requires little water and typically no chemicals to produce, and yields a much larger harvest than cotton. Since hemp produces a coarser fabric, it’s great for tougher materials like jeans and outerwear. However, because of U.S. restrictions on hemp growth, much like organic cotton, hemp is largely grown overseas.

recycled PET fabric

On the synthetic side, recycled PET fabric, made from post-consumer plastics, is a seriously sustainable contender. In its original form, PET is used to make plastic bottles and polyester. Recycled PET can be made into fiber for nearly anything from carpet to clothing. The fabric feels similar to polyester and works especially well with outdoor wear. Check out Nau for a modern, super sleek line of recycled polyester clothing.

The bottom line? Buy local when possible, buy hemp or organic cotton when it’s not, and think of recycled synthetics as a major part of the solution.

The Milan Furniture Fair opened Wednesday, appropriately (and not ironically, we hope) on Earth Day. With a recession in full swing, good design is more relevant than ever and we’re pleased to see that spirit reflected in the work coming out of Milan this year: the vibe is pared down with a spotlight on sustainability. Of course, there’s a predictably healthy dose of frivolity too, but an increasing number of designers are recalibrating to consider the environment. A couple of our favorite earth-friendly products from the show are the Paper-Wood Stool by Drill Design (top right) and Nicolas Cheng’s recycled eggshell stationery (bottom right).

For more green products from Milan, check out this slideshow from Treehugger.

Earlier this year twitterers in more than 200 cities held face-to-face, offline festivals to raise money for charity: water, a non-profit dedicated to providing clean water to underdeveloped nations. The fundraiser generated $250K, which the charity used last week to drill wells in Ethiopia. Watch daily video updates of the project.

On a related (though admittedly frivolous) note, our friends and favorite rouge tinkerers over at MAKE devised a way to use Twitter to have your plants remind you when they need water. The plants even send a sweet note of thanks once you’ve soaked them. Although more of a novelty than a revolution, these high-tech tweets can help avoid wasted water—and dead plants.

Welcome to the AirDye—Good for Water blog. AirDye is an innovative new technology that seeks to change the way the world dyes textiles. As an industry, textile manufacturing and dyeing is one of the most wasteful and environmentally damaging. At AirDye, we’ve created a technology to eliminate the need for water in the dyeing process: a step that currently drains the earth of 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year, an astonishingly high amount of which ends up polluting local water sources. In a commitment to change these harmful practices, and with the belief that through innovation and technology our industry can do better, we’re launching this blog on Earth Day.

greening the textile industry

First, we want to tell you a bit about what we’re doing to pioneer new, greener practices for the textile industry. As the name suggests, AirDye uses air to dye fabric, bypassing the liquid state of dye altogether. Here’s a basic breakdown of the technology: Instead of mixing dye with water and placing it on the surface of a fabric, our process transforms dye from a solid to a gas, eliminating the liquid state and therefore the need for water. When synthetic fabric is exposed to a certain temperature, the molecules in the fiber begin to expand. In this porous state, gaseous dye enters the space in between fibers and when fabric cools the dye is trapped in the fiber permanently.

Aside from the potentially trillions of gallons of water this process spares, the benefit to you, the consumer, is something we call “no rules wash.” Since the dye is actually a part of the fabric itself, rather than a layer that rests on top of it, color doesn’t fade and garments can last far beyond 100 washes. (Even pouring bleach on a shirt won’t damage the color.) An AirDye garment has a far longer life, which dramatically reduces disposability and promotes sustainability—after all, the most sustainable product is one you don’t have to replace.

pioneering social change

The implications of AirDye reach far beyond technology. Nearly a billion people go without access to clean, safe drinking water. With 4,700 people dying each day from a lack of potable water, we simply cannot, in good conscience, continue to waste trillions of gallons of water dyeing fabric. Beyond preserving precious resources, dyeing textiles without water expands opportunity for entirely new industries in developing nations that don’t have the water for traditional textile production.

join the conversation

In the days and weeks to come, we’ll be blogging about a wide range of topics, from water scarcity to eco-fashion. At AirDye, we believe vigorous debate and open exchange of ideas always leads to smarter practices. We hope you’ll join the conversation. Happy Earth Day.