We talk a lot about sustainably sourced textiles, eco-friendly dye techniques, water and energy conservation, but probably not enough about the responsibility we have to ensure the textile and garment workers around the world are being treated with respect.

There was some buzz earlier this year when BBC produced Blood, Sweat & T-shirts. It’s been a while since we’ve heard of calls for Wal-Mart or Cathy Lee Gifford to close down sweatshops with unethical or dangerous practices. But that doesn’t mean that the world’s textile industry has cleaned up its act.

In fact, at this very moment garment workers in Bangladesh are on strike and staging large protests. In mid-July a massive general strike even closed down Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. We’re just not hearing much about it in the mainstream news sources.

The primary issue for the Bangladeshi textile workers is fair wages. According to the Financial Times, Bangladesh has the lowest paid workers in the world. The average worker in one of the many ready-to-wear textile factories earns only $25 a month, or 1,887 takas (the local currency). Just to survive, one needs at least 8,000 takas a month. The workers have not had a pay raise since 2004, while the cost of food has risen more than 30 percent during the same period.

After a month of protest, so far all the workers have been able to get is a commitment for a 3,000 takas a month. Still far below what’s needed to sustain a family.

Garment exports account for about 80 percent of Bangladesh’s exports and employ some 3.5 million workers. Yet, the government isn’t supporting ethical labor practices for the workers. In fact, the police have brutally cracked down on the strikers and protestors. Thousands have been arrested and others beaten.

Given the low wages and long hours prevalent throughout the garment industry, no doubt we’ll see more protests like these and some that were held in China earlier this year.

As consumers, we can’t forget that as we choose clothing, linen, and other textiles made from sustainable sources, that the people who made them for us deserve to be treated ethically as well. Of course, that may mean the end of the $5.00 t-shirt, but isn’t it worth it?

This month the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) published a report which clearly shows extreme water shortages are likely to occur by mid-century in the United States. The report finds that every state in the lower 48 is at risk for water scarcity and the Great Plains and Southwest are likely to face extremely high water shortages.

Researchers at Tetra Tech, a consulting firm used by the federal government and many major corporations, took a look at projected water demands along with renewable water supplies. They calculated what would happen to water supplies under 16 different leading climate models. What they found is that water supplies will dwindle and demand for fresh water will increase.

On the supply side, climate models forecast that many parts of the country will not only have less rainfall, but more of what does make it to the ground from snow or rain will be lost to evapotranspiration (water lost to evaporation and vegetation transpiration). As temperatures rise due to climate change, east Texas, the California Central Valley and the Southeastern states could see five fewer inches of available precipitation each year–what’s left after evapotranspiration. Leaving them even drier than they have been in recent years.

While we’re seeing less water enter the system, we’ll be taking more water withdrawals from aquifers, dams, rivers, and lakes. According to the study, water use in the U.S. is expected to increase by 12.3 percent between 2000 and 2050. The primary uses of fresh water are for agriculture, power plant cooling, and domestic use.

The regions expecting the worst water shortages are already using more water than they receive in rainfall each year. For example, California, the Southwest, and Texas already have water withdrawals over 100 percent of annual rainfall. This means those states use more water than they have.

Another point that needs to be made is that the hardest hit states are also where we grow much of the nation’s fruit, vegetables, and cotton. On the map below, you can see by the dark red colors the counties most at risk for extreme water shortages. The white dots show where the majority of the cotton is grown in the U.S.

While American cotton farmers are methods that put cotton’s water consumption in line with other crops, we may have to choose one day that it’s more important to have food than cotton (as there are other choices for textile fibers). But we won’t be able to rely on other countries to take up the slack and grow our cotton for us.

The top five cotton-producing nations are: China, U.S., India, Pakistan, and Brazil. Together these countries produce almost 84 percent of the global cotton crops. And, with the exception of Brazil, these same nations are also looking at severe water shortages in the short and long term.

Clearly much needs to be done to ensure we’re using water wisely. Conservation methods need to improve, legislation to slow down and reverse climate change is required, and we may have to decide if we want to grow cotton for t-shirts, or food for our tables.

What do you make of the new study and do you think we’ll have to face the day when cotton jeans, linens, and t-shirts are only for the wealthy? Post your thoughts below; we’re interested in what you have to say on this subject.

image credit: Google Earth / NRDC

A number of the staff here are into fitness. And as such, we’re always on the look out for new high performance, green fitness wear. Naturally, we want athletic shoes and apparel that has the latest technical textiles, plus we want them to be eco-friendly and stylish. Let’s see what some of the major athletic companies are doing for us eco-fitness shoppers.

sustainable materials

REI ecoSenstive Bike Jersey

Most of the major athletic apparel brands are taking steps towards sustainability. From using more organic cotton, to recycled plastic, to reducing toxins, the apparel industry is heading in the right direction, but it takes a bit of effort to find because the eco-friendly athletic wear is not yet widely available.

Fortunately, some athletic companies are making it easier for consumers to find the eco-friendly shoes and apparel.

REI created an ecoSenstive line. These shorts, tops, socks, and other items are made from sustainable sources. What we like is that for each of the types of source materials, REI describes both the benefits and the drawbacks. For example, for cotton, they explain that non-organic cotton, while only three percent of the world’s crops, uses 25 percent of the toxic chemical pesticides. While “organic cotton is renewable, biodegradable and non-toxic. The material is traceable through the supply chain.” Of course, organic cotton has its issues too. For example, supplies are limited, it’s more expensive to grow, it also uses a lot of land, which could be used to grow food instead.

Of the mainstream athletic brands, Patagonia might be the most progressive. They were well ahead of the competition when they using conventional cotton and began using only 100 percent organic cotton in 1996. Being green is not just a marketing message for them. Patagonia put it at the heart of their business. Their mission statement is “to build the best product and cause no unnecessary harm.”

Patagonia goes beyond eco-friendly production by thinking cradle-to-cradle for their products. When you buy items with a Common Threads tag, Patagonia wants them back when you’re done. They take worn out clothing and recycle them into new.

Nike has been getting quite a bit of play lately for their World Cup kits made from recycled plastic bottles. But they’re not the only ones using recycled polyester.  Most athletic apparel and shoes are not made from cotton, but man-made fibers which deliver the performance apparel that even the casual athlete wants.

One of the fastest growing performance apparel companies, Under Armour, is also getting on board with green fitness gear. Their UA Green collection is made with recycled plastic bottles. The line, while still limited, gives athletes all the benefits of advanced technical textiles (wicks away sweat, keeps you cool, offers UPF protection, and is light weight) with the advantage of being eco-friendly. According to their website, UA expects to convert over 1 million plastic bottles into athletic shirts and shorts.

To confirm the benefits of recycled plastic fabric, according to an Adidas’s life cycle assessment, they “discovered that depending on the method applied, savings of 40-85% on non-renewable energy use and global warming potential savings of 25-75% can be achieved” for recycled over virgin polyester. And to toot our own horn a bit, if these manufacturers would adopt AirDye technology, they would see even better sustainability results when it comes to creating a finished product.

consider green packaging too

The box your new shoes come in should also be a factor in the sustainability equation. While sometimes an empty shoebox can be handy, we use them to store paid bills at home, but overall, it’s basically something you’re going to discard right away. Fortunately, more and more athletic companies recognize this as well.

New Balance makes their boxes, shipping cartons, even the stuff to keep the toes molded from 100 percent recycled materials which can be recycled again. They also use non-toxic glue, ink, and varnish.

But PUMA has the best solution: Ditch the box altogether. They worked with FuseProject to create the “Clever Little Bag.” To us, this is one of those “why has’t anyone else thought of this” ideas. Eliminating the bag has no negative impact on the shoes and will save PUMA money, water, electricity, fuel, and tons of waste each year. According to their website, you’ll see the new packaging in 2011.

Clearly the move towards creating eco-friendly athletic gear is underway. After all, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to think that we only need to keep our bodies healthy–doesn’t the planet deserve the same treatment?
You can read more about each of these brand’s commitments to the environment at their websites:

• Adidas Sustainability
• Nike Responsibility
• New Balance Responsible Leadership
• Patagonia Enviromentalism
• PUMA Vision
• REI Stewardship

Is there another company whose line you think rocks in the green fitness category? We’d like to know who they are. Share comments below.

The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York opened the Eco-Fashion: Going Green exhibit today. The collection explores the sometimes friendly, sometimes catastrophic relationship between fashion and the environment.

This six month exhibit has more than 100 garments, accessories, and textiles from the 1800s through today. All of the items will demonstrate one of the exhibit’s six themes:

• the repurposing and recycling of materials
• material origins
• textile dyeing and production
• quality of craftsmanship
• labor practices
• the treatment of animals

Some of the pieces speak directly to the harm that’s been done by the textile industry. For example, two cotton dresses from the early 1800s “emphasize that cotton growing during this time drained soil of nutrients and depleted water supplies— environmental concerns magnified by the introduction of dangerous pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the 20th century.” And then there’s the green silk faille and chenille dress, circa 1865. The beautiful green color was achieved thanks to arsenic, a health risk to both the maker and wearer. Talk about dressed to kill!

On the other hand, as an example of eco-friendly textile dyeing, the exhibit features a dress from Costello Tagliapietra’s spring 2010 collection which makes use of our AirDye@ technology. The lush lava color is created using non-toxic dyes, no water, and all the printing materials are recycled.

If you don’t think you’ll make it to New York by November, Treehugger has a great slide show and we were there this morning and took some candid shots of our own.

The museum is located at Seventh Ave and 27 Street in New York. They are open Tuesday through Friday from noon until 8pm and on Saturdays from 10am to 5pm. Admission is free.

photo credit: The Museum at FIT

The Citarum River is one of Indonesia’s primary water sources. Over 28 million people rely on the river basin for their water needs. The problem is, it’s highly polluted from years of neglect:  sewage, solid waste, and the pollution from textile and other factories have been dumped in the river with little or no concern for the consequences.

In the large cities, there is some water treatment, but for millions who live in areas not served by any infrastructure, they do best they can. In some cases, their “filtration” system is a dirty sock pulled over the spigot. The people know the water is polluted and are careful to boil it before they will drink the water. While that removes the bacteria, it does little to nothing about the heavy metals (such as copper, arsenic, and and 72 other toxic chemicals found in textile dyeing runoff).

CNN has been investigating polluted water around the world, and ran this story on their website about the Citarum River.

Unfortunately, this is not the only river in the world suffering from textile and industrial pollution. You can find toxic levels of pollution along the Pearl River in China, the Tehuacán Valley in Mexico, and the rivers around Dhaka, Bangladesh to name a few.

While the Citarum River has been labeled the world’s most polluted for years now, the situation in Indonesia is not being ignored. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a major water resources management project in December of 2008. The project spans 15 years and 500 million dollars for water resources development projects such as establishing water delivery infrastructure, creating water planning institutions, and building sanitation facilities, to name a few.

To see more of the river, watch this photo essay created by the ADB.