ARTICLE: How Green Are Your Jeans?

[Ryan Goble]

Interesting article from the WSJ Classroom Edition on the environmental impact of jeans - cool for teaching about fashion, the environment and the economy.  

How Green Are Your Jeans?
Tracking the environmental impact of what we wear

October 2010 | Cover Story | Environment

By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
The Wall Street Journal

Are your Nikes greener than your Adidas?

There will soon be an answer to this question, if apparel companies have their way. 
A group of roughly 100 well-known apparel brands and retailers have developed a software tool to help them measure the environmental impact of their apparel and footwear, from raw material to garbage dump. Ultimately, the companies hope to display an Eco Index score on a tag or package, much like the government’s Energy Star rating on appliances.

DIRTY LAUNDRY

The coalition of companies participating in the index includes a broad swath of the apparel industry—names such as Levi Strauss, Nike and Target, Brooks Sports and Adidas, as well as outdoor-wear makers like Timberland, REI, Columbia Sportswear and Patagonia. The idea is to give manufacturers a common way to look at environment and human-rights impacts when designing their products.

And if it helps them sell a few pairs of jeans, well, that wouldn’t hurt either. Sustainability has proven to be a powerful motivator for consumers an effective way to lure shoppers to try new products.

Apparel doesn’t sound like a dirty industry, but making clothes has huge consequences on the environment. Tanning leather often involves toxic chemicals. Making synthetic fabrics such as polyester uses large amounts of crude oil and other materials that release volatile compounds. Cotton-growing is water-intensive—and cotton is often shipped from the U.S. and Europe to Asia to make thread and fabric, then shipped elsewhere for cutting and elsewhere again for sewing. Some of our clothes have circled the globe twice by the time they arrive in stores.

Read more here.