Reader
Questions and Responses
Link to Grist Site Version
Q
What dyes do you use? What is
the process the clothing goes through to
become 100 percent sustainable? Does your
company pollute at all through any of the
processing? -- Brent Giacchetti,
Minneapolis, Minn.
A
Excellent question. To answer
your last question directly: yes, we
pollute. We use energy created by a
coal-fired power plant; we transport our
products all over the United States; we use
natural-gas burners in our dryers. We are
also constantly looking for ways to lower
this footprint.
The first
thing to remember when considering the
sustainability of any consumer product is
that if the company states that it is 100
percent sustainable, they're either lying or
they misunderstand the term "sustainable."
No business is 100 percent sustainable
unless it uses no fossil fuels to transport
its products, no fossil-fueled electricity
in its production process, only recycled
parts, and products made entirely by hand by
people who are fed on only 100 percent
sustainable food (you can see where I'm
going with this). Every business creates
waste, and every business pollutes on some
level. The important concept we encourage is
the idea of continuous improvement. No
business is perfect; the knowledge and will
to look for ways to constantly improve your
impact on the environment and society is the
closest to perfect a business can ever be.
We have
experimented with natural dyes in the past,
but found that they did not stand up to our
quality standards in terms of durability and
color fastness. We use low-impact,
bi-functional reactive dyes in all our
garment-dyeing. These are not natural dyes,
but they are the best garment dyes that
technology has to offer that can meet our
quality standards while maintaining the
smallest environmental footprint. They meet
the
Global Organic Textile Standard and the
Okitex European standard for environmental
impact, which addresses the largest
environmental concern of most garment dyes:
heavy metals.
Q
If you have concern for the
environmental impact of the screen-printing
industry, why not market your
REHANCE process to other contractors as
an alternative to industrial inks? --
Joel Tippens, Daytona Beach, Fla.
A
First of all, let me say that
we are committed to having as transparent an
operation as possible, and I appreciate that
you ask a hard question.
To answer your
question directly, there are two reasons.
First, included in our sustainable business
model are three ideals: people, planet, and
profits. The profits piece can be difficult
to address, as the environmental movement is
very "open source," if you will, and it is
encouraged to share information about
sustainable methods freely within the
community. On the other hand, as a business,
we cannot attempt to improve our efforts
toward people and the planet without
profits, without resources to exist. REHANCE
is one of our most important competitive
advantages, and to lose it would hurt our
business tremendously.
Second,
even though we need REHANCE, we have
actually attempted to license it to other
companies for use. The biggest reason this
doesn't work is expertise: it's simply so
different a technology that other screen
printers have a very hard time using it with
any consistent results. Unfortunately we do
not have a program put together or the
resources to train other businesses on its
use, so the licensing idea is on the back
burner at this time.
Q
I loved your remark about
how you reinvented yourself after NAFTA.
There is a lesson there for other
businesses trying to "go green." What is
your organization's "green corporate
mission" today? -- Chandra Kishore,
Centreville, Va.
A
Our current mission
statement is to "build a sustainable
company while simultaneously looking
after people, the planet, and profits."
Our
environmental mission today has turned
toward carbon-emission reduction in the
face of increased concern about global
warming. We are attempting to lower our
own carbon footprint by purchasing as
many of our supplies locally as
possible, buying more renewable energy,
and purchasing carbon-offset credits. We
are also set to install one of the
first, if not the first, off-the-grid
B100 biodiesel fuel pumps in our front
yard, sponsored by
Piedmont Biofuels.
Q
What sustainable
community activities is T.S. Designs
involved with? Have you received any
local recognition? -- J. Martin,
Burlington, N.C.
A
Our community activities
right now include on-site biofuel and
sustainability classes through the local
Alamance Community College and on-site
hosting of TEVA, the Triad Electric
Vehicle Association.
Unfortunately, environmental and social
sustainability are not at the top of the
priority list in our local community. We
have, however, won a few local awards
from our state department of energy, and
one from the governor's office in 2003.
Q
How is your process
different than discharge printing? How
are you making your stencils and
cleaning up your screens? Do you haze
your screens to get rid of old print
buildup? How do you reclaim your
screens? What about washing out your
screens after you have exposed them? Are
you filtering your water before it goes
down the drain? -- Mark Giglio,
Oakland, Calif.
A
Our process is
essentially the opposite of discharge
printing. Discharge printing takes an
already-dyed shirt and blasts the dye
out of it to create light-colored
designs on a dark dyed shirt. Our
process uses a specially formulated
water-based ink that is printed on the
shirt before it is
garment-dyed, which keeps the dye from
covering that printed area. The ink that
we use, which is essential to the
REHANCE process, is much more
environmentally friendly than the
chemicals that are used in discharge
printing (although there are some new
discharge chemicals coming out that are
reported to be much more environmentally
friendly).
We make our
stencils with a water-resistant emulsion
and clean them with nothing but water.
We do use a haze remover, which by its
nature is a moderately harsh chemical,
if we need to get rid of print buildup
in our screens. However, because of the
nature of water-based inks, we hardly
ever have to use it, as print buildup is
practically nonexistent.
We
reclaim our screens with a water
pressure wash and an emulsion remover.
The emulsion remover we use is Kiwo
Stencil Remover, which is approved by
our local water authority to be
completely safe to put down a drain
(meaning it can be eliminated through
biological decomposition in adapted
wastewater-treatment plants). After
exposing our screens, we wash them out
with tap water from a hose with a
regular spray nozzle on it.
Q
I've been reading really
good things about bamboo and hemp, yet
finding basic towels and sheets is hard.
What can a green-minded consumer do to
influence the market? -- Clifton
Odom, San Diego, Calif.
A
Our focus right now is on
organic cotton, as bamboo and hemp are
exclusively imported fibers and we try
to stay local when possible. I am a huge
proponent of hemp production in the
United States, and would love to be able
to use it to make T-shirts here. My
suggestion would be to contact your
congressperson and encourage the
legalization of hemp farming in the
United States. The internet is also a
great resource to find all sorts of
products that are otherwise difficult to
find, such as hemp or bamboo sheets.
Remember, you vote with your dollar, so
simply supporting these products by
purchasing them is a great first step to
influencing the market.
Q
How do you dispose of
your water-based inks and handle the
VOCs that they emit? -- C.W. Dunn,
Lebanon, N.H.
A
After printing an order,
the ink is scraped out of the screens
and held for future orders. If the inks
are not used before their shelf life
elapses, we wash the inks down the
drain, which is approved as completely
safe by our city water authority.
VOC,
for any readers who don't know, stands
for volatile organic compound.
Water-based inks have no VOCs, which are
a big problem in solvent-based inks. The
lack of VOCs in water-based inks is one
of their many environmental benefits.
Q
Are you doing business
with L.L. Bean or Wal-Mart? -- David
Douglas, Avon, Mass.
A
We have done business
with L.L. Bean in the past, but we are
not actively working for them now.
Although we commend Wal-Mart on their
recent venture into organics, we
could not do business with them at this
time as they're not yet interested in
local manufacturing.
