Green Cotton

Autonomie Project is a relatively new Fair trade, eco-friendly, and vegan fashion company based out of Boston, Massachussetts (USA).

The company began in 2007 when group of friends came together in their frustration with the fashion and footwear industries due to their lack of transparency, use of sweatshops and harmful chemicals.

Autonomie’s mission is to supply high-quality, stylish garments to ethically conscious consumers. Autonomie caters to the shopper who wants to align their personal style with their values. Autonomie makes this possible by providing a range of fashion options that all have a positive social impact on the environment, while raising awareness about today’s most pressing global issues. To Autonomie Project, the most effective solution to reducing sweatshops and child labor abuses is to create their own production ecology with reliable, transparent and supportive working conditions and operations. And that is what they did. Autonomie didnt just want to “do no harm”, they wanted to take things a step further by benefiting the communities who make their clothes, and helping to break the cycle of poverty. Toward this end, Autonomie Project:

- AP provides their workers with a fair wage so they can beat out sweatshops and enjoy a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

-  AP works exclusively with small, independent cooperatives and Fair Trade-certified facilities located in developing areas of the world where they can allot a portion of our funds to be used for initiatives that will uplift their entire community, such as building a health clinic or bringing a steady water supply to a small village.

Autonomie Project currently produces shoes, flip flops, hand bags, t-shirts, winter hats and accessories. In terms of materials, they use organic cotton, all natural FSC (Forest Certified Council) rubber, and other eco-friendly & locally-sourced materials.

The AP apparel does not end there however, their T-shirts are also 100% organic cotton, very comfortable, and stylish.  The cotton is ring-spun and combed for extra softness and colored with eco-friendly dyes.

The tee featured above is the “Fight Global Poverty / Warming” design in light blue ink on charcoal so that you can declare to the world where your eco priorities are at. Made right here in the USA.

Autonomie Project’s bag collection is hand made by a women’s knitting cooperative in rural Peru. The newest styles are made with 100% Fair Trade-certified organic cotton yarns that are naturally dyed.

The incredibly soft yarns used for the bags hail from a Fair Trade facility in Lima and are processed using completely natural and traditional methods. No dyes, chemicals or other synthetic processes have been used to grow, soften, or color the fibers. By buying a bag, you help the 25 mothers of Northern Creations grow a sustainable business and improve the standard of living for their families and community.

Autonomie Project works with small, independent cooperatives and Fair Trade certified facilities located in developing areas of the world including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Peru, and the USA. The products are relevant and fashionable, vegan , eco, and always sweatshop-free.

Since we wrote about the Fair Trade the Whitehouse initiative last week, Autonomie Project is also a supporter of that campaign (no surprise!). Check out that initiative and become a part of it, if you have not already.

There are several cool things going on at the Autonomie Project site worth checking out:

- Buy Fair Trade: First, if you are in the mood to shop or have a gift in mind for someone, check out their stylish, high-quality Fair Trade items.
- Blog: Autonomie runs a blog and encourages other to blog about them too. Get involved.
- Affiliates Program: If you are a company or non-profit you can also sign up as an AP Affiliate and get customized banner links that will earn you a commission on any sales brought in from your online outreach efforts.

Check them out!

By: Julie Finkel and Shana Yansen

Created in 2005, Pants to Poverty emerged as a result of the Make Poverty History phenomenon. Its mission is to make fair-trade and pesticide free cotton underwear, at half the price of competitors, while working with over 7,000 cotton farmers.

For 4 years now, Pants to poverty (P-to-P) has gained momentum. P-to-P developed a ethical and  transparent supply chain and a new type of underwear brand, while establishing a network of 70 independent shops and over 10,000 people in 16 countries around the world. Pants to Poverty has also recruited some of the world’s leading legal, branding and development organizations as its partners and achieved wide-reaching media coverage in National Newspapers, TV, Magazines, local papers and radio stations.

The underwear is made in India, using fair-trade certified and pesticide free cotton. However it’s not just the farms that are certified, but also the entire manufacturing process.

The supplier in India is called Pratibha Syntex in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and apparently Patribha maintains close control over every process of the production of the pants. They work exceptionally closely with the farmers to ensure that we meet our objectives as having the most ethical, and transparent, supply chain possible.

Where does the cotton come from? The cotton from Pants to Poverty comes from the world’s first farmer owned marketing company for fair-trade and organic cotton, Zameen Organic. Based in Hyderabad in India, Zameen will soon be majority owned by the 6,700 of India’s poorest farmers, most of whom are in the Vidarbha region– an area where on average 26 farmers commit suicide every day due to unfair trade.

Zameen means that in exchange for their hard work on their own land, the farmers get:
-    A guaranteed fair, market price for their cotton.
-    Fair-trade and organic premiums
-    Organizational and agricultural support to establish their own co-operatives, bank accounts and maximize the impact of their organic farming.
-    A clean, chemical free environment to live in
In addition to this, Pants to Poverty is now donating an extra 50p per pair to fund the establishment of the world’s first source of child labour free seeds.

FAIR WAGES:
All skilled workers are paid considerably more than the minimum wage for the region in India to ensure that everyone has a good living wage.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:
Going beyond regular expectations is part of Pratibha and Pants to Poverty’s committment to suppliers. Below, they outline just a few of the initiatives they are working on.
WOMEN’s EMPOWERMENT:
Women’s empowerment is core to the Pratibha approach with many management positions filled by women and dynamic new programs for women empowerment at all levels of the organization.

EXTENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAM:
As a high level of skill is required for textile manufacturing, training is an essential part of the work conducted by Pratibha’s Human Resources department. The importance of effective training is further bolstered by the massive recruitment that is ongoing at the plant to meet the elevated level of capacity with the five new spinning mills. Training focuses on both work and personal areas including:
-    Technical training to include Spinning, Knitting, Stitching etc..
-    Workers rights training: in relation to working hours, minimum wage, child labor in compliance with ISO 9001.

OTHER STAFF INITIATIVES:
-    A dedicated staff hospital
-    Subsidized food
-    Free accommodation
-    Free transport
-    Blood donation camp

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND PROMOTION:
The textile industry is renowned for being one of the worst polluting industries and so Pratibha, in order to leave a positive impact on the planet, invests heavily in effective waste management:
-    95% of water is recycled within the plant
-    All waste is controlled within the plant
-    100 trees are planted per quarter (25,000 to date)
-    Participate in global campaigning events such as Earth Hour
-    First textile company in India to register for EARTH HOUR
-    Pratibha is using 3 way strategy of “REDUCE – REUSE-RECYCLE” for increasing sustainability throughout the chains

Check out and shop on Pants to Poverty website for more information.

Photos source: Pants to Poverty

By: Julie Finkel

Zooey Deschanel, star of the just-released film 500 Days of Summer, is the latest in a slew of celebrities to lend her voice to ad campaigns for Cotton Inc. The actress and chanteuse brings her trademark quirkiness to a commercial that showcases her own take on “The Fabric of Our Lives” jingle.

Deschanel is known for her eclectic, vintage-inspired fashion sense, which the Cotton ad cheerfully harnesses, seemingly to lend this cooperate conglomerate a little indie-cred. What’s troubling here is that cotton, often touted as “natural,” is produced with more harmful chemical pesticides than any other crop (see our recent post on organic cotton certification, and learn more at Organature.com). Having a lovely songstress chirp an upbeat jingle about it detracts from a major environmental issue. When Deschanel warbles “The fabric of our lives,” the appropriate enjoinder would be, “it’s full of pesticides.”

But Cotton Inc. is no stranger to green-washing: see their “Give Us Green…But Make it Fashionable” summer 2008 ad campaign. These ads featured phrases like, “When it’s cotton, you’ll know it’s green (even if it’s pink)” and “Cotton. Style that comes naturally.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

From CottonInc.com: “Through our research, we’ve discovered that the same consumer who’s concerned with the state of the environment also places an even higher priority on fashion when purchasing,” states Ric Hendee, vice president, marketing services, at Cotton Incorporated. “We’ve developed these three new ads to convey that cotton has always been and continues to be the natural choice for fashionable, eco-friendly clothing.”

Now, Deschanel is not the only celebrity currently shilling for Cotton—country singer Miranda Lambert and R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan are also featured on TheFabricofOurLives.com. But Deschanel stands out from the pack due to her unique style and lifestyle choices. The actress dabbles in veganism (she recently issued an all vegan, gluten- and soy-free challenge to the cooks on Top Chef!), and animal-loving vegans tend to be environmentalists by default. Eating vegetarian is one of the easiest ways to go green, as it helps cut down on resources used to feed the rest of the world. It makes sense, then, that vegans also tend to care about issues like global warming and using eco-friendly textiles.

When it comes to clothing choices, however, veganism and environmentalism aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. Vegans reject animal products in general, so that includes wool, silk and leather; fans of eco-fashion might tout some of these fabrics as earthy and natural, while a vegan is more likely to purchase a handbag or shoe made out of harmful PVC (polyvinyl chloride). We’ve discussed the growing vegan fashion trend here at Green Cotton before, and it’s a debate that needs more information exchanged on both sides of the issue. So just because Ms. Deschanel chooses to eat vegan does not mean she will always choose organic fabrics (even if the Cotton campaign leads us to believe that cotton was “green before it was even in style.”).

I’m not intentionally picking on Zooey Deschanel, because that would be hypocritical. Not everyone can afford to buy organic fashions, since natural fibers cost far more than conventional ones. As someone with many allergies and chemical sensitivities, I admit that 90% of my wardrobe is cotton; it has to be. But the conventional kind isn’t necessarily doing me and my sensitive skin any favors. I own a few organic garments and hope to collect more; I do try to offset my carbon footprint by shopping in vintage and thrift stores when I can. And someone like Zooey Deschanel is a major fashion inspiration who can afford to shop where and how she wants, and makes the perfect spokeswoman for vintage fashion. Imagine if she lent her voice to a campaign for authentically organic cotton? I look forward to seeing how Deschanel’s career unfolds, and hope that her future choices only positively impact the growing eco-fashion world.

Photosource: thefabricofourlives.com

Other sources used for this post:

Understanding GOTS organic cotton certification

Ecorazzi

Post By Erin Dale