Green Cotton

The first person to get all three questions right goes to Nathan Rosquist!
QUIZ ANSWERS

1. Tencel (e.g. brand Lyocel)
2. Processing with harmful chemicals. For more information, click here.
3. Jonano

ABOUT THE WINNER

Nathan Rosquist

Nathan is as a graphic designer and web-developer at the Interra Project, a nonprofit based in Seattle. Interra Project brings tools for communities to “shop locally and share locally.” Right now they are launching a community loyalty program in the Puget Sound (pugetsound.cc) that gives back to nonprofits whenever people shop at participating local and sustainable businesses. They launched in Boston last year (bostoncommunitychange.org).

Nathan is also in his final year of grad school, getting an MBA in Sustainable Business (with a concentration on Sustainable Community Economic Development) from Bainbridge Graduate Institute.

Nathan is in the process of starting a screen-printing business and is passionate about the idea of “Locally Grown Clothing.” Nathan states that ‘the local food movement has grown deep roots in the last few years here in Seattle, and [he'd] like to frame clothing in the same way. ” He posits that clothing is part of the food system…(which I would have to agree). Nathan would someday like to wear a stylish shirt made from Bamboo grown in and around Seattle, or BC hemp, or Cedar bark. Nathan is actively pursuing this path to see how far he can take it. Good luck Nathan!

Check out Nathan’s blog at www.carrotrope.com

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Last week’s questions:

1) What fiber is the closest to bamboo in terms of processing?

2) Name one reason why bamboo may not always be environmentally friendly to process?

3) Name one company that sells 100% bamboo clothing?

Last week’s complete quiz question post, click here.

PATAGONIA!

Patagonia is the first major US company to initiate sourcing organic cotton for their shirts, and they did so in 1996. In the early 1990’s, Patagonia issued am R&D study to look at the environmental impacts of all their fabrics and processing. Much to their surprise, cotton came out the worst. As a result, Patagonia took significant steps toward making the same products (at almost the same price) with organic fibers, and eliminating damaging pesticide and excessive water use in the process.

Interestingly, this was not a demand by Patagonia’s customers, it came from within management. In fact, Patagonia did not aggressively market the organic fibers much at that time, since their customers were not much concerned with the fabrics’ source at the time. However, since then, more than a handful of consumers and companies are now cognizant of and interested in where and how fabrics are sourced. Patagonia has been and continues to be a true pioneer in the green apparel space. To learn more about their steps toward sourcing organic cotton, check out the Footprint Chronicles at Patagonia.

This week’s Quiz Winner is ricepaperslidingdoor. Congratulations ricepapersldingdoor!

Honorable mention goes to Kelven Goodridge who guessed American Apparel in 2003.

Stay tuned for the next quiz question!