Levi’s jeans are pretty sustainable. Don’t believe us? The company recently calculated just how much water it takes to produce its jeans. All in all, the water usage it takes to make a pair of the company’s jeans is rather low.

According to Levi’s “Life Cycle Assessment,” it only takes 2,835 liters of water to produce a pair of the company’s popular 501 jeans. The company has been able to curb its water usage in a number of ways:

The company works with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). BCI works to make “global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future.”

The company also has recently created “water saving and recycling processes to their manufacturing facilities.”

In addition to doing a lot of internal work to make its jeans more environmentally friendly, Levi’s is also urging its customers to consider water usage when caring for their jeans. The company urges its consumers to wash jeans after several wears and to use cold water when washing jeans. Levi’s also asks buyers to line dry their clothing rather than use a conventional dryer. The company came out with is “Life Cycle Assessment” before World Water Day (March 22).

As our readers know, watching your personal water usage is imperative to helping our world survive and thrive. I’m incredibly “eco-minded,” but am always finding new ways to limit my personal water usage.

Similar to many Levi’s consumers, I wash my jeans rarely. I also limit my water usage by washing everything on a cold rinse cycle, by taking incredibly short showers, and only washing my hair once or twice a week.

Do you know of any other companies who are as water usage savvy as Levi’s? How do you limit your water usage?

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Image: Michael Carian

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Levi Strauss & Co. CEO Chip Bergh says you don’t need to wash your Levi’s jeans. How’s that for sustainability?

Designed to be durable—jeans were never created to be fashionable; they were always meant for hard labor—it’s not a huge surprise that Bergh told attendees at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference earlier today that the pair of Levi’s jeans he was wearing had “yet to see a washing machine.” He’s apparently had the pair for a year.

“We are the ultimate in sustainable apparel,” Bergh told the audience. “If you buy [our jeans] they will last a lot longer than most people’s waistlines will,” Mashable reports.

Levi’s jeans have begun to take sustainability as seriously as the company takes button flies. The brand’s Waterless jeans use a considerably low amount of water in production and the recently launched Wellthread Dockers products also require less water and energy. And, reports Mashable, “Bergh’s comments regarding laundry are nothing new.” Levi’s has apparently promoted the “no wash” method for years, “sparking a fad of freezing jeans (yes, like in the freezer) to cut down on bacteria growth.”

That recommendation is not exactly sound science though. “While some of your jeans’ germs might not survive the freezer, some will, because they’re hardy like that,” reports Gizmodo. “They mostly come from you, and thrive at body temperature.” The germs can apparently repopulate once your body warms up your frozen jeans.

Still, what kind of germs are we really talking about here anyway? Even if you’re not going the year-plus like Bergh himself, you can at least forego the wear once and wash rule. Not only do jeans (and most other clothes) not require immediate washing after wearing (barring any serious stains), but they also look better a little broken in. They feel better too. And the color is going to last a lot longer the less often you wash your jeans.

But now I’m really curious. How long can I go without washing the pair of jeans I’m wearing? They’re now on day two of no washing, and I’ll let you know when (if!) I throw them into the washing machine again. Here’s to a greener planet that feels as cozy as a pair of broken-in jeans.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Image: glassghost

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San Franciscans can now recycle their textiles and old apparel at local Levi Strauss’ stores.

On January 13, 2014 the San Francisco Department of the Environment announced a new strategy toward making the California city the “greenest” in North America – a zero waste textile initiative. The Progress with Less campaign is a collaboration between the city, I:CO, San Francisco native Levi Strauss & Co. and several other brands whereby city residents can recycle their unwanted textiles and goods knowing that they will be put to good use.

Since last week, shoppers have been able to drop off their unwanted clothes at designated boxes in three Levi’s stores in San Francisco, from where they are collected and put to new use by I:CO, a global textile recycling system. Any brand of clothing can be deposited in the boxes, which will hopefully spread to other stores in the city if this pilot campaign is successful (which we hope it will be!)

San Francisco is the nation’s leading city when it comes to waste reduction, with an 80 percent landfill waste diversion rate. However, textiles are still one of the top 3 items still sent to landfill, and the city’s annual textile waste comes to about 20,000 tons – that’s a whopping 4,587 EVERY HOUR. Shocking, but true, and doesn’t even compare to the 39 million pounds that are sent to landfill globally every year.

So, taking steps toward changing our product use and discard habits can have an immense effect on the environment, and provides an entirely new and creative market for re-using our old goods. Levi’s has been at the forefront of recycling textiles in innovative ways, for example having insulated their San Francisco headquarters with 25,500 pairs of discarded jeans. Through the Progress with Less campaign, the California city, Levi’s and all the other brands involved hope to inspire other metropolis’ and clothing labels around the world to create schemes that make recycling easy for consumers, and turn waste into a new and exciting resource.

Images: Levi Strauss & Co.

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ColumnLevi’s, the iconic jeans and casual wear line, made its name as the working man’s clothing back at the turn of the 20^th century. Valued by cowboys, ranchers, and lumberjacks, Levi’s eventually became an international brand that changed the face of fashion. Now, Levi Strauss is also attempting to change the face of sustainable fashion with its new Dockers Wellthread line. But is it truly sustainable? Or is it eco “jeanwashing”?

The Good

Levi’s is no stranger to sustainability efforts. The brand partnered with Target and Nike in the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, an “industry-wide group of more than 100 leading apparel and footwear brands, retailers, suppliers, nonprofits, and NGOs working to reduce the environmental and social impacts of apparel and footwear products around the world,” according to the group’s website.

Levi’s launched its Water<Less jeans line in 2010. While the average pair of jeans uses “42 litres of water in the finishing process,” according to Levi’s, the Water<Less collection “reduces the water consumption by an average of 28% and up to 96% for some new products in the line.” When a brand like Levi’s makes a commitment to reduce its water use, that’s a pretty big deal, not just in the resources saved, but also in influencing other brands to make similar commitments.

Workers rights are also a core issue for Levi’s. According to the company, they were “the first multinational apparel company to establish a comprehensive workplace code of conduct for our manufacturing suppliers.” Through its Terms of Engagement,  Levi’s has requirements “by which all of our contract factories and licensees must abide — including ethical standards, legal requirements, environmental requirements and community involvement.” There are also employment standards “that address issues of “child labor, forced labor, disciplinary practices, working hours, wages and benefits, freedom of association, discrimination, and health and safety.” In April 2012, Levi’s built onto these standards to further improve the lives of workers in factories around the world.

The company also joined the Better Cotton Initiative, according to the New York Times, “which focuses on sustainable-agriculture techniques, water use and economic and labor issues.” The initiative’s cotton farms in India and Pakistan “have reduced chemical use and water consumption by a third.”

Now, the company has relaunched its bemused brand of Dockers, citing that the Wellthread brand represents “the first time a company has fused sustainable design, environmental conservation and worker wellbeing into product development.” The brand seems clearly committed to redefining its production model…again.

The Bad

It may be easy for small-scale manufacturers to purchase organic materials and control production, but Levi’s is on another level, selling more than $4 billion worth of apparel annually and clothing production is one of the most resource intensive industries. According to Beth Greer, bestselling author, environmental health advocate, and healthy home specialist, “Most of the clothes we wear (unless they are labeled “Fair Trade” or “Organic”) contain some pretty toxic additives. For example, conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop.” According to Treehugger, one clothing mill in China can use 200 tons of water for one ton of fabric dyed. And notes Greer, there are other issues that impact the clothing industry, “Poor working conditions, minimal environmental regulations, and child and slave labor are commonplace in the $1 trillion garment industry.”

And despite Levi’s efforts like Water<Less and Wellthread, the reality is those products only make up a small percentage of the brand’s offerings. Prior to releasing its Water<Less brand in 2010, Levi’s quietly launched–and then pulled–its Levi’s Eco jeans made with organic cotton. Most of what it sells is made up of pesticide-heavy cotton, with less attention to detail, furthering the “fast fashion” crisis.

While water conservation, like in the Water<Less effort is significant, reducing the amount of pesticides used on cotton is equally–if not more–important for a producer like Levi’s. And although the brand is clearly making efforts to up the quality of its higher priced items with the sustainability slant, consumers complain that core items, like the 501s and 511s have dropped in quality in recent years, with wearing coming early, and zippers malfunctioning.

The Questionable

Failed efforts to move organic cotton into the mainstream, Levi’s earns some kudos for not giving up the sustainability efforts. But is that the case with Dockers Wellthread?

Citing that Dockers Wellthread represents “the first time a company has fused sustainable design, environmental conservation and worker wellbeing into product development,” the brand is committed to redefining its production model.

How does the company achieve this? Levi’s claims it’s a combination of responsible dyes like cold-water pigment dyes for tops and salt-free reactive dyes for pants and jackets. After horrific tragedies in Bangladesh clothing factories earlier this year, the company says it’s also committed to improving the wellbeing of its workers. “I saw all these different nodes of activity in the company that were tackling different problems,” Paul Dillinger , senior director of global design for Dockers, told the Guardian. “The opportunity, to me, was to string all of these ideas together and create a systems approach to change.”

Dockers Wellthread “is built on the premise that once you become informed of the challenges of environmental responsibility and social value, you have to act to create change,” Dillinger told Women’s Wear Daily. “We see where we can adjust our social processes and also yield some great men’s wear.”

Dockers Wellthread are not your mid-nineties Dockers. The new iteration offers another incentive towards a truly sustainable fashion industry. At $140 to $250 a pair, the slacks are the antithesis of fast fashion. Encouraging a high price investment in a pair of slacks can help consumers realign their values around clothing and move towards a healthier relationship with their apparel and their preferred apparel manufacturers.

But still missing from the product is organic cotton–the one ingredient that could bring a significant uptick to Levi’s sustainability commitment. Will we ever see organic cotton replace the pesticide-laden fabric most of us are bundled up in daily? If Levi’s can’t do it successfully, who can?

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

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Image: Levi’s

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Five sustainable denim favorites for spring and summer.

A good pair of jeans will last you the rest of your life (or until you wear them to shreds). It’s important to pick a good pair, made from organic or recycled denim. Cotton production pollutes soil and waterways, damages wildlife habitats and accounts for over 10 percent of the global use of pesticides. Now that spring seems finally here to stay, it may be time to invest in a new pair. Here are five of our sustainable denim favorites for spring and summer.

1. Kuyichi Denim
Kuyichi was one of the first brands to make denim from recycled and organic cotton, grown completely free of pesticides. These are made from 98 percent organic cotton and 2 percent elastane. We love the faded effect, distressed look and contrast stitching.
$99, YOOX

2. Nudie Jeans Tight Long John Org. Twill Rinsed
Although the brand markets exclusively to men, many of Nudie’s style fit women just as well. The Tight Long John is one of them. Last year, the Swedish label managed to transition its entire high end denim line to 100 percent organic. The darkness in the shade of this pair comes from sulpha that has been added to give it a less red cast. The copper trims are also organic.
$179, Nudie Jeans Co.

3. Levi’s Water<Less Classic Rise Demi Curve Boot Cut Jeans
All the styles in Levi’s CurveID line are specifically designed for different body types. They fit in all the right places—no more pinching, pulling, or bent-over backside reveals. The effect is an overall smoother silhouette and jeans that look like they were made for you. This particular pair is also part of Levi’s Water<Less collection, an initiative designed to significantly reduce the amount of water needed to produce denim.
$50, Levi’s

4. The Remy by Big Star Denim
The all classic boot cut is always in style. The medium blue wash of the Remy is very versatile and easy to pair with anything in your wardrobe. Big Star Denim uses special ozone technology to create their washes. This uses less water, less energy and less chemicals.
$98, Kaight

5. Mid Rise Trouser by Reuse Jeans
The perfect shade of medium blue of these flares bring to mind the carefree attitudes of the ’70s. Channel your inner flower child and pair them with fringe and florals for festival season, or dress them up with a fitted navy blazer and simple whit tee. Reuse Jeans are sustainably made in China, from pre-consumer recycled denim.
$95, Reuse Jeans

Images courtesy of the brands featured

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This spring, you might be wearing the latest in denim fashion trends courtesy of Levi’s: used plastic bottles.

“These jeans are made of garbage” is the pitch line Levi Strauss is using for its latest denim line, Waste‹Less, which uses eight brown or green plastic bottles to make every pair of the jeans. Unveiled last fall, the jeans are hitting stores as part of spring denim collections and range in price from $69 to $128—quite a bit for wearable garbage, but still a comparable price for a pair of good quality jeans.

Twenty percent of every pair of the Waste‹Less jeans are made from entirely recycled plastic materials, and store displays will feature crushed soda bottles to help illustrate the brand’s commitment to reducing its environmental impact.

Levi Strauss was once known as the workingman’s brand of durable denim capable of standing up to hard labor, whether on the farm or in the factory. The company now wants to be known as the sustainability brand, working awareness into every aspect of the business. And as the biggest jean maker in the world (sales in 2011 were nearly $5 billion)—the impact Levi Strauss can have in fostering a green message is immeasurable.

Changes started happening for Levi’s in 2007 when it assessed an environmental impact on Dockers and 501 jeans, reports Businessweek, “Levi’s found that 49 percent of the water use during the lifetime of a pair of 501 jeans occurred at the very beginning, with cotton farmers.” The company joined the Better Cotton Initiative in order to help farmers in countries including Pakistan, India, Brazil, and Mali to reduce the amount of water used in growing cotton. While growing organic cotton has proved too expensive for the brand to continue at this time (they killed their organic jean line in 2008), the low-water cotton is proving to be just as beneficial a pursuit as water scarcity, particularly in the cotton-growing countries, is a very serious issue.

The first low-water cotton was finally harvested last year—and made its way into more than 5 million pairs of jeans at a rate of about 5 percent per pair. By 2015 the goal is 20 percent per pair. To further encourage better resource management, Levi’s also ran a marketing campaign suggesting people wash their jeans less often, using only cold water, and line-drying them instead of putting them through energy-draining dryers.

Now, as the new Waste‹Less is hitting stores, 3.5 million plastic bottles have avoided ending up in landfills, or the ocean in the company’s first run of about 400,000 items (including jean jackets). While only a small drop in the plastic bucket—Americans consumed 33 billion bottles of soda in 2011, reports Businessweek—it’s certainly a good starting point, setting an example for industry and making consciousness affordable and fashionable. “Is turning eight bottles of plastic into a pair of jeans worth it? I think so,” James Curleigh, president of the Levi’s brand told Businessweek. “Some things are more for making a point than a purpose. We want critical mass.”

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Image: Levi Strauss

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Ramie was used as a linen-like fabric as far back as the times of Ancient Egyptians.

Ramie is an age-old fiber plant that has been made into yarn and textiles for millennia because of the extremely long fibers contained in it’s stalk. Though very similar to linen, ramie produces a lustrous, silk-like material that is soft to the touch and eight times stronger than cotton.

The first recorded use of ramie fabric dates as far back as 5000-3000 B.C., when it was used for the mummy cloths of the Ancient Egyptians. Considered a useful and versatile fabric by the ancient culture, the Egyptians obviously treasured it since it was used to swathe the bodies of their deceased kings. Historians have also found evidence of the textile’s use in eastern Asia in prehistoric times, from where it eventually spread to Europe in the Middle Ages. Ramie was seen as a cloth for nobility in Asia, whereas its counterpart, hemp, was considered more suitable for the peasantry.

Commonly called “China Grass” ramie is predictably native to China, from where it has been formally exported to the western world since the 18^th century. The plant is part of the cellulose bast fiber group and belongs to the nettle family, with Boehmeria Nivea being the species most often cultivated for yarn and textile applications. Primarily grown in Asia and Brazil, nowadays only a fraction of the material is shipped overseas to Europe and the USA, making it practically unknown to much of the western population.

Not only is ramie a natural fiber, it is also similar to other bast fibers like hemp and nettles in that it needs minimal amounts of water and no pesticides or herbicides to thrive, also providing nutrition for the land it is grown on through it’s biomass. The stems of ramie plants can reach 8 feet in height and can be harvested up to 6 times a year. Following harvest, the stalks are peeled to extract the fiber by scraping off the bark from the fiber layers and hanging them to dry. After this, the fibers are split into thin threads and hung to dry again before the spinning process.

Although ramie fabric is very similar to linen in appearance, the properties and behavior of the material can be different. Ramie yarn is naturally white, making bleaching unnecessary and allowing it to take dyes (yes, including natural ones!) very well. Like the other fabrics made from bast fibers, ramie textiles are extremely strong and actually strengthen when wet without shrinking at all.

The downsides of ramie fabric are similar to those of linen, in that it doesn’t take creasing well and wrinkles easily. Although ramie fabric holds dyes very well, heavy use of dyes or strong dyes can cause discoloration of skin or other materials that the dyed ramie is rubbed against, especially if the fabric is wet or damp.  Ramie, however, has the advantage over other natural fibers of being naturally mold, insect and bacteria resistant, storing well and acting as a shelter of sorts when worn.

Unfortunately, Ramie is still often processed chemically on a larger scale, making these manufacturing methods unsustainable. Several textile companies such as Habu Textiles and Telio use hand-processed ramie, and because the fiber is biodegradable, the two combine in making ramie fabrics closed-loop. Ramie stalks are said to contain the longest extractable fibers of any cellulose fiber plant and so when blended with cotton, wool or silk creates a large range of durable and versatile textile types.

Climatex Cradle-to-Cradle certified upholstery  textiles are made out of ramie and wool blends for furniture and interior design applications. Several fashion designers use ramie fabrics or blends in their garments including Donna Karan, Lanvin, Michale Kors, MiH Jeans, Levi’s and Gary Graham, whose ramie dress from S/S 2012 collection is featured above. Textile artist Mackenzie Frere has been experimenting with different dyeing techniques for ramie, creating wonderful renditions that truly showcase the beauty and texture of the material. Hopefully this fiber will continue keep alive the value of versatility in textile fibers and hand-crafting so we can continue to explore the wisdom of natural, sustainable textile solutions.

Image: Mackenzie Frere, Habu Textiles, Gary Graham , Mackenzie Frere

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In the last of this 4 part series, undercover industry writer, Louise Lagosi address the history of fashion marketing, the strategies used to build the perfect consumer while covering up poor quality, and how those tactics have effected us as a society. We also look at how the fashion industry and marketing is changing with the times to keep up with an evolving society of people.

If you read the first three parts of this series, you might be in the mood to avoid the media, shut off your TV, stop shopping, and just give up on fashion. But, other than offering you peace of mind, what would that accomplish? As easy as it is to point fingers, the leaders of the fashion industry are not the only ones responsible for the state of fashion. Society as a whole bought what was being sold without stopping as individuals to question the motives behind the advertisement or wondering if our “consumer” habits were good for us, our neighbors, or the planet.

Unless you want to go back to wearing burlap bags, and go Medieval, we all need something to adorn our bodies. And let’s face it, beautiful clothes, beautiful anything for that matter, really does make life more joyful. That said, nothing can be beautiful if it has a dirty, rotten underbelly it’s hiding. So let’s just get to the core of this thing.

Taking Responsibility

Now that the phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally” has been imprinted on our brains, we all know that shopping with small mom and pops stores, as well as supporting local designers and supply chains is the best thing we can do for our immediate environment, but how can we be effective on a global level? Have you read any articles, or signed any petitions requesting that corporations clean up their acts? Written to your government representative asking for higher international labor standards lately? Not sure who your representatives are? Well, it’s pretty easy to find out. In this age of information sharing with a little due diligence and research it’s becoming increasingly easier to figure out who’s doing business right, and who’s doing business wrong. And it’s even easier to find a petition or even to start a petition asking companies and the government to do business responsibly.

It has become more and more common to share our opinions and knowledge of this kind freely among our friends and associates, on Facebook, Twitter, and various social media sources. As a favor for your sharing the information, they in turn go on and share it with their friends and pretty soon the news has gone viral. Some of your conversations on Facebook might look something like this:

“There’s a joke going around China today that you can tell what colors are going to be in fashion next season by looking at the rivers.“

“I think I’ll opt for a nice neutral, beige from now on, thanks.”

 “Time to Stop the Fashion Pirates again. Forever 21 has gotten caught stealing yet another design from independent designers.”

“I stopped shopping at Forever 21 after my last purchase from there smelled like magic markers and fell apart in the first wash. But I do buy clothes from the local designers in my own town.“

 “Why does Disney still carry polyester jammies for kids coated in fire-retardants? Didn’t they get the memo that it’s been repeatedly proven that both the synthetic fibers in clothing and formaldehyde based fire-retardants are carcinogenic, cancer causing, hormone disrupting, and/or can cause damage to our nervous systems?!

“I wouldn’t know, I avoid both synthetics and Disney like the plague.“

 “Did you hear that Victoria’s Secret were caught slashing and throwing away garments that were returned because donating them to charity was too much of a hassle to organize?”

“I wouldn’t wear Victoria Secret, even if it were free. Let’s just say that I don’t know a single 16 year old whose boobs naturally sit directly under her chin, so why, at any age, should mine?”

Whether or not these conversations in social media and on the street actually sway the decisions of those in power to create a change in the industry, for us to be aware enough about these issues that we feel a little whistle blowing is in order can make us better, more informed, people.

Word gets around fast in this Internet Age and in no time at all, Walmart has a publicity crisis for abusing their laborers, and the Gap is making public apologies for promoting red,white, & blue flag waving products that are made in China. H&M and Nike claim they too are doing their parts, all while receiving raised eyebrows from the sustainable community, for making lofty corporate responsibility initiatives mandated for 2020 that promise unprecedented standards with little or no suggestions on how they might go about doing so. Perhaps H&M & Nike could borrow from their multibillion dollar marketing budgets to fund reaching their 2020 goals.

Are initiatives enough? Hardly, but when you’re a company that’s big enough to consume one third of the planets organic cotton supply, even a small initiative, like H&M’s organic cotton initiative can keep large amounts of fertilizer and herbicide from going into our water, provided it’s an honest effort. “Good” is questionable when you take into account that their organic cotton is not all that organic after all.

Recent New York City H&M window

With their greenwashing marketing efforts these companies still do not get the green light for sustainable shopping. In the same way we shop for food, if we can’t find clear and certifiable labeling on the product, many of us are not buying it. Some consumers are even going so far as avoiding stores with bad track records altogether, regardless of their “eco” initiatives.

In 2009, The Hartman Group’s report, titled Sustainablity: the Rise in Consumer Responsibility stated that 88% of consumers engage in what they consider to be sustainable behavior. Are people hearing concerns about water contamination or global warming and choosing to cut back where they can to help? Are fast fashion fans growing annoyed that their clothes fall apart after a couple washes when the hand-me-downs from their mother’s wardrobe seem to last forever? Have people suddenly realized that they have enough stuff in their closets that they could probably go for years without shopping and still maintain appearances?

Author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Elizabeth Cline, describes the pivotal moment in her consumer mindset, “When I piled up all of my clothes in the middle of my bedroom, I was astonished that there wasn’t much variety within the mound of poorly made clothing. It was mostly all one color, and I had bought more or less the same few items over and over again. I wasn’t using most of it, and most of it was cheep crap that I didn’t even like very much. Overall, I was unsatisfied with what was in there.”

She explains the transformation that occurred in that moment of realization, “It made me more mindful. I shop my own closet now. I have stopped buying repeat garments. I don’t crave having a million tops. That doesn’t really interest me anymore. I want one or two good garments for each category to make complete outfits within my wardrobe. I want to save my money to buy really nice items to fill in the holes.”

Signs of Change in Mainstream Fashion Media

CFDA Leader, Diane Von Furstenburg, and American Vogue Editor-in-Chief, Anna Wintour, recently released that they support encouraging a cleaner Fashion Industry through an initiative presented by the NRDC called Clean By Design. We’re still waiting to see how they do clean up, but they have taken the first step, which is openly acknowledging the elephant in the room. This is nothing short of a miracle.

Fashion Labels Evolving With the Times

Eileen Fisher

This privately owned company has always taken a holistic approach to designing clothing. The brand carefully chooses fibers for their sustainable, community based, growing methods, natural content, longevity, and feel. They work with collectives and factories around the world that pay fair-trade wages. They design clothes that are timeless and that do not relate to any trends, allowing the clothes to survive as long as their high quality materials do. And through their recent initiatives like Ampersand, they have been educating their customers on why choosing their products supports a sustainable environment here on earth for everyone involved.

Patagonia 

Patagonia also keeps their marketing to a minimum, but when they do promote something, the message is unusual for a clothing company. They promote clean water initiatives, such as Our Common Waters, in their recent Common Threads Initiative, they tell people to stop buying more than they need. They also provide transparency in their supply chain like in The Footprint Chronicles, with this interactive map on their site showing exactly where their factories are located with stats, reports, and a brief on Patagonia’s history with each one. This brand ultimately puts their dollars in recycled materials innovations, such as polar fleece made of recycled bottles, and maintaining factory standards, so they can provide more responsible products to their customers.

Timberland

Timberland is a brand that is committed to the outdoors. Which is why they have made  developed TIMBERLAND RESPONSIBILITY, their plan for significantly reducing their companies emissions through the research, evaluation, and investment in company structures that will allow them to run cleaner and produce products that have a smaller impact on the earth. The company reports are transparent and available to the public on their home site, grading their efforts and describing all the methods used to achieve their challenging goals to reduce their company wide climate impact.

Levi’s 

Levi’s has been doing business with the goal of striving towards sustainability and excellence for over 100 years now. They give cash credits to customers who return their old Levi’s in for their denim recycling programs and they have been working on increasingly finding ways to reducing their water use in their denim production processes. Are they singing about their exceptional practices in their ad campaigns to help better educate their customers? Let’s just say this is one of the places where they still have room to improve.

Pendleton

This nearly 150 year old American company produces much of it’s premium products, from fibers grown, spun, dyed, and woven in America. They keep marketing to a minimum and keep their funding aimed at doing business responsibly and offering the best quality products possible to the customers they serve. Their product’s are so beautifully made, by  that they end up heirlooms in most of the fortunate homes that they grace.

Change is indeed happening all around, but most of all it starts with each one of us. We have to make up our own minds. What type of consumers are we?

Image: oxfam, Fashionista, Last Night’s Garbage,Amy DuFault

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Levi’s workers around the world are wearing the same pair of unwashed pants this week for the Go WaterLess challenge. Shown above – A sponge, securely attached to someone’s jeans indicates if they wash them or not.

While they are unlikely to be announcing a partnership with Tide anytime soon, Levi Strauss & Co. is doing their bit to clean up the environment. In support of World Water Day today, the legendary San Francisco-based denim company is asking employees to change their laundry habits by challenging them to wear the same pair of pants five days in a row without washing them.

According to Michael Kobori, Levi’s Vice-President of Social and Environmental Sustainability, the idea is about conservation and sustainability, “Washing less means using less water and energy, says Kobori. “We did a scientific assessment of a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans and Dockers® Original Khakis. And we found that some of the largest environmental impact happens in caring for your product after purchase. You can reduce the full lifecycle climate change impact of your jeans by up to 50 percent by washing your clothes less, washing in cold water and line drying,” he explains.

Letting people know that you don’t always have to wash your jeans after every wear, participating employees will receive a non-removable tag made of sponge on the first day to put on their jeans (the sponge tag will inflate if placed in water). In order to  encourage spot cleaning as a way of avoiding the laundry a little longer, each Levis office will offer “cleaning stations” where employees can spot treat their denim.

Far from hiding their “dirty habits,” Levi’s employees have been uploading their photos each day to Instagram and Flickr to document their sustainable style and commitment to using less water. The three most stylish employees, chosen by Levi’s designers, will receive a $1,000 grant for the water organization of their choice. Check out their pictures above.

 Could you wear the same pair of pants five days in a row? Just upload a picture of yourself each day this week wearing the same pair of jeans to Instagram and tag it #gowaterless.  

The post Levi’s: Don’t Wash Your Jeans This Week for World Water Day appeared first on EcoSalon.

Green jean, baby.

In 1873, Levi Strauss & Company invented the first blue jeans, a durable pair of trousers that could hold up to the task of constructing America. The rest is history. Today, Levi’s 501 jeans are the world’s best-selling item of clothing, and the blue jean, whether skinny or bell-bottomed, has been a global fashion staple for as long as most of us can remember.

Levi’s commitment to social responsibility has similar historical clout. During the Great Depression, for instance, Levi’s instituted shorter work weeks to prevent the massive lay-offs that were happening around the country. Levi Strauss factories were racially integrated long before the Civil Rights Act mandated it. And in the 1980s, Levi’s became the first American corporation to publicly address the HIV/AIDS epidemic sweeping the nation. The fight against HIV/AIDS continues to be an issue central to the company’s not-for-profit Levi Strauss Foundation.

In addition to its social responsibility efforts, Levi’s has also been a pioneer in the world of sustainability. Their current eco-efforts are founded on an intensive study of the entire product lifecycle of their best-sellers – the Levi’s 501 jeans and Dockers Original Khakis – conducted in 2007. From this study came the idea to further evaluate – or “E-valuate”, as they call it – 11 of their most popular items using primary data across several categories: contribution to climate change, energy use, renewable energy use, water consumption, land occupation, qualified sustainably grown fiber content, waste generation, materials efficiency, recycled content, land transformation, eutrophication, and restricted substance list adherence.

The Good

From the product lifecycle analysis, Levi’s had a better idea of their strengths and weaknesses as a company. They made the decision to hone in on two key phases – cotton production and consumer use – and they have aimed to reduce their impact in the energy, water, chemicals, and materials aspects of apparel manufacturing.

By making the decision to focus, Levi’s has taken a “do less, but better” approach to sustainability marketing. Over the past five years, they’ve made particularly significant strides in the area of water preservation. In 2010, they introduced the Water<Less jean collection, which used up an average of 28% and up to 96% less water in the finishing process than traditional jeans.

“What’s different about the Water<Less collection is that we’re still using the same materials and techniques to create finishes for our jeans but we’ve substantially reduced water’s role in the equation,” said Carl Chiara, Director of Brand Concepts and Special Projects. “Sometimes, the way to achieve a more sustainable design is to rethink a traditional process and find a way to do it better.”

A typical pair of jeans consumes 919 gallons of water throughout its lifecycle, including what’s needed to irrigate the cotton crop, produce the pant, and wash them at home. For Water<Less jeans, Levi’s made simple changes like reducing the number of washing machine cycles by combining multiple wet cycle processes into a single wet process, incorporating ozone processing into the garment washing, and removing the water from the stone wash.

Levi’s also aims to change how customers use their products, after finding that nearly 60 percent of energy use involved in a product’s lifecycle happens after the jeans are taken home. Their “Care Tag for Our Planet” campaign instructs Levi’s owners to wash less often, use cold water in the cycle, air-dry jeans on a line, and donate old jeans to Goodwill, using innovative methods like a crowdsourced design competition for air-dry solutions.

The Bad

Apart from some backlash over a handful of tasteless ads, Levi’s reputation has been pretty pristine for the past few decades. That’s not to say their conscience is completely clean. In the 1990s, Levi’s was embroiled in a scandal involving factories in the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth territory of the United States located in the Pacific Ocean. Though jeans from these factories were branded “Made in the USA,” they were produced primarily by imported laborers operating under “slavelike” conditions: 12-hour work days, seven-day work weeks, poor living conditions, payment well under the minimum wage, and an atmosphere of fear and control.

The high-profile case spurred Levi’s to establish a workplace code of conduct for its manufacturing suppliers. In 1991, the company released the first version of their Terms of Engagement, which spells out the ethical standards, legal requirements, environmental requirements, and community involvement that all of their suppliers and contractors must agree to and abide by.

The Questionable

Levi’s has a strong track record of operating responsibly, and is considered a pioneer in sustainability by many in the industry. The company has compiled an impressive body of information, literature, and resources surrounding its operations, and has been transparent both with its failings as well as its dedication to improve.

However, much of this information isn’t necessarily translated to Levi’s customers. The other day, I popped into a Levi’s retail store in lower Manhattan, expecting significant promotion around the Water<Less campaign, or the Better Cotton Initiative jeans shipped out just a few months ago. Within the store, I couldn’t find any information concerning sustainability, and when I asked a salesperson for information about their sustainable jeans, she said she had no idea what I was talking about. When I mentioned water, she said that most of the denim in the store was made using 96% less water than usual – a pretty big exaggeration of the truth, which is that the Water<Less process uses on average 28% and up to 96% less water than usual.

It was only when leaving the store that I finally stumbled upon a mention of Levi’s sustainable initiatives: a wooden “Care Tag for the Planet” sandwich board placed just outside the front entrance. Funny enough, the actual care instructions faced the wall, while an advertisement for a 30% off sale had prime real estate.

Levi’s is one of the few major apparel brands making waves in the world of sustainable manufacturing. That’s a major accomplishment, but it also comes with a major responsibility. Levi’s is missing the opportunity to educate a wider audience about the importance of sustainability by leaving its efforts out of its mainstream marketing.

A November New York Times article described a recent scene at Levi Strauss HQ:

After being briefed on the cotton initiative by the sustainability team, the new Chief Marketing Officer, Rebecca Van Dyck nodded her approval, then asked, “But do our customers know?”

They won’t if you don’t tell them.

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: H&M’s Conscious Collection

Behind the Label: McDonald’s See What We’re Made Of Campaign

The post Behind the Label: Levi Strauss’ E-Valuate Program appeared first on EcoSalon.