ColorDry, a low waste and low impact dyeing technology, is NIKE’s newest initiative toward sustainable manufacturing. 

We’ve been keeping close tabs on NIKE  after our interview with the company’s VP of Sustainable Business, Hannah Jones. We’re glad to see that the activewear giant is setting an example for other large brands and paving the way for smaller ones to produce apparel with a significantly lower impact dyeing technology. NIKE has partnered up with Dutch company Dyecoo to create a sustainable dyeing method called ColorDry that eliminates the use of water and chemicals from the process.

The ColorDry technology has been put to use at Far Eastern New Century Corporation’s manufacturing facility in Taiwan, which is subcontracted by NIKE.  DyeCoo’s revolutionary engineering resulted in a dyeing method that replaces the water conventionally used in textile dyeing with recyclable CO2, which consequentially reduces the amount of energy used and eliminates the need for certain toxic chemicals.

It’s estimated that about 25 to 40 gallons of water are needed to process around 2 pounds of textiles in the current industry. It adds up to a lot considering that about 39 million tons of polyester alone (not counting all the cotton, viscose, nylon and so on that are also dyed) is colored in this way annually. The ColorDry process actually creates textiles with more saturated, intense and consistent color that the factory’s managers have ever seen, all the while reducing dyeing time by 40 percent, energy use by 60 percent and the carbon footprint by at least a quarter.

NIKE‘s COO Erik Sprunk sees the partnership with DyeCoo and the Taiwanese facility as a step in the right direction: “NIKE, Inc. innovates not only in the design of our products, but also in how they are made. We see sustainability and business growth as complementary and our strategy is to prioritize relationships with factory groups that demonstrate a desire to invest in sustainable practices and technologies.”

Hopefully more companies and nations will begin to utilize this revolutionary technology, making it more accessible to apparel producers of all calibers, and spurring on the development of even more sustainable methods. We hope to see the need for toxic chemicals and water waste eliminated in textile dyeing eliminated in the year future, as it affects our environment and health in more ways than many of us can even comprehend.

Images: NIKE

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Interview: Michael Harari on Drying Off the Textile Dyeing Industry

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Here’s an article to stop you in your tracks.

Ecotextile News reports on the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, India -an area troubled by its farmer suicide problem – and the tribal area of Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh. For those of you not aware that watchdogs are necessary, you need only read on.

According to Coral Rose, founder of Eco-Innovations, companies like Designs LLC, (doing business as Jonäno), CSE, Inc. (d/b/a Mad Mod) and Pure Bamboo, LLC are guilty of deceptively labeling and advertising their products as made of bamboo fiber when in fact they’re made of rayon. Welcome to the Wild West of sustainable consumer goods.

The companies have been charged with making false and unsubstantiated “green” claims, stating that their finished products retain the natural antimicrobial properties of the original bamboo plant. Litigation continues against the fourth company The M Group, Inc., d/b/a Bamboosa, and its principals.

Susan Donaldson, senior buyer for eco retailer VivaTerra (full disclosure: VivaTerra is an EcoSalon sponsor), says the takeaway from this controversy is that our current system for labeling a product leaves a lot to be desired.

“Whether a material is called ‘bamboo’ or ‘rayon from bamboo’, neither one tells us much about the lifecycle of the product,” says Donaldson. “What kind of energy is used making this item and how much? What kind of dyes? What are the workers treated like? What happens when you dispose of it?”

Still, Donaldson is optimistic about the bamboo controversy.

“I believe there still is a great opportunity with bamboo, and just as we are seeing such progress in the organic cotton industry, I hope that manufacturers of rayon made from bamboo can also transition to more sustainable processing.”

VivaTerra sources their bamboo textiles from a fair trade company that maintains a closed-loop, carbon-neutral manufacturing process and factory – one of many bamboo companies making real efforts to improve both transparency and eco-credibility.

In researching the issue further, I read this story about Zameen Organic, a farmer-owned, organic cotton trading and marketing company. Zameen grows and promotes Fairtrade, organic and pesticide-free cotton and works with farming communities in rural India through GOTS certification. The funds amassed from the venture will be used to strengthen sales teams across the US, Europe and India with the aim of building up a presence at retail level and in particular in high-street stores.

Ecotextile New says, “Now numbering more than 4,000, the farmers, who invest their own capital into Zameen, hold the most shares in the company and play a big part in shaping the policies as well as benefiting from shareholder dividends.”

For every ton of raw cotton Zameen buys from farmers, they set aside an organization development expense of 1,100 rupees (approximately US$24) to invest in Zameen. Last season, Zameen harvested around 374 tons of organic cotton.

Though not a total solution for the region, Zameen Organic has helped substantially with a decrease in suicide farmers whose crops have yielded nothing and land sharks still bilk them for 60% interest. Many men, seeing no hope in sight, go out into the fields that are supposed to support them, drink the farming pesticide and die.

Though the bamboo textile industry in many cases needs improvement, I believe that the more sustainable options these farmers have at their disposal, the better.

Image from the collection of the International Rice Research Institute

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