ROOTED TO NATURE RADIO
Host - Zach Matheson
October 2007
ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Rooted to Nature Radio. Today's program is part one of a three part discussion on sustainable lifestyles in natural fibers. Natural fibers are making their way into the mainstream of the clothing industry, but unlike much of fashion, this is not a trend rather a change for the better in the industry. We now join Zach Matheson of VTalk Radio, Cathy Montgomery of Rooted to Nature, Matt Reynolds of Indigenous Designs, and Scott of Greensteps in this open discussion.
ZACH: Ok, so Scott and Matt, from Indigenous Designs. Let's get started right away. What are some of the basics in the organic or eco friendly clothing industry today? Particularly what is considered a natural fiber?
SCOTT/MATT: We define natural fibers as material that actually come from nature such as cotton. Some of the fibers that are considered natural fibers include cotton, and for indigenous, that's organic cotton of course. Hemp, flax which is linen, silk, wool, alpaca. And there's lots of interesting types of fibers that are available on the market now. For instance, coconut husks can be used in fiber to make apparel as well as soy and other grasses that are available out there and other exotic fruits.
ZACH: Are indigenous or natural fibers, if you know, if I think of the cotton that goes into blue jeans or something like that, is there some sort of measurement that would measure what is an indigenous fiber. I mean, what's the difference say between you know an organic cotton as opposed to a traditional cotton?
SCOTT/MATT: Traditional cotton would be considered conventional cotton; which means it's grown without the use or it's grown with using pesticides and defoliants. So conventional cotton basically means it's using pesticides and defoliants in the process of growing the cotton. Organic means you're not using any type of pesticides and/or defoliants and you're using natural systems to grown the cotton and it's certified by a third party that that's being done.
ZACH: Ok, fantastic. So then these natural fibers, how do they once they get into the clothing process, how do they relate to the concept of sustainability?
CATHY: Well, I'll take that. There's a famous definition of sustainability that says, "Something is sustainable if it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." So, in terms of clothing or synthetic clothing made from petroleum, and we all know that the oil resources are being depleted whereas natural fiber clothing comes from resources that are renewable. So, that means we have plants, it's based on either plants or animals. So plants that are grown and harvested over a brief period of time, or animals that get an annual hair cut.
ZACH: That's good. I like that. That's kind good to know. So a sheep or an alpaca would qualify as that as opposed to leather goods. That's the type of haircut that doesn't happen more than once. Ok, then if I think of sustainable clothing like that, or sustainable fibers, are there any metrics that go into what happens to the fiber after it gets to the manufacturing site? For example, you can bring organic cotton or some alpaca to the clothing manufacturing site and all of a sudden they put all kinds of dies in it and stuff like that, or they use bleach to wash the jeans, etc. Is there anything that Indigenous Designs or Rooted to Nature has to say about that, or are there any qualifications with that?
SCOTT/MATT: Kathy, do you want me to answer that?
CATHY: Yeah, please do.
SCOTT/MATT: So, Indigenous Designs, we actually...there are certain things that allow a garment and/or the cotton to remain in its organic, certified status. And, one document or one certifier that we depend on is SKAL and they actually tell us what dye stuffs as we say in the industry can be used in the process of dyeing the cotton and/or the organic materials. This often means that things like azodioxin cannot be used. High levels of metals cannot be used in the dyeing of the organic cotton, and if they are then it loses that certification that SKAL will put on it. So, certainly there are different types of dyes and processes that are important to adhere to.
ZACH: Ok, so then, is it safe to say that, I mean, are all fibers that are, you know, all fibers that are natural or what Indigenous Designs called natural, are they all good up to the manufacturing process or does the manufacturing process need to be included in terms of their echo friendliness?
SCOTT/MATT: For Indigenous Designs, we take a holistic approach, so we really go from fiber or field all the way to fashion runway. In the process that we take to put our clothing together.
M/S: With the least amount of footprint.
SCOTT/MATT: So we are always trying to look at our ecological footprint, from the design process, from scratch all the way through to finished garment. And it's important that you adhere to, not only environmental types of practices that respect earth, but also the people that make them. So we're a fair trade and organic clothing company. Another point I would bring up is natural fibers don't necessarily mean organic. So, there's organic certifications that are in place for a lot of fibers that are out there, but you won't find hardly any organic certified hemp, although, hemp is a very replenishing to the earth crop. And the fiber it is considered sustainable. In general, natural fibers are, what we call, renewable resources and synthetics are not. So that's a big, big difference between the two.
SCOTT/MATT: And this is a good point to bring in the differences, like let's just use cotton. Between a nonorganic cotton and an organic cotton. Nonorganic cotton is called conventionally grown and it consumes approximately 25% of the insecticides around the world and devours roughly 1/3 of a pound of pesticides just to produce enough cotton to make a single t-shirt. and in contrast to that, organically grown cotton restores and builds the soil...builds up the soil increasing its organic matter which in turn increases its water retaining ability of the soil. So that creates a rich, moist earth which is better for plants and improves the soil for future generations. There is also benefits for water run off. So we...conventional cotton when it rains, runs off and can pollute rivers and harm wildlife; whereas organic crops have less water run off because the soil is stronger and what doesn't run off is not polluted with the pesticides or the synthetic fertilizers that would otherwise be in conventionally farmed cotton.
ZACH: Ok, so let me ask you a question and I think Kathy has some followup to that. If I'm just a normal consumer, and I wake up in the morning and instead of putting on a pair of blue jeans that aren't, you know that don't fall into those ideas you just talked about, I dress completely in sustainable and renewable clothing, how much of an impact does that quantitatively have? I mean, so do I wake up and put on a naturally grown, renewable shirt and now I can know that, hey I just prohibited or eliminated maybe half a pound of pesticides or something of that nature? I mean, is there something that I can feel as a consumer that I know have made a difference by maybe my purchase?
SCOTT/MATT: I would say that certainly every purchase makes a difference. It's not just one thing, it's many things that add up to a whole, but I think actually Kathy could shed some light on consumer activity and what makes a difference in the retail market and what her perception is.
CATHY: Well, thanks a lot. At our store, Rooted to Nature, we want customers to know that they can walk through the door and pick out anything in the store that they just like the looks of or how it fits and know that it is not harmful to the environment. We've preselected clothing such as the great stuff that comes from Indigenous Designs so that it has the right price point, it has the right look and feel, it's beautiful clothing, and almost as a bonus you know that you are also putting your green conscience into your clothing purchases. So you are having a positive effect all the way around.
ZACH: Ok, so that makes sense to me. So then as a consumer when I, one of the things I like about Rooted to Nature is that when I walk in, I can see well, these are clothes that I can you know I can relate to. They're not hard to wear, whereas I think before, sometimes green or echo friendly clothing also meant sort of avantgarde or really focused on a certain demographic. I think that that's changed and maybe you want to tell me a little bit about that, but also I think that when I look in there, I see well I can tell that the performance of these clothes is going to be the same as say another t-shirt or maybe even better. Does the performance of the clothes when they are grown or using these natural fibers, does that change, does it get better, is it just equal?
SCOTT/MATT: I think Kathy might be best to answer that, but I would like to concur with what she said. I think she hit a really positive vein, because at Indigenous, we believe in the bonus factor. We position our product to be fashion forward and to feel comfortable and fit with the life style within the market place. We believe that you don't have to sacrifice quality or fashion to be a good global citizen.
CATHY: That's right and in a consumer driven economy, you're purchasing power makes a big difference. We don't have to get up on a soapbox and try and change the world, you can just through your everyday purchases benefit, not only your own lifestyle and your own good looks and the performance factor of your clothing, but you can do something good for the environment as well.
ZACH: Do you guys think that, you know, as these clothes move more and more mainstream, what was the kick off point? Do you think it was because organic foods came to, you know, to the forefront, more people are choosing to eat organic? I mean, what do you think really started this trend towards thinking with your purchase?
MATT: I can take a stab at that one. This is Matt with Indigenous. We've been doing this for 14 years so we've definitely seen a shift in the market trend and the exciting emerging market of fair trade and organic. Back when we started the business, that was when organic food was just starting to gain momentum. And it started growing very rapidly after about 10 years of it being in the marketplace...maybe 10 - 15 years. What happened is that created a demographic which is called the LOHAS demographic which is an acronym for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability. And that group which now represents some 30% plus of the population of the United States has been consuming or purchasing based on quality and based on health and caring for the planet as well. And also in addition to fair trade because they're driving the fair trade movement at the same time. As they exploded in the organic food industry, they started looking for more and reaching out to try to find ways they could follow supply chains and better understand where the products that they were purchasing were coming from and how they were made and how people were being treated, and how it's impacted the environment. But this is also a very savvy customer. They are educated, they travel the world, and they do not want to sacrifice quality or style to be able to meet their means. So what we have watched is that the organic apparel movement has actually grown in the last 5 years much more rapidly than the organic food market, because it had the kick start of the organic food market's education and consumer awareness program that had been going for 10 - 15 years prior to this exciting boom in the organic clothing market. So, definitely I believe that this emerging market in fair trade organic apparel which right now is the fastest emerging market in women's apparel projected to be growing at about 60% annually is because of this LOHAS demographic which started out in the organic food world.
ZACH: And that acronym is LOHAS?
MATT: That's correct. Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability.
ZACH: Fantastic. Alright well with that, we're going to take a short break everyone. We'll be right back with Rooted to Nature and Scott and Matt from Indigenous Designs.
ANNOUNCER: This segment has been brought to you by Indigenous Designs. You can visit them on the web at www.indigenousdesigns.com .