If you happened to miss the vision for this project, you'll find it back here.
I have decided to go with using the OBREDIMET method of working through this design, as I'm hoping to try out all methods to see which feel the most comfortable and useful to me.
I have decided to go with using the OBREDIMET method of working through this design, as I'm hoping to try out all methods to see which feel the most comfortable and useful to me.
Observations
I thought I would start by learning a little more about conventional cotton growing and clothing production. I know that it is very damaging to the environment but I think that knowing the ins and outs of it will most likely be the motivation I need to kick start this project. And I was right! The more I look into the damage caused by conventional cotton production, the more I feel a fire in my belly to try and work towards a solution. I have been passionate about organic food and the benefits to the environment for some time now, but for some reason haven't included my clothing in my thought processes. Now when I look at a clothing store, or even the clothes on people's backs around me, an internal voice is saying "yeah, beautiful skirt, but are those chemical dyes? and I'll bet its not organic cotton!" And my head is filling with images of polluting rivers and slave labour sweatshops, cotton plants sprayed with some of the worlds most dangerous chemicals, local people living amongst the chemical runoff.. If I ever needed something to motivate me to stop shopping, I think I've found it.
This information comes from People Tree's website:
2.5% of all farmland worldwide is used to grow cotton, yet 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of insecticides are sprayed on cotton. Do a bit of maths, and you find that eight times more pesticide is used on one hectare of conventional cotton, than on other crops.
Organic cotton farming is not only less destructive to the environment, but provides better income for farmers and is sustainable long term.
This information comes from People Tree's website:
2.5% of all farmland worldwide is used to grow cotton, yet 10% of all chemical pesticides and 22% of insecticides are sprayed on cotton. Do a bit of maths, and you find that eight times more pesticide is used on one hectare of conventional cotton, than on other crops.
- Environmental destruction
Heavy pesticide use reduces biodiversity, disrupts ecosystems, and contaminates water supplies. Worse still, pests exposed to synthetic pesticides build up a resistance to them. So each year, farmers have to buy and use more pesticides to grow the same amount of cotton - increasing the annual damage to the environment. - Spiral of debt
Pests build up resistance to chemicals, farmer borrows money to buy more chemicals than before, farmer gets less profit from crop, repeat until farmer is destitute. In parts of India agricultural chemicals take up 60% of the farmer's production budget. In Maharashtra alone, the government estimates that over 1,000 farmers have committed suicide since 2001 because they were irrevocably in debt. - Health
Many chemicals used in cotton farming are acutely toxic. At least three of them are in the "dirty dozen" - so dangerous that 120 countries agreed at a UNEP conference in 2001 to ban them. So far this hasn't happened. The World Trade Organisation estimates 20,000 deaths and three million chronic health problems each year are the result of the use of agricultural pesticides in developing countries.
Organic cotton farming is not only less destructive to the environment, but provides better income for farmers and is sustainable long term.
- Environmentally friendly
Organic cotton farming uses natural pesticides (usually containing a mixture of chilli, garlic and soap). This keeps pests off the crops, but does not destroy their natural predators - which survive to control their numbers naturally. Intercropping is also used. This is where secondary crops (often sunflowers or millet) are grown between and around small plots of cotton. These create a natural barrier against the boll weevils, which cannot sniff out their favourite snack through the extra foliage. (These secondary crops may also provide another cash crop or food for the farmers, a useful backup in case of a poor cotton harvest.) In stark contrast to conventional methods, this way of farming actually promotes biodiversity; organic cotton fields contain a significantly higher number of insect species (especially those that are beneficial). - Sustainable
Unlike the insatiably thirsty conventional methods of cotton production, organic cotton is largely rain-fed. The soils are fertilised with natural organic materials, which help to give the soil higher humus content - making it better able to retain moisture and its fertility.
Image showing the heaviest environmental impact areas of the fashion industry
I found the following information from the website you can find here.
'According to information from Bluesign Technologies, growing cotton for use in textiles requires between 8,000 liters and 40,000 liters of water per kilogram of cotton. Producing textiles creates up to 600 liters of wastewater per kilogram of textiles. The chemically-saturated and toxic wastewater is what makes textiles such an environmentally damaging industry in China. Miller-McCune, a consultancy, estimates that only 10 percent of dye wastes are recycled.'
'The World Health Organization estimates that polluted water causes 75 percent of diseases in China, and over 100,000 deaths annually. Cancer rates among villagers who live along polluted waterways are significantly higher than the national average.
According to information in a Scipeeps.com article, 70 percent of lakes and rivers in China are polluted, as is an astounding 90 percent of the groundwater. More than 320 million Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water – that’s more than the entire population of the United States.'
'It can take more than 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton; equivalent to a single T-shirt and pair of jeans. The use of genetically-modified (GM) cotton varieties has increased remarkably in recent years reaching 20% (67.7 million ha) of the global crop area in 2002'
(WWF website, link here)
The video below highlights the impact that the clothing industry is having on China. It's really staggering..
You can see the full web page of this here
'According to information from Bluesign Technologies, growing cotton for use in textiles requires between 8,000 liters and 40,000 liters of water per kilogram of cotton. Producing textiles creates up to 600 liters of wastewater per kilogram of textiles. The chemically-saturated and toxic wastewater is what makes textiles such an environmentally damaging industry in China. Miller-McCune, a consultancy, estimates that only 10 percent of dye wastes are recycled.'
'The World Health Organization estimates that polluted water causes 75 percent of diseases in China, and over 100,000 deaths annually. Cancer rates among villagers who live along polluted waterways are significantly higher than the national average.
According to information in a Scipeeps.com article, 70 percent of lakes and rivers in China are polluted, as is an astounding 90 percent of the groundwater. More than 320 million Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water – that’s more than the entire population of the United States.'
'It can take more than 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton; equivalent to a single T-shirt and pair of jeans. The use of genetically-modified (GM) cotton varieties has increased remarkably in recent years reaching 20% (67.7 million ha) of the global crop area in 2002'
(WWF website, link here)
The video below highlights the impact that the clothing industry is having on China. It's really staggering..
You can see the full web page of this here
I also recently saw a film called The Corporation, a documentary outlining the behaviours of corporations in the modern world. A part of that film focused on sweatshop clothing production, showing how clothing for brand names was produced, paying the workers pennies an hour to produce clothing sold for much, much more than that. I knew that this existed, and I knew that I didn't want to play any part in this system. But in reality, every time I buy a new shirt or something for Ohli, I have no idea what journey that piece of clothing made to find it's way to me. I feel like I've had my eyes closed shut to the story of the fabrics that I hold close to mine and my childs skin every day of our lives.
These are just a tiny fragment of the information out there surrounding the damaging affects of conventional cotton production and chemical dying processes.There is a lot more out there that is shocking and horrifying, a simple google search will pull up more than you would ever want to see.
Next I began to research business start up advice, to give me an idea of what I may be getting into in a 'starting a business' sense. I then looked into ecologically minded clothing companies and looked into their ethics, materials and company styles. I then started to look for organic fabric suppliers.
Business start-up advice
I have been looking up things that may help me along the way, and discovered a new term, the mumpreneur!
There were several articles I found that described the reality of setting up your own business whilst also having children, how to balance everything and what could generally be expected. You can find links to these in the appendix.
From this I am getting a real sense of just how much hard work is involved if I want to make this work out. I will need to keep a check on my energy levels and stay excited about the project so it doesn't become too much to handle. I will need to catch and store energy, in several different ways. In a personal sense, I can keep energy reserves by maintaining time to myself, giving myself thinking space. Taking care of myself nutritionally will help to keep me in balance. And also in a practical sense, working with other people around me, maintaining contact with folk that will offer support and encouragement, and also those who may possibly contribute to the project in other ways, keeping that contact so it can be called on in times of need.
Earth friendly clothing companies
I spent a lot of time looking into other organic clothing companies. I looked into their ethical policies, information on materials they used, where and how they had their clothes made, and what style and range of clothes they had. You can see this research here.
I couldn't find out everything, but after a while I started to get the feeling that although a lot of companies 'market' themselves as ethical, there seemed to be big gaps in their ethics. Most companies made no mention of whether the colours they used for their clothes were non-toxic and naturally based, or whether the garments were made in fairtrade supported environments.
One example is in a blog from the owner of a Welsh organic company, Howies. Their website is really cool, lots of inspiring information and nice things to look at. They even make clothes from threads recycled from the factory floors. But he mentioned that he had done some looking into how far some of his clothes travel to be made and it was incredible.
They make a long sleeved merino top, "which generates 2.60 kg of CO2 from fibre to delivery in Cardigan, and the product travels 45,809 km in total.
The supply chain is:
Fibre from Southern Alps, NZ.
Goes to China to be made into yarn.
Back to NZ to be made into fabric.
On to Fiji to be cut & sewn.
To the UK via Auckland and LA.
Then London to Cardigan."
Whaaa? you have to be kidding. I wouldn't have believed that this could be cost effective, but it must be. And this is one of the companies who strives to be ethical. Hearing this makes me realise the compromises that businesses make to cut their costs. It also makes me think about all the other clothes on the high streets, how far did they come? I'm starting to feel as though I'm lifting the lid on a huge amount of craziness I wasn't paying any attention to, but that's all around me.
I found companies using some really interesting materials; hemp, bamboo, recycled rubber, soya and tencel. I don't know a huge amount about the different fabrics out there and what their qualities are, but it's great to get an idea of some possibilities.
One of the companies I most respect and admire so far is People Tree. They design their clothes with the craftspeople in mind, favouring designs that provide more work for local craftspeople through adding aspects to their designs that are made by hand. I thought about what it is that makes them stand out to me. I realised that it was that they seem to put a priority on the people and the welfare of everyone involved. This I haven't seen anywhere else, I find it really inspiring. Really fits with the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share that I am following.
I looked further into their suppliers and found some of the companies they use for growing organic cotton and for making it into clothing. Some really wonderful companies, and as far as I can see all in Bangladesh. As a company they seem to be really making a difference, I am very inspired by the lady behind the company Safia Minney.
I couldn't find out everything, but after a while I started to get the feeling that although a lot of companies 'market' themselves as ethical, there seemed to be big gaps in their ethics. Most companies made no mention of whether the colours they used for their clothes were non-toxic and naturally based, or whether the garments were made in fairtrade supported environments.
One example is in a blog from the owner of a Welsh organic company, Howies. Their website is really cool, lots of inspiring information and nice things to look at. They even make clothes from threads recycled from the factory floors. But he mentioned that he had done some looking into how far some of his clothes travel to be made and it was incredible.
They make a long sleeved merino top, "which generates 2.60 kg of CO2 from fibre to delivery in Cardigan, and the product travels 45,809 km in total.
The supply chain is:
Fibre from Southern Alps, NZ.
Goes to China to be made into yarn.
Back to NZ to be made into fabric.
On to Fiji to be cut & sewn.
To the UK via Auckland and LA.
Then London to Cardigan."
Whaaa? you have to be kidding. I wouldn't have believed that this could be cost effective, but it must be. And this is one of the companies who strives to be ethical. Hearing this makes me realise the compromises that businesses make to cut their costs. It also makes me think about all the other clothes on the high streets, how far did they come? I'm starting to feel as though I'm lifting the lid on a huge amount of craziness I wasn't paying any attention to, but that's all around me.
I found companies using some really interesting materials; hemp, bamboo, recycled rubber, soya and tencel. I don't know a huge amount about the different fabrics out there and what their qualities are, but it's great to get an idea of some possibilities.
One of the companies I most respect and admire so far is People Tree. They design their clothes with the craftspeople in mind, favouring designs that provide more work for local craftspeople through adding aspects to their designs that are made by hand. I thought about what it is that makes them stand out to me. I realised that it was that they seem to put a priority on the people and the welfare of everyone involved. This I haven't seen anywhere else, I find it really inspiring. Really fits with the permaculture ethics of earth care, people care and fair share that I am following.
I looked further into their suppliers and found some of the companies they use for growing organic cotton and for making it into clothing. Some really wonderful companies, and as far as I can see all in Bangladesh. As a company they seem to be really making a difference, I am very inspired by the lady behind the company Safia Minney.
The fibreshed project
I think this would come under observations too, I've been very inspired by this lady's projects for some time.
What I like most about Rebecca Burgess is that she combines natural dying, foraging, and permaculture all together, just as they should be. She connects local craftspeople and has created this work entirely from her local area. And I think that the things she makes are just beautiful.
Even though what she is doing is very different to what I am trying to set up, there is so much I can be inspired from here. She connects local craftspeople to create things together, and uses only natural materials and colours. I really love the fact that everything she makes is within a 'fibreshed' - the fibres are grown, clothing made and dye plants collected all within a few hundred miles of her home. She lives in Northern California, where things like this are very possible to do. There are old abandoned mills nearby where they used to produce cotton in days gone by, the climate is just right for it.
I'd like to find a way to integrate these ideas into my project. I think I'm hitting some boundaries and possible resource ideas here, will continue on with this train of thought under those sections.
What I like most about Rebecca Burgess is that she combines natural dying, foraging, and permaculture all together, just as they should be. She connects local craftspeople and has created this work entirely from her local area. And I think that the things she makes are just beautiful.
Even though what she is doing is very different to what I am trying to set up, there is so much I can be inspired from here. She connects local craftspeople to create things together, and uses only natural materials and colours. I really love the fact that everything she makes is within a 'fibreshed' - the fibres are grown, clothing made and dye plants collected all within a few hundred miles of her home. She lives in Northern California, where things like this are very possible to do. There are old abandoned mills nearby where they used to produce cotton in days gone by, the climate is just right for it.
I'd like to find a way to integrate these ideas into my project. I think I'm hitting some boundaries and possible resource ideas here, will continue on with this train of thought under those sections.
I continued my search by looking into possible sources of fabric and natural dyes.
I found that to buy wholesale organic fabric from the internet is going to be incredibly expensive. Average prices around £20 per metre, when it would take a couple of metres to make a pair of trousers. I'm definatley going to need to cut out the middle man and go direct to the fabric producers.
I found that to buy wholesale organic fabric from the internet is going to be incredibly expensive. Average prices around £20 per metre, when it would take a couple of metres to make a pair of trousers. I'm definatley going to need to cut out the middle man and go direct to the fabric producers.
What I have learned so far
So I can see that there is quite a choice to be made here which will significantly affect how I go about all this. Everything depends on what kind of business I want, do I want clothes making to be a hobby with hopefully a bit of spare cash on the side, or do I want this to be a full on, all out community business venture that I invest a significant amount of time and energy into, making this quite a primary activity? Or perhaps somewhere in the middle?
I found it useful here to look back at my original vision;
There are many functions that could be served from creating this company. More may come along, but so far I can list- creating an income pathway for my family, learning new crafts, skills and techniques, empowering and providing employment for local and traditional craftspeople, spreading knowledge of natural crafts, increasing awareness of the pollution involved with the clothing production and dying industry, and breaking through internal creative blockages.
The ethics here are very important. I need to create a design that will work on all levels; to create and maintain a healthy and nourishing environment for me and Ohli, to create a healthy and productive business, and to have a positive affect on the wider community.
I thought now would be a good time to think about the highest vision I have at this time for this idea.
I found it useful here to look back at my original vision;
- To create a sustaining livelihood so I can support my family
- To increase my knowledge of natural crafts and learn new skills which I can then share with others
- To find an outlet for my creativity that also benefits my wider community
There are many functions that could be served from creating this company. More may come along, but so far I can list- creating an income pathway for my family, learning new crafts, skills and techniques, empowering and providing employment for local and traditional craftspeople, spreading knowledge of natural crafts, increasing awareness of the pollution involved with the clothing production and dying industry, and breaking through internal creative blockages.
- To do all of this whilst also creating an ecologically sound business which I can be proud of
The ethics here are very important. I need to create a design that will work on all levels; to create and maintain a healthy and nourishing environment for me and Ohli, to create a healthy and productive business, and to have a positive affect on the wider community.
I thought now would be a good time to think about the highest vision I have at this time for this idea.
Brainstorm of my highest vision for this project
Here you can continue to the next stage, boundaries
