Sustainable Denim from Patagonia

Patagonia taps into new technology to evolve denim manufacturing

With its new denim collection launching, Patagonia is changing the way denim is made and raising the bar for environmental and human rights practices – using innovative, environmentally friendlier dye, Fair Trade Certified ™  sewing practices, and 100% organic cotton grown without pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers.

Filthy business of conventional denim drove Patagonia to rethink the entire process. Typically, denim production involves the use of dangerous chemicals to grow conventional cotton; dying it produces millions of gallons of wastewater; and, too often, jeans are sewn in factories where workers may not be treated fairly.

Patagonia’s new dyeing and manufacturing process uses dyestuffs that bond more easily to cotton, minimizing the resource-intensive and environmentally destructive indigo dyeing, rinsing and garment washing process used to create traditional denim.

Greatly reducing the environmental impact of the denim supply chain, Patagonia is using 84% less water, 30% less energy and emitting 25% less CO2 than conventional synthetic indigo denim dyeing processes.

All Patagonia denim is made with organic cotton that is grown without chemical or synthetic fertilizers, poisonous pesticides or herbicides. The entire process results in a color-rich, durable style – avoiding the environmental downsides of sandblasting, bleaching and stonewashing jeans.

“Traditional denim is a filthy business. That drove us to change the way our jeans are made,” said Helena Barbour, Patagonia’s Business Unit Director, Sportswear. “We wanted to find an alternative solution to using the standard indigo dyeing methods we once employed to create denim. It took several years of research, innovation, trial and error, but the result is a new path for denim. We’re hopeful other manufacturers will follow suit and help us change the denim industry.”

Source: Transworld Business

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• Water Management
• Sustainibility
• Textile