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Nestled along the northeastern banks of China's Pearl River is Xintang, Guangdong, a city also known as the "world's factory floor." Factories in Xintang make toys, electronics, and textiles for the global market, including an estimated 200 million pairs of blue jeans each year for 60 foreign brands. There's big dough in denim — 450 million jeans are sold annually in the US alone — and Xintang definitely qualifies as the "blue jean capital of the world."1 This distinction has regretfully marked the river itself, though, as the indigo dye used to tint the cotton has leaked into the delta's waters, leaving an inky plume visible to satellite imaging. After I read that the Pearl River provides water for 47 million people, thinking about how my jeans probably polluted it made me feel blue myself. After all, I can check for which fruits are organic and which cosmetics have not been tested on animals, but there's really no way to research which garments have been responsibly produced.
Last week, a group named the Sustainable Apparel Coalition announced plans to meet that consumer need. Their aim is to create a comprehensive database measuring the environmental impact of apparel and footwear manufacturers. With 33 members, including companies as diverse as Nike and Nordstrom, Timberland and Target, REI and H&M, not to mention the Gap and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the coalition seems to be starting strong. Even executives from Walmart and Patagonia have worked closely together to initiate the organization, which expects to spend $2 million in 2011 on the development of a sustainability indexing tool.2 This tool would allow manufacturers to assign each garment a green score that consumers could consider in addition to "color, size, and fit,"3 reflecting ranks in several categories such as water use, greenhouse gas emissions, toxic waste management, and working safety conditions.
By publishing this information, the coalition hopes to achieve "full life cycle transparency" for their clothing and shoes, from their material origins to their distribution in stores. This task would seem to rely on regulation, and I'm glad the manufacturers invited governmental and academic groups to collaborate in their green endeavor. Pollution is already out of style — let's hope this commitment helps clothing companies keep up with the fad.
Image Credit: Library of Congress
1. Chang, E. "China's Famed Pearl River under Denim Threat." CNN World. April 26, 2010.
2. Kaye, L. "Clothing Industry Giants Launch Sustainable Apparel Coalition." The Guardian. March 1, 2011.
3. Zeller, Jr., T. "Clothes Makers Join to Set 'Green Score.'" The New York Times. March 1, 2011.
