The Layering Effect

What I want to produce?

The product that I want to create in order to improve technical metabolism and to act as “food” as discussed in William McDonough and Michael Braungart’s article is “buildable” clothing. I received a coat this winter that came with a down lining, a water-resistant over coat and a hood, the lining can be added or removed from the outer coat and the hood is reversible and can be attached to either layer of the coats. As I was packing up the down lining for the summer months I began to think about ways that allow us to utilize our clothes, or a form of our clothing, in all seasons. By creating articles of clothing like my coat that come with removable layers we would limit the amount of garments we need to create or feel the need to purchase. Other ideas I thought of would be removable sleeves to turn the jacket into a vest. By making garments multi-functional and transitional we would be able to keep them in the closet for longer. The linings and covers could even be sold separately so that consumers are able to mix and match. Ultimately, this would allow consumers to replace a coat overtime, which helps customers out financially and the environment out because they are discarding garments less frequently.

How will it apply metabolism?

I thought of this idea with the intention to work for both the metabolisms. The outer shell of the coat would ideally be water-resistant which would involve chemicals and so it takes it out of the running to be put back in to the earth, however this layer could be upcycled to make new overcoats as time goes on. The lining would be made with organic materials so that it would be possible to return to complete it’s lifecycle by biodegrading. 

Production Switch to Digital Printing

The last step in Cradle to Cradle is production. This is a crucial step because ithis is where the designs are manufactured into physical products. This is the step that can make a product sustainable. This is the step that can change our environmental impact. This is the step that separates Cradle to Cradle from Cradle to Grave. This is the step I’m going to focus on today.

The central concept of the C2CAD model is that sustainable properties are addressed whenever decisions are being made about the design and production. According to Hae Jin Gam in C2CAD: a sustainable apparel design and production model, considerations regarding sustainability in production include:

·      Safety of material inputs

·      Sustainable material flows

·      Energy use

·      Air emissions

·      Water

·      Solid waste

Surprisingly enough current industry software packages include features such as creating design, selecting and ordering materials, sourcing, producing products, calculating coast, and allocating inventory. The surprising part of this statement is that many of those features listed can be used to benefit the C2CAD model and yet it is still an issue. By incorporating C2CAD into software programs we could increase the possibility that companies will make their designs with sustainability in mind.

Technology is a vital tool that can be used for the benefit of sustainability. However, “technologists are engineering the fabrics of the future, [and] textile designers are the ones cleaning up the mess left behind,” says Bradley Quinn in his article Textile Futures. “Some tackle the growing problem of postconsumer waste, devising methods for recycling the garments that result from overproduction, and reusing the vast numbers of items worn for only one season. Others are finding ways to transform discarded industrial fabrics into textiles that are as beautiful as they are sustainable, making sure that the processes used to recycle them minimizes water pollution and chemical waste.”

My challenge this weak was to find a way to transform fabrics into textiles that are as beautiful as they are sustainable, making sure that the processes used to recycle them minimizes water pollution and chemical waste.

My solution is to remove traditional printing completely as an option and to replace it with digital printing. Digital printing is full of sustainable advantages. In an article, The New Wave of Digital Fabric Printing Technology, Gaurav Doshi lists these advantages of digital printing:

·      Design achieved with greater flexibility, without the limitation on repeat size, colors, engineered designs and gets outstanding depiction of continuous tone (photographic images

·      The digital printing equipment requires much less infrastructure and is costs less

·      Drastically trims down the time to market products

·      Mass customization requirements easily available in short time frame

·      Fast speed of operation

·      High resolution

And most importantly:

·      Decreases the use of water, dyes and solutions

·      Decreases industrial waste and print loss

·      Provides centralized manufacturing facility

With benefits like these I’m shocked that every designer hasn’t made the transition. I think that it is a crucial decision that needs to be made.

Switching to digital printing would be creating “food” value from the decrease in the waste put out. Digital printing also lends itself to upcycled materials so that they can continue to be utilized. Bottom line is that we have this incredible resource and we need to utilize it. We need to utilize it and improve on it so that eventually we could create dyes that are biodegradable that can be printed on to biodegradable garments. This is a switch we need to make now so that we can continue to learn and improve and expand our technology for the future. 

Nylon UP!

Nylon is an element used in a multitude of products extending past the textile industry. Nylon is used for making fishing nets, parachutes, cords, ropes, apparel and interior textiles, and as plastic. Because nylon is used in so many areas it is a great element to start with to begin to close the industrial loops.

Upcycling nylon puts old nylon products into new nylon products utilizing their technical metabolism.  By recycling nylon products this way it removes them from landfills and keeps manufacturer from having to create new nylon from scratch unnecessarily.

Intelligent Materials Pooling is defined by Michael Braungart in an article, Intelligent Materials Pooling: Evolving a Profitable Technical Metabolism, as being a “collaborative, business-to-business approach to managing industrial metabolism.” In an IMP business involved agree to share access to common supplies (in my solution, nylon), information and purchasing power. According to William McDonough and Michael Braungart in an article, New Perspectives, Nike, BASF and Herman Miller are the pioneers when it comes to IMP and have found that IMP is a key to optimizing the assets of cradle-to-cradle materials by focusing on technical metabolism.

My solution is that companies of all products (since nylon is so widely used) should form a community, regulate the toxic products and processes they are willing to use in order to gain their final product, and share the access to the high-quality nylon they are creating. One benefit of this solution is that when companies go in on nylon together they are able to buy in larger bulk orders than they would be able to single-handedly which will reduce costs spent. Another benefit is that since they have formed a community they are more able to hold a “monopoly” over the nylon companies which enables them to ensure that their sustainable demands are met during textile production. Lastly, they are able to donate more money to researching ways to upcycle nylon as well as a bigger pool of experience and information to share about technical processes and reprocessing.

The concept of technical metabolism is that a product is designed in order to go back into the technical cycle to create either the same product or a new product later. In the video they talked about a company, Designtex, that sought to make sustainable fabrics. Designtex’s goal was to create a “normal” product despite it’s sustainability. This meant that it still felt and acted as normal textiles would but had the added bonus of being sustainable. Designtex’s biggest component is that the life cycle does not stop at the “end of use” but extends to “reutilization” where it focuses on things like being recyclable and compostable, waste to fuel, closed loop system.

By upcycling nylon and reutilizing the nylon we currently have will be able to continue to create products that are worth as much now, if not more and maintain high quality. 

Going Local

We live in a world where truly local products have become a rare breed, but following after the example of designer Natalie Chanin, my suggestion for change this week is to become sustainable within the local community.

In Sustainable Fashion and Textiles, Kate Fletcher promotes localism because of the opportunity it provides for major change, limited editions, fibre grown closer to production sites, and design distinctiveness. Producing locally also provides us “with an occasion to produce and consume based on more sustainable models that recognize natural limits and the importance of reliable work to strong and resilient communities, while affirming the central role fashion and textiles plays in our culture.”

Bradley Quinn writes about Chanin’s impact on sustainability in Textile Futures. Chanin is known for introducing “ethical standards to the production process, refusing to produce her garments under sweatshop conditions,” and for guaranteeing every garment is produced by hand and by local women from her Alabaman community. Not only does Chanin focus on local sustainability, she also incorporates environmental sustainability by using recycled T-shirts as the base material for her designs.

An article written by Annie Buckley and published on craftzine.com covers Chanin’s unique business. The company is said to be based on a “cottage industry model” where the locals “essentially own their own business and set their own hours.” Chanin is responsible for the designing and sales but allows the local women she employs to sew the garments to choose the designs they want to make. After the sewers choose the design they are going to make they then purchase the materials needed to make the design from Chanin and at the end sell the finished good back.

I think that going local is logical. If designers offered their designs to be sold to local “factories” where sewers could choose what designs they wanted to make, use local goods and then sell the finished product back to the designer but to be sold locally or regionally it would cut down on shipment and packaging costs, provide more people with job opportunities, and provide customers with more one of a kind pieces. Obviously guidelines would need to be implemented, deadlines would have to be set, and the quality of the work would have to be monitored but by producing things locally and with local materials people would have more appreciation for the goods they create and purchase.

Going local also implements Industrial Ecology principles. The first principle that backs up the idea to go local is “don’t draw down resources.” This principle is explained with the example that a predator cannot completely eliminate its prey in one area and expect to survive. I think that by going local it would allow diversification to the crops planted and could reduce the crops planted in one area. Instead of all of the crops coming from one farm in one state, locals would be able to grow their own, or at least purchase the crops needed from a location closer their production site. The second principle that backs up the local production sites is the suggestion to “shop locally.” According to the article this step is almost always ignored completely. By producing goods locally the community is more likely to be aware of the goods and the people producing the goods and more willing to spend their money to support them. Shopping locally keeps transportation close to home. It also challenges consumers to educate themselves on the processes being used, the materials being used, and the benefits that occur from shopping locally.

We hear of projects in third world countries trying to provide jobs for local women so that they can provide for their communities and in turn their families thus making their economy sustainable. Just because we have the resources to produce off-site does not mean that we should. We should be smart with our resources and do our best to implement sustainable ways of life.

Back to a New Beginning

It is no secret that our environment is in trouble, we have been looking at the problems we are facing for the past few weeks. It is also no secret that in order to change the future of our environment we must make changes. But they can’t be subtle changes, or slow changes that occur over time. Janine Benyus quotes Cooper saying that “it won’t do to just tweak the current system and hope that we’ll evolve…Instead we must replace portions of our Type I economy with portions of a Type III economy until the whole thing mirrors the natural world.” The first dilemma we are faced with is deciding where to start. I suggest starting at the beginning, and according to the chapter How Will We Conduct Business the first step is to use waste as a resource.

In a previous blog I mentioned that sustainability does not start and stop with the production of the good but stays with the good for the entirety of its life-cycle. Sustainability applies to how a good is used, what is required to take care of it (i.e. clothes require laundering) and extends to the disposal of the good.  According to T.E. Graedel in Industrial Ecology

One of the most important concepts of industrial ecology is that, like the biological system, it rejects the concept of waste. Dictionaries define waste as useless or worthless material. In nature, however, nothing is eternally discarded; in various ways, all materials are reused, generally with great efficiency. Nature has adopted this approach because acquiring these materials from their reservoirs is costly in terms of energy and resources and thus something to be avoided whenever possible…Hence, materials and products that are obsolete should be termed residues rather than wastes, and it should be recognized that wastes are merely residues that our economy has not yet learned to use efficiently.

I think it is crucial to acknowledge that we have gotten in the habit of thinking that once we have disposed of a good it is no longer our problem. Then whose problem is it? The earth can’t handle the waste we force upon it and it shouldn’t have to. It is our responsibility to advocate on Earth’s behalf.

            The goal is to turn current waste into resources and implement strategies that prevent waste from building up again and again by turning the disposed goods back into usable resources immediately. Using principles suggested by Benyus I think that the best ways to turn waste back into resources is first by making recycled products appealing. I think that this is up to the designers. Consumers look to designers when they are looking to find the current and future trends. If designers make recycled materials functional and attractive, consumers will follow their lead. I also think that it is up to designers to design with the environment in mind. A designer has to consider the products entire life-cycle when making design decisions. They are responsible for choosing materials that are easy to care for to reduce wastes like water and energy when it comes to laundering, and they are responsible for choosing materials that are either easy to break down, durable enough to last, or easy to manipulate into new materials so that their clothing is easy to recycle.

            My design concept is based off of the example set by a few companies that have begun to take back their durable goods at the end of their life-cycle to repurpose them into new functional products. I think that every company should be required to do this. Clothing brands like Urban Renewal already take old articles of clothing and manipulate them into new one-of-a-kind garments. I think that clothing stores should offer benefits to customers for returning their used/worn clothing, and then should take the used/worn clothing and reuse it. This is not a new idea, but I believe that it is an effective one that should be required to be implemented by law. I think that this design concept implements both the ideas discussed above. If designers design for the environment then it will be easy for them to take the returned materials and recycle them into new goods. It also challenges designers to design classic durable pieces that consumers won’t have to return because they can continue to wear them forever. I think that this is extremely important when designing staple pieces like the little black dress, and articles of clothing that are always being sold—like jeans. I think that the design concept also fully challenges the designers to step up and set this as a trend. Enthusiasm is a huge part in winning over a crowd and if designers were to implement these strategies willingly then there wouldn’t need to be laws created to force them into action and they would have an enthusiastic following.

            I think the important thing about my design concept is that it is not necessarily a new idea, but it is not a widely implemented idea either. The idea has been proven to work, now it just needs to be enforced and promoted. Like I mentioned earlier, it cannot be a slow change. Designers need to agree that this is something worth doing and take the initiative to become sustainable from beginning to end so that the end turns into a new beginning.