My uncle Tim and I have a very endearing relationship with regards to “this organic thing.” I think it started back when we initiated our office recycling program with Pedro’s Planet last fall and Tim gave me trouble about not wanting another thing near his desk (aka recycling bin). Then I got on his case about his daily trips to QuickTrip to get his and several other coworkers’ cold beverage (iced tea) fixes taken care of in the morning. “Tim, can’t you re-use the same cup-carrier every day? How about we just rinse our cups and you take the same ones to refill every day?” I pleaded. “Molly, I’m recycling paper now, leave me alone, and just go plant some trees,” he joked.

So you can imagine my shock and glee when he came in my office today to look for a sample of an organic hoody. I thought he was kidding at first, but since he seemed to be looking for one right away, I asked if he had a customer interested in organic. “I can find what I need!” he insisted. “Well I might be able to help you find it faster if you want. Believe it or not, I do know about those products,” I responded, referring to my lack of knowledge of any of the “regular” products we carry in our showroom!

“Okay, who makes this?” he complied.

“A company called Continental. And it’s really great because it’s actually manufactured using only wind and solar energy! But that’s going to be pricier. Your best bet is Independent,” I answered, happy to be putting all of my vendor and product sourcing work to good use finally! “Hold on, let me get you the info. I think that’s who just confirmed that they could give us case pricing.”

So I jotted down the info for him, and when walking by my office a few minutes later, he said, “Molly, don’t jump out of your skin or anything, but I met your challenge. They just placed an order for some organic hoodies.” (After presenting the sustainable apparel options that we can make available to our customers at a sales team meeting several weeks ago, I challenged each salesperson to make one “green” sale this spring.

“Way to go, Tim! Now you get a green leaf that I can put up above your desk!” I said, gleaming.

“No, I don’t want that. I’ve got a challenge for you now! You have to sell baseball team uniforms now!” (Baseball is my uncle’s forte.)

“Does kickball count? I’ve sold two kickball teams!”

“No, it has to be baseball!”

(And in case anyone’s wondering, the photo in this post is illustrative of Tim & I’s joking-aroundness. That’s me on the right, in full fall kickball gear, for some reason holding a wiffle ball bat, and Tim looking on with amusement on the left.)

It’s amazing how much better you can feel when your office space is clean and organized. Mine had been a wreck for almost two weeks between prep for the Earth Day festival and leaving town for the trade shows right after. Yesterday and today I spent some time cleaning up (and even decorating a bit) and I feel soo much better. Now my office functions as a mini retail space for EarthDance Tees (slash walk-in closet), showroom for our sustainable apparel options, and center of HR, legal, finance, and marketing operations for the company. Gotta love small business.

My favorite touch was hanging a big Sportsprint banner on the wall (maybe 10 feet long) that’s probably as old as I am. Because it’s so old some of the lettering and logo has peeled off in places, giving the look of an old retro t-shirt print. Some of my friends that noticed it at the festival in Forest Park even thought we made it to look like that.. “No, it’s authentically vintage,” I said. Just like the flaming red V-neck polyester sweater and kelly green men’s softball shorts I found on our racks last summer and have been sporting ever since. There’s some very fun things about a family business that’s been around since 1973.

Last night my sister and I returned from a wonderful weekend in Chicago, courtesy of S & S, which is one of our biggest vendors. It was our first time visiting their facility in Bolingbrook, Illinois, and holy cow, what a warehouse they’ve got. S & S has over 1400 different products, and distributes over 120 manufacturers’ lines. This year they’ve rolled out quite the array of sustainable apparel options, which makes it a lot easier and more cost efficient for us to buy and sell those items (compared to us sourcing them directly from 25 or so different vendors… of course, we still end up going direct for a lot of it, because certain companies make organic in certain styles or colors that our customers prefer).

During their Open House, we met with several reps from the manufacturers and learned more about their lines. I saw some samples of Anvil’s new recycled cotton line that I’m very excited about. They have a great color palette, and because of their distribution channels, the shirts will be competitively priced. We had actually just ordered some recycled cotton tees from a company out of Utah, but aren’t so happy with them after they completely lost our paperwork on an order and didn’t ship out our shirts until the day we were supposed to have them printed for our customer! Argh! (Sorry MVOR!) Hopefully we’ll have a better experience with Anvil.

I also met a rep from Edun’s line of organic cotton tees, completely grown and sewn in Africa. Edun is a clothing line started by Bono and his wife, and their goal with it is to provide employment opportunities and economic growth for several communities in Africa. Great cause. (Too bad the tees only come in natural, white, or black though)

After checking out all the clothing samples, we watched a fashion show of what’s new in 08, ate a scrumptious buffet dinner, and went on a tour of their operations. I will say one thing that I’d really like S & S to improve on though: there’s no recycling in their facility! I was also shocked to see the same was true for the Sofitel Water Tower Hotel, where they put us up for the weekend. It was super fancy, and really fun to stay in such a posh place for a weekend, but I was quite dismayed that 1) they didn’t have one of those little signs in the bathroom about cutting down on water waste by not washing our towels and sheets every day 2) NO recycling. I know Mayor Daly wants to make Chicago the greenest city in the country. I noticed the recycling containers all over town and in the airport.. now get them in hotels and businesses!

I was pretty excited on April 17th and not just because Earth Day was just around the corner.

We decided to move forward with an initiative called Lean, Clean, & Green, and will be working closely with the good folks at Missouri Enterprise to reduce waste, reduce energy usage, and source the greenest supplies for our company. Lean manufacturing has long been a sought after method of manufacturers wanting to streamline their operations to not only reduce waste of materials, but also reduce wasted TIME. Consultants get paid big bucks to help manufacturing businesses “lean” their operations, with the idea that the money will be returned to the company tenfold (or more) in the savings it will see in a short period of time.

We have decided to work with Missouri Enterprise on this program for several reasons:

1. Missouri Enterprise is actually a not-for-profit consulting firm (which is somewhat misleading, because they’re really all about profit, but in a way that’s good for everyone involved). This means that they offer services at a much lower cost than traditional consulting firms, and that means that a small family business like ours can actually work with them.
2. We love their mission: to help Missouri businesses succeed! ’nuff said.
3. They have a stake in seeing us succeed: they’re compensated based on the effectiveness of the program they enlist us in.
4. This program is about much more than just streamlining our operation. It will give us our initial diagnosis and plan of action for greening our company.
5. We’ve been chosen to receive some grant assistance to cover the cost of the program, making it affordable for us AND allowing us to be a pilot project of the program in Missouri. Yeah, basically we’re the guinea pig.

Check out more on Missouri Enterprise on their website.

Check out more on their Lean, Clean, and Green program here.

On Sunday, April 20th, 2008, St. Louis came out to frolick in the beautiful Forest Park to celebrate Earth Day at its annual festival put on by St. Louis Earth Day. I personally had not been to the festival since I was about 15 because I’m always out of town, so I was excited to see what the event had become. (I still remember doing my first 5K road race with Betsy Farmer at that Earth Day when we were 15.)

It’s gotten sooooooo big! Of course, we are in the year of “Don’t even think about publishing a magazine, sending out an e-newsletter, or spending big bucks on an ad campaign without making GREEN one of the foremost article titles”… As a long-time greenie, it’s great news that the day when eco is on the tip of everyone’s tongues has finally come, but of course some of it is very irritating at the same time (for example I just came across a website advertising polos made from organic American-grown corn… while there ARE shirts made from an innovative fabric made from corn!, the corn is NOT organic. Argh. more on that later)

So back to the festival. Our booth was definitely multi-tasking on that day. We had a section for tees that specifically benefit The Fiji Organic Project and Trailnet; we had the old “Wooden Nickels” box from Wild Oats (salvaged from the dump when Whole Foods took over!) for people’s spare change for donations, and we had our gorgeous new line of EarthDance Tees! We even showcased jewelry from Scarlett Garnet, made by our good friend /St. Louis jewelry designer Katie Miller.

EarthDance Tees is a new not-for-profit division of Sportsprint. All proceeds from EarthDance Tees benefit a new project that helps folks bring out the culture in agri[culture]. EarthDance grows local Food, Art, Relationships, and Music. Come FARM with us! We’re setting our sights on buying a 14 acre organic farm in Ferguson, Missouri, to ensure that it remains a working organic farm and to use it as a site for environmental education, youth leadership building and skill sharing, and a cultural center for the community.

We ended up selling 44 t-shirts at the festival, and have already sold 7 more since! Besides having steady sales for the day, we were happy to meet so many festival goers and friends at our booth! (It was also a treat to see my 2nd grade teacher, whom I hadn’t seen in years! Mrs. Einig was always one of my favorites Looking forward to many more outdoor festivals as the weather warms… C’mon sun - do your thang!

[The date for our first photo shoot is pending, but stay posted for photos of our beautiful designs!]

When it comes to products, the 3 R’s {Reduce - Reuse - Recycle} can help to determine how eco-friendly it is.

• Reduce the impact of the material the product is made from.
• Buy high-quality products that can be re-used easily and often.
• Recycle the scraps created from the manufacturing process.

Ask these questions about the product:

1. What type of material is the product made from?
   • Is it recycled?
   • Is it from a fast-renewing resource?
   • Is it produced LITE*-ly? (*with Low Impact to the Environment)
2. What is the product’s lifecycle?
   • Will it bio-degrade easily?
   • Is it durable enough to be re-used over and over again?
   • Is it recyclable?
3. How does the supplier reduce its impact on the environment?
   • Does the supplier aim to reduce its carbon footprint?

 Determining the “green”ness of a product can be a grey area. You’ll need to decide which components are most important to you. For example, using a local supplier is more eco-friendly than shipping in from another continent, but the organic cotton grown in Turkey and Pakistan puts less toxic chemicals into our ecosystems than conventionally-grown cotton in the U.S.

from Jan 08 Printwear magazine:

The global organic cotton apparel, home and personal care products market topped one billion dollars in 2006, with estimates projecting many times that number in years to come, according to results of a forthcoming report from Berkeley-based Organic Exchange (OE). Report highlights were released at the organization’s fifth annual conference and marketplace in Monterey, Oct 31 - Nov 2, with more than 330 professionals from 39 countries in attendance, representing the entire global organic fiber supply chain. According to the OE Organic Cotton Market Report 2007, global retail sales for organic cotton products is projected to increase 83% to $1.9 billion by the end of 2007, $3.5 billion in 2008, $4.5 billion in 2009, and $6.8 billion in 2010.

Reasons for past market growth include strong consumer demand for apparel, home textile and personal care products containing organic fibers as well as expansion of organic cotton programs by companies that have been in the organic market for several years. Additionally, organic cotton apparel has become more fashion-forward, with a wider variety of products across categories. Other trends include increased use of other organic fibers, such as organic wool, linen, and even leather, and certification to standards such as the Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS) and Oeko-Tex processing standards, as well as Fair Trade. Founded in 2002, OE facilitates expansion of the global organic cotton fiber supply by working closely with farmers, leading brands and retailers and their business partners to develop organic cotton programs.

{molly’s 2 cents: Organic Exchange is an awesome organization– great example of folks who are in it for the right reasons!}

Two major apparel-makers announce more eco-options in 08:

 ALO introduces bamboo as a basic for spring to reinforce its mission to minimize the environmental impact of its fabrics. The performance fabric featured in several men’s and women’s styles blends stretch bamboo and cotton spandex to create a lightweight, breathable jersey fabric. This product also boasts moisture-wicking properties and is naturally anti-bacterial, hypoallergenic, and breathable with no added chemicals. 

Apparel maker Anvil knitwear reveals the next line in its sustainable apparel collection: AnvilRecycled t-shirts. Made from a pre-consumer recycled cotton blend, AnvilRecycled t-shirts will be available this spring!

The primary components of the shirts are the clippings that are created when making other tees. These clippings are then sorted by color and chopped into a fine, linty material, which is spun into yarn and used to produce the recycled cotton t-shirts. The simplified manufacturing process reduces use of energy and resource. By re-processing pre-consumer textile scraps into consumer-ready shirts, Anvil is able to reduce incinerator and landfill waste. Also, the dyeing process is eliminated becaues the textile clippings are color blended.

from Promowear Magazine, March/April 08

{Molly’s notes: The alo bamboo tanks are super cute. My favorite colors that it comes in are “leaf” and “currant” –shown here– They also make short-sleeve and long-sleeve bamboo tees. Ali and I had some printed with StLouisGreen.com’s logo on the tail for their fabulous launch party on the 6th.

I’m excited about Anvil’s new venture into recycled cotton tees, because this will make them more readily available on the market.. I sourced some from the company that will actually be manufacturing them for Anvil, but this means that hopefully more folks will know about and buy recycled cotton tees!}