In North Carolina, a T-shirt maker turns to biodegradable inks and organic
cotton and a chemical supplier offers customers "cleaner" dyes, while a Michigan
clothing firm relies on a woman’s sewing cooperative
by Avery Yale Kamila
Published in the May/June 2003 In Business
T.S. Designs, Inc.
(In Business, May/June 2003) Viewed from the parking lot, the headquarters of T.S.
Designs, Inc. resembles most industrial facilities. The 20,000 square foot metal-sided,
boxy building in Burlington, North Carolina is painted beige and sits on a wooded lot.
Once inside, however, the differences reveal themselves.
Magazines with a green bent grace the reception room table. Recycling receptacles
abound and much of the office furniture is bought second-hand to conserve profits and
resources. In the break room, there is a "sharing closet" where employees can leave or
pick up used clothing. Organic coffee is available free to employees at all times, and
Styrofoam cups were replaced with reusable mugs long ago.
"Small positive things done over a long period of time have the biggest impact
on sustainability," says Eric Henry, president of this T-shirt screen printing
business. And small changes are evident throughout the business. Lights that were
installed on the ceiling by the builder--the usual location--have been lowered to
provide the employees with better task lighting. The lighting system, which is
currently being converted to more efficient bulbs, is set to a timer and goes off
during lunch and at night. The company is working with the EPA’s Greenlight program
to reduce its overall energy use.
Outside a back door, the soil has been tilled in preparation for the planting of
an organic garden. The company provides all the seeds and supplies, and any employee
who volunteers to work in the garden can partake in its bounty. Someday soon a
windmill may stand watch over the garden. The company’s executives are investigating
both solar and wind power generators as a supplemental energy source.
All of these positive changes are part of a larger campaign to transform the
company’s business strategy. Henry and his partner and founder, Tom Sineath, are
working to move the company from an old, unsustainable business model to a new,
greener strategy. Or as the stickers T.S. Designs gives to their retail customers
read: "How a T-shirt can help save the world."
The stickers refer to the new, earth-conscious T-shirt printing process that
T.S. Designs and neighboring Burlington Chemical Company invented and patented.
The process, called Rehance, uses nanotechnology to adhere dyes to cotton.
"Rehance was developed using green technology," says Henry, as he explains
how the new printing process eliminates the use of plastic inks, which are the
screen printing standard.
Eliminating Plastic Inks, Using Biodegradable Dyes
Plastic inks, known as plastisol inks in the industry, are made from PVC plastic, which
contain dioxin and phthalates, both harmful to humans.
Plastic inks are the industry standard because of their low cost and the material’s
versatility. The majority of T.S. Designs’ customers still opt for the plastic
prints because they cost $2 to $3 less than Rehance shirts.
The Rehance shirts may cost more, but some buyers prefer it. Instead of using
plastic inks, Rehance uses biodegradable dyes. The process produces a soft, breathable
shirt that lacks the heavy plastic imprints that can crack and stick to skin.
Henry notes that customers who order T-shirts for use as employee uniforms prefer
Rehance shirts for their superior comfort. Rehance customers include Whole Foods,
Harley-Davidson, Greenpeace, Krispy Kreme, Peace Coffee, and Ben and Jerry’s.
"While we were doing this," says Henry, referring to the company’s creation of the
Rehance printing method. "I realized the difference between conventional grown
cotton and organic cotton."
According to the Sustainable Cotton Project, based in Oroville, California,
conventional farmers use 1/3 of a pound of chemicals to produce the cotton for
one T-shirt. This chemical soup includes fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides,
and defoliants. In response, T.S. Designs offers customers 100 percent organic
cotton shirts made by Maggie’s Functional Organics. The shirts are greener
because the cotton is not showered in chemicals.
Katherine Polan, the "Care What You Wear" coordinator for the Sustainable
Cotton Project, reports that the organic cotton market "is growing about 22
percent a year." However, she also observes that the number of U.S. acres planted
with organic cotton shrank to 9,000 acres in 2002 from 17,000 acres in 2001.
This occurred because more organic cotton is being grown outside of the U.S.
The cotton for T.S. Designs’s Rehance T-shirts is a natural hue--giving its
customers greater flexibility. T-shirts printed using plastic inks are purchased
already dyed. Rehance shirts are dyed by T.S. Designs to meet the customer’s color
specifications. Therefore, if blue shirts are selling like hotcakes, T.S. Designs’
customers do not have to wait weeks for more blue shirts to be imported. Instead,
they can call T.S. Designs and tell them to start dyeing more shirts blue.
The organic Rehance shirts are a reflection of T.S. Designs’ accounting method,
which is based on the three P‘s: People, Planet, Profits. This triple-bottom-line
approach to business means that T.S. Designs strives to balance the needs of
employees and nature with the company’s need to make money. "One thing sustainability
does for us," explains Henry, "is give us a broader base from which to make decisions.
We don‘t make decisions based strictly on the environment, strictly on people, or
strictly on profit. If you don’t address all three P’s, it is not sustainable."
55 Employees, $3 Million Sales
One example of this balancing act, is the company’s decision to continue to produce
plastic printed shirts. Henry estimates that if T.S. Designs eliminated this printing
option, a third of the company’s 55 employees would have to be let go. Instead, the
company continues to manufacturer both products, while Henry promotes the higher
quality Rehance shirt. To ensure this level of quality, the company has become
vertically integrated. "We control the product from the yarn to the finished product.
This gives us greater control over consistency. Our gross sales are going to explode
now that we are providing T-shirts, not just printing services," says Henry.
Henry reports that the company has gross sales of $3 million a year. Without
disclosing specifics, he admits that the company "had an extremely tough year last
year, but we have things back on track now." T.S. Designs is facing the same economic
forces that plague the rest of the U.S. textile industry. According to the American
Textile Manufacturers Institute, 153 U.S. textile mills have closed in the last two
years. Since 1997, 252 have closed.
Cass Johnson is the associate vice president of international trade at the
American Textile Manufacturers Institute. He attributes the market woes to the
intervention of Asian governments in the currency markets. "This keeps their
currencies low," he says, "and makes Asian imports cheaper." Johnson says that
China poses a long-term threat to the U.S. textile industry. "It’s estimated that
their currency is 40 percent undervalued. The state runs the textile industry,
which means it is subsidized. They have terrible working conditions and low
wage rates."
While textile mills across town and across the country have gone out of
business and sweatshops flourish in the Third World, T.S. Designs continues
to print T-shirts here in the U.S. "As bad as our economy is, as bad as our
industry is, we are lucky to be as successful as we are. But it’s not where
we are today," explains Henry, "it’s where we want to go. Sustainability
makes a company more aware, responsible--and accountable."
Maggie's Functional Organics
In 1992, natural food industry veteran Bena Burda wanted to start her own
company. She had a financial backer, a resume that included Eden and Little Bear Burritos,
and a desire to branch out from the food industry. But she didn’t have a product.
At the same time, she was working with a Texas farmer to improve the color of his
certified organic blue corn. He supplied it to Little Bear Burritos for the production
of blue corn chips. As a solution to the corn’s color problems, the farmer introduced
cotton to his crop rotation. His hope was to change the soil chemistry, which would
influence the color of the corn grown in that soil.
A few months later, Burda received a phone call from the farmer. He informed her that his
organic cotton crop soon would be ready for harvest. He wanted to know when she could pay for
it and pick it up. Little Bear Burritos had no use for organic cotton. Burda, however, saw
the potential for a new product and a new company. She purchased the 200 bales of raw cotton
and Maggie’s Functional Organics was born. Today Maggie’s--based in Ypsilanti, Michigan--sells
a line of upscale, organic socks (the company‘s original and core product), T-shirts, camisoles,
and bedding. Its retail customers include Wild Oats, Whole Foods, and Wegmans. The clothing is
also sold to distributors that include United Natural and Newmark.
The company is privately held and won’t divulge any financial data. However, Burda says that
the business was in the red one year in the last four years. The other three years, the company
was profitable, she reports. "Most of our profitability problems are production induced," explains
Burda. "The struggle for us to be profitable is because of the clothing business and not because we
are green."
She points to the chronic textile mill shutdowns and bankruptcies that have occurred over
the last few years in the U.S. These marketplace uncertainties have left Maggie’s with
unfulfilled orders from domestic factories. Such delivery problems led Maggie’s to search
for an off-shore manufacturer that wasn‘t a sweat-shop and that could deliver a consistent
and reliable product.
"We were frustrated by the amount of domestic plants that were going under," Burda recalls.
"Today anything that is cut and sewn is done by the co-op." The co-op she refers to is Maquilador
Mujeres. This finished garment manufacturer is owned by a group of 57 woman in Neuva Vida,
Nicaragua. The village is home to roughly 12,000 refugees who lost everything but their lives
during Hurricane Mitch in 1998. The women, whose livelihoods were destroyed or displaced by
the hurricane, formed the co-op as a way to put food on the table. Nonprofit Jubilee House
provides support to the woman as they grow their business.
Maquilador Mujeres is also a selling point that appeals to Maggie’s customers. The consumers
who purchase Maggie’s clothing tend to be women in their forties with advanced college degrees and
high disposable incomes. Maggie’s customers are socially-minded and aware of the labor issues
associated with many overseas factories. Says Burda, "They are consumers who want to make a
difference."
Burlington Chemical Company
Burlington Chemical Company (which is no relation to textile giant Burlington Industries) was
founded by Sam Rose in 1953. For years, the company did a lively trade in chemicals and dyes with
the textile businesses that surrounded Burlington, North Carolina. Today, market forces have
reshaped the textile industry and prompted Burlington Chemical to diversify its customer base
and change its products.
Congress passed amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act in the
late 1980s. These strengthened regulations meant that companies using toxic chemicals to
manufacturer their products faced skyrocketing disposal costs. Burlington Chemical’s management
heard from many such customers who desired chemicals that were "cleaner." "The chemicals in
use at that time were not green enough," explains Sam Moore, vice president of research and
development and grandson of Sam Rose.
So Moore and his team of chemists set out to reduce the toxicity of Burlington Chemical’s
products. The result was a new production process called Designed for Sustainability. In
addition to the Rehance chemicals that Burlington Chemical manufacturers for T.S. Designs,
the company has used the new design framework to create a soy-based fabric softener, a
biodegradable detergent, low-metal and metal free dyes for nylon, and an algaecide that is
toxic to blue-green algae but nontoxic to other aquatic life.
"If you can prevent problems through better engineering, than you reduce the costs and risks
to stakeholders," points out Moore. "There tends to be more customer satisfaction. People have a
better mental model about using greener products."
When asked about the company’s financial health, Moore acknowledges that the textile industry
is a difficult business to be in these days. In the 1990s, Burlington Chemical watched as many of
its customers shut down or moved their manufacturing operations abroad. "Seventy-five percent of
the customers we had in the 1980s are no longer in business," says Moore.
Burlington Chemical responded to the industry changes by improving its products. Moore credits
his company’s greener product line with keeping the business afloat: "I think one of the reasons
we are still here is the technology in our products." The company also moved into new markets and
now roughly 35 percent of its customers are in non-textile businesses.
Moore is firm believer that successful green products do not compromise on performance or quality.
"Don’t expect people to do business with you because you’re green," he cautions. "You have to have
products that perform better than alternatives."
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