One of the things I’m very keen on is for my new venture to be an authentic company - one that is really doing the right thing and not just “greenwashing”.

It always bugs me when I see fallacious claims from the latest “we’re on the bandwagon” company that’s joined the green brigade. And as a “consumer” it’s usually (though not always) easy to pick the real deal.

It seems, though, that regulators such as the ACCC are starting to take an interest, with plans to crack down on greenwashing. Such moves make it all the more important to truly walk the walk.

It strikes me that one of the best ways to do that is to participate in independently verified certification schemes that support any claims made.

There are plenty of schemes out there, from using certified organic cotton to the Fairwear “No Sweatshop” label to the Fair Trade standards and Clean clothes codes of conduct.

All of these certifications does have a cost associated with it, and many are “compatible” with each other - and as the business progresses I’ll be looking into many of these in further detail (there’s already some discussion and review on the old blog as a starting point).

On that front I was interested to read this week a news report about the Green Pages’ “Principles of Sustainable Fashion” and the related Eco Runway Show.

From the press release:

Katie Patrick, CEO and founder of Green Pages,
points out that whilst a range of international environmental standards exist along with Australia’s own Good Environmental Choice standard, not one fashion brand in Australia has adopted a comprehensive environmental standard.

The Eco Runway Show will highlight designs from Akira, Gorman, Vixen, Sara Victoria, India Flint, Romance-was-Born, Rachael Cassar, Camilla, Nudie Jeans, and more, that comply with the Principles.

The principles are a “starting point”, calling on designers to create products:

• Being made of at least 50% organic cotton or wool, hemp, silk or bamboo fibres.
• Incorporating dyes and pigments that are vegetable-based.
• Incorporating recycled or reclaimed materials.
• Incorporating materials with Fair Trade Certification.
• Incorporating recycled synthetic fibres.

As a purely environmental standard, the principles don’t include labour standards (I don’t believe you can separate the two issues, but I’ll talk more on that another time) - but they are indeed a good starting point.

The PDF media release (PDF 130 KB) highlights a number of standards and bodies working on the environmental impact of textiles - and form the basis of the Green Pages’ broader call for fashion labels to take account of their entire footprint (incl. carbon and waste) rather than just in the materials they use.

I’ll certainly be looking into these further over time, as it seems to me this kind of standard would be a good thing for our label to support.

I’ve got some news relating to work and my plans for the coming year. From Jan 1 I’ll be working 4 days per week with my current employer, Digital Eskimo, until March/April, at which point I’ll be doing the freelance thing.

The primary reason for the move is a desire on my part to set up a new business producing and retailing ethical clothing (more on that here) - that is clothes that use environmentally sustainable materials (like organic cotton, hemp and bamboo) and that are sweatshop free.

Some of you may remember that I started down this path some years ago while I was still working at NETaccounts (now Saasu). Well, although in some ways the industry has come a long way (even Target now offers organic cotton options) there’s still a long way to go. I want to work towards that goal.

The move from Digital Eskimo was tough - the team that I’ve had the privilege to work with since May this year is exceptional, and it was a really hard decision to make (and I hope to continue working with them on projects in the future).

But through some soul searching, in part prompted by working through The Artist’s Way with some friends earlier this year, but also the passing of Anita Roddick, lead me to the conclusion that I needed to pursue this dream (that just hasn’t let go).

So, anyway, this blog is probably going to be a little more active as I post about the business and ideas surrounding it, but also just generally about ethical business.

In the freelance side of things I’ll be hopefully doing a variety of web development projects - I hope with a focus on non-profits and progressive organisations, social media and web standards - but I’ll speak more on that in the new year as I start to get things in place to make the leap.

I received an email the other day from Suzanne at EthiCool - she’s a member of ActNow and she’s started up an ethical clothing label.

The EthiCool range is primarily organic cotton tees and shopping bags, both featuring Suzanne’s graphic illustrations. All of the products are sweatshop free - the EthiCool site has a page that features the producers of the items, including edun, Ali Hewson and Bono’s famous brand. (It seems that edun have launched a blank t-shirt service).

It’s really cool to see more options, especially Australian-run, coming onto the market. And props to Suzanne for getting this off the ground - speaking from experience, that’s not small feat…

So, I’m getting close to needing a new pair of shoes for work. The last pair I bought are starting to get a bit ragged and worse for wear. So I’ve started to do a little bit of research into ethical footwear, to see where things are at on that front.

SA8000 and K-Swiss

My first thought was to check out K-Swiss who were SA8000 accredited last time I checked. SA8000 was intended as an independently verified standard for labour rights. I can’t seem to find any reference to SA8000 related to K-Swiss now, so I can only assume they’ve slipped off the wagon.

The information I found last time I checked (about 3 years ago) was hard to find, and the Social Accountability International website remains pretty much useless to actually find out consumer-beneficial information about accredited companies and/or products.

In the time since I last spent time researching these things I’ve also heard and read some bad things about SA8000 - along the lines of ‘nice idea, but didn’t quite hit the mark’. So no luck there…

So I checked out some other popular footwear brands I like such as Merrell and Salomon. Neither of these companies has any information about their CSR policy that I could find, nor could I find any reliable research or information via Google (except for this little tidbit related to Salomon about shoe companies disclosing their audits.)

Worn Again and No Sweat sneakers

So I started looking around. Dave at work pointed me to Worn Again, a UK company that makes shoes from 99% recycled materials, including seat belts and firemens uniforms.

They have a limited range that look kinda cool, but it’s very hard to tell without seeing the product in real life (a difficult proposition in Australia). They’re also very expensive - around $200 (incl. shipping) for a style of shoe that usually goes for between $50 and $100 less than that.

I also recalled the No Sweat sneakers which are union made and a styled after the popular (though decidedly un-ethical) Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers. I’m not exactly a fashion victim, but Chuck Taylors have never really suited me, so I’m not so keen on the No Sweat offering.

What about Nike?

I remembered that Nike had done some interesting stuff with their Considered products - significantly reducing waste and chemical use, as well as experimenting with recycled materials. I saw the Humara at a store in Sydney and I wanted to find out more.

I also recalled hearing somewhere that after the successful campaign against the treatment of workers who produced products for Nike (among others) that Nike had actually made good progress to improve their track record. So I did a bit of research and found Nike’s corporate sustainability report for the 05-06 financial year.

It’s an interesting read, with clear targets for carbon emissions (carbon neutral for Nike owned facilities and business travel by 2011), environmentally friendly production (17% reduction in footwear waste by 2011 and 30% reduction in packagin) and supply chain auditing - for working conditions (eliminate excessive overtime in all contract factories by 2011 and 30% of their supply chain being properly audited).

What’s interesting about Nike’s statement is they acknowledge that monitoring alone isn’t working and that to change practices the entire industry needs to engage. So they’ve publicly published the details of all their factories and called on other companies to do the same so they can work together to improve conditions.

They also claim that the Considered ethos is being brought into their general operations, rather than continuing as a distinct product line. I think this is positive and negative: positive because it means their entire product range will (eventually) become more environmentally friendly, and that it recognises the principle that environmentally friendly can improve their bottom line; negative because it will become harder for the conscious consumer to determine which products are good for the environment, and which ones aren’t.

I also think it’s a shame because it means it’s harder to “vote with your dollars” - at least with the Considered line, a purchase pretty clearly indicates that you care about the environmental benefits of the product. If I buy the next Air Zoom Affinity, am I buying it because I want the next Air Zoom Affinity, or because I care about the environment?

In steps the cynic

For a giant like Nike to be developing an agenda that, on the surface at least, is very promising and progressive is great to see. But that’s when my cynicism kicks in. How real is all of this? How much of this is just marketing spin, and how much is real progress? Why will it take a whole 5 years to clean up just 30% of the supply chain? And so on…

The Clean Clothes Campaign includes this tidbit in their press release relating to Oxfam’s Offside! report:

Sportswear is big business and brands like Nike, Reebok, adidas, Puma, ASICS and FILA make big profits and spend hundreds of millions of Euro on marketing and sponsorship of big-name athletes. Meanwhile, the Asian workers who make the sneakers and sports gear are doing it tough. They struggle to meet their families’ basic needs and many are unable to form or join unions without discrimination, dismissal or violence.

Makes you wonder what would happen if they funneled a few percent of their sponsorship budgets towards solving the issue - would we see faster progress?

What to do?

So I’m left with a dilemma. Do I go for a pair of shoes I don’t like but know their ethically OK? Do I risk $200 on a pair of shoes I can’t try on or check out? Or do I give Nike the benefit of the doubt and support their efforts to clean up their act?

I’m still undecided. If you have any thoughts, I’d be interested to hear them…

P.S. as some of you know I’ve been interested in ethical clothing and footwear for some time. In my reading travels I’ve recently found Nau - I read about them in Fast Company. Very cool - worth checking out. I’d really like to try on their cleanline jacket and courier windshirt. If only they had a store in oz…

Threadless.com are now producing their own tees. They claim they’re “sweatshop free” (though no indication of any accreditation or auditing scheme) and that they’re a blend of the two different types of tees they’ve used in the past - which sounds tops (the American Apparel ones were too thin, the Fruit of the Loom were too boxy).

My favourite t-shirt company just got better

ProgressWear - cool tees with a message [via Zeldman]. This is a direction I was thinking about for huméco some time ago (along with Justin), but we swayed away from it (and in the end imploded) so I’m really glad to see someone putting out some cool “progressive” messages. Couldn’t find any info on the site about sourcing though - not sure if the product is ethically produced. This one’s my fave so far…

Ms Bono’s green outfits. Cool! [Via hippyshopper]

hippyshopper. Ordinary name. Cool content. Check it out…

Two new (extended) posts over at huméco: Ethical vs. Fair Trade and Authenticity.

UPDATE 2008-01-07: the huméo blog no longer exists - I’ll try to dig up and relink these posts…