Environmental Issues: Health

Health Main Page

All Documents in Health Tagged fashion

Clean By Design
Revolutionizing the Textile Supply Chain with Market-Based Strategies that Reduce Pollution and Improve Efficiency
Overview

The massive amounts of coal burned by Chinese textile plants spread pollution across the globe. NRDC and the Council of Fashion Designers of America are working to reduce pollution by changing the way the textile industry operates and making factories cleaner.

Documents Tagged fashion in All Sections

Clean by Design: Revolutionizing the Global Textile Industry
Fact Sheet

Addressing the global health threats posed by the textile industry is a daunting challenge, even with more than 30 years of environmental victories under your belt. Yet this challenge spurred NRDC’s team of health experts to pioneer approaches that will help solve global industrial pollution problems associated with apparel, with a focus first in China, where most textiles are made. NRDC and its partner, The Council of Fashion Designers of America, are spearheading a multi-phased initiative called Clean By Design, which aims to revolutionize the way the apparel industry operates, from fiber and dye selection to fabric sourcing decisions to consumer care. This fact sheet explores the key phases of the initiative already completed and those underway in 2010.

Get document in pdf.

How Redbud Company Saved Money, Curbed Pollution, and Gained Favor from a Major Buyer
Fact Sheet

NRDC and its partners in Clean by Design, an initiative to green the global textile supply chain, are recommending 10 practical, easy-to-implement best practices for textile mills that will not only improve manufacturing efficiency, but also save money and stem pollution. The Jiangsu Redbud Textile Company—a Chinese-owned mill that dyes cotton woven fabric supplying Wal-Mart among others—put our best practices to the test. And the results were profound. Get document in pdf.

NRDC’s Ten Best Practices for Textile Mills to Save Money and Reduce Pollution
A Practical Guide for Responsible Sourcing
Issue Paper

Textile manufacturing has a huge environmental footprint, polluting as much as 200 tons of water per ton of fabric with a suite of harmful chemicals, and consuming tremendous amounts of energy for steam and hot water. That the industry is now centered in countries with still-developing environmental regulatory systems such as China, India, Vietnam, and Bangladesh only compounds the problem. To address the rapidly increasing global impact of this industry, NRDC and its partners are spearheading the Responsible Sourcing Initiative (RSI) -- a key element of the larger Clean By Design initiative to curb pollution from the fashion industry.