Organic_Clothing

The New Cotton Debate: What is sustainable cotton?

While rummaging through the Cotton, Inc. web site (which is a fascinating and well done site), I quickly realized that the Great Cotton Debate is being recast. During the early growth of organic clothing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, organic cotton was recognized as the healthy choice – healthy for the individual, healthy for the environment, and healthy for workers growing and harvesting cotton. Conventional cotton relied upon heavy doses of toxic chemical herbicides and pesticides. We’ve all seen the statistics:

• Conventionally grown cotton accounts for 25% of all agricultural pesticides used in the U.S.
• 1/3 of a pound of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is used to grow each pound of cotton harvested which is the amount of cotton needed to manufacture one cotton t-shirt;

Unfortunately, the statistics often cited about chemical pesticide usage for conventionally grown cotton are now incorrect.  They were derived from studies conducted in the 1990s such as the report from Allen Woodburn Associates, Ltd titled “Cotton: The Crop and its Agrochemicals Market” published in 1995. Since then, there has been a change in the playing field … or perhaps we should say in the cotton field.

Conventional cotton is being recast as the sustainable savior and organic cotton is being portrayed as the tiny niche bungler, the old and inadequate solution that is as out-dated as last year’s fashions. The organic cotton vs. conventional cotton debate is being reshaped by the conventional cotton industry through a series of Cotton Incorporated sponsored conferences on sustainable cotton and web articles trumpeting conventionally grown as “sustainable cotton”, “an important eco-fiber”, and a fiber that is “making the eco-movement matter” while promoting claims such as:

• Sustainability is defined “as balance between growing profitability, protecting the environment and promoting social responsibility”;
• “Technology is the driver behind more eco-friendly agriculture and manufacturing, finding alternative fuel sources and reducing the environmental footprint”;
• Biotechnology and the resulting genetically modified varieties of cotton are helping drive environmental improvements;
• Recent advances in cotton manufacturing have helped the “global textile industry be more cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly”;
• According to their three requirements for sustainability, conventional cotton production has become sustainable and conventional cotton now qualifies as sustainable cotton;
• Cotton grown by conventional agricultural methods is renewable, biodegradable and environmentally-friendly – all adding to their claims for sustainability;
• Conventionally grown cotton has become more drought- and heat-tolerant and requires less chemicals and pesticides;
• Environmentally-concerned consumers are more apt to buy conventionally-grown, sustainable cotton textiles over organic cotton because of the greater selections in styles and designs;
• Organic cotton will never be a viable option for large retailers such as the British department store chain Marks & Spenser because it “costs upwards of 100 percent more than conventionally grown cotton due to lower yields, a segregated supply chain and reliance on manual labor …”;
• "Organic" is a limited term that doesn't adequately address spent energy and resources across all phases of cotton growing, ginning, spinning and fabric manufacturing.

Conventionally grown cotton has undergone an amazing PR transformation from being the most heavily poisoned crop on the face of the earth to being proclaimed the new sustainable eco-fiber. There are several factors that have contributed to this astounding morphing:

1. Improvements in general agricultural practices such as integrated pest management practices, no-till farming (reduced soil erosion and lower carbon emissions from farm tractors) and lateral move irrigation (improved irrigation efficiency resulting in lower water consumption). The integrated pest management practices are teaming up with improvements in pesticides (comprised of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides) that allow for lower application levels and more targeted application. The improved pesticides are not necessarily less toxic or harmful to workers or the environment;
2. Improvements in textile manufacturing facilities and processes to reduce toxic chemicals lost in waste waters and released into the environment;
3. And the most important and ubiquitous factor is the rapidly increasing use of GMO cotton seed stock in U.S., Australia, India and China. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) estimates that in 2005 about 28% of the global cotton field acres were planted in transgenic GM cotton, according to “Cotton Outlook to 2010-11” by Drum, Roberts and Smirl. The USDA reports that 87% of the U.S. cotton crop was genetically engineered in 2007.

All three of these factors apply to other major conventionally grown crops such as corn and soybeans. But the self-proclaimed advances toward sustainability and environmental friendship in conventionally grown cotton are largely founded upon the conversion of conventional cotton to GMO cotton fields. We have reviewed the GMO cotton issues in our post Perspectives on GM Cotton.

Claims for conventional GMO cotton sustainability are based upon the generic three-cornered definition of sustainability: growing profitability, environmental protection, and social responsibility. Let’s look at these three self-proclaimed sustainability factors.

Growing profitability – the promise.  Cotton yields – and therefore farmers’ income and profitability – are threatened by three major forces: insects, weeds, and weather. Bio-engineering companies, such as U.S. biotech giant Monsanto, have invested heavily in developing Bt cotton seeds, which have been genetically modified to contain a slice from the insecticidal gene Bacillius thuringiensis (Bt) to make it resistant to insect pests such as the bollworm. The theory being that when insect pests eat and digest the Bt cotton plant the Bacillius thurengiensis bacteria spliced into the genetically modified Bt cotton will cause a lethal paralysis in the digestive tract of the devouring insect.

Competition in weed-infested fields can reduce cotton yields by 50% or more. The biotechnology solution has been to genetically modify cotton to become resistant to herbicides so that weed killers can be liberally applied to cotton fields to kill the weeds without doing in the cotton. Monsanto developed herbicide-tolerant (HT) cotton plants that would be tolerant to Monsanto’s widely used Roundup herbicide. Roundup contains the active ingredient glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide in the U.S. and widely used globally. The isopropylamine salt in glyphosate kills actively growing plants by inhibiting an enzyme involved in the synthesis of selected amino acids needed for plants to grow. Monsanto has genetically engineered genes into cotton seeds that allow the growing GMO cotton to be resistant to the Roundup that is applied to fields of cotton. The Roundup kills growing weeds but doesn’t affect the “Roundup Ready” GMO cotton.

While improvements in agricultural practices are helpful, a report by the Foreign Agricultural Service of the USDA reveals that many conventional cotton farmers in Brazil believe that the key to increased yields and therefore increased profitability is in large-scale plantings of GMO cotton. This promise has been sold to cotton farmers and producers across the globe. In Brazil where GMO cotton was recently legalized, cotton farmers converting to GMO Bt cotton seed and Roundup-ready cotton varieties are lead to expect cost savings of 15-30% due to reductions in manual labor costs and herbicide usage needed to control weeds.

Burkina Faso, the largest cotton producing country in Africa, has been conducting studies supported by the U.S. biotech giant Monsanto on GMO cotton since 2003 and plan to begin large scale commercial cotton growing in 2009. GMO cotton has already been introduced into South Africa and Egypt. Government leaders in Burkina Faso believe that they must use GMO cotton to achieve higher production efficiencies that will allow their poor cotton farmers to compete more effectively with developed countries such as the U.S. where cotton is subsidized by the U.S. government. This is the promise.

Growing profitability – the results.  The economic benefits to cotton farmers of GMO cotton have been hotly debated.  India passed legislation in 2002 opening the door for GMO cotton into India’s quickly blooming cotton agriculture. In 2007 an estimated 19% of the global cotton production came from India with per acre cotton yields and total number of acres in planted in GM cotton steadily increasing. Most cotton in India iis grown on small farms. A survey funded by Monsanto reported that Indian GMO Bt cotton farmers in 2004 harvested 58% more cotton per acre with net profits 163% greater than non-GMO conventionally grown cotton. Other biotech-industry funded studies proclaimed similar results in South Africa and the U.S.

A comprehensive study by Friends of the Earth International titled “Who Benefits from GM Crops?” attempts to examine the complex issues surrounding genetically modified crops and sort out cause and effect, fact and fiction, hype and actuality. Their primary findings were that the positive results from the studies most often cited by Monsanto funded studies were largely due to favorable weather and rain during the study period and improvements in irrigation. The Friends of the Earth study reported that GMO cotton farmers’ costs actually increased over time rather than decreased because GM seeds are more expensive than conventional cotton seeds and farmers actually used more expensive herbicides than they did previously while still requiring significant levels of insecticide spraying.

An extensive and independent survey, “Economic Impact of Genetically Modified Cotton in India” by Bennett, Ismael, Kambhampati and Morse of the University of Reading in the UK, compared Bt and non-Bt cotton production in the Indian state of Maharashtra across 7,751 cotton plots in 2002 and 1,580 cotton plots in 2003. The results indicated:

1. Bt cotton yields were at least 45% higher than for non-Bt cotton;

2. The amount and costs of insecticides needed to control aphids and other sap sucking insects pests were the same for Bt and non-Bt cotton fields;

3. The amount and costs of insecticides needed to control bollworms were 70% to 80% lower for Bt cotton fields than for non-Bt cotton fields;

4. The costs for conventional non-BT cotton seeds are only one third the price of Bt cotton seeds for planting and farmers are prohibited by the large chemical seeds companies such as Monsanto from saving seeds from their harvest for planning next year. Every year, cotton farmers must buy new, expensive Bt seeds from the GM seed companies;

5. The costs of seeds plus the cost of insecticides is slightly higher for Bt cotton crops compared with non-Bt cotton crops. Higher yields for Bt cotton enable Bt cotton to be more profitable.

While the Bennett, et al. study is comprehensive with a well designed methodology and lacking any apparent bias, it is also significant in what isn’t in the study. The study did not compare Bt cotton costs with organically grown cotton nor did it consider the costs of conventional non-Bt cotton when the farmers use their own seed harvested from their previous crop. The study also did not address environmental costs or field worker health costs from herbicide and insecticide toxic chemical sprays. Issues of GMO safety and long-term considerations were also not part of the study. The study examined only economic effects of Bt cotton and did not examine issues of herbicide-tolerant (HT) generically modified cotton. Herbicide-tolerant cotton has been genetically modified to resist weed sprays, specifically Monsanto’s costly Roundup weed killer. Herbicide-tolerant (HT) cotton plants allow farmers to liberally use Monsanto’s popular Roundup weed spray to kill weeds sprouting up in cotton fields. Strains of weeds are developing which are resistant to Roundup. Also, the study only looks are results for the first two years of commercial planting of Bt cotton in one state in India. A longer, multi-year study is necessary to evaluate longer term effects.

As a note concerning insecticide usage on Bt cotton, three different categories of insects plague cotton – chewing caterpillars and cutworms which eat leaves and stems of the cotton plant; insects such as bollworms and boll weevils which attack and feed on the fluffy white cotton bolls; and sucking aphids and mites which pierce the cotton plant leaves and stems to suck the sap from the plant. The types and severity of cotton insect pests varies from local to global regions. Bt cotton with its genetically implanted soil bacterium gene is resistant to bollworms, a major cotton pest in the U.S., but not to the other insects which feast upon cotton plants and cotton bolls. Depending upon the region, Bt cotton must still be sprayed with insecticides to control for the other categories of insects.  The resistance of Bt cotton to bollworms is not total, however, and Bt cotton still requires spraying with insecticides but at a much lower level of application to control for bollworms.

Another evolving concern affecting long-term profitability of GM cotton is that Nature is adaptive and over time bollworms and other insects will develop insect strains that are resistant to the toxins in Bt cotton. An extensive study by Gould, et al. of the Department of Entomology at North Carolina State University, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science reported that within a few years varieties of bollworms were being naturally selected that have a resistance to the Bt toxins. With farmers exercising careful pest management techniques, the period of naturally selective resistance could be delayed for a few more years but insects developing Bt resistant strains are inevitable. The more effective pest management techniques involved planting 4% of their cotton crop in non-Bt refuge zones to harbor susceptible insects and slow down the evolution of pests resistant to the Bt gene.

Protecting the environment – the promise. The second pillar of the conventionally grown cotton industry’s claim to sustainability is in their assertion to protecting environmental quality. The premise of the promise for improved environmental stewardship by the conventional cotton industry is in attempting to transform their image from being a toxic chemical polluter to sustainability by reducing and improving their environmental impact in the cotton field and in the manufacturing factory.

In the cotton field, growers are encouraged to implement soil conservation techniques such as no-till farming and improved irrigation to reduce soil erosion and integrated pest management techniques to better control insect pest. Most of these farming techniques are also practiced by organic cotton farmers. Cotton farmers in the U.S. and globally are being heavily pressured to plant GM cotton seeds from the large chemical biotech companies such as Monsanto. The promise is that Bt cotton will require lower levels of costly and environmentally harmful insecticides.

Protecting the environment – the results.  A short history of the genealogy of pesticide families will help to understand the issues of sustainability swirling around cotton. Pesticides refer collectively to chemical herbicides used against herbs or plants considered weed pests, insecticides used against insect pests, and fungicides used against fungi which can grow on cotton plants reducing their vitality and yield. Pesticides are a cornerstone of conventional cotton agriculture which credits pesticides with reducing cotton pests and increasing cotton yields, but the damage to the health of the environment, wildlife, field workers, and nearby communities has been considerable and well documented. In a report “Problems with Conventional Cotton Production” the Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA) warns that “these pesticides can poison farm workers, drift into neighboring communities, contaminate ground and surface water and kill beneficial insects and soil micro-organisms.”

Because of environmental protection regulations in the U.S. and countries around the world, new classes of chemical pesticides are continually being developed which are applied at lower rates of active ingredients per acre of cotton grown. These newer classes of chemical pesticides still contain toxic and hazardous chemicals but the environmental and health impacts have been reduced. A meaningful interpretation of any global reductions in pesticide usage over time is difficult because of vast differences in geographies, climates, agricultural practices, cultures, the changing active ingredients in pesticides, and the ever-changing nature of threats from local pest. A study title “Global Impact of Biotech Crops: Socio-Economic and Environmental Effects in the First Ten Years of Commercial Use” by Brookes and Barfoot of PG Economics Ltd (a private consultancy largely funded by the biotech industry) estimated that GM insect-resistant cotton has reduced insecticide usage by 19.4% with a corresponding Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ) reduction of 24.3% during the period of 1996 to 2005. The Environmental Impact Quotient (EIQ) was developed by Kovach, Petzoldt, Degni and Tette of the Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell University. The EIQ provides a standardized method for calculating the environmental impact for various agricultural pesticides and pest management systems.

A study title “Do GM Crops Mean Less Pesticide Use?” by Charles Benbrook of the Northwest Science and Environmental Policy Center analyzed official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data on GM crops grown in the U.S. from 1995 through 2000 and concluded that “Bt cotton has reduced insecticide use in several states.” Benbrook points out the difficulties in identifying cause-effect relationships in multi-year multi-state cotton insecticide use trends. Bollworm-budworm complex insecticide usage in some states went down and in other states went up. The data suggests that Bt cotton was a significant factor in declines in some states but not in others. In some states with high Bt cotton adoption, insecticide usage actually increased, and some low-adoption Bt cotton states saw a marked reduction in bollworm-budworm insecticide treatments.

Benbrook states that the data overall indicates that GM cotton reduces insecticide applications but that bio-engineering is only one factor and that sustainable pest management requires a total system approach. An important consideration in a sustainable pest management system is in ways to reduce the concentration and use of pesticides – applied externally in sprays and also bio-engineered into the genes of cotton plants – to delay the rise of pesticide resistance in insects and weeds.

Besides environmental protection regulations from governments, another motivating factor for chemical pesticide manufacturers to develop new classes of pesticides is because natural selection begins to develop strains of insects and weeds resistant to the popular pesticides du jour. Resistance to specific pesticides is governed by many factors but typically tends to develop within four to ten years depending upon the degree to which the pesticide is used. Generally, the more a pesticide is used in an area, the more quickly resistant strains of insects will begin developing. A central focus of integrated pest management systems is to delay the rise of pesticide resistant insects and weeds.

The study by Brookes and Barfoot also suggests that GM cotton reduces the level of green house gas (GHG) emissions by requiring fewer pesticide sprayings by crop dusting spray airplanes or tractors and soil tillage that use fuel guzzling farm tractors with their supporting fleet of trucks to deliver pesticides and operators to the fields. They also report that “no-till and reduced-till farming systems that utilize less plowing increase the amount of organic carbon (in the form of crop residue) that is stored or sequestered in the soil. This carbon sequestration reduces carbon dioxide emissions to the environment.” Of course, no-till farming practices are not unique to GM crops and havelong been a component of organic farming.

Conventional cotton (including GM cotton) plants are sprayed with a variety of harvest-aid chemicals to help improve cotton harvesting yields, preserve high fiber quality before cotton bolls can become ruined by late-season insect damage, and to improve cotton harvest efficiencies. Conventional cotton harvest-aid chemicals include chemical defoliants which cause the cotton plants to shed their foliage allowing the cotton bolls to be more effectively machine harvested. Chemical defoliants are composed of reactive organic compounds and volatiles which lead to increased air pollution and have an adverse environmental impact. The organic cotton and the conventional cotton industries are researching environmentally healthy defoliation methods such as thermal defoliation which “eliminates water and air pollution caused by harvest-aid chemicals, reduces the need for insecticides, protects the crop from insect sugar deposits and is independent of the weather.”  A hot blast of typically propane-fired air in what is essentially a moving furnace wilts tender leaves on cotton plants and also kills insects, parasites and possibly some plant diseases.

Depending upon weather, time-of-year, and cotton plant condition, the conventional cotton industry uses a variety of harvest-aid chemicals to prepare cotton for harvesting. The University of California Integrated Pest Management Program has categorized and detailed the wide range of harvest-aid chemicals that are sprayed on cotton fields to:

1. Defoliate cotton plants by using chemicals that disrupt plant growth hormones causing leaves to die and drop so that automated machines can pick the cotton bolls more easily;
2. More quickly strip leaves from plants by using chemical desiccants which are more severe than defoliants and cause leaf dehydration and death within a couple days. Desiccants are often applied as a follow-up after application of defoliants;
3. Encourage late blooming cotton bolls to open earlier so that cotton harvesters can make only one pass over cotton fields. It has also been found that these chemicals can also reduce vegetative re-growth;
4. Inhibit new growth on cotton plants nearing harvest or to help enhance the effects of defoliants

Many of the harvest-aid chemicals are listed in the Pesticide Action Network as being possible carcinogens, ground water contaminants, cholinesterase inhibitors, and moderately to highly toxic. Harvest-aid chemicals are included in computations of conventional cotton pesticide usage.

Does GM and conventionally grown cotton improve the environment? The studies indicate that it hurts the environment less than it did a decade ago but to what degree is difficult to quantify. The Institute of Science in Society published a press release in 2007 “Picking Cotton Carefully” which declared that “conventional and GM cotton accounts for 16 percent of global chemical pesticide use, more than any other single crop.” Considering the rising degree to which rivers, streams and ground water systems are testing positive for toxic chemicals used in cotton pesticides, it is very difficult to justify how conventional cotton agriculture could be considered sustainable. Improved farming techniques – many of which have also been incorporated in organic agriculture – have also reduced farming’s environmental impact. And then there is the unknown impact of biotechnology and genetic modification on the environment and the health and safety of people.

Promoting Social Responsibility – the promise. The textile and garment industries have long been plagued by unethical labor practices from child labor in fields and factories and sweatshop factories to unfair and exploitive purchasing of clothing and textiles produced by native and indigenous peoples. Change will only occur when consumers, manufacturers, retailers and governments demand fair and healthy labor practices.

Another aspect of social responsibility is in maintaining community welfare and health by respecting the environment and not polluting the air, water and land that communities depend upon, and also by insuring the health of the community members who work the fields and factories.

Promoting Social Responsibility – the results. When these abuses are exposed in the media, the garment industry in general and specifically the large retailers buying from sweatshop-tainted manufacturers are displayed in a very bad light. In an attempt to convince consumers and shareholders that they are really good global citizens, most large clothing manufacturers and retailers have adopted Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) statements to explain how they will monitor for and avoid abusive labor practices among their suppliers and manufacturers … while still maintaining high investor returns. Our post “The Fog of CSR” has gone into these issues.

The result has been that clothing manufacturers and large chain retailers have become much for sensitive and responsive to charges of sweatshops and child labor. Many have teamed with independent and ethical organizations to help monitor and reduce abuses and there have been improvements. Large retailers, such as Wal-Mart in the U.S. and Marks & Spencer in the U.K., are encouraging farmers in developing countries to adopt restrictions in child-labor and reduce pesticide usage. Large corporations are beginning to realize that greening their product lines and reducing their corporate environmental footprint is good business and helps to reduce their costs and improve operating efficiencies.

Fair trade is another concern of the ethical shopper (see our post “Ethical Shopping and Fair Trade”). Independent non-profit organizations such as the Fairtrade Foundation offer fair trade certification so shoppers can have confidence that marginalized producers and workers in developing countries received a fair and sustainable wage for their products and labors.

Marks & Spencer offers a number of Fairtrade certified cotton clothes.

Almost all organic clothing standards such as Control Union’s Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) identify minimum social criteria that a textile must meet as part of the overall requirements to achieve organic textile certification. These include freely chosen employment, collective bargaining, safe and healthy working conditions, no child labor, a fair wage, reasonable working hours, and a non-discriminatory and non-abusive work environment. Note that these ethical social standards apply to textile manufacturing and processing and not to the fields that grow the natural fibers.

The Better Cotton Initiative was founded to take it to the field and “promote measurable improvements in the key environmental and social impacts of cotton cultivation worldwide to make it more sustainable (economically, environmentally, and socially).” Social responsibility must also include safeguarding the community welfare from toxic pesticides that threaten community water supplies and the health of workers and families that live near sprayed crop lands. Reducing and eliminating pesticides on crops is an important component of a social responsibility agenda.

So how does conventional cotton shape up to the social responsibility factor in their sustainability equation? Improving but still a long way to go. Textile manufacturers and retailers seem to be trying to improve working conditions in manufacturing and garment factories but they face an inherent conflict of interest between the increased costs necessary to improve social responsibility and the need to improve profits by lowering costs. Consumer pressure will be key in the future.

Considering community welfare, as long as toxic pesticides are sprayed on cotton fields there will be community health problems which detract from any claims of sustainability.

Final score on conventional cotton sustainability. With improved soil and pest management agricultural practices and some improvements in reducing the chemical toxicity of pesticides, conventionally grown cotton has improved but still hasn’t achieved any common definition of sustainability addressing trade, good environmental stewardship, and social responsibility.

A thorough and comprehensive study in 2006 by Kooistra, Termorshuizen and Pyburn of Wageningen University titled “The Sustainability of Cotton” reported that cotton is grown globally on about 2.4% of the world’s farm lands but consumes an estimated 11% of the agricultural chemical pesticides. Cotton plants are more sensitive to insects than most other crops and tend to be more heavily sprayed. Many developing countries which grow cotton do not monitor or poorly regulate pesticide use and many of their pesticides are stronger and more toxic than pesticides approved for use in the U.S.

Kooistra et al. report that “worldwide 15% of cotton yield loss is due to insect damage”. Integrated Pest Management programs can contribute to significant reductions and perhaps elimination of hazardous chemical pesticides. Pressure will also increase on cotton farmers to fight the insect and weed threats by planting GM cotton.

Conventionally grown cotton is still one of the most chemically sprayed crops in the U.S.  In May 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report “Agricultural Chemical Usage 2005 Field Crops Summary” for the major U.S. crops. For all U.S. corn crops, 2.124 pounds of pesticides were used per acre; for all oats, 0.166 pounds pesticides per acre; for all soybeans, 1.23 pounds of pesticides per acre; for cotton (upland), 4.486 pounds of pesticides per acre of cotton. An acre of conventionally grown cotton requires more than twice the dosage of chemical pesticides as corn, the next highest consumer of chemical pesticides. It’s interesting to note that in 2005, almost 80% of the U.S. cotton crop was from genetically engineered cotton seeds. In 2007, the USDA estimated that 87% of the U.S. cotton crop was genetically modified. In some locals, herbicide-resistant GM cotton actually increased herbicide usage. Where previously, cotton farmers used spot spraying to attack localized outbreaks of weeds, they now sprayed the entire field because there wasn’t the concern about affecting the cotton plants with the herbicide and it was more cost-effective.

Using the USDA statistics from 2005, we calculate that 0.0947 oz of pesticides is used to grow one pound of conventionally grown U.S. cotton. When 2005 synthetic fertilizer usage (nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulfur) is included in the calculation then the combined synthetic fertilizer and pesticide usage is 2.85 ounces per pound of conventionally grown cotton, and is considerably less than the 5 ounces reported in the late 1990s.  This is in keeping with the 0.08637 ounces calculated by Coral Rose of Eco-Innovations and published in her Sustainable Action Leadership blog and the pesticide usage per pound of cotton reported in the Cotton Incorporated site.

Conventionally grown cotton will need to improve its environmental impact through improved pest management and will need to reduce and eventually eliminate hazardous chemical pesticide usage before it can approach sustainability. Hazardous chemical pesticide usage is not sustainable.

And then there is also the little issue of bio-engineered, genetically modified cotton. The Global Organic Textiles Standard prohibits “genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) and their derivatives (including enzymes derived from genetically modified micro-organisms).” The SKAL International Standards for Sustainable Textile Production states that all agricultural fibers have to “originate from an organic production method that is recognized by Control Union Certifications” and all organic production methods exclude genetically modified plants.

When you hear claims of "sustainable" always look upon the cotton kimono to see what it really means.

Dreaming of a Green Wedding

We have a growing national problem that is only slightly behind Global Warming, the Bush Administration’s attacks on science and our national parks, and exploding healthcare costs. That problem is exploding wedding costs. Remember the Liza Minnelli / David Gest Spectacular Spectacular Wedding in 2002 where the bridal party had more in common with the Addams Family than the Brady Family? Their wedding knot cost an estimated $3.5 million and family and guests were searched and frisked before entering the church to prevent unauthorized cameras because picture and movie rights had already been sold to OK! Magazine. The happy pair was divorced the next year.

The national average cost of a wedding in the U.S. is now $28,800 and rising rapidly. The most concerning cost of a wedding is not financial, emotional or cultural but the environmental cost. Were you invited to the Liz Hurley / Arun Nayar Really Really Spectacular Spectacular Wedding of 2007? Neither were we but almost everyone else on this planet participated in some way. The two-week celebration bash covered two continents, four cities and the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. While the financial cost was undoubtedly atmospherical, the cost to the atmosphere was vastly greater. The environmental footprint impact consulting company Best Foot Forward estimated that the sacred Hurley / Nayar celebration released more than 207,000 kg of carbon into the struggling atmosphere. That’s more than 228 tons of carbon for those of us who are metrically impaired.

Face the facts: even if it’s hearts and flowers and little cupids until death do you part, most weddings are an environmental disaster. Typically, two hundred people traveling for a one hour ceremony, many flying hundreds or even thousands of miles in high altitude, carbon-spewing jets. And what about all those hats, shoes, gloves, wedding dresses and bride’s maid dresses that are only worn once? Not to mention the barrels of finishing fabric chemicals in which they are drenched. At least guys typically rent their tuxes.

So what to do? Fortunately, there are a number of eco-friendly wedding planning web sites that will help you plan and enjoy a more sustainable and positive wedding. To understand the carbon impact of your Big Event, plug your wedding numbers into the wedding carbon footprint calculator at TerraPass or at NativeEnergy (in partnership with Portovert Magazine) for an estimate of your wedding’s expected carbon footprint. After calculating your carbon hit, both sites also allow you to purchase carbon offsets to lessen the guilt and to help you regain some “feel good” about your Big Event. These wedding carbon impact calculators could also be used for family reunions, conventions, conferences or sporting events.

Portovert.com is a self-proclaimed “gateway to a greener wedding” and has been crowned the “#1 Green Wedding Site” by no less a formidable force of nature than Martha Stewart. The Hamptons crowd will feel comfortable planning their stylish eco-friendly wedding here.  While Portovert.com is a classy portal into the pricey world of wedding gown eco-couture, founder Meghan Meyers is quick to point out that Portovert.com is also loaded with green wedding do-it-yourself ideas and tips, a blog, and articles for how to create a stylish and sustainable green wedding that doesn't "break the bank".  This month Portovert.com is celebrating DIY Wedding Month. 

One of the wedding haute couture designers featured in Portovert.com is the outstanding Olivia Luca.   Besides having a gallery of stunning wedding gowns, Olivia Luca also has a Design Studio that helps you  design your own wedding gown by interactively selecting your own bodice style, skirt  shape, fabrics, colors, sizes, lengths and finishing details.  It's easy, fun and will help you crystallize your gown design decisions.  One of the very encouraging trends from Olivia Luca is that they started with conventional fabrics and have been adding sustainable, Fair Trade and organic fabrics to their fabric lists.  This demonstrates the growing appeal and demand for healthier and more eco-friendly wedding gowns.

For those planning an eco-friendly wedding on a budget, visit Great Green Wedding which has ideas, tips and suggestions for doing a joyous and sustainable wedding. Great Green Wedding also is a cornucopia of useful links and articles. If possible, find a copy of Green Weddings That Don’t Cost the Earth by Carol Reed-Jones or Eco-Chic Weddings by Emily Elizabeth Anderson.

As you are searching for environmental harmony and balance in your sustainable wedding plans, keep silently repeating the eco-mantra “organic – reduce – recycle – reuse – local”. This mantra can be used for everything from announcements to flowers to reception dinner to gowns and tuxedos for the wedding party. As with green eco-friendly jewelry, the great diversity of sustainable approaches for ways to green a wedding reflects the dynamic diversity in green interests … and budgets. This green diversity is especially evident when it comes to selecting green and sustainable wedding clothing. Let’s take a short stroll through some of the options for green, sustainable and organic wedding gowns, dresses and suits.

Reuse. Almost always, the greenest and most sustainable action is to reuse a product, even a very un-green product, as long as its use doesn’t cause environmental, social or personal harm … such as buying a used Hummer (environmental harm) or a thrift store leisure suit (social harm). The simplest and perhaps greenest wedding dress is one that is borrowed, usually from a mother, grandmother or friend. The dress can be altered, lace can be added or changed, a bow here and a tuck there.

If borrowing a wedding gown isn’t possible or desirable – perhaps their wedding didn’t work out so well – there is also the possibility or renting or buying a previously-worn wedding dress. Co-founded by the mother & daughter team of Fran Hansen and Anna Nelson in 1998, Brides Against Breast Cancer has collected more than 40,000 wedding gowns donated by bridal boutiques, dress manufacturers and brides. These once-worn and designer sample gowns are sold at auctions held in more than 30 cities around the country at huge savings. The money raised is used to help women with breast cancer and their families. Brides Against Breast Cancer is an amazing story of helping women in the most difficult of situations. Their auctions offer eco-conscious brides-to-be an opportunity for a new or once-worn wedding dress at great savings and reuse is the strongest pillar of sustainability.

And of course, there is always eBay and a handful of sites specializing in previously worn wedding dresses such as SellYourWeddingDress.com, Wore It Once, Encore Bridal and PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com.

Another option becoming increasingly popular is to rent a wedding dress.  Men have been renting tuxedos for ages and, while the situation is more complicated, it is possible for ladies. Most wedding gown rental stores also have rentals for bride’s maid dresses and even flower girl dresses. Some stores allow alterations. Bridal gown rental stores might advertise online but all that we are familiar with require the prospective bride to come into their store to make arrangements. We do not know of any totally online wedding gown rental stores. Your Yellow Pages are probably the best place to begin searching for a rental store.

Recycle. A recycled wedding dress is typically a custom dress that has been created from one or more gowns, dresses or other sources of inspiration. A designer or seamstress might take a bodice from one dress, match it with sleeves from a different dress, add Irish lace from antique curtains and … viola! … a unique wedding gown that has been deconstructed and reconstructed from reclaimed textiles to reflect your individuality.

By reshuffling bits and pieces of existing garments into new wedding garments, you are reducing the demand for new manufacturing which reduces energy consumption from growing to manufacturing to shipping, and also reduces any pollution and environmental damage caused by the production of those fabrics being reused and recycled. Reusing and recycling also delay the day of reckoning when those materials are carted to the landfill where they become ripe for breaking down into global warming gases to be released into the environment or into toxins that might seep into community ground water systems.

On the other hand, some point out that reusing and recycling of garments do nothing to discourage the manufacture and production of unsustainable conventional fabrics and clothing and that what we should be doing is focusing our resources on encouraging the manufacturing of green, sustainable clothing. The only way to reduce the environmental and personal health problems caused and complicated by conventional clothing is by supporting and furthering the market for environmentally sustainable, healthy and organic clothing. Which leads us to …

New Sustainable or Organic. Green, sustainable, organic and healthy wedding dresses are made by the local seamstress for a few hundred dollars all the way to the high priced eco-haute couture designer for thousands of greenbacks. Here is an organic linen and vintage lace dress with a bodice embellished with semi-precious beads from eco designer extraordinaire Deborah Lindquist that tips the scales at $3000. The Green Wedding Collection from Deborah Lindquist also has some beautiful hemp/silk organza dresses that flutter around $875.

If you don’t mind spending green to be green, there are some outstanding sustainable young designers specializing in eco-friendly wedding gowns. One of our favorites is the Natural Bridal Collection by Morgan Boszilkov. “Kayla” from Ms Boazilkov’s collection is a “wrap around convertible gown of diamond jacquard, with asymmetrical hand gathered skirt, empire waist sash and bow, detachable bottom skirt” and is made with Peace Silk, Silk and Hemp.  After the vows when you are ready to rock at the reception, just drop the long bottom.  How cool is that!  Based in Georgia, Morgan works with a team of local artistic women to bring her sustainable wedding gown designs to life. The Natural Bridal Collection team is open to working with the eco-bride-to-be to create bridesmaid dresses that harmonize with the wedding gown. Not only does Natural Bridal create green wedding dresses but they also have adopted green business practices and donate 5% of profits to organizations which support the environment.

Conscious Clothing offers a rather large collection of hemp / silk blends in brides, bridesmaids and flower girl dresses plus a hemp / lyocell (Tencel) blend for the vegan bride and others who do not want to wear a fabric that cost the lives of tens of thousands of silk worms. Peace silk is also a fabric that spares the lives of the silk worm. Prices generally track for $600 to $2200. Conscious Clothing also offers a white hemp suit for men.

Best known for their corsets under the name of Faernyn’s Grove, Rene Geneva Designs declares that their green wedding dresses are 100% sustainable hemp / silk blends and formaldehyde-free silk. Amino-formaldehyde (N-methanol) resins are commonly used in fabric finishes for conventional cotton and silk clothing to resist wrinkling and to resist staining.  Formaldehyde fabric finishes are nasty stuff and we are pleased that many eco-wedding dresses are avoiding it.

The business policies of Rene Geneva Designs strongly support Fair Trade and ethical garment worker practices. Rene Geneva Designs also has established a carbon neutral program which assigns a carbon footprint value to each garment to indicate the amount of carbon invested to grow, manufacture and ship each different garment and they will donate specific dollar amounts to carbon reduction organizations depending upon a garment's carbon footprint value.

Check out Threadhead Creations and their three venues for achieving that perfect, green wedding ensemble: Off the Rack, Design Your Own Online, Totally Custom from Rai-Lynne. The “Design Your Dress” option allows you to interactively chose a basic design and then select size, length, fabric (typically hemp / silk in charmeuse, floral and raw, hemp / Tencel, organic cotton sateen, or peace silk), lining (silk or cotton), and train and automatically see how your choices affect price.

For you in the U.K., visit Wholly Jo’s repertoire of organic, fair trade and ethically green wedding dresses. Based in West London, Wholly Jo’s Threads of Life are supported by strong ethics policies and constructed from organic, sustainable materials. Plus, the designs from Joanne Mackins are gorgeous. Unfortunately, the carbon impact of shipping Wholly Jo’s Threads of Life to the U.S. is prohibitive.

Then there is Annatarian in L.A. which is self-labeled as an eco-effective design company. Annatarian’s lofty mission is “to unite the global community through fashion” through their eco-couture dresses which “serve as an example of a perfect world, where different colors, textures, cultures, and patterns are blissfully intertwined”. The eco-effective design at Annatarian comes from a cradle-to-cradle approach to sustainable design. Annatarian is an up-and-coming eco-couture force in the City of the Sustainable Angels.

To show you how diverse are your options for an eco-friendly wedding dress, consider the possibilities offered by CheapChicWeddings.com and their annual Toilet Paper Wedding Dress Contest. The contest – and this is a serious contest as evidenced by the magnificence of the wedding dresses entered into the contest – is to design, make and use a wedding gown made entirely from toilet tissue, tape and glue. The green and sustainable bride-to-be who wants to be chic but cheap could use epoxy resin organic glue to hold together eco-friendly toilet tissue from environmental companies such as Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissues made from 100% recycled paper or Purely Cotton Bathroom Tissue from tree-free 100% recycled cotton.

Seriously, for most brides-to-be, their conventional wedding day is probably the second most toxic day that they will experience. Think about all those carcinogenic parabens and phthalates-harmful chemicals: globs of body lotions and facial creams, dust storms of powders, smears of toxic lipsticks, nail paints, clouds of hair sprays, generous douses of perfumes – a national superfund health hazard and all of this is before even getting dressed.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics has published a brochure “10 Ugly Truths Behind the Myth of Cosmetic Safety” outlining the health dangers lurking in conventional beauty aids as the bride-to-be prepares to look her most ravishing. Among the most common health dangers in conventional cosmetics which they expose are “mercury, (often listed as thimerosal on ingredient labels) found in some eye drops, ointment and deodorants; lead acetate, found in some hair dyes and cleanser; formaldehyde and toluene, found in nail products; petrochemicals, found in some hair relaxers, shampoos, mascara, perfume, foundation, lipstick and lip balm; coal tar, found in dandruff shampoos, anti-itch creams and hair dyes; placenta, found in some hair relaxers, moisturizers and toners,;and phthalates, found in some nail polish, fragrances and hair spray.”

And then comes a toxic bomb of lacy undergarments, slips and topped off with an enormous wedding dress with gloves, lace, veils and sashes, all heavily treated with wrinkle resistant, crease resistant, and stain resistant chemical fabric finishes many containing amino-formaldehyde resins. Then the bridal party is surrounded with chemically drenched pesticide-herbicide infested flowers sometimes jetted in from far corners of the global. What a way to celebrate the formal union of two souls in love!

What is the eco-bride to do? Explore carefully and ask questions when designing a green, organic and sustainable wedding. Always probe the wedding clothing supplier and retailer about what how their fabrics are finished as this is where most toxic chemicals are added. Just because a store claims that their gowns are sustainable, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are free of potentially harmful chemicals. Even if a retailer declares their wedding dresses to be “100% formaldehyde-free”, ask if they do have a crease-resistant, wrinkle-resistant or stain-resistant finish and, if they do, what is it? This is especially true for people with chemical sensitivities or people who wish to avoid developing chemical sensitivities.

A little research can help you create a truly special and environmentally responsible day.

Enjoy.

-Michael

The Diversity of Green Jewelry

And now for the fun part. After dredging through the misery, social and ecological damage of conventional precious and semi-precious stones and metals in Jewelry: the Trouble with Baubles and then exploring the improvements of Green Sustainable Gold & Ethical Diamonds, we can now luxuriate in the huge universe of sustainable, eco-friendly, green jewelry is out there waiting to be discovered by you. Green, eco-jewelry has a vast array of faces to match the diverse green interests for recycling, environmental sustainability, organic clothing, Fair Trade and ethical manufacturing. Here are some of our favorites.

Reciclarte. Reciclarte is tagged as being a “socio environmental project” in the ecologically gorgeous land of Costa Rica. Reciclarte is attempting to transform attitudes towards common toss-out trash by transforming it into delightfully colorful works of jewelry. Local Costa Rican women artisans design and manufacture their recycled jewelry to support local environmental education and recycling projects. Their green eco-jewelry seems imbibed with a glow of the lush vibrancy that reflects the spirit and warmth of Costa Rica.

Finding their eco-jewelry outside of Costa Rica is tricky, though. You can contact Reciclarte directly through the Asociacion Terra Nosta web site or you can visit the gift shop at Finca Rosa Blanca Country Inn a wee bit north of San Jose in Costa Rica.  Their gift shop is stuffed with eco-friendly jewelry and art by local eco-artists.  As a side note, the Finca Rosa Blanca Country Inn in Costa Rica is one of the very best of the growing eco-hotels. Teresa and Glen Jampol have created a sincerely and wonderfully green home for the eco-tourist while visiting the unbelievable diversity of Costa Rica’s rainforests, volcanoes and rich coffee lands of the Central Valley. If you are in the neighborhood, it is definitely worth a visit. And the warmth of the people is like visiting a loving, functional family.

Zulugrass Jewelry. Following the theme of communities of women artisans improving the life of their communities through their green jewelry, let’s move from the lush rainforests of Costa Rica to the dusty grass plains of Kenya and Tanzania that are home to the Maasai tribes. The nomadic Maasai peoples have depended upon their cattle for generations but droughts in recent years have decimated their herds. To provide food and medical care, the women of the Maasai with the help of social sustainability foundations, such as the Leakey Collection, have been using their traditional skills in weaving and beading jewelry from Zulugrass to bring additional income.

The Zulugrass beaded and braided jewelry woven by the Maasai women seems imbibed with the vibrancy and life of the grass lands of Kenya and Tanzania. The online gift shop at the DailyOM and the ZuluGrass Leakey Collection are two sources that you can browse through. While the Zulugrass for their jewelry is sustainably hand-gathered, the primary emphasis is on the social sustainability of the Maasai communities with a secondary emphasis on environmental sustainability. Also, in the spirit of disclosure, we must mention that many families in the Maasai communities still cling to the brutal practice of female genital mutilation even though the practice is illegal in Tanzania and Kenya.

Carbon Offset Jewelry. For those whose passion is in promoting environmental sustainability, check out the Wind Turbine Jewelry Pin ($325) or the Be Carbon Neutral fine jewelry of reclaimed silver hand-designed by Anthony Aletto. Proceeds from this beautiful … but pricey … jewelry are used to purchase carbon offsets in the purchaser’s name. No less an eco-personage than The ECOnorable Al Gore has been pinned with the reclaimed silver Wind Turbine Jewelry Pin which is sourced, manufactured and shipped as being carbon neutral, probably using carbon offsets.

Natural Jewelry. And there are many more examples of green jewelry in the hotsey-totsey world of haute eco jewelry. The Palma Collection features “exotic, exciting, and original jewelry inspired by nature’s beauty” made from the tagua nut. Sustainably collected from a rare species of palm tree found only along the Pacific rainforest coast line of South America, the tagua nut has also been called “vegetable ivory” because its hardness, cellulose grain, and look and feel are very similar to ivory from elephant tusks. The Tagua nut has been a favorite of natural material jewelry artisans worldwide for many decades.  Here is Summer Rayne Oakes in a Palma Collection tagua nut necklace.

Recycled Jewelry. Looking for something a little more fun? How about recycled jewelry made from the funny pages? Great Green Goods has a flippery necklace made from recycled paper mache Archie comics (and its only $21.00). 

Or if you are really into the funky junky look, check out Debris where they have a totally playful collection of necklaces made from junk – old jam jar lids, rusty bottle caps, recycled fishing tackle, and whatever old recycled bits from the dustbins catch the artist’s fancy.

And then Etsy, an online artists community of the handmade, offers wrist cuffs and armlets made from recycled vinyl records complete with the groovey music grooves still in the vinyl ($24.00ish). Hmmm … anyone still remember vinyl records?

Fair Trade. Going from fun to fair – as in Fair Trade – many stores offer Fair Trade and ethically produced jewelry. Companies such as Rainforest Native work with indigenous peoples and native artisans and apply Fair Trade policies to help market their environmentally sensitive jewelry and art. Here is their multi-strand black waxed cord necklace with dangling black saboneteira seeds and pupunheira palm wood for a fair price of $85.00.

And finally, one of our favorites for Fair Trade ethically manufactured jewelry is the Ananya Studio / Ridhi combo. Ananya Studio is a web-based ethical jewelry marketing organization that has partnered with the ethical jewelry manufacturer Ridhi from gem-rich Sri Lanka. Ananya Studio was started by three remarkable women. Here's their story as they tell it:

“The founders of Ananya Studio, Faye, Teri, and Zainab, all have a history of giving back to the community. Faye has been involved in health care and global youth enablement programs for many years. Teri spent over a decade as a therapist for emotionally disturbed pre-schoolers and their families. Zainab has worked with refugees from the long running civil war in Sri Lanka, developmentally challenged children, and community/cottage industry projects in Sri Lanka. Our experiences in these endeavors sparked an interested in forming a company that brought responsibly produced, organic and/or fair trade products to the market. It is our hope that by giving artisans and craftspeople from around the world a market place for their goods, that we can help them make positive changes for themselves and their families.”

Ananya Studio co-founder Zainab and her mother started Ridhi in Sri Lanka to employ local jewelry artisans. A fair wage is only one component of their strategy of giving and caring for their employees and artisans. For their employees, they also provide loan assistance to improve their homes, books and educational assistance for employees’ children, lunch and travel allowances, substance abuse treatment, career development and training. Taking care of their employees is truly a passion for them.

The jewelry at Ananya Studios is gorgeous and reasonably priced with prices from below $25 to slightly above $100. Take a few minutes to visit Ananya Studio and do some good.

Green jewelry, earth friendly jewelry, recycled jewelry, reclaimed jewelry, sustainable jewelry, Fair Trade jewelry, ethical jewelry, whatever your green passion, there is a treasure house of truly beautiful pieces out there that will go great with whatever you are wearing from Linda Loudermilk natural fiber originals to thrift store recycled.

Enjoy.

Michael

Eco-Jewelry: Green Sustainable Gold & Ethical Diamonds

In our last post, Jewelry: the Troubles with Baubles, we explored the ocean of ethical, social and environmental troubles that are swamping conventional gold and diamond jewelry. In this post we turn our attention to the more sustainable solutions and alternatives that eco-jewelry offers for gold and diamond jewelry. In our next post, we will preview some of the other wonderfully beautiful options for eco-jewelry.

Sometimes, new “eco” and “green” terms seem to sprout faster than bamboo. So, what really is “eco-jewelry”? Simply defined, eco-jewelry is ornamental art that is made from natural or recycled non-toxic materials that have been manufactured without creating a damaging impact on the environment and habitat, on the miners who extracted the metals, gems and stones from the earth, on the artisans who created the jewelry, and on the wearer.

To help you locate that perfect piece of jewelry that not only captures your heart with its beauty but also doesn’t offend your consciousness or harm the earth and its inhabitants, we have compiled a list of questions to sort out the good, the bad, and the harmful.

“Diamonds Are Forever” so be careful to not start with a blood diamond. For those who adore diamonds search for conflict-free diamonds to avoid the blood diamond curse. Conflict diamonds are also known as blood diamonds because of the blood of innocents that was spilled in conflicts financed by illicit rough diamond trade in Angola, Ivory Coast, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Republic of Congo. Roughly 65% of all diamonds come from Africa.

The United Nations, seventy-one countries, and most relevant NGOs have adopted the Kimberley Process Certification System to certify that each diamond exported by signatory countries is from a conflict-free source. Amnesty International USA and Global Witness have published the Diamond Buyers Guide listing four questions that every diamond shopper should ask the sales person before buying:

1. How can I be sure that none of your jewelry contains conflict diamonds?

2. Do you know where your diamonds come from?

3. Can I see your company’s policy on conflict diamonds?

4. Can you show me a written guarantee from your diamond suppliers that your diamonds are conflict-free?

A survey by Global Witness / Amnesty International (GW/AI) in 2007 was sent to the 37 largest U.S. retail diamond sellers such as Helzberg Diamond Shops, Sterling, and Tiffany & Co. about their policies to combat blood diamonds in accord with the Kimberley Process Certification System. About half of the largest U.S. diamond retailers refused to participate in the survey about their conflict diamond policies. Of the half that did respond, 56% reported that they do not have corporate procedures to insure that the diamonds that they sell to customers are not blood diamonds. To insure that you are not buying a blood diamond, always start by asking the four questions above.

Sustainable Diamond Mining. Finding a certified conflict-free diamond is just the first obstacle to overcome when shopping for that special gift.  The next question for your jeweler or retailer:

5. Have the semi-precious and precious stones and metals been sustainably mined?

Mining is too often an ecologically dirty and unsustainable operation. A new breed of mine operator is emerging that tries to practice sustainable mining – mining that attempts to reduce the environmental impact, improve working conditions and safety for miners, fairly compensate displaced farmers and indigenous peoples for their lands and return the land to its natural condition after the mine ceases operations … while still providing adequate shareholder profits and economic returns.

Diavik Diamond Mines, located in Canada’s remote Northwest Territories, is a subsidiary of Rio Tinto plc from London. Diavik Diamond Mines has a very aggressive sustainable development policy. The Diavik Diamond Mines sustainable development policy is comprehensive and thoroughly covers issues such as the protection and monitoring of wildlife including the migration of caribou and marine and fish habitat; development of extensive water systems to protect natural lakes, rivers and waterways; progressive reclamation of mining waste rocks and continual environmental preparation for mine closure; active development of community commitment and improvement especially with the large Aboriginal communities; improving the social well-being of workers and local communities including training programs for workers and scholarships for community school children; aggressive mining safety programs; employee and family assistant programs; worker and community economic development programs; and Aboriginal business support.

One of the more commendable features of the Diavik Diamond Mines sustainable development policy is that the plan was established before mining construction began and isn’t a retro fit to try to fix damage already done. Over and over in all industries we see that sustainability must be designed in and can not effectively be an afterthought.

A growing number of jewelry retailers, such as Brilliant Earth, are offering Canadian diamonds from more sustainable mining operations such as Diavik Diamond Mines. Brilliant Earth guarantees that all their diamonds are tracked from Canadian mines, through cutting and polishing, to final transport to their retailers. I've noticed that the web site for Brilliant Earth has recently disappeared and I would appreciate it anyone could tell me if they are still in business.  They were a great site.

Canada is the third largest producer of diamonds globally with annual production of 12.6 million carats and growing. Unfortunately, Canada has antiquated mine staking laws that echo back to some of the worst practices of the Wild West mining boom days that encourage displacing native populations and rushing ahead on mine development without environmental planning. If you are considering purchasing a Canadian diamond, make sure that the mine it came from practices ethical and sustainable mining operations.

The Canadian diamond mining industry has been strongly criticized by organizations such as Mining Watch Canada. In a very thoughtful critique, “There Are No Clean Diamonds: What You Need To Know About Canadian Diamonds”, Mining Watch Canada outlines the actual environmental, wildlife and Aboriginal community impacts caused by the mining in Canada’s ecologically fragile and remote northern boreal regions. Their message is simple … avoid “Polar Bear Diamonds” that come from the frozen ecosystems of Canada.

Sustainable Green Gold. Currently the supply of renewed and recycled gold isn’t sufficient to meet demands for gold jewelry. To insure an adequate supply of gold for jewelry, a small but growing number of retail jewelers are also sourcing gold from sustainable artisanal mining coops such as Oro Verde (literally “green gold”) in South America.

6. Does your jeweler use sustainably mined “green” gold?

Small-scale, artisanal miners using simple mining tools such as the mining pan and sluices scratch through the mud and rocks of streams, rivers and dry waterways to collect the metal flakes or small precious stones. These alluvial deposits of gold, silver and diamonds have been broken free of larger veins of precious metals or stones forged deep in the earth and washed downstream by rains, streams and rivers. Today’s small-scale artisanal mining operations – which consists of an estimated 20 to 30 million artisanal miners in 55 countries – are marked by low productivity, poverty, lack of safety procedures, child labor, and high environmental impact as artisanal small-scale mining operations make streams and rivers unable to support human, aquatic and wildlife because of excessive sediment, mercury and cyanide poisoning, harm to pristine rainforests and remote mountain regions,

A report, “All that Glitters: Gold Mining in Guyana,” by the International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC) of Harvard Law School’s Human Rights Program documents that “Medium and small scale gold mining as currently practiced and regulated inflict severe environmental, health, and social damage on the areas and people near mining operations.” In many regions around the world, small and medium scale mining inflicts disproportionately more damage and harm than large scale corporate mining.

The Green Gold Initiative, founded by Catalina Cock Duque, is attempting to create environmentally sustainable mining cooperatives that work with local artisanal miners to ensure the use of sustainable environmental practices, restore ecosystems damaged by previous mining operations, and improve the health and well being of the local communities.

Other organizations such as the Association for Responsible Mining are working “towards the transformation of artisanal and small scale mining into a socially and environmentally responsible activity, facilitate an economically just supply chain and educate the consumers as to their power to directly improve the quality of life of artisanal miners by purchasing fair trade jewellery and minerals.”

The movement for more socially and environmentally responsible mining is gaining momentum. The No Dirty Gold campaign has established the Golden Rules for jewelry retailers to support ethical and ecological mining. Jewelry retailers who support the No Dirty Gold campaign include Ben Bridge Jeweler, Birks & Mayors, Boscov’s, Brilliant Earth, Cartier, Commemorative Brands, Cred Jewellery, Fortunoff, Fred Meyer and Littman Jewelers, Helzberg Diamonds, Intergold, Jostens, Leber Jeweler, Michaels Jewelers, Piaget, QVC, Security Jewelers, Signet Group, Stephen Fortner, Tiffany & Co., TurningPoint, Van Cleef & Arpels, Van Gundy, Victoria Casual USA, Wal-Mart, Whitehall Jewellers, and Zale Corp. An interesting note is that Wal-Mart has become the largest U.S. retail jeweler and QVC is in fourth place.

Renewed and Recycled Jewelry. Small-scale, artisanal mining offers the greatest opportunities for socially, ethically and environmentally responsible sustainable mining and a source for green gold. But unless we find a way to perfect alchemy and make gold from lead, gold like oil in the ground is a non-renewable resource.

Another important eco-jewelry trend is the use of renewed and recycled gold, platinum, silver, diamonds and colored gems in new jewelry. Gold is renewed from recycled gold jewelry or industrial products by melting and refining the used gold and then recasting it to produce new gold settings and jewelry. There should be no degradation of quality in the recycled and renewed gold.

7. Does your jeweler use recycled and renewed gold, platinum or stones?

More and more companies such as GreenKarat are beginning to offer jewelry made from recycled and renewed gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, and other precious and semi-precious stones. GreenKarat makes the point that destructive mining operations continue to rip 2,500 tons of gold from the earth each year even though there is enough gold sitting in bank vaults and old, unused jewelry to satisfy the demands of the jewelry industry for the next 20 to 50 years depending upon how you estimate the amount of old jewelry available for recycling. The proponents of recycled and renewed gold, silver and diamond jewelry remind us that mining is an industry that is ecologically deeply flawed and that the earth – and social justice – can no longer support the unsustainable activities of mining.  Like petroleum, the earth is not making any more precious metals and gem stones.

Because jewelry can have several components – such as one or more metals and different types of stones – GreenKarat has a feature that they call Green Assay to rate the specific ecological characteristics of the different components of the jewelry that they sell.

Consumers can also mine the corners of their own dressers, attics and jewelry boxes for unused jewelry to be recycled. Many jewelers, metal smiths and jewelry artisans are able to recycle and renew your old pieces into new settings and new castings.

Laboratory-created diamonds. While the alchemist’s dream of making gold from lead still isn’t possible, it is possible to make diamonds, both gem quality diamonds and industrial quality diamonds like those used in large drill bits to cut through rock when drilling for gas and oil.

8. Have you considered a more sustainable diamond alternative?

In the diamond world, there are basically four categories of diamonds:

§ Natural diamonds

§ Diamond simulants

§ Synthetic diamonds

§ Diamond like carbon (DLC)

Natural diamonds are made by Mother Nature deep within the earth’s crust of carbon deposits under great pressure and heat

Diamond simulants are imitation diamonds that have gemological properties similar to diamonds such as its color, refractive index, general appearance and even hardness. A diamond stimulant can be artificially manufactured (like rhinestones and cubic zirconia) or a naturally occurring material (like zircon which has been mined in Sri Lanka for more than 2,000 years and was originally thought to be an inferior diamond). A trained gemologist can tell the difference between a real diamond and a diamond simulant but because of technological advances it is becoming more difficult.

Synthetic diamonds are cultured diamonds that have been grown in a lab by a technological process rather than by a geological process like a natural diamond. The properties of a synthetic diamond depend upon the manufacturing process used to create the synthetic diamond and in some ways might be inferior, the same as, or even superior to a natural diamond. The most common process for manufacturing synthetic diamonds is High Pressure, High Temperature (HPHT) which uses enormous presses to create a very high pressure at a very high temperature, typically more than 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit. A tiny sliver of natural diamond is used as a seed that is bathed in molten carbon and placed under high pressure and high temperatures. The HPHT process attempts to recreate the environment that naturally occurred deep within the earth’s crust to produce natural diamonds.

Apollo Diamonds manufactures cultured synthetic diamonds using a different process called Chemical Vapor Decomposition (CVD). Visit the Apollo Diamond web site for a visual overview of how the Chemical Vapor Decomposition process grows diamonds.

Gem quality cultured synthetic diamonds can be manufactured to be chemically, physically and visually identical to natural diamonds but a spectroscope can still be used to distinguish the difference.

Many people who really want that diamond engagement ring but without the heavy environmental and ethical baggage commonly attached to natural mined diamonds are opting for synthetic diamonds. Adia Diamonds, a Co-op America member, manufactures cultured synthetic diamonds by the HPHT process and retails through Pearlman’s.

Diamond-like carbon is composed amorphous carbon which means that it lacks the rigid crystalline structure of natural diamonds but still exhibits many of the properties of diamonds for industrial uses. Created in an industrial lab, diamond-like carbon is typically grown as a thin film coating to reduce friction and extend the product lifespan for moving components such as high performance engine parts, ball bearings, implanted human heart pumps, and even multi-blade shaving razors to reduce friction on sensitive skin. Depending upon which of several fabrication techniques is used, diamond-like carbon can be up to 50% harder than natural diamonds as measured by nanoindentation methods. Environmental proponents claim that significantly increasing the lifespan of moving metal components reduces the load on manufacturing and ultimately on landfills and many think of diamond-like carbon as a sustainability enhancer. We will leave it to you to decide if you agree with this perspective.

Unusual facts about diamonds. Diamonds have some fascinating properties that might not be commonly known but might be useful at a Holiday Party.

§ Diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material but they are not very tough. Hardness is measured by the ability of a material to resist scratching but toughness is related to a material’s ability to resist impacts. A diamond will probably shatter if hit by an ordinary hammer. You might not want to try this at home … or at the party.

§ Even though diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material, they can still be cut because their hardness is directional owing to various 3-dimensional planes that are formed by the way in which the carbon atoms bond together. The octahedral plane is very strong and hard and the dodecahedral plane is weaker. Diamond are cut for jewelry along dodecahedral planes.

§ Diamonds burn. If a diamond is placed in an intense flame in an oxygen-rich environment, it can ignite because diamonds are a carbon compound, like coal and charcoal. Because of their crystalline structure, though, diamonds have a much higher combustion temperature than coal.

§ Pure natural diamonds will conduct heat but not electrical current – except for natural blue diamonds found in the Argyle diamond mine in Australia which will conduct electricity.

Our next journey into eco-jewelry will focus on the fantastic adornments that are fashioned from natural and recycled materials other than precious and semi-precious metals and stones with an emphasis on Fair Trade and sustainability.

Until then, enjoy.

Michael

 

Resources for additional reading:

Framework for Responsible Mining – a guide to the evolving standards for ethical and environmentally responsible mining practices and how to