Track my T

I've just discovered this cool website. Its meant for kids but I think its worth people of all ages looking. TrackmyT.com allows you to see the journey that your cotton t-shirt has come on. Users can type in a code from their Tshirt (made by Anvil Knitwear who designed the site) or they can track a random tee. Its a great approach to show young people where their clothes come from, I think its really important that they understand what a long process the supply chain is, and how many people are involved.

Timberland Carbon Neutral

Timberland have a strong CSR commitment. In 2008 they launched their long term CSR strategy, based around 4 ‘pillars’, these being Energy, Product, Workplace and Service. Their main aim under the Energy pillar was to become carbon neutral by 2010. Sounds great doesn’t it! But for such a large global company to become carbon neutral, seems too good to be true? However, closer inspection shows that this commitment only covers their direct carbon emissions from their own factories, shops and offices, which is in fact, only 4% of their overall carbon footprint. The other 96% comes from the carbon footprint associated with their supply chain. Misleading points like this make me wonder whether it’s more for the good of their image than the environment, however, every little helps! It is good that they are doing something rather than nothing, setting the wheels in motion. Of course it is now the end of 2010 and Timberland haven’t quite reached their carbon neutral goal, due to ‘increase in air travel caused by the rebound in our business’. It’s worth keeping up with their developments at http://community.timberland.com/Corporate-Responsibility/csr

The Foods that make Billions

Last night I watched the first episode of a fascinating new three part documentary, ‘The Food that makes Billions.’ It explores how companies have made billions branding and selling everyday items, such as water, cereal and yoghurt. The big question in last night’s programme was, is it right to be making money from selling water when millions of people across the world don’t have access to clean water? And then there is the absurdity in bottling water in one country and shipping it to another country, in a plastic bottle.

Amongst the Evian and Pure Life, however, was One Water. One Water comes at the market from a totally different angle as they are part of a charity that works with communities in Africa to address their humanitarian needs. What a fantastic idea! I suggest looking out for this when you next get thirsty, and you will be helping an African family have safe drinking water. It also reminded me of a few years ago when I did conservation work in Honduras. I helped with a recycling project while I was there, sorting through plastic bottles that had been left in the recycling bins, or collected from the beach. Bottled water was necessary there, compared to at home, but the bottles still made a horrible mess - it wasn't a fun job.

www.onedifference.org

Museum Needlework

I have been doing voluntary work at my local museum, helping move the needlework and textiles collections to a new location. I love it, it doesn't bother me that I'm giving up my time for free because I'm learning so much. They mainly have local church textiles, school uniforms, smocks and bonnets and accessories. They also have samplers like the one above, the pieces that young girls would work on at school to show different stitches.

It's amazing seeing the time and care that has gone into making these objects by hand. Things are so different now - we can pop into a shop and buy a new garment so cheaply and because its so cheap and easy to acquire we get rid of it just as easily. I sometimes think I'm in the wrong time! Back when textiles were made with love and treasured, that has to be better?? I know the 'slow textile' movement is around, I went to a conference about it last year, but it needs to be more mainstream.

Fashion's Dirty Secret

If you missed Dispatches, C4, on Monday its worth catching up with it. The episode, called Fashion's Dirty Secret, showed workers producing clothes for the High Street in sweatshop conditions, not in India or Bangladesh, but in the UK. It's not a total shock that places like this still exist in the UK, but I didn't expect them to be making High Street clothes. An undercover reporter took a job in a factory in Leicester for three months, during which time he was paid £2.50 an hour to make clothes for Bhs, New Look and Peacocks, among others. He wasn't given safety equipment and was put under huge pressure to finish orders. Most of the workers are illegal immigrants, so I guess its this or leave the UK.

The big retailers said the factory was not up to their ethical standards, and they weren't aware that their suppliers had outsourced the work. How frustrating! Its the retailers responsibility to know the output that each supplier can provide in a certain time span, if they are putting pressure on the suppliers then they should know it will be subcontracted - but they turn a blind eye. I wonder what happened to all the people working there?