House and Home, Feb 2008
Soft furnishings goes eco-wise.
By Faith Glasgow
Published: February 16, 2008
From long-life lightbulbs and energy-efficient fridges to good wood and lead-free paint, homeowners these days are confronted on every side with well-publicised opportunities to make their homes more sustainable. But how much thought do most of us spare for the environment when it comes to choosing upholstery, curtains or cushions? Probably next to none in most cases – not least because of the lack of alternatives that meet green concerns as well as looking and feeling good.
New talent with ethical and environmental concerns is finally gathering strength on the soft furnishings front, however. Recently the British interior designer Emily Todhunter has teamed up with O Ecotextiles – a company based in Seattle, US, that produces textiles in a socially and ecologically responsible way – to launch a range of organic cotton, linen and hemp upholstery fabrics in sophisticated shades. “I can’t claim my motives for producing an organic range are eco-intellectual,” admits Todhunter. “I didn’t know much about the environmental arguments when I started but I’ve learnt a great deal since teaming up with O Ecotextiles. Having spent many years visiting textile mills, I felt there must be a better way than modern mass production. Fabric produced on a small scale using traditional techniques and natural dyes has a different quality – it drapes and performs so much more beautifully. I came to the idea from the aesthetic angle, really.”
Visual appeal aside, the case against the textile processing industry is a pretty compelling one. Cotton production is the worst offender: it’s a massive and largely intensive industry accounting for 16 per cent of global pesticide use – more than any other crop – according to the Institute of Science in Society (ISIS). These agrochemicals pollute the environment and poison farm workers on a huge scale: at least 1m agricultural workers around the world are hospitalised because of acute pesticide poisoning each year, says ISIS. There are also fair trade issues centring on US cotton subsidies and the impact of artificially low prices on poor farmers in Africa and India.
Wool is an animal welfare horror story perhaps less familiar to many people. The Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) website contains stomach-churning details of the inhumane treatment of intensively farmed sheep in Australia, which produces a quarter of the world’s wool.
Further down the production chain, textile bleaching and dyeing processes involve toxins such as formaldehyde, dioxins and chlorine, among others. Millions of litres of contaminants are discharged into the ecosystem by textile mills. Moreover, these chemical cocktails are associated with serious health concerns in the home. Jesse Johnson, New York-based co-founder of the green furnishing company Q Collection, doesn’t mince his words: “It is reasonable to think of most textiles in your home as hazardous waste,” he says. “They can contain pesticides and heavy metals, dyes, stain-resistant chemicals, stiffeners and flame retardants that are known to cause health problems [for the people living there].”
Leigh Anne Van Dusen, co-founder of O Ecotextiles, admits that she did not focus on human health concerns when the company was set up four years ago. “But we now believe they will be a strong market driver,” she says. “The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has named indoor air pollution as one of the five most pressing public health problems in the US.”
Clearly, the luxury eco-furnishing fabrics industry is still embryonic. But a growing number of designers, small producers and suppliers is focusing its energies on creating and marketing alternative textiles that are not only organic, non-toxic and ethically produced but also beautiful and durable.
Understandably, they are of interest to eco-enthusiasts who place the welfare of the planet at a premium and to people with health concerns – for example those with asthmatic children – but, says Jesse Johnson: “There are folks purchasing our textiles who either don’t know about or don’t particularly care about the health and environmental benefits of the collection. They just like the design and the quality, and that is essential too.”
His point is echoed by UK upholsterer Lisa Harland, who set up Harlands Organic Furnishings in 2006. It was among the first furnishing companies in the UK to work exclusively with organic, environmentally responsible and ethically produced fabrics. “I see as many people coming to us because they like our designs as for green reasons. As far as they’re concerned, the green angle is a bonus,” she says.
Harland prides herself on the fact that the company is “the first in the UK aiming to bring together all the organic/ethical furnishing fabrics under one roof; previously many of the small companies producing organic textiles got lost on the internet”. She stocks 300 fabrics from eight suppliers, of which three are US-based. They include the jolly retro designs of Mod Green Pod plus woven organic wool fabrics from Del Cerro. She also sells hemp and hemp mixes. “Hemp has a rather unfortunate sackcloth image but it is great – it grows prolifically, it can be produced very organically, it’s strong and it can look much like linen,” she says.
Most popular is the the work of British textile designer Sarah Roberts, who creates bespoke silkscreened cotton-hemp fabrics, colour-matched to the customer’s requirements and printed to order. Another favourite is the range of traditional woven tweeds from Ardalanish Weavers. “They are pioneers in that their wool is certified organic by the Soil Association; they also buy in wool from local Scottish farmers on a fair trade basis,” explains Harland.
Van Dusen set up O Ecotextiles in Seattle because she was looking to re-upholster her sofa and couldn’t find a luxurious fibre that was also eco-friendly, except recycled polyester. It has taken her and her partner, Patty Grossman, four years to source their range. “We had to find partners who supported our vision and also to try new things for high performance – durability, softness, colourfastness, luminosity, drape. And the fabrics have to meet the Global Organic Textile Standard introduced in 2006,” she says.
In terms of lateral thinking, Q Collection’s range of fabrics demonstrates the potential for interesting new natural fibres. “Our first collection was made from just viscose – wood pulp – and wool,” says Jesse Johnson. “Today we use a much wider selection, including bamboo, banana plant stalk, alpaca, jute and leather as well as cotton, linen and hemp.” But the company is keen to expand further and is experimenting with fabrics developed from corn-based bioplastics.
What about the more sumptuous end of the soft furnishings spectrum? Velvet using wool and organic cotton, plus artisan-made silk made without toxic dyes, feature in the Q Collection. O Ecotextiles, too, offers bamboo plush velvets, though the company has not yet ventured into leather. “The tanning process remains one of the most chemically intensive and toxic in the fabric spectrum – but some companies are claiming green credentials and I think they’d be worth a look,” says van Dusen. “Silk is the fibre with the lightest environmental and health footprint – unless you’re the silkworm.”
Harland stocks organic wild silks from India and is waiting for the launch of an eco velvet in the UK. “We’re desperate for it,” she says. And leather? “I see it as a natural byproduct of a well-managed herd; we’d be willing to use it in principle but so far, to keep our message simple, we have stuck to materials where animals have not had to die.”
Naturally, the shift back to sustainable production techniques brings challenges. How, for instance to achieve rich colour palettes without toxic dyes? “We used to be limited in colour but that has changed dramatically in the past few years,” says Johnson. “It has taken some research but our line includes dark darks and ivory whites.”
Another issue is over the fire safety standards to which furnishing fabrics must conform. Conventionally it’s a matter of treating the material with toxic flame retardant but Harland has come up with a sustainable alternative that meets British Standard 5852 requirements. “We use a special interlining that is 70 per cent organic but 30 per cent Kevlar, a synthetic material. It’s a compromise but, apart from the stiffener in our curtain headings and the use of ordinary sewing thread because organic cotton breaks too easily, it’s the only naughty we have in our products,” she says.
Cost is a potential hurdle for many consumers, judging by the price tags on some of these fabrics. Todhunter’s range retails for between £70 and £94 per metre in the UK, while the Del Cerro wool stocked by Harland costs £300 per metre.
“We don’t charge any green premium but every step of the production process is currently more expensive and the fabric is produced more slowly, so prices can be 25-50 per cent higher,” warns van Dusen. But Johnson is less pessimistic. “We work very hard to avoid asking our customers to pay a premium for sustainability,” he stresses. “Our goods are generally no more than 5 per cent more expensive than comparable textiles.”
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Friendlier fabrics:
O Ecotextiles, tel: +1 206-633 1177; www.oecotextiles.com
Harland Organic Furnishings, tel; +44 (0)7984-635 726; www.organic-furnishings.co.uk
Q Collection, tel: +1 212-529 1400; www.qcollection.com
Cotton on to this 
11 February, 2008:
Leading textile testing laboratory, Shirley Technologies tells us that 10% of the textiles (towels, clothes, bedding, etc) it tests fail ecological tests. And the most harmful are from the US.
Surprise, surprise. Well it is a surprise if you've seen the US Cotton industry's 'Feel the Difference' campaign (right), complete with angelic young maidens and a 'Pure, Sensual and Sustainable' tagline.
STL tells us the cotton typically fails for pH (meaning the fabric may cause rashes, itching or allergic reactions), allergenic dyes and alarmingly, toxic heavy metals.
"There are some very nasty chemicals used in the production of clothing and household articles, including formaldehyde (which is carcinogenic), extractable heavy metals such as cadmium and chromium, and pesticides," says Phil Whitaker of STL. "As the consumer becomes more and more aware of organic and ecological issues, the key point is that the makers [for instance, illegal sweatshops] are exposed to a deadly chemical cocktail, all day every day, to produce merchandise."
The issue hasn't escaped the notice of UK textile designers. A group including Lisa Harland of Harlands Organic Furnishings is starting to tackle greenwashing in the textile industry. Have a look at Lisa's blog entitled 'The Environmental Impact of the Furniture Industry'. It also includes a disturbing film from Peta on Merino wool. She also wants consumers to know that chemical flame retardants are now widespread, due to fire and safety regs, and that some of these chemicals may have harmful effects on humans and should be replaced with non-toxic or natural alternatives. These chemicals are also tested on animals, so should be avoided for any truly ethical furnishings. Anthony and Jesse at Q Collection also have a lot to say on the subject of ecological and ethical upholstery.
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