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Posts Tagged ‘FTC’


Carol Derby, Director of Environmental Strategy for Designtex

by Rich Awn

Carol Derby is the Director of Environmental Strategy for Deisngtex, a company championing the movement toward the use and reuse of sustainable materials in commercial interiors.   Under Carol’s direction, Designtex seeks to instill the potential for a closed loop system in its products.  Early in the lifecycle of every material, there are opportunities to infuse environmental qualities, that by design, challenge each subsequent stage to preserve and amplify those qualities.  This is the main focus of Carol’s work and what she calls Environmental Design.

GA: Are there any FTC regulations for sustainable fabrics?


carolCD: The FTC is actually working on their Green Guide update right now and I’ve attended a meeting where they were gathering all of the people who might fit into that lexicon so it’s a pretty diverse thing they’re trying to get their arms around because the Green Guides have to do with every green material in the world, not just textiles.  But there is a category there that they’re trying to fine tune everything from what does it mean to be organic, what does recycled really mean, they’re really looking to protect the consumer.

GA: Can you explain the pros and the cons to say natural fibers versus synthetics and I may be oversimplifying it, I mean, I know you make fabrics out of audio tape.


CD: I think in the cradle to cradle model, they both can be celebrated as truly green materials.  I’ve sometimes done this as a little workshop in a presentation to take a mechanical pencil, for instance, and a wood pencil and kind of go through what went into the manufacture of both of those things, where are they going at the end of their life, and it usually ends up being this sort of counter intuitive think.  I mean, the mechanical pencil is so superior to the wood pencil because you can take that thing apart and technically you could refill it forever and the wood pencil suffers from certain things, what’s in that paint anyway and look how many pounds per pressure were involved in getting that graphite to that stage of fineness.  When you put the two things side by side in a very very loose life cycle analysis, you start to see that maybe this assumption that we make about natural materials being always the better material aren’t necessarily so.  I mean, manufacturing is manufacturing and how thoughtful you make it is what really constitutes sustainability.

GA: What are some programs at work here with Designtex that are on a local scale or a global scale?


CD: We are starting to look at this as a much broader responsibility and to track our footprint as best we can so we’re in the early stages of that but we are reclaiming samples from libraries, we’ve put word out there that those things can come back and we’re getting about a 20% return on samples these days.

GA: What happens when they come back?

CD: They go back into stock to be sent out on the next request so it keeps them from landfill.  And some of the other things that we’re doing have to do with looking at our operations.  We design but we also distribute so one of our heaviest footprints comes through out distribution arm so just trying to look at who are we using, what are their fleets like, are there hybrids in those fleets, how much time do those trucks spend idling.  We were glad to learn that one of the biggest truckers that we use is part of the EPA’s SmartWay Program.  So, we’re starting to starting to really spread the whole thing out and see that there are things that we can do on the distribution side.  We have a product that goes out there and we need to be responsible for that product but we also need to be responsible for how we get the product out there.

GA: What is your history with bags made from bottles and the 2008 TED Conference?


bagCD: We had an opportunity working with a company called Rikshaw to develop fabrics for TED and we had just developed, actually the fabric that’s in this conference room is part of that collection, a group of fabrics that were made from PET plastic bottles, 100% post consumer polyester and it was really the first time that that kind of material was able to be reclaimed and used at this level of value, of this type of quality because prior to that the extrusion of those types of yarns was clunky, there was a lot of stuff to work out.  We typically could get a certain type of construction but we couldn’t get a refined yarn dyed-jacquard, that these are.  So, it was an opportunity, TED was an opportunity to really show off that quality and that new technology that made it possible to have 100% post-consumer polyester in bags.

GA: Now that we’re sitting here with this audio tape fabric, it’s this similar to how you would take a plastic bottle and, I mean, would you sort of stretch it out into thin strands and then weave it?  What’s the process?  I’m curious.


sonic_2CD: The plastic from the bottles, when it’s reclaimed, is called bottle flake and it’s really no different from the resin that went into making the bottle initially.  It’s graded a little bit cloudier than the bright clear plastic resin that went into the bottle but that resin can either be formed into a bottle or extruded as fiber.  So, you’re not seeing plastic in these fabrics, you’re seeing fiber that doesn’t even look synthetic really because what happens is, through extruding really fine filaments and air-entangling them, you get a yarn.

GA: Can you comment on your “audible fabric” art installation?


CD: Well, the “audible fabric” is called “sonic fabric.”  It’s really the work of Alyce Santoro, who came to us with this concept.  She had developed this idea based on payer flags.  Even from the idea of prayers being released by the wind, prior to that she had had these experiences sailing as a kid where she always imagined that the audio tape that she tied to determine the direction of the wind, would actually play that music into the wind, so there was all this rich context for her artwork.  She wanted to commercialize this fabric and we weren’t sure we had anything durable that would work for our commercial markets but we were able to come up with a construction that met the requirements for durability and happily preserved the sound that Alice had recorded on the tape.  I think there are seven tracks in all layered into the tape and the tape is reclaimed tape, or repurposed tape, that Alice located sitting in spools and warehouses unused, the audio tape market being what it is these days.  That sound, then, was not sonic_1greatly deteriorated by weaving which was a really happy circumstance.  It is distorted sound and when you play it, which you can by doctoring up a walkman and turing the head to the outside, you get something that sounds kind of like whale sounds or very atmospheric whoops and bleeps but it’s all there.

GA: We’d seen some of the new line of these fabrics that are 30% polyester, 30% polyurethane.  Now, those don’t sound like too green of a material.  Can you explain how they’re either reclaimed or reprocessed, if you know anything about that?


CD: Sure.  They are along a green continuum.  We’re always starting with what are the best possible raw materials you could choose to give you the kind of performance you’re after.  So, those are extreme performance fabrics, they’re 70% recycled polyester and 30% polyurethane and while the combination of those things alone, I agree, we wouldn’t normally say, “Well, that right there, that’s the recipe for a green fabric.”  What it does do is replace material that we would not consider green, which is vinyl or PVC.  So, by achieving the same performance without using PVC which has some downsides to it both on the manufacturing side and at the end of its life, real disposal problems for PVC.  By substituting something that is water-based polyurethane on chief-value recycled polyester backing, you’ve gone the next step.  It’s an incremental step towards sustainability.  We’ve started to get much more cautious about using that word, “sustainable” or “sustainability,” because there are very few things that achieve that and that would be one of them and I would say is only taking the next step in that direction but it’s a big step.

Photos courtesy of Designtex.


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Anna Lappe, Author and Food Activist

by Rich Awn

Discussed: Disconnect/Phobia of Nature, Community Supported Agriculture, Federal Trade Commission, Industry Supported Lies, Center for Global Food Issues, Chemical Farming, Monsanto, Against the Grain, Permaculture and Ancient Agriculture

There are a few voices that speak with resonant clarity through the noise of the “too much information generation.”  They are the conscientious mavericks whose passion and diligence in finding the truth of things have elevated them beyond mere mortal thoughtless drones but as hyper-human change makers, or as we like to call them, superheroes.

One such individual is Anna Lappe, co-autohor of Grub and Hope’s Edge, founding principal for the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund.  Her literary work brandishes a samurai blade in the face of the chemically tainted, spurious battle against the evils of the commercial agriculture and biotech industries.  Her ambitious work with the Small Planet Institute prods and ignites the basic human tendency toward social mimicry by generating a broad spectrum of “entry points” through media to understand, accept, and impart democratic social change.

See below for more photos from the MINI Space Rooftop: Sustainability Roundtable Discussion:

Q: First I wanna talk about living in an urban environment and how there’s a disconnect with nature and even a phobia, in some cases, with school children.  How do you think that we should be dealing with that?


A: That’s a very good question and one I’ve thought a lot about as a New Yorker for the past 10 years, one of the things that I always remind myself is that eating food, which we have to do on a daily basis, is our most direct connection to nature and someone who lives in a city, as you said, it’s not so often that we necessarily get our feet on dirt that we are consuming nature through the food that we eat.  Of course, many times for many of us, the food that we eat is many steps removed from nature but the closer we can get to connecting to food that is in it’s most whole, natural form is one of the best ways I think to connect to the environment and to do that through whole foods and through seasonal foods is a really powerful way to do that.

Q: You think Community Supported Agriculture programs are also a good way?


A: Absolutely.  So here in New York City, Community Supported Agriculture farms are completely taking off.  The concept behind a CSA farm, as they’re called, is this really beautiful idea that those of us who aren’t farmers but who are eaters and want to support farms can actually become a shareholder in a farm and give that farmer the money that they need up front to farm the way we want them to farm without chemicals and creating real food for us and then throughout the harvest season, get food from that farm, and there are now dozens of CSA farm communities here in New York City.  A really fabulous organization called Just Food is spearheading it here, but there are actually now more than 1000 CSA farms across the country and it is a really powerful way to connect to great food and to support farmers.

Q: What’s up with Greenwashing in food advertising?  Does America have a food culture, number one, and how can we break from our omniverous habits?

A: Well, Greenwashing I think is becoming more and more prominent across all industries including food as companies realize that more of us care, that we’re freaking out about climate change, that we’re worried about the environment and so it’s really important in that context that we become really savvy consumers of media messages about Greenwashing and to really be able to tell the real deal from just the Green hype and there are all kinds of ways we can do that.  We can also do things like speak up to the Federal Trade Commission that’s determining what they call “The Green Guides” in other words, the “rules” that they set about what a company can say and can’t say and ask them to set really strict standards so that we are protected from Greenwashing as consumers.

Q: Can we call them or email them?  How do we get in touch with the FTC?


A: The FTC, part of government that you might not think too much about, but the Federal Trade Commission is what protects us consumers from fraud of all kinds and they also set their Green Guides as their policies for what companies can say about their environmental friendliness and increasingly there are lots of companies that are making environmental claims whether their carbon neutral or carbon negative even, I’ve seen, or whether they are eco friendly or all natural.  These are vague claims that have very little meaning so the FTC is trying to determine how do we actually be more specific about that.  Increasingly, the food industry, as they come under fire for being such an important contributor to climate crisis, I see the food industry increasingly coming out with Green messages about their products.

Q: Are the FTC regulations different from USDA?

A: Yes, totally separate.  In the FTC’s Green Guides regulations I should specify, they’re actually not laws in the same way that the USDA Organic Standard is a certifiable standard that you have to follow strict rules around and you can get sued if you go outside of those certification standards where as the Green Guides are just guidelines.  I think the other great thing that we can look for when it comes to food that’s good for the environment is to look for the USDA organic certification; that’s a verifiable claim, there are standards behind it and it’s something we can trust.

Q: You brought up the IPCC and “scientific” organizations funded by commercial agriculture.  Who can we trust?


A: I, as someone who is constantly on the search for the truth, and I think that the number one thing that I do whenever I read any claim or even read people quoted in the newspapers is go behind the name of the organization to really look at who’s funding that organization and so, there are a lot of groups, really front groups, that are funded by the chemical industry for instance but have very neutral sounding names that to you and I might not raise an eyebrow.  So for instance, the Center for Global Food Issues, have you ever heard of it?

Q: No.

A: What is the Center for Global Food issues?

Q: Probably some amazing altruistic .org that I should be contributing to.

A: So have you ever heard of DOW, Dupont, Sargento, Monsanto…?

Q: Those are the top five worst polluters in the world, yes.

A: So the Center for Global Food Issues, is a project of the Hudson Institute and the Hudson Institute is funded in part by some of those companies that I just mentioned.  We can go to sources, I love resources like SourceWatch.org, is a great website.  You can actually go to that website and put the name in of one of these organizations that you read about and find out, is it a altruistic organization that’s created to get to the truth behind big issues or might there be another alternative agenda.

Q: How evil is Monsanto?


A: Hmm… well, let’s see.  Seeing as Monsanto has a habit of suing people who speak negatively about them, I don’t know if I want to answer that question on record.  In fact, Monsanto affected me very directly, affected my family very directly, my father before he passed away had written for his last book had written a book called Against the Grain that was a scientific evaluation of the claims by Monsanto about whether or not their crops actually yeilded more food, you know that’s one of the claims we hear from the biotech industry, and his book raised some serious questions about the Monsanto promise and their technology.  It was actually at his publisher ready to go to print when his publisher received a 7 page letter from Monsanto lawyers saying, we just wanna let you know, if you publish this book, we might come after you and at the time his publisher did not have an insurance policy his publisher got very worried about having to battle with such a large company like Monsanto who has been successful in suing many farmers and journalists and they pulled the book.  Ultimately my father was able to find a Maine-based publisher called Common Courage Press. I’ve always thought his book had a very different feel to it when it was published by this more left-leaning press than it would’ve been had it had been published by a New York City mainstream textbook publishing house, and that was just my own family’s experience of what this company is doing in terms of stifiling real debate and the fact that they have been so aggressive in going after scientists and journalists who truly just want to engage the public in debate to me, is some of the most profound evidence that this company is not interested in really letting the truth out not interested in really having the public know all the facts and make a decision based on facts.

Q: A topic that I’m super interested in is sustainable agriculture, namely Permaculture, and I wanted to get your thoughts on Permaculture and the return to ancient agricultural practices and do you see this as a trend?  Can we expect to see more of this in the US and worldwide?


A: There’s been this very strategic and very smart way in which those companies that have been promoting chemical agriculture have painted anything other than technology defined as using chemicals, technology defined as using genetically engineered crops that have been created in a laboratory, that anything other than that is backward that if we want to support anything other than that, that we’re Luddites or that we don’t care about progress.  It’s been a real battle that many people have been fighting now for decades to actually reframe the story and to show people that tapping into natural cycles of fertility and natural cycles of abundance and tapping into much of that ancient wisdom about how we fed our selves for centuries and centuries before all these chemicals came around that by tapping into that wisdom is not going backward it’s actually taking us into the future. I just heard Michael Pollen the journalist say that it’s “post Industrial farming,” and as I like to say it’s really about tapping into the best of ancient wisdom with the best of what we know about science and what we’re discovering is that we can actually take this form of farming even farther than we ever knew was possible in the sense that we’re seeing higher yields than we ever thought was possible through getting off of the chemical treadmill there’s been all kinds of new studies coming out that show that organic farming is a really powerful way to sequester carbon in the soil so this false tradeoff between forests and farms is one that we can shatter that idea by showing that farms can be this important way for us to sequester carbon.  There are all kinds of ways in which these traditional methods actually have a place in our modern world even more so than any of us could ever believe.

Photo by rich_awn.


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