Eco-Photo

photo by Ken Beck

Merino wool has become one of my favorite fabrics.  I recently bought two light-weight merino wool shirts from Nau - the m1 cap sleeve (pictured above) and the m1 tank. I did a little research on the fabric and found the following:

• Merino wool is wicking, meaning it pulls moisture away from the skin, explaining the comfort I had wearing the shirts in high temperatures.
• Merino wool is naturally antimicrobial, meaning it inhibits the growth of bacteria that joins with sweat and body oil to create bad odors. Without the bad odors I can wear the shirts more often before laundering them, which saves on wear and tear as well as energy and water.
• Merino wool doesn’t need dry cleaning and can be washed in the washing machine in cold water, but just like other wools, merino wool will shrink in the dryer.
• Merino wool is considered to be the softest wool available and comes from Merino sheep, a renewable source.

But sustainable clothing is more than using sustainable fabrics.  From talking with the designers at Nau I’ve learned that sustainble clothing also means designing for longevity - which is a new mindset in our buy and discard fashion world. Nau’s color choices are not based on the latest trends but based on an evolutionary color palette that includes a lot of neutral color tones that can be spiced up with colorful accessories. Also, the clothes are designed with multi-use performance in mind. For example, the Nau Shelter Jacket can protect me from the Portland rain, yet is elegant enough for a business meeting. Instead of having to buy two jackets, I can buy one. Finally, Nau designs clothes with graceful, understated, elegant lines - again, not following the trends.

The two shirts I mentioned above retail for $70 each - a high price for me to pay for an everyday shirt and tank top. Since visiting the Nau headquarters I’ve realized that it’s a fair price to pay for a shirt that looks stylish, performs well, and made out of a sustainable fabric. It’s dawning on me that paying the real price for clothing is actually cheaper in the long run if the full environmental costs are consider in the equation. Nau.com has a good section on how they choose their fabrics and I suggest you read it for more insight into the environmental impacts of manufacturing fabrics.

So, I have changed my goals for buying new clothes. I’ll still buy vintage and second hand clothes, but when buying new clothes I will focus on quality over quantity and buy fewer pieces made of high quality, sustainable fabrics, beautifully designed, and made to last for many years.  When I buy from a company like Nau, I’m not just paying for a piece of clothing, I’m also supporting a company that has similar ideals and goals as I do: consuming less, caring about people, leading a healthy lifestyle, and trying to reserve our resources.

In my July newsletter I featured three cooperatives that all share the goal of sustainability. Writing the newsletter brought up more questions than answers: What is the link between cooperatives and sustainability? How do co-ops work? What makes them successful? Why aren’t they more popular?  I think my first step to answering those questions will be to join one of the food co-ops in town and go to a few board meetings. I’ve already begun frequenting the local food co-ops - since you don’t have to be a member to buy from them - and I love them.  They remind me a bit of walking into a Chinese food specialty store. They are typically small, have strange, wonderful smells, and sell items I don’t see at supermarkets.
Like most people, I have bought from supermarkets all of my life typically choosing food based on taste. Now that I’m learning about the many hidden dangers of processed food, I’m finding I have to be very diligent about reading labels and making smart choices when I go to the supermarket. Frankly, it’s a lot more work to buy food now.  In contrast, when I shop at food co-ops I can trust that someone has already read the labels for me and shopping is easier. Also, food co-ops have a lot of organic and local food choices that the supermarkets don’t carry.

Andrew McLeod recently gave a lecture on co-ops at People’s Food Co-op. His research suggests that cooperatives work when all the co-op members are working towards a higher purpose, like sustainability in the case of a food co-op. Andrew was full of facts and ideas about co-ops during his lecture. One particular item that I found curious came out when someone asked about the link between co-ops and communism. He said that co-ops were very popular before World War II, but fell out of favor when they were linked to communism during the McCarthy years.  These rumors happened to work in favor of the big box supermarkets which were just opening in the U.S.

You can find more information about cooperatives on Andrew’s blog, the Organic Valley co-op page and the People’s Food Co-op page.  I’ve also been seeing more information about cooperatives in the news lately.  Yes! Magazine has an article focusing on worker-owned cooperatives and the NY TIMES has an article on a Health Co-op in Seattle.  Here are a few official sites: The National Cooperative Business Association, the International Cooperative Alliance, the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and the NW Cooperative Development Center.

It really doesn’t make any kind of ecological or economical sense to import food or goods that can be created locally, yet that is exactly what we’ve been doing for over 40 years. Many of our craft skills have been scaled up into large factories and then we’ve seen those large factories moved over seas.  Now we find ourselves importing goods that were once made down the road, which is wasting a lot of time and resources in the process.  This globalization has helped to make the world “wealthier” and the people of countries like China and India have certainly improved their living standards.

Because of this new distribution of wealth, populations are growing and, unfortunately, resources are dwindling. We are finding ourselves faced with the challenge of using our resources more wisely. One way to accomplish that is to start producing and selling more goods locally.  Producing our own food and products locally will help us to become more self sufficient, and therefore more in control of our lives. I’m not suggesting we never buy imported goods, but that we begin buying a good percentage of our consumables locally and import the rest.

This is where local economies come in. Local currencies are monies that can only be spent within the community. They are backed by the trust of the people using them - trust that the community can provide goods and services that are needed. Local currencies are a tangible agreement with your community that you will spend your money with the people who surround you. That local exchange of money supports local jobs and helps to provide livable wages to the people living in your community.  And if you spend your money with your neighbors, you’ll get to know to know them and like them, and next thing you know, you are supporting each other in your businesses and your personal lives. This is what I call an enriched and vibrant life.

Local currencies allow transparency throughout the life cycle of a product or food. When I go to the farmers’ market, I’m paying for a farmer to continue farming and lead a good life.  I directly benefit from giving that farmer a good life because he in turns feels obligated to continue to give me healthy, tasty food. When I spend globally, I’m not sure who’s bank account or what agenda I’m supporting.  How do I know that the textile mills in China have good labor laws? Or whether or not the peanuts grown in Texas are sprayed with pesticides? Buying locally increases my power to support others who share my beliefs on how the earth, humans and animals are respected.

Watching the advertising trends of the past years has proven to me that we vote with our dollars. First I noticed that the fast food chains began offering options for the Atkins Diet. Now I’m seeing an incredible amount of “green” products on the market.  These new products were created to satisfy the public’s demand. If enough of us vote wisely with how we spend our dollars, be it local or federal, we are sure to create a more sustainable and humane civilization.

P.S. In doing research on local currencies, I came across a series of interviews with financial experts conducted by Bill Moyers, a highly respected PBS journalist. He is earnestly trying to understand the economic crisis and the series provides some good insights. You can watch them here.