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I'm Too Sexy for This Footprint: Eco-Designers Take on Fashion's Carbon Footprint
Andrea Chalupa, Huffington Post
What does fashion have to do with climate change? When you have new "It" bags and shoes coming out every season, made with toxic dyes, often with leather, flown and driven to stores across the globe, it's safe to say fashion's carbon footprint is a size XXXL.

A growing number of eco-designers are trying to change all that, by using production processes that are gentler on the environment and all natural materials, such as hemp and cotton. (Watch this video-- this is not your mother's hemp.) And their pioneering efforts are making an impact on the industry as a whole.

On Tuesday night during New York's Spring 2010 Fashion Week, The Green Shows feted Tiffany & Co. for switching its iconic pale blue shopping bags to environmentally-certified recycled paper versus the rainforest-endangering variety from Indonesia, the largest producer of luxury shopping bags and the third largest contributor to climate change because of its rapid deforestation.

Tiffany & Co. C.E.O. Michael J. Kowalski said it was easy to make the switch, and that more designers need to follow suit -- it's simply an issue of awareness. "Industry has a leadership role to play that requires a social license to operate," says Kowalski. "We try to do what we can in our own sphere of influence." That includes addressing the issue with other members of Jewelers of America, as Kowalski plans to do.

Lafcadio Cortesi of the Rainforest Action Network says Indonesia pollutes more than the entire transport sector in the U.S.-- all trains, plains, and automobiles combined -- due to its deforestation, fueled on by one of its biggest clients -- the fashion industry...
(18 Sept 2009)
related: Readers' Best Refashioned Clothing Projects (Slideshow) and Melissa Baswell on Mountains of the Moon's Spring 2010 Collection

French make cars from flax
Ray Hutton, Times
Welcome to the bio-car. PSA, the French automotive group that makes Peugeots and Citroëns, has started using components made from natural materials — radiator caps and side mirror mountings that contain hemp instead of glassfibre; parcel shelves that are moulded in a plastic made from wood chippings; and inner door panels that are 50% flax.

The components are the fruit of PSA’s Green Materials Plan, set up last year. Its target is a six-fold increase in natural and renewable materials used in all its vehicles by 2015.

The programme, which covers all models in development, will bring weight and cost savings as well as a reduction in energy use and carbondioxide emissions, and the conservation of non-renewable resources.

The plan has three elements — recycled materials, natural fibres and bio-polymers. PSA’s plan is to replace plastics derived from oil. The motor industry takes 7% of the world’s oil-based plastic production — which accounts in total for 4% of all oil use....
(11 Oct 2009)

Farmers Arrested Planting Hemp On DEA Headquarters Lawn (Video)
Ryan Grim, Huffington Post
A group of civilly-disobedient hemp farmers and business leaders were arrested Tuesday morning while digging up the lawn to plant industrial hemp seeds at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

David Bronner, the president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a more than 60-year-old company that does tens of millions of dollars of business annually, was among those arrested.

Bronner buys the hemp used in his soaps from Canadian farmers. He was arrested outside the DEA museum, which shares space with the headquarters.

"Our kids are going to come to this museum and say, 'My God. Your generation was crazy. What the hell is wrong with you people?'" he said as Arlington County Police handcuffed him and walked him to a waiting car.

The group was arrested for trespassing.

A DEA spokeswoman referred comment to the Department of Justice "because they're the people who set the policy for drugs." A DOJ spokeswoman declined to comment.

Hemp, however, is not a drug and has no capacity to get someone stoned, the farmers pointed out. Wayne Hauge and Will Allen, farmers from North Dakota and Vermont respectively, brought shovels and seeds to the protest, where they were joined by representatives of Vote Hemp, which advocates for federal legislation that would allow states to craft their own hemp policies...
(13 Oct 2009)
Scroll down to see the video of the actual arrests. This law is something that SO needs to be changed. It should be a no-brainer. -KS