How we reduced our Carbon Footprint by 51% by using organic cotton?
It’s no doubt that Global Warming is the most vital danger humanity has ever faced. It’s expected to wipe out millions of species, causing mass migrations, famine and draughts, and destruction of cities and forests. Even with the clear disastrous effects of Climate Change, we seem to be unable to act fast enough to reduce our Carbon Footprint effectively.
At Reflect Studio, we prioritized combatting Global Warming in every way possible from our production methods to our company culture. This post is about how we reduced our Greenhouse Gas Emission in our textile production methods.
The first step is to understand the supply chain and realize the steps that cause the greenhouse gas emissions. In textile production, it is mostly about the Nitrous Oxide (N2O) which is used as a fertilizer during the cotton growing step.
Nitrous Oxide is 300 times more potent in terms of holding the heat in compare to CO2. This causes N2O the become the 3rd biggest Greenhouse Gas contributing Global Warming even with very tiny concentrations in the atmosphere. The use of N2O should be stopped immediately, however on contrary its use is increasing dramatically due to high yield and low cost pressure coming from Fast Fashion industry. Farmers are using excessive amount of N2O and harmful chemical pesticides polluting our atmosphere, water and our soil.
We want to promote sustainable production methods in the textile industry, thus we have decided to use ZERO Nitrous Oxide in our cotton growing process. This is why we are only using GOTS certified Organic Cotton on our products, which has strict rules on completely eliminating N2O on cotton agriculture. This enabled us to cut 340 kg of CO2 equivalent Greenhouse Gas in every one ton of cotton production, halving the total emission.
Responsible production can only be achieved with responsible consumption.
Say no to fast fashion culture, choose Organic Cotton against conventional, and the fashion industry will change as fast as they change the trends.
Sources:
GIF: by Nihan Özyavuz from Reflect Studio
Photo 1: by Mladen Borisov on Unsplash
Photo 2: by Trisha Downing on Unsplash
