What goes into making an eco-conscious jean!

Bloomberg

Denim production is a “dirty business,” says Michael Preysman, chief executive officer of fashion e-tailer Everlane Inc. He’s not wrong. Chances are, those jeans you’re wearing produced 44 pounds of carbon dioxide and took up to 10,000 litres of water to make, much of it ending up in waterways, along with toxic dyes and chemicals deployed in making denim. The desire to do better is why, last month, Everlane embarked on its biggest endeavour to date: an eco-conscious jean. It’s the next step in the brand’s journey of radical transparency.
Everlane’s $68 price tag sits well in the quality green jean market. LA brand Reformation’s range of sustainable jeans costs from $118 to $168, Patagonia Inc.’s jeans retail from $99 to $119, Seattle-based Source Denim LLC’s Ethical Raw Jeans for men cost $139, while Swedish brand ReDew, whose jeans will soon be available online, has just debuted jeans in a limited number of US cities, ranging in price from $150 to $195.
As with its bag factories in China, Everlane works hard to find the right factories at the right price, allowing for the disclosures that are going down so well with customers. For those $68 jeans, the “true cost,” according to the brand, is $28, including $7.50 for labor and $12.78 for materials. Everlane’s markup runs from double to triple, compared to an industry standard that ranges from five to six times costs.
If Preysman were to start it all again, denim would be Everlane’s second product, after t-shirts, but he says it took him two years to find a manufacturing facility with the right eco credentials. Typically, he says, “factories take advantage of inadequate regulations and dump contaminated water directly into the environment,” with denim manufacturers being particularly egregious offenders. A damning Greenpeace report in 2010 detailed how Xintang, known as the “Jeans Capital of the World,” was polluting surrounding waterways in China’s Guandong Province. “The smell is putrid and unbearable, and any skin contact results in itching and even festering,” said the report.
Preysman’s search eventually led to Saitex International Dong Nai Co. Ltd., a modern manufacturer surrounded by rainwater-filled pools and spouting fountains in Bien Hoa, southern Vietnam.
“They set incredibly high standards by recycling 98 percent of their water to a drinkable state, air-drying the denim, and turning the excess denim waste into bricks made for affordable housing,”
he says.
There is definitely a move within the industry standard. As well as Everlane’s model, larger companies are also looking to change. Levi Strauss & Co. intends to make 80 percent of all its products via waterless innovations by 2020. China’s Crystal Group Ltd., another sector leader, has
been recognized with awards from WWF-Hong Kong, a conservation organisation, for attaining
continuous improvement in environmental performance and
carbon reduction.