 A question asked at a recent panel discussion on sustainability went
straight to the heart of eco-matter: Is “green” over? It was a serious
question, no doubt prompted by an observation at the same event that
the “green movement” has become more about being cool and having
street cred than about saving the environment.
Can the environment still be saved? Is “green” over? Consumers are now
wary about being “greenwashed.” Savvy but cynical advertisers and marketers
appear to be moving away from the term. But “green or “sustainability”
or “eco-friendly” or “carbon footprint” were never just buzzwords. Nor are
they about simply changing a product or a process. It’s about changing a
culture, and as this issue of the Lifestyle Monitor™ magazine attests, “green”
is alive and well, and growing, at Cotton Incorporated. The company has
spent the last decade committed to refining how “green” our programs and
practices can be for the textile and apparel markets, and we’re not finished.
 One of Cotton Incorporated’s main points of focus is agriculture, in the use
of water, energy, pesticides and land. As we show in “Outrageous Claims
Refuted,” advances in cotton fiber cultivation that respect the environment
are now widespread among our growers. At the textile manufacturing level,
new technologies championed by Cotton Incorporated, especially in dyeing
and finishing, have greened up the business globally, as we report in “The
Sustainability Revolution.” Lifestyle Monitor™ also looks at consumer preferences
around the world in “The Ultimate Innovators,” and finds that most
of the earth’s citizens prefer the comfort of cotton and believe in the longterm
sustainability of this natural fiber’s ability to clothe the world. And we
delve into Cotton Incorporated’s newest technological applications that
add value to those clothes in “Innovation by Design.”
As we show in this issue, “green”
hasn’t gone away. Opportunities
still abound in the estimated
$200 billion “green” marketplace
in natural lifestyles, green
building, personal health, transportation
and energy alternatives,
and even eco-tourism.
In cotton farming and in fabric
and garment production, Cotton
Incorporated has targeted a
path to ensure the future of the world’s most ubiquitous fiber. It’s a path best
traveled one step at a time. Won’t you join us in our efforts? |
