EcoZeal

You pull on the new spring dress in the spacious fitting room and examine it in the sparkling mirror.   A perfect fit – and just your color! The silky fabric drapes beautifully and even smells fresh and sweet. You carry your find through the tastefully decorated store to the sales counter, where a cheerful clerk bags your new treasure and hands it back, along with a coupon good towards your next purchase.

You step out of the store, smiling to yourself –

But There’s a Dirty Little Secret You Don’t Know.

Your new garment came with a hefty price tag attached - one you never saw. A price tag written not in dollars and cents, but in environmental destruction and human misery.

The label on the dress told you the country of origin, but it didn’t tell you that the seamstress who hemmed it was a sixteen year old girl working 14 hours a day in dark, dangerous, unsanitary conditions for less than a living wage…

…or that the agricultural workers who grew the cotton from which it was knit were given no respirators or other protection from the toxic pesticides used to treat the fields…

…or that the fields themselves had been carved from virgin rainforest and would soon be depleted and abandoned…

…or that the dyes and other chemicals used to treat the fabric contain chemicals proven to cause reproductive and other cancers…

…and on and on.

Your Concern Matters

If you’re into sustainable clothing, you’re probably aware of most or all of these issues – and many more. And you’re not alone. An increasing number of consumers are demanding what’s known as “supply chain transparency.” That means they want to know exactly what goes into the manufacture of the products they buy, and how it affects environmental and human welfare.

When customers ask questions about the real cost of production, it puts companies’ reliability and integrity on the line – and ultimately, their profits. They catch on to that real quick. That’s why many companies are becoming proactive about making their supply chain visible. One way to do it is to place a code on the label, which consumers can use to track the origins of the product. (Watch for an upcoming post on Icebreaker, a New Zealand company doing just that.)

Even big chain stores like Wal-Mart (check out their blog posts on sustainability) and the Gap are taking notice and beginning to come clean about their product sources.

Want to know more?

The first step to a better world is education. The more informed we keep ourselves as consumers, the more power we have to influence companies to make choices that are good for the environment, other people – and us!

• CorpWatch is a nonprofit dedicated to holding corporations accountable for their actions. Type the names of your favorite companies and brands into the search box on their website to find out if they are guilty of any human rights or other violations.

• The Clean Clothes Campaign is a nonprofit focused on improving working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries, and empower the workers in it. You can read about textile workers’ challenges and triumphs, and take action to improve their lives.

• Green America (formerly Co-op America) has information on sweatshops and what you can do about them.

But don’t stop there! Once you know what the issues are, reach out. Tell everyone you know about them. Write letters to companies telling them you want to know the whole story about what you buy. And don’t forget to thank those companies that supply sustainable and fair trade products by including them on the list of stores you buy from!

Can you see through the merchandising to the true price of your new spring wardrobe?