GREENFIBRES, COTTON & NIKOL'S KNITTING
The importance of organic cotton and Greenfibres //
Together with Soil Association & Global Organic Textile Standards, our neighbours William & Gabriela from Greenfibres helped to write both the UK & global Standards for organic textiles. Certification means that every stage of production is inspected - from seed, to harvest, yarn, to production and then on to the consumer. Water & soil is a big, big issue when it comes to cotton production and soil managed to organic standards naturally retains more moisture, which alongside no nasty chemicals equals a more balanced ecosystem with increased biodiversity. Shockingly, each year 24% of all insecticides & 11% of all pesticides (chemicals which de-neutralise the soil) that are used worldwide are used on just one crop: cotton.
All that before we even get on to those horrific toxic finishing chemicals. Furthermore, the socioeconomic support provided by ethical farming and best practice cotton production gives more power to farmers. Planet // People // Profit
To combat the climate emergency choosing organic textiles is one of the most conscious & positive changes you can make.
Supply Chains and Likeminded Businesses //
When we opened the pub we went for light waffle towels, hoping that we would find a real measurable difference in the water and energy used in washing and drying them. Working with Eco Laundry has so far proven that it is not quite that cut and dried, so this is very much an ongoing project. We use Eco Laundry as they are a seriously ecologically minded commercial laundry service, the 1st eco-specialist commercial laundry service set up in the UK. They use biomass, solar and water management systems that are market leading, alongside eco-friendly detergents. We are very fortunate to have them on our doorstep, just like Greenfibres.
As we work more on energy and waste this year we aim to get even more granular about where and how our energy and resources are used and sourced throughout our whole supply chain, including services.
So for now we have both waffle and fluffy terry towels in our bathrooms. So whilst the jury is somewhat out on whether waffle towels actually use less water and dry quicker in practice, they are lighter to transport and they use less raw materials. And Greenfibres can trace the raw material used in our towels and laundry right back through their supply chain from Northern Syria & Southern Turkey, on to Germany and then to here, in little old Totnes.
But supply chains don’t end with the consumer, there are Cradle to Grave considerations, so it’s not just ‘upstream’ activities that a business should care about, it is ‘downstream’ activities too. And this leads us beautifully on to Nikol.
She is a supervisor here at the pub, and a passionate advocate of sustainable fashion! A few towels were discovered to have been accidentally damaged, so she explored ways to repurpose them as they are simply too good to waste. She experimented with organic turmeric, leftover wine, coffee grounds and beetroot. She used these ingredients to create colours and used white wine vinegar as a natural fixative. She used no chemicals and little water, with natural material, and allowed the dye to fix with a little solar drying (washing line!). Nikol then used her knitting needles to rework some of the the rescued materials and turn them into bespoke cushions and bathmats!
So we now have original ‘Nikol’ bespoke cushion in the Albatross. Here is Nikol’s take on it.
Nikol :
“I hate seeing anything going to waste, so felt a need to find innovative ways to create from waste material. After my furlough course (through The Bull) on ‘Fashion and Sustainability : Understanding Luxury Fashion in a Changing World’ I saw the damaging processes of garment creation, from production, modern slavery and landfill. The lack of transparency and blatant greenwashing shocked me. Understanding the impact of fast fashion, I wanted to challenge the narrative of sustainable knitwear as I know it, as well as create something cool in the process. It’s a great feeling when you’ve re-created something that can be used for something else. Fashion has become so diluted and less personal, with disposable items everywhere. Planet, people, profit is the most important!