Sustainable Textiles Symposium
May 14, 2012 - 9:00am to 5:30pm
LaSells Stewart Center, Austin Auditorium, Oregon State University
Free Admission: open to all OSU students, faculty, interested parties, textile industry representatives and community members.
The goal of the Symposium is to introduce students and the community to the vast and varied world of sustainable textiles and apparel, and its many innovative components. Who are our local companies pioneering sustainable textile production, new recycling techniques and innovative designs? How can our future OSU graduates be involved in these amazing projects that will transform the face of the textile industry? Students from majors such as Apparel Design, Interiors, Merchandise Management, Business, Engineering, Chemistry, Agricultural Sciences, and Sustainable studies will find interesting presentations that can fit their studies under the large umbrella of sustainable textile development.
The Symposium will feature seven presentations from West Coast based textile and apparel companies and businesses involved in the manufacturing, dyeing, recycling, certification, labeling, and design of sustainable textiles. Two roundtable discussions will offer students and the community a chance to ask in depth questions of the speakers on sustainability issues.
The Symposium is made possible through a 2012 grant from the Student Sustainability Initiative of OSU and the Department of Design and the Human Environment (DHE).
SUSTAINABLE TEXTILES SYMPOSIUM AGENDA
All presentations will take place in the Austin Auditorium at the Lasells Stewart Center, OSU, Corvallis Campus. All Roundtables will be in a designated Ag room also at the Lasells Stewart Center.
Sustainable Textile Symposium: Schedule of Presentations
9:00 – 9:10 am Welcome to the Symposium and Opening address
Dr. Leslie Burns, Dept. Chair of Design
and the Human Environment
9:10 – 9:15 am Introduction of Presentations
Angela Wartes and Brigitte Cluver,
Symposium Organizers
9:15 – 9:55 am Waterless Dying Methods
Becky Hurd, Senior Materials Researcher
in Apparel Innovation, Nike, Inc.
9:55 – 10:00 am Break
10:00 – 10:40am Green Marketing Claims in the Textile
Industry: FTC Enforcement and Beyond
Jay Erkhardt, Attorney, Stoel Rives LLP
10:40 – 11:00 am Break
11:00 – 11:45 am Common Threads Initiative, the
Footprint Chronicles and Bluesign
Steve Richardson, Director of Material
Development, Patagonia
11:45 – 12:15 Advanced Topics on Sustainability
Panel discussion with presenters,
Ag Production room
12:15 – 1:15pm Lunch Break
1:15 – 2:00 pm Learnings Along the Road to Sustainable Design
Jamie Bainbridge, Director of Textile
Development and Sustainability, NAU
2:00 – 2:45 pm The Global Organic Textile Standard
Connie Karr, Processing Program
Manager, Oregon Tilth Certified Organic
2:45 – 3:00 pm Break
3:00 – 3:40 pm Getting Off Oil: The Road to Closed
Loop Carpet
Mikhail Davis, Manager of Strategic
Sustainability (West),
Interface FLOR
3:45 – 4:40 pm Innovations in Sustainable Textiles:
CRAiLAR Fibers Made from Flax
Jay Nalbach, Chief Marketing Officer,
Naturally Advanced Technologies
4:45 – 5:30 pm Advanced Topics on Sustainability
Panel discussion with presenters,
Ag Production room
**Lunch options can be found at the Arnold Dining Center and the International Living Learning Center, which features the Cascadia Market and Peet’s Coffee, both establishments are a short walk from the LaSells Center.
Information about our speakers
Steve Richardson, Director of Material Development, Patagonia.
Steve will give a presentation on Patagonia’s Common Threads Initiative, garment recycling program, and the Footprint Chronicles, which track the full environmental and social impacts of Patagonia gear. Steve has been involved in almost all of company’s material sustainability projects over the past 5 years.
Becky Hurd, Senior Materials Researcher in Apparel Innovation, Nike, Inc.
Her current work involves driving Nike towards more sustainable textile production methods by implementing technologies that provide the opportunity to reduce water and energy use in the dyeing of textiles. This work culminated with a recent announcement that Nike is partnering to scale waterless dyeing technology. This partnership is the direct result of her eight-year sustainability research project to develop supercritical fluid CO2 dyeing technology for the textile industry.
Connie Karr, Processing Program Manager for Oregon Tilth Certified Organic.
Connie has worked in the in the organic movement, community, and industry for over 13 years. At Oregon Tilth she works daily with growers and processors of organic food, feed and fiber to help them understand organic regulatory requirements under the National Organic Program and the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) and well as other regulations for international trade. Connie will present on the certification of organic textiles under GOTS.
Jamie Bainbridge, Director of Textile Development and Sustainability, NAU.
NAU, a sustainable clothing designer of urban and outerwear based in Portland, is in the forefront of using sustainable fabrics in apparel design (sustainable product development). Their goal is to redesign fashion and to redefine business so that each becomes a powerful force for change.
Joseph ("Jay") Eckhardt is an attorney practicing in the Technology and Intellectual Property group at Stoel Rives, LLP.
Jay has a wide range of experience in regulation of environmental marketing, e-commerce, consumer protection matters, federal antitrust regulatory matters, and civil antitrust litigation. He will give a presentation on environmental or “green” marketing claims in the textile industry and how labeling is regulated through the Federal Trade Commission.
Karen Gilroy, InterfaceFLOR.
Karen will speak on the ground breaking carpet reclamation and recycling programs at Interface. Interface’s project Mission Zero, involves using zero oil in carpet production by 2020, through recycling carpet and nylon in more effective and innovative ways.
Jay Nalbach, Chief Marketing Officer, Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc.,
Jay has more than 16 years in the sports and fashion industries. Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc. develops renewable and environmentally sustainable biomass resources
from flax, hemp and other bast fibers, including the new fabric CRAiLAR. CRAiLAR technology offers cost-effective and environmentally sustainable processing and production of natural, bast fibers resulting in increased performance characteristics for use in textile, industrial, energy, medical and composite material applications.
Resources for Sustainable Textiles
- Ethical Fashion Forum http://www.ethicalfashionforum.com
- Source4Style http://www.source4style.com/
- Sustainable Apparel Coalition http://www.apparelcoalition.org
- Oregon Tilth http://tilth.org
- Textile Exchange http://textileexchange.org
- EcoTextiles News http://www.ecotextile.com/
- Eco-Chick blog http://eco-chick.com/
- Bluesign http://www.bluesign.com/
- Greenpeace Dirty Laundry Reports http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/publications/reports/Dirty-Laundry-2/
- IMO – GOTS page http://www.imo.ch/imo_services_textile_gots_en.html
- Global Organic Textile Standard working group http://www.global-standard.org/
- Treehugger http://www.treehugger.com/
- Naturally Advanced Technologies http://www.naturallyadvanced.com
- InterfaceFLOR http://interfaceflor.com
- Eco-Index http://www.ecoindexbeta.org/
- Federal Trade Commission (Guides for use of Environmental Marketing Claims) http://ftc.gov/bcp/grnrule/guides980427.htm
For more information please contact:
Angela Wartés, Symposium organizer, undergraduate student in Merchandise Management degree program, Department of Design and the Human Environment.
(541) 486-4085, wartesa@onid.orst.edu
Brigitte Cluver, Symposium organizer, Director of OSU Apparel Innovation Center, Department of Design and the Human Environment. (541) 737-9586, Brigitte.Cluver@oregonstate.edu
