Two initiatives stand out for me at this weekend's Natural and Organic Products Exhibition in Cape Town.
The first is the Organic Freedom Project which, if it lives up to its billing, should improve sustainability in agriculture:
The Organic Freedom Project (OFP) is a Section 21 (not for profit) membership-based organisation incorporated in South Africa with the aim of promoting job creation and sustainable trade in the region through the facilitation of organic farming, and the processing and marketing of organic products, including food, textiles and biofuel.
A significant component of the OFP is to support farmers and producers through mentoring and training, and providing a local retail distribution channel to improve access to markets.
The second initiative is the National Cleaner Production Centre (NCPC), which was launched during the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg 2002. This is a co-operation program between South Africa and UNIDO with financial assistance from the South African Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Governments of Austria and Switzerland.
The NCPC aims to enhance the competitiveness and productive capacity of the national industry, focusing on SME's through Cleaner Production (CP) techniques. CP is an integrated preventive strategy applied to processes, products and services to eliminate or minimise the production of waste and pollution and to optimise the utilisation of resources. CP activities generally improve an organisation's bottom line and invariably improve productivity and competitiveness.
One of the books at the NCPC display was Guidelines - A Handbook on the Environment for the Textile and Fashion Industry. Published by the Sustainable Solution Design Association, it is unfortunately now out of print, but I managed to grab a CD of the book. According to its introduction, it examines the responsibility and role of the designer and buyer when they consider sustainability and ethics in their work. Included is a number of case studies describing how Danish and foreign companies have tried to tackle the issue.
It is intended as a handbook on the environment to help and inspire designers, buyers and other players within the textile and clothes industries, and to stimulate the industry to achieve more sustainable production. The user part of the book is intended as a checklist including environmentally related questions about cotton, wool, acrylic, polyester and viscose. The checklist deals with how the environment will be affected by the production of the different types of materials – from fibres to end-fabrics. The checklist is intended as a tool for the designer and the buyer to include environmental considerations in their daily routines.The last chapter in the book describes the different environmental labelling schemes that are relevant to the textile and clothing industry.
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