January 22nd, 2009 · No Comments

By John DeFore
Green Right Now

It’s possible that idealistic environmentalists had other things on their minds January 20, but that was the day REI decided to announce its latest green initiative — this one aimed at bolstering the environmental credentials of the clothing for sale in all those Earth-friendly stores the company plans to build.

The company is set to begin using the bluesign standard to evaluate the sustainability and safety of materials, such as yarn, fabric and dye, that it uses for the REI-branded clothing and cycling gear — all of which is designed in-house.

The capitalization-challenged bluesign, headquartered in Switzerland, is a global network that, while independent, has an advisory board made up of “leading representatives from the scientific and political communities, trade and industry, and consumer and environmental organisations.”

In the eyes of REI, it is “the strongest global solution available to proactively address textile environmental, health and safety strategy.”

Bluesign monitors all aspects of the textile industry, and markets itself to apparel makers and sellers as a kind of eco-insurance policy, assuring partners that they have as much information as possible about the material going into their products and the processes used to supply it.

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