Ralph Lauren Has No Qualms Giving Competitors New Method Of Dyeing Cotton That Uses 90% Less Chemicals And Half The Water

Muhabarijashi

American designer, Ralph Lauren, has been in business since 1968, but his company truly hit it big in the mid-80s and some years after, when it became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange in 1997. Although their sales have plummeted like every other retail store over the past year due to the pandemic, statistics show that their global sales were still in the billions, 4.4 billion in 2021 to be exact.

The company’s biggest selling product is their signature polo collared shirt, which comes in every size and color imaginable. But what this also means is that this colossal conglomerate has quite a sizeable carbon footprint as well.

That’s because dying fabric takes trillions of liters of water to accomplish each and every year, and this water in particular becomes around 20% of all the world’s wastewater annually as well. When left untreated, it not only is highly polluting to the environment, but in order to make it reusable demands intense, tedious, and meticulous treatment.

In order to make a positive change, Ralph Lauren decided to work with a variety of leading companies to come up with a substantial way to lessen the amount of water, energy, and chemicals required to color the cotton they use. One of these leading pioneers is Dow, who will help them develop a method that will use ‘up to 90% fewer processing chemicals, 50% less water, 50% less dye and 40% less energy without sacrificing color or quality.’


This new ‘Color on Demand’ system that they will put in place hopes to use a particular set of technologies that will allow both recycling and reuse of the water from the dyeing process. This will create the “world’s first scalable zero wastewater” cotton dyeing system, which will be considered ground-breaking technology.

Aside from the incredible water savings the Color on Demand system will allow, it also considerably lessens the amount of dyes, chemicals, time, and energy that is usually necessary in the process of dyeing cotton. Moreover, this new system also uses the prevailing dyeing equipment that most factories use currently.

According to Chief Product & Sustainability Officer at Ralph Lauren, Halide Alagöz, “If we want to protect our planet for the next generation, we have to create scalable solutions that have never been considered before. This requires deep and sometimes unexpected collaboration and a willingness to break down the barriers of exclusivity.”

Meanwhile, the company statement also shared, “To implement its groundbreaking approach, Ralph Lauren brought together four innovators in their respective fields, including Dow, a leader in materials science; Jeanologia, a leader in sustainable solutions for garment and fabric finishing, with high expertise in garment dyeing and close loop water treatment systems; Huntsman Textile Effects, a global chemicals company specializing in textile dyes and chemicals; and Corob, a global technology leader in dispensing and mixing solutions, to reimagine each stage of the coloring process and join this shared mission to create a more sustainable and efficient system for cotton dyeing.”

Within the first phase of their Color on Demand program, Ralph Lauren will use a pre-treatment solution called ECOFAST Pure Sustainable Textile Treatment of Dow corporation. The company has also worked with World Wildlife Fund to push for a faster and more eco-friendly change in the fashion industry, especially when it comes to the industry’s incredibly antiquated practices.


 

Creating an Open Source Manual for Change

In order to accelerate change in the fashion industry as well, the companies have also come together to create an open-source manual to generate more positive change to the environment moving forward.

The step-by-step manual was co-developed by the companies providing details as to how to use Dow’s cationic cotton treatment known as ECOFAST Pure, which already uses available dyeing equipment.

Ralph Lauren’s Alagöz explains, “We are proud to share it openly with our industry, with the hope that it will help transform how we preserve and use water in our global supply chains.”

The company began using Color on Demand in the earlier portion of 2021, with their first products using ECOFAST Pure being launched in their Team USA collection for the 2020 Olympic & Paralympic Games that were held in Tokyo, Japan.

Chief Sustainability Officer at Dow, Mary Draves, shared, “As fashion supply chains look to recover from impacts of the pandemic, there is a critical window to build more sustainable practices into production processes. By collaborating today to scale a less resource intensive dyeing process, we can help address pressing challenges, like climate change and water resiliency, in the long-term.”

Ralph Lauren hopes to apply the Color on Demand dyeing process to over 80% of its solid cotton products within the next three years. If you would like to see the manual yourself, you can download it here.

 

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