Tag Archives: water

Fashion brands including Gap & Brooks Brothers dumping toxic wastewater in Indonesia waterways

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Let me tell you a story of a polluted paradise.

We used to call it ‘Parahyangan’ or the place where the Gods and Goddesses resided. The river in Indonesia that passes through it stretches 270 km from the Wayang Mountain to the Java Sea, giving life along its course.

A critical water source 

We call it the Citarum River. Ci and Tarum, “Ci” is water, and “Tarum” or indigo is a plant of the pea family that was widely cultivated over a century ago as a source of dark blue dye. It is also linked to the ‘Tarumanagara’ Kingdom, one of the country’s oldest Kingdoms, once victorious on the outskirts of the Citarum River. Today, millions of people depend on the river and surrounding area for agricultural and domestic use. Continue reading →

Dutch clothing label G-Star finally commits to Detox their fashion

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Sometimes the longest struggles can be the most rewarding.

Greenpeace launched its Detox campaign in the summer of 2011 pressuring the world’s largest fashion retailers to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their manufacturing process.  These chemicals wind up in global waterways poisoning drinking water for several international populations. Giant fashion names including Levis, Zara, Victoria’s Secret, H&M and Nike have agreed to detox their products and protect these global water sources. Dutch clothing company G-Star was one of the last companies to budge.

After ten months of #PeoplePowered activities and behind-the-scenes haggling G-Star finally committed to eliminate all uses of hazardous chemicals from its supply chain and products by 2020.

This means that the Dutch denim brand joins the likes of Uniqlo, Benetton and Victoria’s Secret in making a credible Detox commitment in 2013, making it the 15th global corporation to make clear its plans to banish toxic chemicals from the fashion sector.

The announcement is all the sweeter if you consider that just weeks ago the brand was unwilling to improve upon its earlier – March 2012 – rather half-hearted “commitment”. This old offer lacked many of the elements that their new Detox commitment contains: namely, concrete dates for eliminating the worst chemicals, and a transparent process for how the brand will move from its current polluting practices toward toxic-free fashion. Continue reading →

Virginia: Ken Cuccinelli’s Clean Energy Rollback Mirrors ALEC Agenda

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Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli is working with coal companies and State Policy Network groups backed by Koch Industries to rollback VA’s voluntary clean energy program.

In states across the country, the American Legislative Exchange Council–or ALEC–and other State Policy Network groups are lining up to roll back clean energy laws, an effort complimented by captured politicians like Mr. Cuccinelli.

Ken Cuccinelli is a former ALEC member, and he’s working with ALEC member company Dominion Resources to end Virginia’s clean energy program. The same Dominion that just gave him $10,000 for his run for governor, on top of almost $46,000 in previous years for other political positions.

While Virginia’s voluntary renewable portfolio standard is far from perfect, it’s neither helpful nor inspiring for Mr. Cuccinelli to scrap the program altogether on behalf of a few vested dirty energy interests.

Rather, as Chesapeake Climate Action Network suggests, Virginia’s law needs to be strengthened in ways that increase clean energy production and the good jobs that come with it. Both Cuccinelli and CCAN agree the law has flaws and loopholes that don’t properly incentivize new clean energy development within the state of Virginia. Some of the law’s weaknesses: Continue reading →

Benetton shows its true colors and commits to toxic free fashion

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It’s about time the Detox campaign officially landed on the stylish streets of one of the world’s most high profile fashion centres.

Here in Italy we are celebrating the latest Detox commitment, announced today by the Benetton Group, which owns brands such as Sisley, Playlife and most famously, the United Colors of Benetton.

It’s commitment to eliminate all releases of hazardous chemicals throughout its entire global supply chain and products by 2020 comes hot on the heels of similar annoucements from Zara, Mango, Esprit and Levi’s, who responded to waves of pressure from activists and consumers around the world calling for fashion without pollution. Continue reading →

Let’s give Levi’s 501,000 reasons to Detox

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“From the way we make our products to how we run the company, we’re committed to restoring the environment. Consumers expect this from us, employees demand it, and the planet requires it.”

This is a very honourable statement from Chip Bergh, President and CEO of Levi Strauss and Co, the producer of the very famous Levi’s jeans.

No doubt good intentions were behind the statement, but the reality is that popular fashion brands like Levi’s are directly linked to the use and discharge of hazardous chemicals into Mexican rivers.

San Pedro River Pollution © Guadalupe Szymanski / Greenpeace

In Greenpeace International’s latest report, “Toxic Threads: Under Wraps”, we show the results of water samples that were taken at discharge pipes used by two manufacturing facilities supplying Levi’s: Lavamex and Kaltex. Both facilities were found to be discharging a cocktail of hazardous chemicals. One of the facilities was also found to be discharging nonylphenol, a chemical used in textile manufacturing that has already been banned in many countries. This chemical is very persistent and remains toxic even as it works its way through the food chain. It is able to act as a hormone disrupter, accumulate in the tissue of fish and has recently been detected in human tissue. Continue reading →

There’s something in the water

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I have visited more than 20 times the pipe Huntsman Corporation – one of the largest suppliers of chemical substances in the world for the textile sector – uses to discharge wastewater into the Santiago River in Jalisco, Mexico.

It has never had the same colour. Usually red, sometimes blue and once yellow, it looks like this facility is trying to dye the water as if it was playing with it.

A recent study by Greenpeace Mexico has shown that even the government admits that people living close to this water are risking their health due to water polluted with hazardous chemicals. But the Santiago River is not a private plaything for Huntsman – it is one of Mexico’s most important rivers. Continue reading →

A campaign that touches us all

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Q’orianka Kilcher is an American actress, singer and activist. She joined Greenpeace forests campaigners on the Rainbow Warrior earlier this year to take action to protect the Amazon.

By Q’orianka Kilcher.

You’re going out. First thing you do is decide what to wear, right?

You decide on your look, you check in the mirror, (maybe change and check in the mirror and again a few times…) and then you’re ready. We do the same when we’re shopping — we decide. We can influence what clothes are sold and how they are made to some degree as consumers, but it’s when we engage as citizens and activists that the real change happens.

Right now, water around the world is being poisoned by hazardous chemicals coming from industrial sources. One of the main sources of this pollution is the textile industry, which uses a lot of chemicals to make the clothes we wear.

The Detox campaign is focused on getting top clothing brands to take responsibility for the pollution that their products and suppliers make and calling for fashion without pollution. Like Greenpeace, I feel passionately that the clothes we wear shouldn’t cost the earth. Continue reading →

Behind the scenes: Charlotte’s coal ash problem

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This post originally appeared in Coal Ash Chronicles.

Rhiannon Fionn-Bowman, an independent journalist, aims to answer questions about coal ash during a nationwide tour where she’ll collect stories from all sides of the coal ash issue and share them  on CoalAshChronicles.com. But, you don’t have to wait for her to come to you, you can share your story now — upload it here.

Dear readers,
Here’s something for you to keep in mind as you read the news: There’s always more to the story.

Since I’m collecting coal ash stories, I’ll summarize a couple of my own regarding Charlotte, North Carolina’s coal ash issue to give you a peek behind the scenes. Continue reading →

How South Africa’s biggest electricity company is crippling its people’s water

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Coal-fired electricity is a major threat to South Africa’s already stressed water resources – and Eskom’s new mega coal plants are set to make matters even worse.

Luckily there are reliable alternatives to coal power, ways of generating electricity that don’t risk the country’s water security, or pollute our water supplies.

Coal can be replaced, water can’t. 

Continue reading →