A Cow Ate My Cell Phone!

The saying that your past can affect your future has never been more evident within the world as it is now. As resources are being deplenished, researchers are studying multiple ecosystems and developing new concepts to implement in order to preserve what is left of our natural resources. Within retailing industries, many of these new concepts are being discovered in order to change products from having a cradle-to-grave lifecycle to having a cradle-to-cradle lifecycle. Meaning, that once a product has served its initial service and is discarded it will be biodegradable.

The video Rhoener Textiles discusses biodegradability in-depth breaking it into in two forms of metabolisms: biological and technological. When a product is considered to be a biological metabolism, it can be broken down after its initial use into biological nutrients through different microorganisms and animals relatively quickly. If a product is considered to be a technological metabolism, it can be broken down into technical nutrients and recycled into different forms of technology using its different pieces. This concept of categorizing products was developed by researchers, William McDonough and Michael Braungart and is further discussed in their book, Cradle to Cradle.

In this book, McDonough and Braungart provide creative ways to develop products to be biodegradable as well as reasons why it would benefit consumers and businesses to adopt these products. One particular chapter entitled “Waste=Food,” discusses how all product’s lifecycles should be developed to have no waste. Where every piece of the product can be recycled in some format, whether it is by nature or by technical use. Other researchers have began to develop products based off these concepts, such as Je-Hyun Kim, featured on inhabitat.com in the article The Biodegradable Grass Cell Phone, by Mike Chino. Chino discusses Kim’s new invention of a cell phone made of grass that “automatically biodegrades” after two years, about the same length of most cell phone contracts.

My concept for the future stimulates from this idea, where technology will be produced to live for a certain amount of time and then be disassembled into the two different metabolisms, biological and technological. Instead of using plastic shells for the outer protection of items, such as cell phones and televisions, producers will use certain biological nutrients, such as plants like grass or weeds. They will then cover the metal pieces with a protective coating as to not contaminate the biological nutrients and when the items service is finished they will be able to upcycle the product by returning it to the manufacturer. The manufacturer will be able to toss the outer-shell as it is considered a product of consumption and take the technical nutrients and reuse them in a new product. My concept for the future will also require new laws to be placed into affect, where retailers will not necessarily have to buy back the product, but will have to give the consumer a type of incentive, such as a discounted price on the new product they purchase, similar to trade-ins at car dealerships today. As much as these new laws seem as though they might hurt retailers, they would actually benefit them by assisting them in building long-term customer relationships.

In conclusion, I expect that the future will still hold many hi-tech items; they will just have been modified to be more biodegradable. I also think in order to motivate large corporations to adopt new sustainable ideas, there will have to be certain laws put in place, while to motivate consumers to recycle, laws might be required, but incentives may be applied as well. 

A Comparative Advantage?

Without media displaying multiple images defining fashion and top designers for a particular season, would consumers be more influenced by their community’s perception of fashion? Would they shop local designers instead of foreign brands? Would this assist in limiting the environmental issue of mass consumption? As a nation, we take pride in our individualist culture and strive to be unique; yet our clothing consumption habits might prove otherwise. We often form our opinions of popular fashions for each season from different forms of media based off the styles of others globally. This subsequently leads us to feel as though we are distinct in fashion, when we are actually very generic. The article Local and Light, by K. Fletcher, states that as multiple global retailers begin to mass-produce these generic garments for our consumption, they produce more then what is needed wasting natural resources and polluting the environment. Fletcher suggests the idea of shopping locally, explaining that this would allow for less generic clothing as it would be based around fashion within our community and history, while making the production process more sustainable.

Fletcher’s idea is developed from the biomimicry principle, by scientist Janine Benyus, called shopping locally. Benyus’s principle describes how animals in the environment cannot import products from other places. She also discusses that there is a drive for a globally, borderless economy where one product is built in several nations and sold in a completely different nation. This inspired one of my concepts for the apparel industry, which would be based around consumers shopping locally, but still desiring certain garments made from materials that may not be found within their general region. Although Benyus discusses that products are solely manufactured locally, I do not believe that it is completely sustainable for certain crops to be grown in certain areas that are not natural for their growth, nor do I believe that our country will ever prohibit foreign trade. This is why my concept would incorporate the idea of comparative advantage, which defined by Investopedia.com is when one country, individual, company or region can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost than a competitor, meaning if America could produce cotton more sustainably than India; they would grow cotton and India would grow a different crop. All countries and regions would take comparative advantage into consideration and develop an agreement as to where a product would grow most sustainably and as to how the product should be traded among nations. This would allow for consumers to shop locally purchasing items that are in fashion for their area, but would also allow them a diverse selection of materials.

Along with the principle of shopping locally, this concept was also inspired by Benyus’s principle “Diversify and Cooperate to Fully Use the Habitat.” In this principle, she describes how animals have “agreements” with one another and at times their cooperation can be seen as partnerships that are formed to benefit each other to survive within their habitat. In my concept, the countries have an agreement with each other as to where it is more sustainable to grow a particular crop based off of comparative advantage. They also cooperate with one another by trading these crops in order to make different textiles. From there, the crops are sold throughout different regions in order for the locally owned retailers to develop garments that their niches will purchase.

In conclusion, my concept discusses how comparative advantage, agreements, and trade could affect our nation in the future as we diversify and cooperate with other countries to fully use the habitat and begin to shop locally. As sciences develop more synthetic materials that are sustainable, such as those discussed by B. Quinn in Textile Futures: Fashion, Design and Technology, more agreements and policies will need to be created to trade these materials and their secrets that explain how to develop these textiles in order for the countries to cooperate with one another efficiently. 

Virtual Retailing

With the growing trend of the “green movement” and the concern for our planet, every industry is looking to develop new innovative ways to be sustainable. As businesses search for new ideas, they must first develop a vision of what they think the future might hold for the company.

A sustainable idea for the apparel industry retailers could be, to develop stores that are more virtual. In this store, they would have one garment displayed for each item giving the customer an idea of how the fabric feels. This item would be paired in an area with other garments that would allow for the customer to form ideas of different outfits. Next to these sections there would be a small podium with a type of computer system similar to an iPad. When a customer wanted to examine what a garment might look like on their body style, they would enter their dimensions, etc. into this system, where the system would then pull up a picture a virtual character with similar dimensions to the customer wearing the garment. This would allow the customer to have some kind of idea as to how the garment would fit them. When the customer decided they were ready to checkout, they would locate an employee. The employees for the stores would be walking around with an electronic scanner, where they would then follow the customer and scan all of the items for their purchase and proceed to place their order. The customer would pay for the items through the scanner and would then have the receipt sent to them through e-mail. If the customer preferred to use a different medium of payment, there would be an area where the employee could register the scanner and place the customers order through a standard cash register. Once the order was placed, it would then be sent to the nearest distribution center where the garment would be made and sent to the customer.

In the book Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by nature, the author, Janine Benyus, gives a list of ten principles that could inspire sustainable business practice ideas through nature. A couple of these principles could be used to support the concept of this retail store. One principle is the concept of “using materials sparingly.” Benyus explains that in nature organisms build to fit what they need at the time that they need it and they do not overbuild. I feel as though this principle supports this retail concept because this would allow for the retailer to not make an excess amount of clothes that will end up not selling. Using this system, the garments are made to order allowing the retailer to know an exact number of how much they need.

Another principle Benyus discusses is not to foul our nests. This principle states that in nature, organisms take care of their space and do not clutter it, as this is where they eat, sleep, and live. I feel like this principle supports this retail concept because this would allow for the sales floor and storage area of the store to not be cluttered. If the garments are “made to order” there would be no reason for the retailer to have a bunch of clutter in the backroom of their store. This would also make it easier for the consumers to shop, as there would not be so much clutter on the table causing the store to not become so messy.

All of these principles can inspire amazing ideas for sustainable practice in different industries; it is just a matter of the company wanting to make a change.

The Death of a Material World

Are you happy where you are in your life? Are the material items around you what make you happy or is it the relationships with people, such as your friends and family, which determine your satisfaction? Many people feel it is their relationships that are what makes them happy, but yet mass consumption of products continues to grow throughout many economies and has a negative affect on our earth. Madonna couldn’t have said it better, “I’m a material girl, living in a material world.” Now, more than ever, consumers are purchasing more products than before. The article “Limiting Consumption Toward a Sustainable Culture” by Alan Durning discusses how present economies are consuming mass amounts of products and are not recognizing how these products are effecting our environment by polluting our air, wasting our natural resources, and more. He states that the start of this habitual mass-consumption originated in the 1980’s and has continued to grow with rapid speed.

After being presented this information you may start to ask yourself, “If I am happy with my life based off my relationships, then why do I feel the need to purchase so many items?” The article “Thinking Ahead: The Value of Future Consciousness” by Tom Lombardo tries to answer this question by compromising several theories into one. He begins by stating that we are all either optimistic or pessimistic. If we think optimistically, we might set future goals for ourselves that we may never be able to truly meet causing disappointment and frustration, but if we think pessimistically, we will not ever set future goals because we feel that we could never meet them and that we are doomed to failure. He then continues to explain that the reason we purchase items is for a feeling of self-completion. When an optimistic person fails, they purchase an item to make them feel more accomplished, while a pessimistic person will purchase an item to make themselves feel less worthless. He suggests that through different types of psychotherapy people must learn how to handle their failures and set more attainable goals for the future that they can accomplish.

The idea of looking into the future and picturing where our planet, or even where someone’s life, is headed can be quite scary and intimidating. So, while we must learn how to manage our failures and set attainable goals, we still have to learn how to view the “bigger picture.” As the article “Visioneering: An Essential Framework in Sustainability Science” by Joon Kim and Taikan Oki discusses ‘‘We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.’’ This essentially means that the “bigger picture” we must envision is one of creating a sustainable future for the generations to come. This idea brings about the term visioneering, which stands as the cooperative triad of governance, management, and monitoring. Visioneering is not a new term and comes from the idea of engineering a vision.

My idea of visioneering includes a future that is sustainable using different developing sciences that we have now. As seen in the video 2057: The World, scientists are researching new ideas that could help us to be sustainable in the future with our resources, but are being forced to slow their process as it is not sustainable for our Ozone layer that is being depleted by toxic fumes. As of now, to reach my vision for the future we must start small by doing things that Fixing the Future on PBS suggest, such as Co-Operational (Co-Op) companies, where employees are able to own part of their company helping to rebuild communities and better people’s well-being. If we start small and continue to work at being sustainable, we will not be borrowing from our future’s generations.

Miracles Found In Textiles

Webster’s dictionary defines miracles as an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs or an extremely outstanding or unusual event, thing, or accomplishment. Certain fibers that have been considered “miracle fibers” include organic cotton, bamboo, and industrial hemp. These fibers also have several controversies that surround them, such as contamination during the production process, mislabeling, and the most controversial issue of one being illegal to produce. These controversies lead to the question: Are these fibers truly miracle fibers or not?

The first controversy I found to be important is the issue of contamination within organic cotton that is discussed in the article “Controversy Broiling; GM Cotton Against Organic”. This article describes how organic cotton in developing countries can easily be contaminated. To fix this issue certain third party certification systems have began to develop. These certification systems closely monitor the production of the cotton to assure there is no contamination. They make visits to monitor the crops as well as require specific papers to be filled completed. The main problem now is based off the fact that clothing brands purchase their cotton from multiple producers and some of the cotton may be contaminated.

The contamination also relates to the controversial issue of mislabeling. As the new “green movement” has taken wind, some consumers are looking for items that use natural fibers. Certain man-made fibers such as rayon use the natural resource of bamboo and according to the pamphlet “Are You Being Bamboozled?” certain brands are labeling the use of rayon within a garment as bamboo to help their products be more appealing to these consumers. The main problem with this is that the production of rayon uses multiple toxic chemicals that eliminate any natural antimicrobial properties that can be found within the bamboo plant. These chemicals are also strong air pollutants that are “not considered to be eco-friendly”.

A miracle fiber that is considered to be eco-friendly also stimulates much controversy within our country, as it is illegal under federal law and several state laws. The movie Hempsters: Plant the Seed and the article “Hemp: Historical Fiber Remains Controversial” discuss multiple reasons as to why this fiber is sustainable and should be legalized. Both of these medias tell of how hemp is a plant that can with stand droughts and does not require many if any pesticides. They also discuss how this plant has been produced for thousands of years and been used in many different materials throughout that time, such as garments, bricks, and paper. The opposing groups of people who believe hemp should not be legalized argue that this plant is similar to its “cousin” plant marijuana and would be difficult for law enforcement to tell the difference between the two crops.

I believe that all of these controversies relate to the lack of knowledge available to the consumer. It has often been said that people do not like what they do not know or understand. I believe that these fibers can be called miracle fibers, as they are natural resources that can help to better our lives. We need to recognize the positives and the negatives of these fibers to develop solutions to the problems that are stimulating controversies.