Talking Circular Fashion
On Thursday 12th April GreenEarth® Cleaning hosted a Business Briefing on the subject of ‘Sustainable Aftercare for Garments and Textiles’ at the Marriott Grosvenor Square in London.
Keynote speaker for the day was GreenEarth President Tim Maxwell, alongside Louann Spirito of SGS and myself.
It was a great opportunity for us to talk a room of retailers, manufacturers and testing houses about the GreenEarth® difference and how it can make a difference to how retailers operate and to our planet.
Following the introductions, Tim talked to the delegates about what GreenEarth® is, who we are as a team and how important a role we play in garment aftercare. Talking not only about how at worst GreenEarth® performs as well as other solutions and in a lot of cases much better, because of no colour loss, no shrinkage and most importantly because it is non-toxic… particularly important for the planet and for those who work in the aftercare industry.
Tim highlighted how more and more dry cleaners around the world are using GreenEarth and that D5 the purest form of liquid silicone used for dry cleaning, is also used in many products found in most households, such as body lotions, shaving foam and deodorants. Then going onto make the point that GreenEarth is mostly recycled, loses less energy than other solutions and ensures that clothing and textiles can last longer – drawing comparisons with the key fundamentals of the circular economy.
Next to speak, was Louann Spirito, Director of Technical Support for the Softlines area of SGS. Louann gave an insight into the business and also her years of experience working in testing labs. Her recollection of how Perchloroethylene would melt the tongs she would use for textile testing, really got the delegates’ minds turning! Louann relayed how the use of the GreenEarth machine in Guangzhou, China has really made SGS look at testing within its global business.
SGS have had the machine in operation for over 2 years and has worked well to service retailers and manufacturers, particularly in the far east. Their evaluation is consistent with the excellent consumer experience of GreenEarth and again particularly around embellished items and leather garments. There are many challenges facing the Testing industry, which Louann talked through and one of those challenges is Sustainability.
The GreenEarth and SGS relationship is one that will last long into the future.
Tim then took to the stage again and talked about new developments within GreenEarth, particularly the increased use of the Activated Clay Filtration (ACF) programme. Using Activated Clay Filtration powder combined with environmentally improved detergent (Sustain) and Spotting Agent (Prime), affiliates around the globe are seeing even better results from GreenEarth with a reduction of energy and water usage by 50 per cent.
GreenEarth is now in over 40 countries via over 1800 dry cleaners and 2018 is looking like a year for continued growth and development.
It was my turn to speak to the audience, demonstrating some of the differences that we had seen on silks, leathers and other items, stressing how important it is to test to get the best results for them and the customer.
Sustainability has crept up the agenda of Fashion retailers significantly over the last 18 months and that has shown through the enquiries and meetings that we have had. I talked through the work that I have done over the last 3 years and how there are options to attend technical meetings or indeed for me to present to garment technicians at head offices.
Testing is fundamental to the performance of the garment and the customer experience. Delegates were able to see test results for themselves, the GreenEarth difference on leather swatches and pieces of embellished materials.
Attendees were able to understand how they could promote GreenEarth on their care labels, followed up with colleague and customer communications, informing them what GreenEarth is and how it can be accessed globally. The support that GreenEarth® is able to be in a position to give to retailers and affiliates alike is second to none, due to their customer loyalty and reputation.
Over the last 20 years, GreenEarth® has established its own heritage as a sustainable form of aftercare. It is by far the most credible alternative option to perc. Other entrants to the market may have an advantage over perc… but fail to tick as many boxes as GreenEarth® – the performance and environmental statistics speak for themselves.
As we approach Earth Day, we are proud to green and completely clean.
If you’d like to attend future GreenEarth® events, please visit our Events Page.
By: Garry Knox
