Tencel’s Green Credentials: Part 2

In our previous two posts, we wrote that Tencel is made from cellulose. The traditional way of converting cellulose into fibre can be chemically intensive; and some of the chemicals involved in the process are harmful to the environment. Fortunately, Austria’s Lenzing Group knows how to convert it in an eco-friendly manner.

The Group uses a revolutionary method known as the Lyocell process to produce Tencel. A close-loop process, it redirects waste products back into production—99.5% of the solvent is recycled—creating almost no waste. The solvent the Group uses is called NMMO (N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide). It’s non-toxic and its safeness has been proven in dermatological and toxicological tests.

All in all, the Lyocell method lowers the chemical intensity of the production process—it reduces the number of steps and the amount of chemicals used (i.e. fewer chemicals and less harmful chemicals are used). This is good for us and our planet.

In recognition of the ecological soundness of the Lyocell process, the European Union awarded Lenzing the highly prestigious European Award for the Environment.

You’ve read so many good things about Tencel. Why not try one today?

You can watch a short video about Tencel at http://tinyurl.com/cq7u8cu. 

Tencel's Green Credentials: Part 1

What makes Tencel green? Here are a couple of good reasons:

1. As mentioned in our previous post, Tencel is made from eucalyptus cellulose. Eucalypti are trees. And trees are a renewable resource.
2. Eucalypti can grow on marginal land—land that can’t be used to produce food.
3. Eucalypti can grow quickly without genetic engineering.
4. Eucalypti can thrive without artificial irrigation.
5. 6 m² of soil produces 10 Tencel T-shirts, whereas the same amount of soil produces only 1 conventional cotton T-shirt.

Nukleus buys all its Tencel from Austria’s Lenzing Group. Lenzing is the worldwide leader in fibre innovation and winner of multiple prestigious environmental awards—including the European Award for the Environment and WWF-Austria's Panda Award.

The Group gets its eucalyptus wood exclusively from sustainable plantations, many of which are certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). The FSC is a globally trusted organisation that promotes responsible forest management (e.g. appropriate harvesting rates and techniques, non-chemical methods of pest management, etc.). Many organizations and individuals—including Greenpeace, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and well-known environmentalist Jared Diamond—have endorsed the FSC.

Very impressive, don’t you think? That’s just the raw-material side of the story. In our next post, we’ll talk about Tencel’s green manufacturing process.

7 Must-know Facts about Tencel

You want to go green. But you don’t like cotton. What do you do?

Go for Tencel.

Here are 7 things you must know about this material:

• It’s pure: Tencel is made primarily from pure eucalyptus cellulose.
• It’s soft and smooth: practically no friction with your skin.
• It has superior moisture absorbency: Tencel can absorb up to 50% more moisture than cotton, and it can do so and still remain dry on its surface
• It’s cool: Tencel feels cooler than cotton, due to its higher water content at a given temperature.
• It inhibits bacterial growth naturally: Tencel’s high absorption capacity and rapid moisture absorption rate make it difficult for bacteria to grow, and it does so with zero chemical additives.
• It inhibits fungal growth: When it’s humid, fungi will grow. The bad news is, dust mites consume fungi. Lab tests have shown that Tencel can inhibit fungal growth. Less fungi, fewer dust mites, low allergy risk.
• It has neutral electric properties: this reduces the occurrences of annoying static shock.

Tencel’s amazing, isn’t it? But what makes it green? Read our next post to find out.

All our Honeydew products are made from Tencel

5 Reasons You Should Wear Organic Cotton

Available data suggests that the world loves cotton. Which isn't at all surprising. In many ways, cotton is the ideal clothing material. It’s soft, absorbent, breathable, low-maintenance—all great qualities. 

But then, there’s conventionally grown cotton, and there’s organic cotton. Which one should you go for? Organic cotton, of course!

There’re five reasons why you should do so. But before we look at them, you should know a couple of things about organic cotton.

Organic cotton is actually natural cotton grown in accordance with organic agriculture standards. It has all the well-loved qualities of cotton, some of which have been mentioned above, plus some extras. The reason it has additional benefits is because it’s grown without using toxic and persistent synthetic agrochemicals (e.g. pesticides and fertilizers) and genetically modified seeds.

Now, the Big Five.

Reason 1: Organic cotton is great for your health

Research has shown that the poisonous and persistent pesticides applied during conventional cotton production can be detected in cotton clothing. Those residual chemicals can leach into your skin, causing skin irritation and harming your health.

Wear organic cotton to greatly reduce or eliminate toxicity-related health risks.

Reason 2: Organic cotton helps keep your food safe

Pesticide residues have also been detected in the cottonseed hull. This is a problem because cottonseeds are made into cottonseed oil—which makes up 8% of the world’s vegetable oils—as well as animal feed. An estimate suggests that as much as 65% of harvested cotton produce enters the human food chain, whether directly through food or indirectly through the milk or meat of animals.

Support organic cotton to help keep our food safe.

Reason 3: Organic cotton protects the health of others

Conventionally grown cotton is “the world’s dirtiest crop” because it’s responsible for the release of 16% of the world’s insecticides—far more than any other single crop. The consequences are devastating. Every year, up to 77 million cotton workers suffer from pesticide poisoning—and thousands eventually die.

Buy and wear organic cotton to protect the health and lives of your fellow human beings.

Reason 4: Organic cotton helps save lives

Every year, many cotton farmers borrow heavily to buy expensive pesticides and genetically modified seeds. And every year, there’ll be some farmers who can’t settle their debts because of crop failure. As a result, some of them end up in jail, while some tragically choose to end their lives by suicide.

Buy and wear organic cotton to help prevent the tragic suicides and imprisonments.

Reason 5: Organic cotton sustains/restores the health of the environment

Organic cotton farming contributes to environmental health in the following ways:

• Sustains soil health: Organic farming maintains soil health through non-contaminating methods such as crop rotation
• Protects drinking water: No chemical runoff into drinking water sources
• Saves water: Organic cotton needs less water to grow—approximately 3,000 m3/acre less
• Saves energy: Organic farming does not depend on synthetic nitrogen-based fertilizers, which require a large amount of petroleum to manufacture and transport
• Provides a safeguard against genetic threats: No GMOs means no threats of insecticide-resistant “superbugs” and genetic contamination (i.e. the spread of bioengineered crop genes to native flora)

Buy and wear organic cotton to help protect the environment.

Welcome and Introduction

Hello. Thank you for visiting the official blog of Nukleus.

For those of you who do not yet know us, Nukleus is a sustainable fashion brand. You may ask, what does “sustainable fashion” mean? We will explain briefly in this post.

The first key word in the phrase is “sustainable.” Something which is sustainable is something that can be maintained at a certain rate or level. Conversely, things which aren’t sustainable can’t go on at the rate they’re going.

The fact is, humanity as a whole isn’t living sustainably. The World Wide Fund for Nature or WWF estimates that we’re currently using 1.5 planets to support our lifestyles. If things don’t change, we’ll need two planets by 2030. But we have only one. So things can’t go on as usual. They must change. We must change.

Even the way we dress must change. That’s because clothing can have an adverse impact on people and the environment. This is where fashion, the second key word, comes in. Nukleus can provide clothing solutions that are sustainable, fashionable, and affordable. To see these solutions, please visit www.nukleusshop.com.

Through our future posts at this blog, you will find out what the impacts of clothing are, plus much, much more. But for now, we’d like to touch on cotton and its people-related impact.

We love to wear cotton. Unfortunately, it can have a big impact on people. And sometimes, the impact can be deadly. Faced with these facts, we cannot do nothing. So we’ve created another blog to tell people about the cotton impacts and the actions that can be taken to address them. It’s called www.thecottonstory.com. We hope you’ll visit it.

The cotton blog is merely one of the things we’re doing to address the twin issues of human suffering and environmental degradation. We’re of course taking other more substantive actions. But however hard we work, we cannot achieve the desired objectives alone. Our efforts won’t bear much fruit if they’re not supported. We thus hope you will join forces with us and be a force for good.

That’s it for now. Take care.

Best,

Team Nukleus