Greensource CEO to participate in workshop on natural textiles

16 Oct '09

3 min read

David Basson, CEO of Greensource Organic Clothing Co. - the ninth largest designer and manufacturer of organic cotton apparel in the world - will address the importance of community development in a successful organic cotton program as part of the Organic Exchange's "21st Century Sustainable Textiles: A Deeper Look at Key Issues" annual conference October 20-22, 2009, in Seattle, WA. He will also participate in a workshop on natural textiles. More than 250 decision-makers from the apparel and home textile sectors around the world will be at the conference.

Basson, whose company Greensource manufactures trendy and affordable organic cotton jeans and tops that are also certified to the Global Organic Textile Standard and sold at major retailers such as Macy's ("Greensource"), Kohl's ("ReGen"), Walmart ("Faded Glory"), and Kmart ("Route 66"), knows the community development topic well as the company has established schools and clinics for the communities in Pakistan where the organic cotton for Greensource is grown.

During a visit to the region in 2003, Greensource executives noticed that local children in the region were playing next to the cotton fields where their parents worked. They were told that the reason the children were not at school was because the nearest school was 80 miles away. Greensource decided to contribute towards building local schools - two schools have been completed and the third school is in process. Greensource also partnered with its denim mill to establish a clinic where all medications and services are free to workers and their families.

Basson most recently spoke about "eco-materials" at the September, 2009, MAGIC Apparel Show in Las Vegas, NV, then led a panel on sustainability in the textile sector at Apparel Magazine's 2009 Apparel Executive Forum October 5 in Coral Gables, FL.

Apparel magazine named Greensource a "Sustainability All-Star" March 24, 2009 with the editors noting that Greensource's "field-to-shelf involvement in creating a more eco-friendly supply chain is particularly focused on keeping toxic pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and defoliants out of the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe."

According to the Organic Exchange's 2009 Organic Cotton Market Report, global retail sales of organic cotton apparel and home textile products reached an estimated $3.2 billion in 2008. This represents a 63 percent increase from the $1.9 billion market in 2007. The top ten organic cotton-using brands and retailers globally were Wal-Mart (USA), C&A (Belgium), Nike (USA), H&M (SE), Zara (Spain), Anvil (USA), Coop Switzerland, Pottery Barn (USA), Greensource (USA), and Hess Natur (Germany). If the company's considerable private label production for major retailers were taken into account, the company would actually rank much higher.

Greensource, a trend-forward apparel design and manufacturing company based in Seattle, WA, is one of the nation's largest suppliers of private-label and branded apparel made with organic cotton. OrganicInStock.com, a division of Greensource, is a large supplier of certified organic cotton blank T-shirts for the men's, women's, and children's markets.

Greensource Organic Clothing Co

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