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Labour behind the Label – Part IV

A fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay

It has become increasingly apparent that a minimum living wage figure is needed across Asia. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance are a large coalition of workers’ labour organisations spread across Asia, supported by trade unions, labour NGOs, anti-sweatshop movements, and scholars from Europe and the USA. Together they have come up with a calculation of this figure to prevent wage competition between Asian garment-exporting countries and halt the race to the bottom.

One of the root causes of poverty wages in the industry is the power of global buyers to constantly relocate production in search of ever lower prices and better terms of trade. This power is used to exert a downward pressure on wages and conditions – labour being one of the few ‘production costs’ or ‘inputs’ that can be squeezed. The basic idea of the Asia Floor Wage (AFW) is to put a ‘floor’ under this, thereby preventing this competition from forcing wages below poverty levels and making sure gains are more equitably shared along the supply chain.

The Asia Floor Wage coalition have formulated a unified, regional demand for a wage which is decent and fair and which can be standardised and compared between countries. This means that workers need no longer be in competition with each other to offer to work at lower pay rates in order to attract business.

This regional collective bargaining strategy will unite workers and their allies from different Asian countries behind this demand. The goal is to attain a standardized minimum living wage for workers across Asia through negotiations between garment industry employers and workers’ representative organisations, and with the mediation and support of governments, intergovernmental organisations and social movements.

A number of brands have highlighted the need for governments to set minimum wages that meet living wage levels. We agree. The AFW coalition aims to campaign on a national level for governments and industry to accept the floor wage figures and adjust minimum wage levels accordingly. If all governments do this at more or less the same time, wages can be increased without risk of relocation of production. Investment from the global garment industry can be distributed more equitably down the chain and, in turn, the buying power of garment workers will be increased. It is hoped that such a move could contribute to the promotion of a more development-led growth. Such growth may enable the industry to match the economic development claims currently made in its favour.

The Asia Floor Wage campaign will go public on October 7th 2009. If retailers choose to support the campaign and recognise the wage demands it makes as legitimate, and engage with trade unions, activists and campaigners involved in the alliance, we could stand to see huge improvements in the state of pay behind the UK high street.

Brands and retailers exercise a lot of influence over the way that production is organised. They set prices and determine how production takes place. Global buyers need to absorb the cost of increased wages by paying higher prices to suppliers. Since wages represent only a small percentage of the retail price – normally 0.5 – 1.5 percent – the AFW Alliance believes that the supply chain has the capacity to absorb such wage increases without too much difficulty.

Funky Eco Clothing from Credau, an Original Clothing label that produces and sells eco friendly clothing online. Our environmentally friendly clothing is made from 100% natural cotton and all our designs and fits are made in-house, We believe in integrity and longevity through quality work.

Labour behind the Label – Part III

The downside of productivity and efficiency

The accepted definition of a living wage is one that enables workers and their families to meet their needs for nutritious food, water, shelter, clothing, education, healthcare and transport as well as providing for a discretionary income. Few if any garment workers in Asia enjoy such a wage, even when working excessive overtime hours.

The impact of excessive work and poverty wages on health, family life and communities cannot be overestimated which is why workers from China to Sri Lanka, Thailand to India and Cambodia to Bangladesh all tell us that increasing wages is their number one priority. Still, salaries in general remain low and wage levels are getting worse not better. Achieving a living wage for all workers is not an easy process. Defining what a living wage is and ensuring this wage actually gets to the workers are just two tricky issues involved in this process. Both could be addressed through union organising, but with union membership at below 1% in some countries this would be a slow process, even if trade unions weren’t opposed and repressed by the vast majority of employers.

Two distinct approaches to these problems are now being developed. Industry actors are focusing on improving the productivity of suppliers (whether factories, workshops or home workers). This means ensuring production is as efficient as possible, workers are well trained and production blockages and problems swiftly resolved. The idea is that by reducing waste and increasing the surplus value of the product itself, workers will be able to increase the wages they earn to levels commensurate with the cost of living.

The second approach comes from the workers’ side in the form of a new coalition to demand a floor wage across Asia. This will be used in coming years as an organizing tool to raise awareness of workers’ issues, strengthen union demands, lobby governments and challenge the race to the bottom that has eroded the value of workers’ wages over the last two decades

The 2008 report clearly stated that, although productivity programmes could have a place in supporting wage increases, they wouldn’t ever on their own be enough. Yet this year productivity continues to be the central feature of projects that brands are defining as ‘wage-focused’ work. Savings made through productivity improvements could be used to pay higher wages, but without proper union representation to demand that this is the case, savings could just as easily (and this is more likely) go into the employer’s pocket. Productivity also risks actually worsening conditions by increasing the work-rate, and thereby the mental and physical stress experienced by workers, and could result in fewer or different jobs.

The focus on productivity changes the emphasis and the nature of living wage projects. A living wage is a right guaranteed under human rights conventions and demanded by worker organisations. The priority is to ensure that living wages are being paid and that wage increases take place as soon as possible. Once these wages are being paid to workers it is up to the buyers and employers to work out how to cover the costs involved. If they can do this though productivity programmes, great!

The focus on productivity turns this logic on its head. By emphasising productivity as the key element of any wage programme, brands and retailers are signalling that they don’t really see a living wage as a right for garment workers.

Let’s be clear. Wages in the garment industry are not low because of poor productivity. They are low because the structure of the industry creates intense competition between brands and retailers, governments, employers and workers. They are low because governments are failing to protect the poorest members of society through the implementation of labour law. They are low because workers have been prevented from organising and making these demands. These are the root causes of poverty wages and these are the issues that need to be addressed by all concerned with the implementation of a living wage.

Funky Eco Clothing from Credau, an Original Clothing label that produces and sells eco friendly clothing online. Our environmentally friendly clothing is made from 100% natural cotton and all our designs and fits are made in-house, We believe in integrity and longevity through quality work.

Labour behind the Label – Part II

The necessary steps

It is all very good and well to identify a major problem in the fashion industry, but what good would that be if it ended there. The very point of identifying a problem is so that it can be fixed, and this is a very big problem, which for far too long has been ignored.

Unfortunately big problems like this cannot be fixed overnight due to the systemic nature of the problem. The situation as we know has taken years to reach its current state and it will probably take years to fix the damage.

In last year’s report a clear four pillar strategy was laid out which included using a collaborative approach by working with other companies, trade unions and labour rights groups; supporting worker organising and participation; addressing commercial factors throughout the supply chain and creating a clear road map to implementing the living wage for all workers, however only a very small number of retailers (Next, Gap, Monsoon) appear to be conducting work that contributes to the strengthening of all four pillars.

What does a collaborative approach really mean though?  What this essentially means is that, the label which buys its textiles from overseas suppliers cannot simply ignore ethical and moral issues associated. The labels need to work with their suppliers to make sure the textiles they are buying have been made in a safe and fair environment with the person making it receiving a good living wage. Many of the factories which produce these textiles are in fact owned by the labels so to say that nothing can be done would be like saying you cannot decorate your own home!

The second pillar is freedom of association, which means that workers should have the power to set up their own organisations to discuss the workplace and wider issues, to define their own demands and highlight the issues which concern them most. Collective bargaining ensures that workers can make these demands and negotiate with employers as a group, rather than individuals, allowing them to meet with employers on a more equal basis.

The ‘Labour behind the label’ report goes on to say that “Freedom of association and collective bargaining are enabling rights. If workers in the garment industry were properly organised, we might not need corporate responsibility projects or consumer campaigns – workers themselves would be involved with setting wage levels that not only covers their basic needs but that reflected the real value of their work.”

For some retailers the credit crunch was an opportunity to take advantage by promoting their high volume low price fashion, such as Primark and Tesco. “As competition struggled to survive these fast fashion retails saw profits steadily increased. The garment industry has been through a drastic restructure which has intensified the race to the bottom. Prices paid to suppliers are decreasing fast. At the same time suppliers are faced with rising fixed costs, such as fabric, transport and energy, and are facing difficulties in obtaining the credit needed to bridge the gap between production and payment.”

In Bangladesh, for example, where production costs are among the cheapest in the world, suppliers reported that buyers were demanding drastic decreases in price. In April 2009, M&S, Tesco and H&M were reportedly among 50 other brands and retailers calling on Bangladesh exporters to reduce their prices if they wished to stay competitive (Reuters, Dhaka, April 2009).

The final and perhaps most important pillar is for there to be in place a road map for sustaining a living wage. For wage projects to be successful there needs to be a clear standard which everyone is working to, ideally based on negotiations with workers and one which is updated regularly to take inflation and other factors into account. Even though everyone agrees on the definition of what a living wage should cover, the benchmarks used by brands and retailers vary drastically.

Funky Eco Clothing from Credau, an Original Clothing label that produces and sells eco friendly clothing online. Our environmentally friendly clothing is made from 100% natural cotton and all our designs and fits are made in-house, We believe in integrity and longevity through quality work.

Labour behind the label – Part 1

This is the fourth year in which Labour behind the label has reported on the state of high street fashion, focusing on various issues within the industry such as the labourers behind the clothing lines and how or if at all, what fashion labels are doing to address an area of the industry which has come under increased public scrutiny and attention. There is a growing movement of accountability within fashion and this report highlights a major area of weakness in the industry, which is the labour.

Much has been said about size 0 models and now much needs to be said about how high street fashion labels source their textiles and labels. If for example when you are doing your food shopping and you want to know where your bananas have come from, it will be displayed. Hopefully they are fair-trade bananas and you are making an informed decision, because you know that the man or woman who picked those bananas is getting a paid fairly and works in a safe and fair environment.

Would it not be wonderful if you knew that all the people who made all your clothes are in the same situation? They are not being exploited; they are able to provide for the family giving them a better future and opportunities in life. For this to happen there would have to be a wholesale revolution for the fashion industry, something they would much rather avoid no doubt. However information today is widespread and hard to hide from, making information and knowledge in particular very powerful tools.

This blog series will look at the Labour behind the label – 2009 report findings and highlight various issues together with additional market information. The objective of all this is to generate awareness and allow shoppers to make informed decisions.

As the 2009 Labour behind the label report states “The scandalous truth is that the majority of workers in the global fashion industry rarely earn more than two dollars a day in an industry worth over £36 billion a year in the UK alone. Many have to work excessive hours just to get this meagre amount and have no possibility to earn wages needed to properly feed, clothe, house and educate their families.”

In recent years many big brands on the UK high street have publicly accepted that garment workers’ wages need increasing, and many of these brands will say that they have started to eliminate poverty wages. However few of these plans will ever make a tangible impact on wages and those people’s lives. Why is though? It is because most projects have ignored fundamental issues which make the biggest difference of all, such as freedom of association, price and distribution of profit, and have instead focused on making factories or workers more ‘productive’.

The report goes on to say “On Oct 7^th 2009 a new and exciting initiative, the Asian Floor Wage, will be launched. This is an Asia-wide campaign with global resonance, which rejects the idea that governments, unions and workers in different countries should be forced to choose between unemployment or exploitation………It places workers right back at the centre of debate and it lays down the gauntlet to brands and retailers, governments and employers to make sure that the garment industry finally provides not just any work, but decent work to the millions of women and men producing the clothes we wear.”

Funky Eco Clothing from Credau, an Original Clothing label that produces and sells environmentally friendly clothes online, our environmentally friendly clothing is made from 100% natural cotton and all our designs and fits are made in-hous. We believe in integrity and longevity through quality work.

National Geographic loves Credau

In this winters copy of the National Geographic the main theme is about how green we are here in London and also tries to inspire people to behave and possibly think greener.

Jarvis Smith is the National Geographic Green’s publisher and lead singer/songwriter for The Phoenix Rose which has a record contract with Britain’s first green record label, Archangel Green. In this copy of the National Geographic looks into how green the fashion world is and how conscious we are regarding our own wardrobe. Jarvis is a man who cares very much about what he wears and it’s not the label he will be looking at. Instead there will be a much greater emphasis on the material, where it came from and how it was put together. Not all of this will be on a label so he uses established eco friendly designer menswear shops.

In this publication of National Geographic Jarvis demonstrates that with almost everything he buys he will be thinking green. Jarvis goes on to say that “I am very careful about what I wear and avoid anything that makes me feel uncomfortable or inhibits my energy. Some materials, for instance leather and man-made fabrics and some colours, make me feel tired or sad. I’m anti polyester on environmental grounds: nitrous oxide is released during production, a greenhouse gas three times stronger than CO2. Polyester is non biodegradable, so will hang around for another century or two. I do not over buy: one suit for business, one casual, a couple of pairs of organic cotton denim jeans. I have some tops made from hemp, one of the most eco-friendly textiles around as it requires neither pesticides nor fertilisers. I have some 100% biodegradable bamboo cotton T-shirts. Bamboo is the world’s fastest growing plant and takes in more CO2 and breathes out more oxygen than trees, making it highly eco-friendly”.

Further in the article, Deborah Meaden from Dragons Den goes on to make a point that is very relevant and timely. She says that “In a recession, ethics and environment can get pushed to the back of many people’s agenda as price becomes paramount. If I could wave a magic wand I would try and move ethical consumerism up the agenda. It alarms me that production and ethics are currently separate issues.”

Ethics and morals are currently making the long and meandering journey to the forefront of fashion. The are many obstacles to overcome and there is no guarantee we will get there but with people like Jarvis Smith and the many more eco conscious men, women and children out there, we are getting closer.

If you would like to read the full article and find out more please click here

From conception to production Credau believes in using local industry and environmentally friendly production logistics.

ETHICMEN: Christmas is coming, and fast!

10% off with promotional code ‘ETHICMEN’ on www.credau.com!

Its mid November, which means the countdown to Christmas, has begun.  With the festive season fast approaching, Credau has two special offers, for two fantastic products.

All you need to do is go to www.credau.com and find your products. Once they are in your ‘shopping bag’ you will find a promotions box prompting your to enter a code. Simply enter the word ‘ETHICMEN’ and you will receive a 10% discount on our ‘Love’ t-shirts and ‘Bicycle’ boxers!

Give ‘love’

In the Seventies, iconic band The Jackson 5 told the world to ‘Give Love On Christmas Day’ with it’s yuletide song… and now East-London menswear label CREDAU is sending out the same message with it’s wonderful ‘LOVE’ t-shirt.

The eco-friendly, hand-crafted, cotton t-shirt is beautifully appliquéd with the word ‘LOVE’ in silk and comes in a variety of colours. But, not only does this t-shirt ‘spell out’ how much you care for your man – it also shows how much you care for the environment. It is eco- friendly and made in England, which ensures the carbon foot print is kept as low as possible.

Designer Aude Lesur explains: ‘The ‘LOVE’ t-shirt is helping to spread that wonderful word again this year. ‘This is the perfect gift for Christmas because the t-shirt is made using eco-conscious methods. It will show the man in your life that you really care, as well as demonstrating that you both love the environment because you are buying clothes with a conscience!’

Lead singer of Faithless Jamie Catto, who is a huge fan of the eco-friendly label, says: ‘If I had known what I was buying into when purchasing clothes from some high street shops, I would have opted to go naked. I’m no ‘fashionista’, far from it but I’m a father who cares about the planet we’re leaving for our children.

On your bike boys!

ONE in three people in the UK own a bike and as many of these riders are men, so the quirky bicycle-print boxer short from London label Credau is bound to be a big hit this Christmas.

But, whether the man in your life rides a bike or not, cycling is popular and these trendy made in the UK boxer shorts make the perfect gift for Christmas. Beautifully made, this fabulous underwear comes in a choice of four fabrics, including luxurious silk, cotton poplin, viscose and cotton jersey. The cotton jersey boxers, not only make comfortable day wear, but are ideal as a jersey sleep short.

The boxers, which are hand-printed with little bikes in a variety of shapes and styles, can be dyed to the colour of your choice. So, whether you prefer light grey or light blue to provide a stunning contrast to the print; or dark blue or red for a subtle contrast, Credau can do it for you using unique colour recipes.

The beautiful and original cycle design is printed in sepia or black, using traditional printing methods and safe dye, in Hackney, London.

The East London label Credau, which is a favourite with the eco band The Phoenix Rose, offers cutting-edge wearable clothes with a conscience, entirely sourced and made in the UK, using natural and recycled materials.

Credau, which won an award from Debenhams last year, recently showed off its 2010 collection at the Eco Chic Show at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill, during the London Fashion Week.

Pesticides days are numbered!

About a month ago at a United Nations meeting in Geneva, scientists voted to draw up a risk management evaluation for endosulfan. This is the last step before putting endosulfan before a vote on a global ban under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs treaty). The treaty addresses chemicals that are known to strongly affect and easily accumulate in humans. The ban, if enacted, could take place as soon as 2011.

But Professor Ivan Kennedy, from the University of Sydney, says a ban could cause problems. Endosulfan is used in northern Australia to control insect pests in horticulture, but it is also linked to human health problems. “I’ve spoken to some chemical companies about possible candidates to replace endosulfan where it is used, and it’s not that clear what the replacements would be,” he says. “The danger is that they would therefore need to use higher levels of other chemicals which could actually be worse as far as the environment and human health is concerned”. The National Toxics Network say endosulfan poses unnecessary health risks and Australia should follow other countries in banning its use.

The opposition stems from the deep difference of opinion on pesticides and toxicity between the developing world and the wealthy economies of the West. India’s opposition is perhaps the most concerning as they use more endosulfan than any other country and Indian chemical companies also export the substance. The government of India, influenced by strong agricultural interests, has long opposed an endosulfan ban, arguing that the pesticide can be used safely and that a ban would discriminate against Indian agriculture. Agricultural interests in the U.S., Australia and Brazil all oppose the ban, but governments of those countries have not expressed the same public opposition as that of India.

The pesticide, a brown or cream colored powder which is sprayed on crops by airplanes and by workers on the ground, is popular for a wide range of crop usage, including cotton, cocoa, cashews, potatoes, cabbage, coffee and soybeans. The substance kills most types of insect pests and Farmers like endosulfan because it’s cheap and does not tend to create resistance.

Unfortunately, endosulfan appears to kill many other things, as well. Environmental groups have alleged poisonings from improper use of the stuff has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of agricultural workers, primarily in the developing world. In the Kerala incident, the government acknowledged that endosulfan had killed at least 135 workers.

Exposure to endosulfan in humans can impact the central nervous system and cause hyperactivity, nausea, dizziness, convulsions and, in case of high exposure, rapid death. Longer-term exposure likely damages the kidneys, reproductive organs, nervous system and the immune system.

Scientists also believe that thanks to aerial spraying of endosulfan on crop fields in California they are contributing to mysterious and terrifying frog die-offs in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In Australia, researchers have tentatively connected endosulfan with malformations of fish, including fish that have two or three heads, according to newspaper ‘The Land’.

India is clearly poised to become an economic powerhouse with its enormous population, emerging technology sector and rapidly growing economy. Along with Russia, China and Brazil, India will have a much greater say in global matters in the next decade and beyond.

If we, in Europe continue to import clothing material, most notably cotton from India and other developing countries, where chemicals such as endosulfan will be used with such scant regard of delicate ecosystems and human life, the clothing and fashion industry will never have a clear conscious and will be, as a whole accountable for the suffering of hundreds of thousands. If however, clothes manufacturers were to source their cotton locally and from environmentally friendly and sustainable sources, the demand for chemically rid cotton from developing countries would ease and the use of endosulfan would decline. Fashions change and ultimatley fashion must become eco fashion, and the textiles industry must go green and support eco clothing.

It is of course ridiculous to simply take away such an important economic resource away from countries such as India. An alternative is quite literally a matter of life and death. Without an alternative crop the suffering would only increase. However it would be an error of monumental proportions to replace something like cotton with another crop that will require the intensive use of chemicals. Thankfully there are crops which fulfill the requirements, such as hemp, which was highlighted very recently.

Cannabis versus Cotton

It has been said before that knowledge is power. Society has begun to demand more knowledge and information, whether it’s from our politicians and how much of our money they spend, or where our bananas are grown. Certainly we are starting to take a closer look and take much greater interest, so why should what we wear be any different?

The most commonly used material in what we wear is cotton and it has been worn for thousands of years, dating back to Alexandra the Great and beyond. With the dawn of the industrial revolution and the slave trade, cotton went into mass production and business boomed. Cotton became available to the higher echelons of society at first but soon it was available and affordable to the masses.

Over time cotton growers have ‘perfected’ their skill and today conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop and epitomises the worst effects of chemically dependent agriculture. Each year cotton producers around the world use nearly $2.6 billion worth of pesticides which is more than 10% of the world’s pesticides and nearly 25% of the world’s insecticides.  In the long term the impact is crippling and in numerous ways.

With insecticides and pesticides being increasingly widespread, insect resistance to pesticides seriously weakened the efficacy of many chemicals. In response, farmers applied so many chemicals that by the late 1980s pesticides accounted for approximately 50% of production costs. Besides making cotton production financially unviable, pesticides also introduced serious health and environmental problems, including farm worker poisonings, fish kills and deep well contamination.

These are not isolated events and certainly no coincidence. In 1997 a Danish television documentary showed methyl parathion being sprayed on cotton fields in Nicaragua and Guatemala while children played in and beside the fields. Pesticide poisoning remains a daily reality among agricultural workers in developing countries, where up to 14% of all occupational injuries are in the agricultural sector and amounts to tens of thousands of  fatal injuries which can be attributed to pesticides.

Further evidence of the long-lasting and often unforeseen damage cotton can have can be found in Australia. In 1994 Australian beef was found to be contaminated with the cotton insecticide Helix® (chlorfluazuron), most likely because cattle had been fed contaminated cotton straw. In response, several countries suspended beef imports from Australia. One year later, farmers were alarmed to discover that newborn calves were also contaminated with Helix, apparently because it was passed through their mother’s milk.

All of the negative aspects of modern conventional cotton farming are glaringly obvious and cannot be ignored. This is now knowledge we have, which means something can be done about it, and thankfully there are people who have stood up and taken notice.  In this case and rather interestingly the world of fashion seems to have embraced the idea of environmentally friendly cotton and is now easy to find on the high street, known also as eco clothing. Companies such as Credau use local industry, with their clothing made in Britain and adopting environmentally friendly production and logistics. Sourcing their fabrics locally from the UK and France, they insure these materials are from natural or organic and sustainable eco sources. If the trend continues, I may well be shopping for eco-friendly clothing in the eco menswear department.

Clearly cotton can be an eco-friendly and sustainable material, however the question of alternatives must be asked, and in doing so we can unearth an equally widespread and somewhat understated material, Hemp. Like cotton Hemp dates back thousands of years being used in all sorts of manner. Unfortunately Hemp is a plant that does come with some stigma. This is because Hemp is in fact the product of the male cannabis plant, but is in fact completely free of cannabis. In the UK there has been much debate recently regarding the classification of the drug. As the government drug advisor (Proff David Nutt) put it “cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco”. Unfortunately this resulted in him and two other government advisors losing their jobs.

“What can hemp do that cotton can’t?” you might ask. Well, Hemp yields are amongst the highest of any crop. The Hemp crop requires no herbicides or pesticides. No part of the plant is wasted. Hemp fibres are tough, durable and incredibly versatile. Hemp is such an incredible material that the amount of land under cultivation continues to grow and demand is increasing, including car manufacturers substituting polypropylene for hemp indoor panels. And this is over sixty years after Ford first proposed the idea of making cars out of hemp!

So we conclude with two obvious winners and an obvious looser. Modern conventional cotton cultivation has resulted in crop failure, deforestation, loss of life and widespread ecological disasters. Companies like Credau have however demonstrated that cotton production can be an environmentally friendly process and finally, perhaps the biggest winner of all, hemp. An ancient material that has been misunderstood and underestimated for too long might just be getting back to the top of the pecking order.

Why buy environmentally friendly products?

We have all seen eco-friendly products for sale at various stores around the United Kingdom, but what is the reasoning behind this push for these products and what exactly are the environmentally benefits to these products.

The continued research and technological advances have exposed the growing problem of global warming and increased awareness for eco-friendly practices, including consumer goods.  The 20th’s century last two decades have been the warmest on earth for 400 years and possible the warmest in several millenia.  This can be partially contributed to the fact that humans are releasing more greenhouse gases such as, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide faster than plants and tress can absorb it.  These harmful gases are released primarily from the burning of fossil fuels and have various heat-trapping capacities.

A select number of people have seen the importance of eco-friendly products long before  “going green” was a popular saying, but for the rest of us the movement towards more eco-friendly goods is fairly new.  The global warming theory has helped people realize that many past common production models for products had a negative effect on the environment.  Customers all around the world have started to demand products that are less harmful on the environment and that have a sustainable production models.  For example it takes three quarters of a pound of chemical fertilizer to produce the cotton for one pair of jeans.  24% of the worlds insecticides are used in the production of cotton, making it the most sprayed commodity on the market.  Simply by purchasing jeans and other products made from organic cotton one could help to curve the negative effects that cotton production has on the earth.

Whether or not you are a believer in global warming, products that are made with sustainable and eco-friendly production models help to preserve the earth and continue the push towards more eco-friendly products.

From conception to production Credau believes in using local industry and environmentally friendly production logistics.