As the summer season approaches, companies across American start gearing up for all of their warm-weather activities and promotions – golf outings and picnics, music festivals, block parties, marathons and charity walks. The quintessential gift for participants in these events is a t-shirt.
But if your organization is thinking “green” this year, traditional cotton shirts might be a cause for concern.
According to the Institute of Science in Society, cotton production uses more chemicals per unit area than any other crop and accounts in total for 16% of the world’s pesticides. Pesticides and other agrochemicals not only pollute land and water but have been linked to health risks for farm workers, and residual chemicals in cotton clothing can irritate skin in some individuals.
So what’s a responsible company to do? Organic cotton promotional t-shirts are a responsible solution to these concerns. Each time you choose a T-shirt made from 100% organic cotton, you’re saving one-third of a pound of synthetic fertilizers and farm chemicals.
To be certified as “organic”, cotton must be grown on land that has been free of chemicals for three years. According to the Sustainable Cotton Project there are four components to growing organic cotton:
SOIL
Organic farming starts with the soil. Compost, frequent crop rotations and cover crop strategies replace synthetic fertilizers to keep the soil healthy and productive. Fields must be free of synthetically-derived chemicals for three years to achieve organic certification.
WEED CONTROL
Weeds are controlled by innovative farm machinery, hand labor or flame devices rather than herbicide applications.
INSECT PESTS
Rather than attempting to eradicate all insects with chemicals, organic farmers cultivate a diversity of natural enemies which prey on insect pests, and lure pests away from cotton by planting trap crops. Insect pests can be effectively kept in balance with well-timed introduction of beneficial insects to fields.
HARVEST
In warmer growing regions, where the cotton plants must be killed or defoliated to pick a quality crop before the onset of winter rains, organic growers shut off water early, and apply certified materials to promote cotton boll opening and leaf dropping, readying the fibers for harvest. In the U.S., both conventional and organic cotton are machine-picked; in some developing countries, cotton is still harvested by hand.
Some people still think of organic cotton shirts as bland, natural beige colored garments reserved only for hard-core environmentalists…which is not always the first choice when marketing their companies. Fortunately, organic cotton now comes in a rainbow of colors, and new fashion-forward styles to match any organization’s image.
