Shirts Of Bamboo Blog

From the Seattle Times, February 21, 2007

Safeway

Biodiesel fuel goes on sale

Safeway begins selling biodiesel fuel today in West Seattle, its first test market in the country for a fuel that creates less air pollution than petroleum diesel.

The new station at 4115 S.W. Admiral Way will have two biodiesel pumps, and Safeway might add biodiesel stations at two other Seattle locations.

The test center sells B20 biodiesel, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel fuel made from soy and 80 percent petroleum diesel.

Australia to Ban Old-Style Bulbs

Feb 20, 11:03 AM (ET)

By ROHAN SULLIVAN

Hello Shirts of Bamboo,

I am perusing your online catalog right now, and don’t see any info about your labor practices. I am curious if the factories making your clothing items carry any sort of employee equity certification, to prove that workers are paid decent wages.

If you do conduct factory inspections, I would encourage you to post this information on your site!

thanks very much,
angela

Hello Angela,

OK — this was forwarded to my by a buddy in Tucson…. grow your own luffa. Who woulda’ thought.

For the third autumn in a row I am pleased to be harvesting my shower sponge for next year. Now I know that must sound like a strange statement but it’s true. Many people are surprised when they find out I grow my own Luffa sponges. “Don’t those come from the sea?”, is the standard question to which I respond that the Luffa is a vegetable you can grow in your very own garden.

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This qualifies in my book as the cool gardening tip to remember in the spring!

Designers like to work with it and consumers like to buy it because bamboo has incredible qualities. 

For starters, it’s soft like cashmere. Plus, it’s drapey like rayon. It’s highly absorbent. In hot temperatures, it stays about 2 degrees C cooler than the surrounding air. It’s naturally antibacterial. It’s washable. It’s hypoallergenic. It costs about the same as cotton.

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Supermarket giant launches sustainable seafood products in Japan

Tokyo, Japan – Supermarket giant AEON is set to become the first major retailer to introduce sustainably-sourced seafood products in hundreds of stores across Japan.

Sold under a certified “blue label” by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the products will soon be available in 660 stores, following their introduction in several Tokyo supermarkets earlier this year.

(Complete Article)

Small companies are donating a protion of their sales to environmental groups through 1% For the Planet

Jeff Goldberg was looking for a way to tie his passion for the environment more closely to his work. After spending four years in the San Diego biotech industry, the avid surfer and outdoorsman found an answer: bamboo. It is the fastest-growing plant in the world, good for building, and grows naturally without requiring extra water, energy, or fertilizer. Even better, from a business perspective, the market for building with bamboo was almost nonexistent in the U.S., he says, so there was lots of opportunity. And so Cali Bamboo was born to market the plant as a sustainable resource.

(Full Article)

slate green challenge: Help the planet.
 
CLOSET CASE: The C02 monster hiding in your closet

By Meaghan O’Neill and treehugger.com

Your closet may not be the first place you’d think to look to reduce your CO2output. But clothing manufacture involves agriculture, industry, and commerce, so our fashion choices make a statement about greenhouse gasses as well as style…..

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