NC Company TS Designs Blazes Trail for Sustainable Cotton

 

TS Designs, an innovative North Carolina t-shirt producer featured at the 2010 SJF Summit on the New Green Economy, was recently highlighted on CNN for its trailblazing sustainable cotton initiative known as Cotton of the Carolinas. The CNN report opens with the current high price of cotton as a commodity and the opportunity for NC farmers to grow 36% more cotton than last year. TS Designs is capitalizing on that trend by manufacturing cotton t-shirts within North Carolina from cotton grown and processed completely within the state. By eliminating the typical 17,000 miles that cotton often travels when it is processed in China and sold at a big box store, TS Designs is helping to eliminate carbon emissions as well as supporting local farms and textile mills -- and all the associated local jobs. Cotton of the Carolinas was formed by various stakeholders such as farmers and manufacturers in the state to promote local cotton production and use.  "We can build an entire supply chain here in North Carolina," says Eric Michel, vice president of operations. Normally cotton grown by any given farmer is mixed with other cotton, so it was exciting for North Carolina farmer Ronnie Burleson to be presented with a TS Designs t-shirt made exclusively from cotton grown on his farm.  "It was a thrill to say, 'Hey, I actually grew the cotton that made this shirt,' said Burleson. 

 

View the CNN report at http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/05/10/bua.carolina.cotton/index.html