Bernadette describes The Formary as a textile research company working at the unfashionable end of fashion. The company came about after Bernadette, who was working in the textile industry importing fabrics from China, was asked to write a chapter on sustainable textiles for a friend’s book on climate change.
Until then she has no idea the clothing industry was one of the most polluting and waste-generating industries in the world. As bad as or if not worse than oil. She was shocked that to learn that while 90 percent of textiles can be reused, most end up in landfills – including polyester which takes hundreds of years to break down.
Thanks to the rise of cheap, disposable clothing, the average person now buys 60 percent more clothes per year and keeps them for about half as long as 15 years ago, generating a huge amount of waste.
She talked about the environmental impact of dumping 2nd hand clothing. We are mislead in thinking we’re doing social good by depositing our used clothing in recycling bins which claim to support worthy charities. Only a small amount actually goes to them. Maybe 30% stays in New Zealand and is on-sold to traders; the majority goes to Papua New Guinea. What’s not used is dumped on the roads – with the chemicals from dyes and textile manufacture leeching into the soil.
Think twice, Bernadette says, before dumping clothes in charity bins!
This research led her to explore how she could create a more sustainable business model. Her first foray into sustainable textile design was redesigning coffee sacks into hats. She took her idea to Starbucks and was knocked back. After further thought they contacted her seeking help with using the coffee sacks in the redesign of in-store furnishings. With the addition of merino fibre a new upholstery fabric was born – now used as seating covers.
The project with Starbucks then moved into Europe and caught the attention of Prince Charles who recognised it with a global award the HRH Prince Charles Campaign for Wool Sustainable Product Innovations Award in 2010, and Kevin McCloud from Grand Designs UK who talks of the positive work she’s doing for the environment.
Bernadette and her husband Peter Thompson (now CEO) spent several years in Milan using the straw reeds from rice to manufacture fabric. With his background in IT Peter has used his tech skills developing a platform ‘Usedfully’ to track and measure the impact on the environment of clothing from the beginning to the end of life.
Onshore, their work has been recognised by Air New Zealand who asked them to develop a plan to reuse the uniforms in a sustainable way. Air NZ understandably invest a lot in their brand and donot want to see their very distinctive fabrics being used anywhere outside the context of Air NZ. The Koru uniforms are now being turned back into PET using a process which breaks down the polyester into other components. In landfill, it takes 400 years for polyester to break down!
Likewise Wellington Zoo sought their partnership in a project to re-purpose the Zoo uniforms. Branding is removed, and the re-embroidered garments distributed amoung community groups in need of clothing, and also made into blankets and chew toys for the SPCA. The project caught the attention of the international zoo associations who now use the same business model.
Other New Zealand clients include NZ Post, Fonterra and Cerebos Greggs.
Bernadette praised the clothing brand Patagonia who have the same sustainable ethic and do an amazing job with recycled materials. She left us with much to contemplate.
Club Reporter
Roz Fogel
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