60 AMERICANWAY
OCTOBER 1 2007
ATAGONIAWASON
amission. It want-
ed to make recycled underwear —
amongother things— from cast-off long
johns, campaign posters, phone cards, old
municipal uniforms, and any other sort of
polyester that had run its course.Key to the
project’s success was a process for smooth-
ing the fabric so that customers wouldn’t
feel their Capilene boxers biting them in
the, er, behind.
It wasn’t the company’s first trek up the
recycled-polyester mountain. Several years
before, Patagonia and its textile partner,
Wellman, haddevelopeda fabric spun from
used soda bottles. The first product sample
using the material, says Jill Dumain, the
company’s director of environmental analy-
sis, was a bag so scratchy andugly, itmight
have rivaled Grandma’s horsehair sofa. Af-
ter some painful trial and error, Patagonia
decided to make fleece from the soda bot-
tles instead—which worked out perfectly,
spawninga lineofSynchilla sweatshirtsand
jackets made entirely from postconsumer
plastic.
But thesameapproachwouldn’twork for
underwear, and it certainly wouldn’t work
for the sort of water-repellent jackets Pata-
gonia sells to hikers, skiers, climbers, run-
ners, and anyone who’d like to mimic one
of the above. For that, the company had to
turn to a Japanese partner, Teijin, which
eventually figured out how to spin a fila-
ment yarn from phone cards and their ilk.
Now Patagonia’s popular line of Capilene
thermal underwear and some of itsPatago-
niaBodyeverydayskivviesaremade fromat
least 50 percent recycled polyester; its 100
percent recycled rain jacket, the EcoRain-
shell, has won an
Outside
magazine Green
Gear of theYear award.
All that product development didn’t
come cheap, and the resulting fabrics aren’t
cheap either. Patagonia customers opening
their newest catalogs to look for some ski
underwear are experiencing sticker shock,
as theCapilene-line prices are 10 to 15per-
cent higher than theywere the yearbefore.
Eventually, though, the premium won’t
be sohigh. Patagoniahas gone through this
process before, with organic cotton: After
the company switched to 100 percent or-
ganiccotton in 1996, itsfiber costswere two
to three times thoseof conventionalmateri-
als. “We wanted consumers to understand
themagnitude of the decision
[
to go totally
organic
]
,”Dumainsays. “Asa for-profitbusi-
ness,wehad topassour costs along.”
Patagonia took ahit to its profitmargins
in order to keep prices for its T-shirts and
pants down-to-earth. Over time, the com-
panybecamemoreefficientatworkingwith
theorganicmaterial andmanaged toget its
margins back to normal while still keeping
prices reasonable.
RGANIC, RECYCLED,
sustainably pro-
duced, energy efficient
— these are
words we’re hearing often these
days, now that green is, as they say, thenew
black.They’realsobuzzwords that leadpeo-
ple to expect higherprices.
But buyers are not necessarily thrilled at
the price premium. In fact, sometimes the
difference is regarded cynically.
Of course it
costsmore
, thedoubter sniffs.
It’s trendy.
Patagonia’s recycled-polyester saga is
instructive, though, in that it reveals a few
good reasonswhy it can bemore expensive
tobuy an environmentally friendly product
thanone that isnot.Manygreencompanies
are smaller than their conventional coun-
terparts, so they lack the buyingpower and
economies of scale that can bring the cost
of materials down. Their components may
just be more expensive, period— like sus-
tainably grown, fair-trade coffee beans or
the hybrid engine in a Toyota Prius. And
thesimple lawsof economicshelp too.Once
other apparel manufacturers start buying
recycled-polyester fabrics and organic cot-
ton, for instance, productionwill goupand
priceswill godown for everyone.
“Supply and demand,” says Nicole Gold-
man, an interiordesigner inCapeCodwho’s
opening an all-green building-products
store this month. “For years, solar-slash-
photovoltaicwasveryexpensive.Themarket
was so small that only a few suppliersmade
it. Now it’smatured as a product.We’ll see
BuyingGreenwithLessGreen
DannySeo,environmental-lifestylecolumnist
andauthoroftheSimplyGreenbookseries,
recommendstheseshoppingstrategiesfor
goinggreenonabudget.
1.
Watchyoursupermarket’ssalecircular.
Stockuponorganicproducts likedrygoods
and frozen fruitsandvegetableswhenthey’re
onsale.
2.
Buystorebrands.Manynationalgrocery
chainsnowhavetheirownorganicproducts,
whichcanbesignificantlycheaperthanthe
namebrands.
3.
Createaco-op.Gettogetherwith friends
andneighborstobuygreenproducts inbulk,
perhapsonline.Cleaningproducts,compact
fluorescent lightbulbs,andmanyother items
canbehadbythecase fora lot less,andyou
canbuygrass-fedbeefbythesidedirectly
fromthe farmer.
4.
Shoparound.Trydiscountor low-end retail-
ers forgood-qualitygreenproductsat lower
prices.
5.
Read labels.Sometimesgreendoesn’tcost
more.Methoddetergent, for instance,comes
inasmallerbottle,but it’shighlyconcentrated,
so itcosts lessper load—andthus requires
lesspackagingand lessenergytoship.
What’sthePayoff?
Refrigeratorsaretheenergyhogsofhomeap-
pliances:Theaveragerefrigeratoruses1,383
kilowatt-hoursofelectricityperyear.That’s
$125annually,basedonthenationalaverage
costofresidentialelectricity.Buyabrand-new
GEEnergyStar fridge,whichwill saveyouabout
$100annually,andtheappliancewillpay for
itself insavings in lessthaneightyears.
AToyotaPriuspaysfor itselfevenfaster.When
comparing itwithasimilarlyequippedHonda
CivicSedanEX, thePriushasanup-frontcostof
about$2,700more.Butwithagasmileageof60
mpg inthecityversustheHonda’s30mpg, the
Priuscosts$775 lessperyearforevery15,000
milesdriven—whichmeansthepricedifference
ismadeup inaboutthreeandahalfyears.
Thebiggestno-brainersforagoing-greenpayoff
arecompactfluorescent lightbulbs,whichcost
about$4fora100-wattequivalent.Youcanget
astandard100-watterforabout50cents,but
thecompactfluorescentswillsave$4 inenergy
inoneyearandabout$30duringtheir lifespan.
Companiesselling
everythingfromorganic
milktorecycled-glass
countertopstofurniture
madeofreclaimedwood
eachhavetheirown“why
itcostsmore”storytotell.
TheNational RecyclingCoalition reports that recycling supports 1.1million jobs in theUnitedStates.
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