Superficial Sustainability in Singapore— why do we practice it?

I started a brand in 2004 focusing on the most sustainable ways of manufacturing. The factories are located by a river, so we can use the flowing water to turn a waterwheel which in turn move the gears of the circular knitting machines. Our colored yarns are dyed in a closed loop machine where none of the dyes or waste leave the factory.

The factory is off the grid and powered only by solar energy, and we filter harvested water for cleaning and process the outputs for our hydroponic garden in the roof. The fabric is called Eco-fabric and it contains nano-particles of bamboo charcoal that makes the fabric deodorizing and antibacterial — all without the use of chemicals.

Sustainability was a topic that had great interest, but consumers still prefer fast fashion — big brands that talks about using “organic cotton” but manufactures in factories that bleaches the hell out of the fabric to make fluorescent colored t-shirts or pastel colored tank tops. Most of the dyes used are toxic and processed just enough to be considered safe to dump in the sewers.

When brands want to use my fabric, we went through a lot of testing to prove the effectiveness of the materials, only for the brands to use it on a small portion at the collar or the armpits for jackets, and claiming the product to be…