As part of our effort to be a responsible company, we are committed to understanding and reducing the environmental impacts of the raw materials we use to make our products. While our focus to date has been on managing our own operations responsibly, we recognize that product raw materials outside our operations are an important part of our extended environmental footprint.

More than 90% of our production material is cotton. Growing cotton typically requires significant water use for irrigation and often relies on the application of pesticides and herbicides. We recognize cotton’s impact on the environment, and we take our responsibility to lower that impact seriously. Because we believe in doing the right thing, we are committed to addressing this issue for the right reasons, with the right partners. We are continuing to research how we can further mitigate the environmental impact of cotton.

Today, nearly all of the cotton used in our internal manufacturing facilities is grown and harvested in the United States. The advanced farming methods used by U.S. cotton farmers result in lower impacts on the environment:

  • The majority of U.S. cotton acreage is managed with integrated pest management methods, conservation tillage, and water optimization strategies.
  • U.S. cotton is regulated by two agencies: by the Environmental Protection Agency as a fiber crop, and by the Food and Drug Administration as a food crop.
  • The transparency of the U.S. farming system allows for constant monitoring.

We are working to improve the environmental profile of the raw materials in our products in several other ways:

  • We recycle fabric waste from our textile cutting operations, which is then spun back into yarn that can be used to make garments such as socks. Recycled yarn accounts for all of the cotton in our black socks (74 percent of the total content). We are working to expand the reuse of our cut waste and are testing the use of recycled yarn in making white socks. Our goal is to use 15 percent recycled yarn content in all of our white socks by the end of 2011.
  • Our EcoSmart® polyester fiber is produced from recycled plastic bottles. In 2010, we aim to make fleece garments using the equivalent of 25 million recycled plastic bottles.
  • Our R&D scientists are investigating the feasibility of using alternative raw materials, such as hemp, which would significantly reduce the overall environmental impacts of our products
  • We track chemical usage to ensure that our products are made with the safest substances possible.