Danielle Statham’s take on the denim industry - Transformers Foundation
Co-founder of FIBRETRACE® and founding member of not-for-profit organisation, Transformers Foundation, Danielle Statham shares her insights on sustainable denim.
June 16th, 2021
Written by Danielle Statham | Co-founder of FIBRETRACE® & Good Earth Cotton®
Danielle Statham is the co-founder of FibreTrace and co-owner of Good Earth Cotton.
With an extensive 25+ year background in the fashion, textile and design industry -as a couture milliner as well as owning her own wholesale fashion showroom and denim brand -Danielle has a thorough knowledge of the ins and outs of the industry.
Danielle, together with David Statham, pioneered the first independently certified carbon positive (carbon sequestering) cotton plantation in the world–Good Earth Cotton. Founding FibreTrace gave Danielle the opportunity to close the loop between her agricultureenterprise, Good Earth Cotton and a sustainable future of fashion
What do you want everyone to know about you or your company, Good Earth Cotton?
We are world leaders in our field of growing raw cotton lint fibre, and we are certainly proud of this. Our achievements have been enabled through year-on-year data and information collection, the measurement of carbon emissions and water and energy use to provide high quality fibre at scale on a global level. Our measurements have resulted in the worlds first carbon positive cotton operation, meaning we sink more CO2 than we emit with a yearly average of up to 70,000 bales of raw lint.
Through recognising the desire for brands to understand the raw fibre impact measurement and provenance of raw fibre we have developed the Good Earth Cotton brand a fully traceable cotton bale with scientifically verified metrics and data available to the brand to communicate through the power of Fibretrace – our real time traceability and transparency technology which creates irrefutable information of the supply chain from seed to store through to re-use and recycle.
What current challenge are you trying to solve?
The textile industry has long struggled with the task of identifying what a “preferred fibre” actually is. Preferred fibres can only maintain a status when the information relates solely to the fibre used within an individual garment at any given time. We are creating a solution that creates and ensures the authenticity and scientific metrics of raw fibres are scientifically and individually substantiated, along with providing proof of provenance which follows the entire supply with a no finish line approach. We hope this encourages the entire supply chain towards a more planet friendly and transparent future.
What are your hopes and dreams for the future of the denim industry?
Even the most conscious suppliers are unable to guarantee complete custody of supply so utopia for my team and I would be a future where all brands can take full ownership of their supply chain and therefore the full impact on individual goods.
What is your favourite innovation in denim right now?
Of course, it is Fibretrace, for many reasons but particularly because the technology has been built by the textile industry FOR the textile industry.
The ever-increasing conversation of transparency in the supply chain, not only in Denim but the total fashion industry, drew me and the other founders of FibreTrace and our team to create a solution to enable 20/ 20 vision of a product from raw fibre to the end garment into a customer’s hands.
The development of FibreTrace has been strategically built for the fashion industry as a plug-and-play solution to create easy adoption without disruption to existing systems. We believe the key is having the FibreTrace physical tracer implemented at the raw fibre stage to enable easy adoption and transition into the supply chain. Enabling impact data and emission scores or other vital garment information to travel with the raw fibre at all times for the entire life of the garment.
Why did you join the foundation as a founding member?
When Andrew invited me to partake in Transformers as a founding member and to transparently communicate best in class practice for the denim supply chain, I felt as a raw fibre producer there was compelling and honest conversation to add.
Something very close to my heart is to create positive change for the planet and for generations ahead and collectively I believe as a foundation that we can assist in navigating an optimistic future.
Source:https://www.transformersfoundation.org/meet-the-founders-danielle-statham
About Transformers Foundation
Transformers Foundation is the unified voice representing the denim industry and its ideas for positive change. It was founded to provide a thus-far missing platform to the jeans and denim supply chain, and a central point of contact for consumers, brands, NGOs, and media who want to learn more about ethics and sustainable innovation in the industry.
“We represent the denim supply chain: from farmers and chemical suppliers to denim mills and jeans factories.”
https://www.transformersfoundation.org