14 DAY TRIAL // American clothing company Levi Strauss & Co has recently announced that several thousand pairs jeans will soon be used to make a building in the city of San Francisco in the United States a wee more environmentally friendly than it currently is.
More precisely, some 7,800 pairs of jeans – better said, the denim fibers that they are made of – are to be placed inside the building's walls and will serve to provide insulation, information made available to the public says.
In a press release on the matter at hand, Levi Strauss & Co explains that, as shown by previous studies and experiments, denim is a surprisingly efficient insulator. Besides, it is way more eco-friendly than other materials currently available on the market are.
Thus, denim fibers are argued to be quite gifted when it comes to keeping indoor temperatures in check. This means that the building will not have to use loads of energy for cooling or warming, the American clothing company explains.
Add to this the fact that the 7,800 pairs of jeans that will go into the walls of this building in San Francisco are all recycled ones, and there is little doubt that this project takes the idea of promoting sustainability in constructions to a whole new level.
According to Business Green, the structure whose walls will soon be stuffed with denim fibers is a historic building at 110 The Embarcadero. It has recently been purchased by the Commonwealth Club of California and is to become its new headquarters.
Commenting on the decision to use recycled Levi's jeans to insulate the building, Dr. Gloria C. Duffy, with the Commonwealth Club of California has said, “As an organization with deep historical roots in San Francisco, we are delighted to accept a contribution of Levi's denim insulation for our new home.”
“Use of the recycled denim represents our mutual commitment to environmental sustainability, and it will be a point of pride that our walls will be rich in the fabric of San Francisco history,” the organization's current chief executive and president adds.
Apart from using denim fibers to insulate the historic building at 110 The Embarcadero, the Commonwealth Club of California wishes to invest in LED light fixtures, Energy Star-rated appliances, and a ventilation system that is energy-efficient and, therefore, eco-friendly.
For the time being, work on renovating this building is still ongoing. It is expected that, once completed, the Club's new headquarters in San Francisco will be environmentally friendly enough to score a LEED Gold certification.