“Wooden” Jeans Can Make the Denim Industry More Environmentally Friendly

A PhD researcher currently working with Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University is well aware of the fact that the practice of using cotton to manufacture clothes has a tremendous ecological footprint.

Hence Dawn Ellams’ decision to figure out a way of manufacturing so-called wooden jeans. According to Inhabitat, these wooden jeans are made using denim pieced together with the help of sustainably sourced wood pulp.

This green-oriented denim is referred to as Tencel, and said PhD researcher wishes to draw attention to the fact that using it to manufacture jeans pretty much slashes the environmental impact of this branch of the fashion industry.

As she puts it, “The jeans have cotton-like qualities but only use one fifth of the water, energy and chemicals needed to manufacture conventional jeans.”

“The research challenged the design and manufacture of denim jeans, probably the most iconic use of cotton. The overall aim was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water use associated with conventional manufacturing for denim jeans,” Dawn Ellams offered as an explanation for her decision to roll out these wooden jeans.