The U.S. based company Air Dye has managed to do exactly that, by creating a new technology that can dye fabric without using a single drop of water!  This is an amazing advancement, and one we desperately need in the textile industry.  There is one problem though – other than getting the word out and encouraging fabric companies to give it a try…

The Air Dye system can only be used on synthetic fibers, such as polyester, nylon and acrylic.  That being said, with synthetic fabrics so prevalent in the interior design industry, the water and energy savings alone make looking for the Air Dye label a new must for designers.  And what are those savings you ask.  Well, according to Air Dye’s website:

“Synthetic textile-dyeing consumes 2.4 trillion gallons of water a year, enough to fill 3,700,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. AirDye reduces water use up to 95 percent, (Percentage include the production of raw materials used in our process).

Our one-step process cuts the energy consumption of dyeing by up to 86 percent.  That’s more than 2.8 trillion megajoules per year — enough to power more than 12 percent of the homes in the United States for a year.”

So who is using this new technology? So far in the interior design world,  Hunter Douglas Hospitality and FLOR carpet tiles have both signed on, and I’m sure many other companies will follow.  Particularly because the technology adds little, if any, to the cost of dyeing the fabric.  In addition, it is possible to do things such as print a different design on each side of a single piece of cloth, making for great possibilities in reversible draperies and other applications.

Imagine if all the plastic water bottles in the world (around 200 billion a year) were recycled into polyester fabric, and then dyed using Air Dye technology?   What a great step forward that would be.

Thanks to a new “British Invasion”, there is now an affordable, attractive, environmentally friendly solution for Plantation shutters.  Originally started in the U.K. as, of all things, The California Company, the British born shutter business saw an opportunity here in the U.S., and opened shop here in 2009 as The Shutter Store.

Designed for the do it yourself homeowner, The Shutter Store provides custom made, FSC certified wood shutters in just about every color and finish.  In fact, they will also match their paint finishes to any Sherwin Williams color – so black, white or hot pink, they can create what you’ve always wanted.  There is even the option of leaving the wood unfinished (at a 10% discount), which is great for those who want to go completely natural and use only an oil or wax finish.

For their painted shutters, they use fine grained FSC certified Poplar, but for the unfinished and stained shutters, the stronger grain of FSC certified Elm makes it the wood of choice.

For those who aren’t quite sure about ordering and installing shutters by themselves, The Shutter Store provides helpful videos and instructions to get you through the process.  And, if you really aren’t the DIY sort, you could always hire a local handyman to do the installation for you.

There are some real benefits to using The Shutter Store, such as the shutters all being made to order (reducing waste), the fact that all the wood is FSC certified, the large range of styles and colors, as well as the cost savings compared to other wood shutters.   Of course, some of that savings may come from the shutters being manufactured in China.  I was assured that the factory is operated with a fair trade policy, and that shutters are shipped via sea freight to conserve on fuel.  While I would love every item that is used in a home to be made by a local artisan, I think it’s important to recognize that economic realities make that impossible for most families.  The Shutter Store is offering a quality product, at an affordable price, made from sustainable materials, and I think that is a big step in the right direction.

What do you think?