What Are You Wearing Under There? Underwear, and if it's PACT, it's some eco-friendly underwear.

PACT underwear, a San Francisco based company, was founded by UC Berkley students Jason Kibbey & Jeff Denby who's motto is "CHANGE STARTS WITH YOUR UNDERWEAR." They try to make an impact with every step in the production of these unmentionables. I am also impressed with the level of transparency they have in their production process. Not everything is environmentally ideal but they do a lot to make their product footprint as small as possible. Here are just few things...

Materials:

PACT underwear is made of 95% organic cotton and 5% elastane to give it the perfect amount of stretch. While some underwear is 100% organic cotton, these garments tend to lose their shape quickly and have shorter lifespans - meaning more of them end up in landfills. A garment containing 5% elastane is still considered organic.

PACT does not use inks or dyes that contain heavy metals and purposefully does not make any garments in optic white because of the harsh bleaches required to achieve a bright white. All inks and dyes meet or exceed GOTS and EKO standards.

Production:

Egedeniz Tekstil is an exemplary garment factory with regard to both environmental and social standards. It was the very first certified organic factory in Turkey and continues to be on the leading edge of supporting the organic cotton movement. Factory owner Aydin Unsal is a board member of the Organic Exchange and is constantly looking for new ways to support the organic cotton movement around the world. Egedeniz is certified under the GOTS, NOP USDA, and Fair Labor Association (FLA) standards.

...the farmers and cotton pickers involved in the growing and harvesting of the organic cotton were paid a fair price for their product. All fabric is dyed and printed using dyes and inks that are low-impact and free of heavy metals. Before it is shipped to PACT's fulfillment center in Illinois, every element that goes into making your PACT underwear - growing the cotton, processing and spinning it, knitting or weaving, dyeing and printing, and cutting and sewing the final garment - occurs within a 100-mile radius in Turkey.

Packaging:

Each pair of underwear is packed in its own reusable fabric bag. Typically, each pair of underwear would be shipped from the factory in its own individual plastic bag. Some of our fabric bags, however, are produced from off-cuts (excess fabric), so PACT eliminates tens of thousands of plastic bags. And you get to keep and reuse the fabric bag for whatever you want! Use them for your glasses, jewelry, iPod, computer cords and chargers, or whatever.

PACT's unique bright green shipping package is made from a special material that is 100% compostable. It can go straight into your green bin for commercial composting. Even the shipping label and the adhesive used to affix the label are compostable. The material is certified compostable under ASTM-6400 (American Society for Testing Material) which sets the standard for compostability in California. For more information, see http://astm.org/Standard/index.shtml

In this case I'd prefer to see that they don't package the underwear in anything more than the shipping bag, but hey they are still doing pretty good!

On top of their efforts to green their operations, they also support several non-profit organizations by giving 10% of every purchase to either ForestEthics (forest & wildlife conservation), Oceana (ocean conservation) or 826 National (supporting young writers). The underwear is available in three different prints: Words, Waves and Trees. Each design is associated with one of the charities. You can probably figure out which one is which