Worth Dyeing For: Real Battle is Fighting for True Transparency Across Denim Supply Chain

Natural dyes vs synthetic dyes. How would you describe this battle? Is it a battle really? Is it true that the synthetic dyes sector is ruthless/aggressive in its marketing?
The art and commercial practice of using natural dyes has been around for centuries. Unfortunately, when synthetic indigo was first introduced almost 150 years ago, investment and advancements in natural indigo largely ceased. For years afterward, plant-based dyes lacked the qualities needed to shift reliance away from hazardous synthetics on an industrial level. With the Stony Creek Colors renewable process, we’re now able to tackle those challenges and meet customers’ demands for consistency, vibrancy, and scalability from a natural resource.

Conversely, we can count the number of global synthetic indigo manufacturers on one hand, and yet their production practices are completely obscured from their end users. Additionally, some of what continues to be sold as "GOTS certified", "certified organic" or "natural" has proven to be adulterated with synthetic, petroleum-based indigo. Most of the synthetic indigo in commerce still contains aniline; so, for customers trying to reduce skin exposure to carcinogens or skin-irritating agents this can present a real challenge. I would say the real battle is fighting for true transparency and accountability across the supply chain in the denim industry. Without that solid foundation, there is no way to compare our plant-based alternative to that of synthetic indigo.

At the end of the day, it's about the end-consumers wanting their clothes to have been dyed with natural colours. How much do you think people are changing? Is the demand for naturally-dyed garments more from a very niche audience? What do the numbers say?
We receive consistent inbound requests for natural indigo from denim mills and dyehouses whose brand customers are demanding natural alternatives for their collections. From this growth, we can clearly see that end consumers are paying more attention to the ingredients in their products and they care about the ethos of the companies they choose to support. Shoppers don’t want to compromise on quality or personal values. But, interestingly, the demand is not only from those seeking a “natural” or plant-based lifestyle; our customers care about a broad spectrum of issues that our product fills a void in.

Stony Creek Colors dyes match synthetic dyes on consistency, vibrancy, and scalability. But, what about prices? And also, the number of dyes used per garment unit?
Production of natural indigo will always be more expensive than fossil fuel-derived synthetic when the externalities of production are not considered. However recent funding has allowed us to double down on investments in plant-breeding and process improvement implementations that will ultimately decrease the costs of our production and increase yields per acre.

The amount of dye used per garment varies from mill to mill. Because of this, indigo pricing for mills, and ultimately brands, is highly dependent on the dye usage efficiency at the mill level, depth of shade. Synthetic indigo is so low cost today and this has led to an environment in which much of the dye used ends up washed off in the mill or laundry. Stony Creek places a major focus on education and data-driven decision-making when helping brands select mill partners who will meet their commercial goals.

One of the biggest drawbacks that natural dyes have faced is the amount of land that is needed. Please comment.
Stony Creek’s indigo process creates a climate-positive chemical that stores more carbon than it uses. We are also working to improve yield per plant/acre through our in-house agronomy programme and proprietary seed genetics. Farmers who are looking to grow regeneratively or break up pest cycles regularly use “cover crops” in their rotations. Our grower partners choose to rotate with Stony Creek’s tropical indigo in their existing crop cycles because our plants provide them with a viable profit per acre while meeting important soil health goals. One of our long-standing partners and investors, The Nature Conservancy, had this to say on the topic:

“Agriculture production is dependent on healthy, fertile soils and will need to transition dramatically by 2050 if we’re to continue to feed, fuel, and clothe the world’s population. Large-scale adoption of proven conservation practices can rebuild our agricultural soils, improve water quality, enhance biodiversity, and reduce carbon emissions. By developing sustainable, plant-based dyes such as indigo for the textile, cosmetics, and food markets, Stony Creek Colors is working directly with growers to bring greater profitability and improve soil health with an alternative row crop to improve the market-driven options for farmers to diversify crop rotations.”

Using land is not inherently a bad thing. In fact, as the quote above shows it can be a good thing. With our production system in prime production regions, we estimate we could grow all the indigo required globally on about 1% of the land used for cotton production globally. When you think about the importance of rotating crops into these typical monoculture environments, that can be a good thing for the soil health and therefore the yields of the next crop in the rotation, for carbon sequestration, and for replacing our dependence on synthetic products.

I read this somewhere: "Stony Creek Colors extracts its dye from proprietary Indigofera plant varieties grown in partnership with family farms as a regenerative rotational crop." But how/why is it "proprietary"? Could you elaborate?
As I mentioned, we have an in-house plant breeding programme as the basis for our agriculture operations. Our seed genetics focuses on improvements in dye yield per plant/acre as well as looking at the soil health benefits our plant varieties can offer to farms. As a leguminous crop, our indigo has the capability to provide its own nitrogen source for growth, and simultaneously suppress nematodes in the soil, be naturally pest-resistant, and capture carbon. These plant developments are proprietary to Stony Creek R&D in the same way our industrial dye extraction process is.

Please tell us about the partnership with Archroma. How did it happen? When does the collaboration get under way?
We are well under way in our partnership with Archroma, after completing over 18 months of research & development that began in 2020. As a global leader in specialty chemicals centred on sustainable solutions, Archroma emerged as the ideal partner to work with on the launch of our newest product innovation, IndiGold. Their expertise in indigo manufacturing and application, as well as their commitment to transforming the denim industry towards creating better blue jeans, parallels Stony Creek Colors’ mission.

Initially, the proof of concept was on validating Stony Creek’s high purity plant based indigo powder could successfully be “reduced” into the leuco-indigo form with the process used for synthetic indigo. Then, we began with extensive pilot-scale manufacturing trials and engaged with their network of denim machinery manufacturers to test the first samples in industrial conditions. The trials showed excellent coloration and the typical indigo wash down, as with synthetic indigo. We are moving through sampling with select mills and dye houses globally and will begin offering IndiGold® pre-reduced natural indigo to partners commercially in bulk in 2023.

Last, how are the plants standing up to climate change? How does the genus Indigofera fare in terms of uncertain/unpredictable weather? As also extreme weather conditions? Overall, what does the climate crisis look like?
In the past year, we have expanded geographically from the middle Tennessee region to the warmer, tropical climate of South Florida which offers highly suitable growing conditions for our Indigofera plant varieties. We are able to grow indigo perennially in this area. Expansion to multiple regions helps us to mitigate risk.

Indigofera plants are known to be very resilient. They are naturally pest-resistant, help to suppress nematodes, and do not require irrigation. We chose this variety for its soil-enriching properties and overall hardiness, which ultimately helps to combat climate change and reverse the effects of soil degradation that a farmer may face in their fields.