Quick-drying cycling jerseys, waterproof-breathable alpine jackets, even merino wool base layers – they all involve yarns, dyes, and sometimes special fabric coatings. When you wear or use something made with bluesign®-approved fabric, then you know that item was created with the highest environmental standards for textiles.
Bluesign is an independent auditor that cuts out harmful chemicals before the manufacturing processes even start. One way to look at bluesign is through the analogy of baking cookies for someone with a nut allergy – bluesign would make sure nuts weren’t in the raw ingredients and label it “nut-free,” instead of leaving it to us to test a baked cookie to see what’s inside.
Bluesign focuses on the inputs for textile processing. Making textiles is complex, and can include different suppliers for steps to create yarn, weave fabric, dye materials, and apply coatings such as waterproofing. They audit raw materials, chemicals and energy going in and the waste, water and air emissions going out, reducing environmental impacts and improving the health and safety of workers.
MEC has worked with bluesign since 2005, and other brands we carry also offer bluesign content in their products. Today, the majority of our MEC-label clothes and sleeping bags are made of bluesign-approved fabrics, and we’ve made a commitment to source 100% bluesign-approved materials for MEC-label products.
