COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™

As part of COTTON'S DIRTY LAUNDRY TOUR® in 2006, the COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ denim drive served as a grassroots student-run campaign to educate college coeds about their favorite cotton clothing — denim. Not only is cotton cool and comfortable, but it is a resource that is natural, renewable and recyclable. COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ afforded the students a chance to make an impact on the environment in their own unique way.

In 2006, the COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ denim collection doubled initial expectations — a total of 14,566 denim pieces were collected nationwide. College students across the U.S. collected denim on their campuses and in their surrounding communities.
To begin the manufacturing process of donated denim into natural cotton fiber insulation, the first step was to send all of the denim to Allan Company, a leader in the recycling industry since 1963. From there, it was baled into 1,000 lb. bales and then transported to JBM Fibers, a leading manufacturer of reprocessed fiber, processed the collected denim and prepared it to its original fiber state, cotton, for the manufacturing of environmentally safe insulation through Bonded Logic Inc., the manufacturer of Ultra Touch™ natural cotton fiber insulation.

As a result of the 2006 COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ denim drive, and with help from Habitat for Humanity Baton Rouge, 12 new homes for families affected by Hurricane Katrina were built in the spring of 2007 from the ground up utilizing UltraTouch™ natural cotton fiber insulation.

In Spring of 2007, COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ visited five universities across the country: Illinois State University, Iowa State University, University of Delaware, University of Oregon and University of South Carolina. This program challenged students to spend the month of April collecting denim from their student population, as well as surrounding communities, without the help of COTTON'S DIRTY LAUNDRY TOUR®. In total, over 4,000 pairs of jeans were collected to be converted into UltraTouch™ natural cotton fiber insulation.

In the Fall of 2007, COTTON'S DIRTY LAUNDRY TOUR® traveled to 11 colleges and universities for its third year and as a part of COTTON'S DIRTY LAUNDRY TOUR®, the COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ denim drive collected over 30,000 pairs of jeans, a 110% increase over the Fall 2006 denim drive. An exciting addition for COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ in 2007 was the partnership with specialty store G by Guess. Approximately 35 stores participated in the denim collection with in-store signage, cotton merchandise, window displays and online branding of cotton. In total, over 36,000 pieces of denim were collected in 2007, making COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN.™ a tremendous success.

In Spring 2008, the UltraTouch™ insulation will be provided to:
Habitat For Humanity - Greater Baton Rouge
Habitat For Humanity - New Orleans
Habitat For Humanity - Mississippi Gulf Coast