Green Label opens outlet

by Wanda Combs
Editor

An organic cotton t-shirt business will be opening its outlet store in Floyd on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 to 5 beginning this week until Christmas. Green Label Organic plans a grand opening event to celebrate its new warehouse and store space.
The business, specializing in 100 percent certified organic cotton clothing for men, women and children, supplies its t-shirts to over 500 retail locations in Canada, Denmark, the south of France, China and every state except Alaska. The business also advertises on the internet – http://www.greenlabel.com. Now a recently acquired building is enabling owners George and Rain Lipson to offer customers an opportunity to shop locally for merchandise from the current line and closeout merchandise at half price.
Green Label Organic was working from two locations in Floyd. George, who handles the creative side of the business, marketing and sales, had an office at the Jacksonville Center. Rain, who is responsible for shipping, billing and technical support and also helps with design, had been working at the former warehouse behind the Moose Lodge on Route 221.
The company, which shipped its first t-shirt three years, has been growing rapidly, and the Lipsons realized they needed to combine workplaces. After looking around Floyd, they found the former mechanic’s shop had possibilities. The town location was also prized. “We wanted to be part of what was happening in Floyd,” says George.
The Lipsons have five employees, who help with everything from customer service to shipping. Green Label Organic contracts with three different manufacturers in the United States. In keeping with the Lipsons’ philosophy – Respect Labor*Respect the Planet*Respect Yourself, those facilities are all non-sweat shop facilities. “The workers are paid in all above living wage,” comments Rain. “One of the facilities has a college scholarship program for workers’ children in hopes for a better working future.”
Green Label Organic, George adds, is in a growing family of green businesses with a triple bottom line – people, profits, and the plant, doing each of those in an equitable fashion. “Everything we do in our product is based on those principles.” Thus, the company uses earth-friendly dye and an eco-friendly printing process. The Lipsons recycle boxes for shipping.
“We do as much locally as we possibly can,” George continues. Cotton for the shirts comes from Pakistan, Turkey and some from the United States. As Rain explains, there are not enough U.S. farmers who have transitioned to organic to meet the demand.
Green Label Organic shirts are made of 100 percent certified cotton, which is grown without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or defoliants.
The couple notes that cotton is the second most pesticide-laden crop in the world, after coffee and before tobacco. The world’s cotton crop represents approximately three percent of all cultivated land, and that same crop utilizes 35 percent of the world’s annual pesticide and herbicide production. Five of the top nine pesticides used on cotton in the U.S. are known cancer-causing chemicals. All nine are classified by the U.S. EPA as Category I and II – the most dangerous chemicals.
It is estimated that it takes approximately one-third pound of chemicals to grow enough cotton to make just one t-shirt, Rain adds. Also, cottonseed, a by-product of ginning cotton fiber, accounts for 60 percent of the yield from each harvest. The cottonseed is where the most concentrated amounts of pesticide residues remain. Some of the cottonseed is made into oil and is found in some cookies, cakes and snacks. “Gin trash” is fed to livestock, and the short fibers of cotton are used to make mattresses, cotton swabs, cotton balls and tampons.
“For me,” Rain says, “the importance of organic cotton on my body is high, but what is more important is that we don’t continue to pollute our earth, the workers in the field, and the consumers with high toxins in cotton. It’s not just about you and me. It’s about our future.”
The company’s efforts have been noticed. The Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce recently nominated Green Label Organic as “Small Business of the Year”. The Lipsons were honored for their achievements at a reception and dinner at Hotel Roanoke.
Green Label Organic offers short and long sleeve t-shirts, thermals, and even infant onesies. The newest offering is the women’s hooded tunic, which has proven to be very popular.
Tractor trailers deliver the shirts to the warehouse in Floyd. Internet orders and merchandise going to stores are hand-tagged, picked, packed and shipped.
In the beginning, Green Label Organic featured t-shirts in adult sizes only. Not only have the clothing lines expanded, but also the designs and color offerings. The shirts now come in 30 different designs and 14 colors. The company also offers a name drop program to the stores that carry their shirts. The stores can add their logo to the sleeve or back, and that printing is done in Floyd.
Any printing on Green Label Organic shirts including the neck label and designs is part of the cotton and is done using a water-based printing technology, Rain comments.
The Lipsons travel to eight trade shows a year. They actually met at a trade show, when Rain was working for Winter Sun, an Equador-based apparel business a store in Floyd.
Both of the Lipsons feel strongly about protecting the earth, and on their website, George, who says he’s always wanted to change the world, and Rain, an organic grower and environmentalist, explain their work at Green Label Organic is a labor of love. When the company was started three years ago, George says, “we wanted to send…important messages about the environment…and put it on the best possible platform.” The organic cotton t-shirts are now getting the word out, and the message is going near and far.