Smart-Indigo: dyeing with electricity instead of water

For dyeing our Italian denim mill, Pure Denim, uses a patented technology named Smart-Indigo which is an electrochemical process using considerably fewer resources than existing methods. Only relying on electricity, water, indigo pigment and caustic soda, this method requires 6 times less energy leading to a 10 times reduced carbon footprint (for the dyeing process).

The SmartIndigo solution is the most sustainable way to dye denim because it completely skips the use of chemicals, causes zero environmental burdens and health hazards and only discharges oxygen.

This is in sharp contrast to the large amounts of heavily polluted wastewater being released from conventional dying processes, causing bathing and drinking risks and severe biological degradation of many Asian and African waterways. Due to the release of high concentrations of persistent chemicals and heavy metals, many rivers that are of paramount importance for local communities and biodiversity, are now heavily polluted.

Want to know more about water pollution issues related to the fashion and textiles industry? Check out the documentary River Blue that portrays this problem very strongly.

You can find more information on the Smart-Indigo here.

Read more about the HNST production process or discover more HNST stories.