NTX® Cooltrans®

While NTX was founded as a research organization focused on idealistic sustainability goals, we believe in a practical approach to transforming the textile industry into a more eco-friendly and sustainable ecosystem. With that in mind we adhere to the following principles:

• We are committed to developing and implementing solutions that can have a dramatic impact today rather than waiting for the perfect solution to be ready tomorrow.
• We do not wait and nitpick until the solution is perfect but rather proactively implement gradual actionable improvements with the confidence that the cumulative accrual will bring us closer to perfection.
• We focus on solutions that can impact a great number of stakeholders, rather than innovations that can only be afforded by the top 1% of global consumers.
• We look for improvements that address the fundamental ecological threats rather than solutions that simply meet superficially set standards and try to get around the underlying issue.

There are four main areas where the textile industry has a big impact on the ecological system:

• Water consumption – a host of recent studies indicate that the textile industry consumes upwards of 93 billion cubic meters annually, that’s enough to fill 37 Million Olympic size swimming pools. A great bulk of the water consumption is the result of the coloration process, other factors such as ground water needed to cultivate cotton also play a role.
• Water pollution – an estimated 20% of global wastewater is caused by the coloration and finishing processes. This is the result of the use of hazardous materials and chemical dyes. More recently the presence of microfibers in our waterways is making headlines, this is primarily caused by synthetic fibers shed during washing cycles.
• Greenhouse gas emissions – traditional textile plants are heat intensive environments utilizing inefficient processes and machinery resulting in approximately 10% of global carbon emissions.
• Textile waste in landfills – finally the prominence of fast fashion has resulted in abundant production of clothing meant to be worn just a few times and discarded. In Europe for example, the citizenry consume about 26 kg of clothing per year and discard 11 kilos.

NTX was founded to specifically address these issues and offer a new way forward for the textile industry. NTX Cooltrans waterless coloration technology for instance is able to achieve accurate colorization of nearly any fabric material without heat, up to 90% reduction in water use, 40% reduction in dye use, while retaining uncompromising color fastness, hand feel, and functional performance.

Sustainable textiles refer to material used for the manufacture of clothing or footwear that has been produced using eco-friendly technologies and/or using eco-friendly resources. Some environmentally friendly resources include sustainably grown crops used to create fabrics or recycled materials such as PET bottles. Regardless of the raw materials, the coloration and finishing processes have been a bottleneck to keeping the environmental impact to a minimum. This involves eliminating the use of toxic chemicals and heavy metals, as well as factories that don’t pollute or overuse the local water supply.

When looking to identify eco-friendly textile solutions, there are internationally recognized classification such as the Higg’s index to evaluate the environmental impact of a specific producer. In reality, when you step into a processing plant that claims to be sustainable, you should see a place that is clean and safe to work in. Instead of steam and vats of hot boiling odorous liquids, you would see something resembling the shiny stainless steel of a modern high tech production facility.

NTX® Cooltrans® technology has consistently outperformed mainstream textile production methods when utilizing third party assessment tools such as the Higg’s index.