Sustainability

Hemp, against cotton and polyester.

The numbers we can stand behind. And the ones we won't repeat.

One plant

Three metres in a hundred days. On rain.

Hemp is Cannabis sativa L., grown for its stalk. It shoots up fast, shades out weeds, and asks for little: rain, sun and a field. No pesticides are needed, and none are sprayed on ours.

Our role is to connect the dots, thoughtfully. From a terrace in Uttarakhand to a flag, a towel, a sheet. This page is what that plant does differently, set against the two fibres it replaces.

Terraced hemp fields in Uttarakhand, from the air
Side by side

Hemp. Cotton. Polyester.

Same job, three fibres. Every figure below has a source you can check at the bottom.

HempCottonPolyester
Made fromA plant. Stalk fibre, grown in a season.A plant. The seed hair, thirsty and heavily sprayed.Crude oil. A plastic, spun into thread.
Water to grow a kilo of fibreAbout 2,700 litres, mostly rain.About 9,100 litres, much of it irrigated.Little water. Oil, energy and chemistry instead.
PesticidesNone needed. None on ours.Around 4.7% of the world's pesticide sales, on 2.4% of its farmland.None. It isn't farmed.
Moisture it holds, by standard12.0%8.5%1.5%
Microplastics in the washNone. A plant fibre breaks down.None.Sheds fibres every wash. Textiles are the largest source of primary microplastics in the sea.
CarbonAbout 1.3 kg CO₂ held in every kilo of fibre, for as long as the cloth lasts.Held in the fibre too, at a higher cost to grow.Fossil carbon, taken out of the ground to make it.
End of lifeBack to the soil.Back to the soil, if it wasn't blended with plastic.Landfill or incinerator. It does not rot.

Water: Mekonnen & Hoekstra 2011, fibre stage. Pesticides: PAN UK 2018. Moisture: standard allowances, Regulation (EU) 1007/2011 Annex IX. Microplastics: IUCN 2017, Primary microplastics in the oceans. Carbon: held in the fibre while the cloth lasts, not removed from the air.

From seed to cloth

Every step, on purpose.

This is the chain behind our flags. Our other products follow the same road where they can. For different or higher quantities we work with more facilities around the world.

01

Grown

Uttarakhand, India. Farmers who grow hemp as a polycrop on their terraces, as their families always have. Rain-fed, unsprayed.

02

Spun and woven

Fibre becomes yarn, yarn becomes cloth. Flag cloth in India, bedding in Portugal, always with people we have met.

03

Printed

In the Netherlands, on a printer built to use as little water as possible and no toxic dyes. The colour holds.

04

Stitched

European ateliers cut, hem, stitch and check every piece. Quality stitching, built for wind.

05

Flown

Packed in a compostable bag made from plants, and off it goes. Flown for years, not a season.

Niek on the dunes with a Hemptex flag
Not all flags are equal

Your average flag is made of oil.

Grey polyester cloth

Polyester flags

  • Made from crude oil and synthetic chemistry.
  • Shed microplastics into rivers and seas.
  • Built to last in a landfill, not in nature.
Red, white and blue hemp flag cloth

Hemptex® flags

  • Made from a plant that grows on rain.
  • No microplastics. Ever.
  • Weatherproof and colourfast, then back to the soil.
See the flags
Beyond the material

1% for the Planet. 100% for change.

We are members of 1% for the Planet. A share of every sale goes to environmental causes, so the good we do doesn't stop at the cloth.

Explore the hemp collectionGet a quote
1% for the Planet, over a misty forest
Keep reading

More about hemp textile

Sustainability - Hemptex®