Walmart Foundation donates $810,000 toward sustainable textile research
by February 2, 2016 6:34 am 105 views
The Walmart Foundation has given Oregon State University $810,000 to research “environmentally conscious” methods of dying fabric. The company sees higher education as the key to innovation.
The U.S. Conference of Mayors partnered with Walmart on the innovation project to help growth manufacturing jobs.
“Through these grants we hope to help remove the barriers to revitalizing and growing U.S. apparel manufacturing, while creating more sustainable production processes,” Kathleen McLaughlin, president of the Walmart Foundation, said in the release.
Oregon State’s proposal, which led to the $810,000 grant, would use “continuous digital printing and the drying of biopigment inks” as a more sustainable fabric dyeing process.
“This grant will enable our researchers to discover new ways to decrease dye toxicity while reducing water and energy consumption and eventually saving consumers money on their clothing purchases,” said Cynthia Sagers, OSU’s vice president of research.