Levi’s reduces water consumption with WaterLess jeans

Levi's has introduced a new WaterLess jeans collection, which it says is made using significantly reduced water.

The average pair of jeans uses 42 litres of water in the finishing process while the WaterLess collection reduces the water consumption by an average of 28 per cent and up to 96 per cent for some new products in the line, the company said in a statement.

''We challenged ourselves to operate at the intersection of style and sustainability. These WaterLess jeans have great styles and finishes, but are made with a lot less water,'' said Erik Joule, senior vice president of merchandising and design of the Levi's brand.

During the production process, a typical pair of jeans is ''finished'' in large washing machines and dryers to create a unique look and feel. Using traditional garment washing methods, the average pair of jeans undergoes 3-10 washing cycles, adding up to approximately 42 litres of water per unit.

Reducing the number of washing machine cycles by combining multiple wet cycle processes into a single wet process, incorporating ozone processing into the garment washing and removing the water from the stone wash have helped Levi's reduce the water consumption in the finishing process.

The first collection of WaterLess products will be available in January of 2011 and will include over a dozen classic Levi's jeans, including the Levi's 501 jeans and the popular 511 and 514 jeans, as well as the Levi's trucker jacket.

Its spring 2011 product lines will contain more than 1.5 million pairs of jeans with the WaterLess method, saving approximately 16 million litres of water, the company said in a release.

Besides, the brand will continue to introduce these finishing techniques to even more supplier factories around the world with the goal of increasing the numbers significantly in fall 2011, it added.