After their first critically-acclaimed season of Big Ideas for A Small Planet TV series, Sundance Channel has returned with a vibrant second season that borders on being even better than the first. Episodes about power alternatives, water, food, youth culture and home decorating have already aired, but the next BIFASP premiere is a subject close to my heart (and personal experience) - fashion.

From Sundance Channel’s website: In this episode, environmental consciousness hits the fashion world as style means sustainable fabric and earth-friendly manufacturing practices. Meet men and women who are bringing green to fashion, clothing stores and the dry cleaners.

Having reviewed their episode about fashion, called “Wear”, from season one of Big Ideals for A Small Planet, I was eager to see how they planned on expanding on the concept of sustainable style. The first thing viewers are greeted with is, “Americans have an extraordinary love affair with clothing. The problem is that every step of the clothing process generates pollution.” Spoken by now-infamous eco-journalist Simran Sethi, I could think of no better way to start an episode of fashion, especially one that is meant to both inform and educate.

I am resisting saying that this episode is better than “Wear” from season one, but it is a tough toss-up. Premiering next Tuesday, May 6th at 9pm EST and PST, the 25-minute installment focuses on three topics: organic denim, sustainable clothing, and green dry cleaning. Features within these segments, Bay Area-based Tierra Forte of Del Forte Denim is featured, along with the founder crew of Portland, Oregon’s NAU clothing line and Rusty Perry, Co-Founder of Colorado’s Revolution Cleaners.

Though already quite informed about the damaging effects of all aspects of clothing production, I was still happily impressed with the job Sundance Channel did on this episode. “I think fashion and what we choose to wear is one of the first ways that we express our values to other people. … The fashion industry is a big enough piece of the puzzle that if we turned this industry around and made it sustainable, it would actually effect the whole world,” says Tierra Forte of Del Forte Denim (one of my all-time favorites), which I couldn’t agree with more.

When presented with, “we end up keeping about 20% of the clothing that we actually buy, but the rest of it over time ends up in landfills,” as spoken by Simran Sethi, it is a fact that all consumers should remind themselves of before indulging in a little retail therapy. Portland’s NAU clothing (another big personal favorite) takes the concept of long-lasting fashion to another level with custom sustainable fabrics, intelligent design, a time-tested color pool and a cutting edge sales method.

“Instead of having a conventional store, we’ve come up with a concept that we call a webfront, which is basically taking the idea of storefront and merging it with a website. We carry much less inventory than a traditional store … we give [customers] a 10% discount to ship [their items] home,” says NAU’s COO Adrienne Moser. On top of all that, at the time of your purchase, you select a non-profit organization which to donate 5% of your purchase to - resulting in over $200,000 in donations from NAU already. The company is truly the future of not only sustainable clothing, but eco-conscious business the world over.

Cleaning clothes makes up for 80% of fashion’s environmental impact - all happening after our purchase. Dry cleaning, thought to be the preferred method over laundering clothes at home, has quickly been brought to light as dangerous for not only humans by the planet as a whole. The issue is with a chemical called PERC, which not only pollutes the air and water, but also damage the skin and cause respiratory problems. Thankfully, alternative are abound at using liquid CO2 is one of the best. Colorado’s Revolution Cleaners is profiled in the last part of this episode and rightfully so. Of all parts of the installment, I think this segment will open many people’s eyes.

Hands down - this episode is great. Everyone should watch it. If you don’t have cable, you can download the episode via iTunes, so make sure to get your hands on it. Last but not least, I’ll leave you with a few more informative and inspiring quotes from the end of the Fashion episode. Enjoy!

“I think for many Americans clothing is a second skin. It reveals to the world what it is that we are, what we believe in and what we want to be.” - Simran Sethi

“Sustainable fabrics will become the norm. They will be cost effective to use, and if they’re not, people will demand them anyway.” - Linda Loudermilk

“I think a few little companies making a big impact can make bigger companies see that ‘oh this is possible and consumers want it and are responding to it.’” - Tierra Forte

[Image courtesy of the Sundance Channel]