The climate discussion often focuses around alternative energy production, transportation options, building construction, and food systems. But we’ve been neglecting an important component of our consumption: FIBER.

In this age of fast fashion, Americans, on average, buy about 65 garments per person per year, with much ending up in landfills. Communities around the world often rely upon exploitive textile systems to fill this “need”.

There is an alternative. Rebecca Burgess has built an extensive network of farmers and artisans within our region’s Northern California Fibershed to pilot the regenerative fiber systems model at the community scale. Fibershed develops place-based regional fiber and natural dye systems that can keep us clothed while simultaneously regenerating lost carbon stocks in our soils and providing meaningful livelihoods for producers.

Learn more about how artisans and farmers are collaborating to create beautiful, long-lasting clothing that benefits the wearer and the planet.

CLIMATE CHATS are brought to you free by WORK Petaluma.

Noon-1 PM in the WORK Library. Feel free to bring a bag lunch.

Bio: Rebecca Burgess is the Executive Director of Fibershed, and Chair of the Board for Carbon Cycle Institute. She has over a decade of experience writing and implementing hands-on curriculum that focuses on the intersection of restoration ecology and fiber systems. She has taught at Westminster College, Harvard University, and has created workshops for a range of NGOs and corporations. She is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color, a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America. She has built an extensive network of farmers and artisans within our region’s Northern California Fibershed to pilot the regenerative fiber systems model at the community scale.