LIBERIA - [10.03.10] Sustainable Global Sourcing, a new San Francisco–based venture, has opened its first apparel factory in Liberia and is ready to take orders for organic-cotton garments.

The company, which purchases organic-cotton grown in Africa and runs its own spinning and sewing facility in Liberia, has planted its own organic cotton crops and expects to be a fully vertical operation by 2012.

According to Dana Castro, Sustainable Global Sourcing’s chief marketing officer, the 2,000-square-foot factory is small, currently employing 50 Liberian women, but is expected to grow to meet manufacturing needs. Eventually the company hopes to employ upwards of 350 women.

Sustainable Global Sourcing, which is dedicated to eradicating extreme poverty in Africa, also contributes to the local economy by fuelling its factory generators with palm oil, a locally produced bio-diesel. The target for the next five years is to plant at least 1,000 acres of organic cotton.

“Environmentally friendly production can be tricky, Castro said. “Often, brands buy their fabric from one part of the world and ship it to another part of the world for sewing. You end up going all over the map. Sustainable Global Sourcing’s vertical model helps eliminate the carbon footprint associated with that kind of production.”

With Prana, the California–based yoga-apparel maker already on board as the first client, Sustainable Global Sourcing is hopeful that similar brands will opt to produce sustainably. “Any brand looking for brand enhancement (is a potential client). We can be a stepping stone,” she said.

The factory, which produces t-shirts and other cotton knit apparel, is 100% owned and managed by Liberians, and is also the first business launched by the Liberian Women’s Community Development Fund (LWCDF).

Profits are distributed to worker/owners and also to the LWCDF to fund Community Investment Programs carried out by our partners. The project also aims to open three rural health clinics and provide 5,000 scholarships for primary education.

For more details go to:www.sustainableglobal.org