In Boulder, the farm to table concept is well known and practiced by many Boulder restaurants to help customers see the connection between the food served and the farms where this food grows. In addition, many of us also maintain our own gardens to feed our families fresh healthy foods.
This connection to farms, while popular in the food movement, is generally uncommon in the clothing world. How many of us have ever used the term “farm to shirt”? Typically, we have little connection between the clothes we wear every day and the farms producing the cotton, wool, etc or the factories making these garments.
However, one Boulder company has spent nearly 50 years literally building this connection. Founded in 1969 by Barry and Dan Schacht, Schacht Spindle Co., Inc., manufactures and distributes products for hand weaving and hand spinning right here in their Boulder warehouse. Their main products include spindles that are used to weave raw materials such as wool, cotton or hemp into thread or yarn, and looms which are used to weave this yarn or thread into fabric. These products are distributed across the U.S. and enable customers to take raw materials right from a farm to create their own clothing, blankets, etc…truly a farm to shirt process!
Schacht Spindle prides themselves on using sound and honest business practices to create a profitable and successful company and do so while acting in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. According to Lance Blom, facilities manager, Schacht Spindle’s leadership is continuously imparting environmental sustainability practices and education to all staff.
Their environmental efforts promote waste diversion, energy savings, and locally grown food. For waste diversion, Schacht Spindle partners with Western Disposal for trash, recycling and compost services. In addition, Western hauls all of the sawdust generated during the production of their looms and spindles to Academy Stables in Lafayette for use as horse bedding. Finally, any larger wood scraps are provided for use by hobbyists, schools, woodworkers, etc for art or other types of projects. These efforts in diversion have resulted in a diversion rate of over 70% of their materials from the landfill.
While connecting people to their fabrics, they also create a connection for their employees to locally produced food by providing community garden plots for employee use to grow their own food. In addition, they have chickens on site and employees can volunteer to care for the chickens in exchange for the eggs that are produced.
Finally, they have retrofitted their facility with LED lighting to reduce their energy use.
Western is proud to assist Schacht Spindle with their diversion efforts and appreciate partnering with another long term local company. We applaud their efforts and look forward to continuing our relationship for long into the future. For more information on Schacht Spindle, please visit schachtspindle.com
