And our environmental innovations must meet the Patagonia customer's demand for quality. If we miss the mark on quality, environmental innovations can lose their appeal in the marketplace. For example, if we use a low-impact dye that leaves the customer with a faded shirt nine months later, we show that Q doesn't equal E. Our hope is that merging environmental standards and high quality standards will give our customers greater confidence when they bring environmental values to the marketplace. We believe this dual focus has led to lasting changes. The conventional cotton economy relies on intensive use of synthetic pesticides that destroy biodiversity and contaminate ground water.
Organic cotton makes a superb quality product with a substantial reduction in impact.
We've begun to avoid harmful dyes, while still holding to color and colorfast standards. We'd like to hear from you on this.