CASE STUDY: TS Designs’ Sustainability Journey — Replacing Carbon Black with BioBlack
Executive Summary
TS Designs, a leading textile manufacturer based in the United States, put Nature Coatings’ BioBlack to the test against petroleum carbon black and several other bio-based pigments on the market. The results were telling — BioBlack delivered the best performance, value, and sustainability. Now, TS Designs is in the process of replacing all of its carbon black with BioBlack, proving that the cleaner option is also the smarter one.
Introduction
For nearly fifty years, TS Designs has built apparel differently, guided by the belief that business should serve the triple bottom line: people, planet, and profit. Founded in Burlington, North Carolina, the pioneering B Corp has continually reinvented what responsible manufacturing can look like by “cultivating sustainable clothing.”
So when the team began exploring alternatives to the fossil-fuel-derived black pigment used in their prints and dyes, the question wasn’t if they should change — it was how soon they could.
“Sustainability is a journey, not a destination. We’re always looking for better ways to make products that are good for the consumer, good for the people who make them, and good for the planet.”
Built on Transparency and Innovation
TS Designs began as a high-volume contract screen printer in the late 1970s, working with brands like Nike, Tommy Hilfiger, and Ralph Lauren. But when American manufacturing moved overseas in the 1990s, the company faced a choice: follow the industry abroad or build a better model at home. Choosing the latter, they adopted the triple bottom line framework, laying the foundation for the purpose-driven company they are today.
This led the company to develop one of the industry’s first fully transparent supply-chain tracking systems. Through its WhereYourClothing.com platform and QR-code garment labels, customers can trace cotton from the farm through every stage of production. Transparency isn’t an add-on for TS Designs — it’s the foundation of how they operate.
TS Designs operates through three interconnected platforms:
TS Designs, its core business-to-business sustainable apparel printing and manufacturing division.
Solid State Clothing, a direct-to-consumer brand that brings new sustainable technologies to life.
Know Your Clothing, a nonprofit initiative focused on education and supply-chain transparency.
“When we started digging into the materials we use every day, we realized black was one of the least sustainable colors in the world. It’s everywhere in apparel — and almost always fossil-based. We wanted to change that.”
With that mindset, TS Designs set out to replace its black pigment — one of the most common and least sustainable inputs in textile production — with a cleaner, circular alternative.
The Problem: Carbon Black
For decades, conventional carbon black has been the global standard for deep, rich black pigment in textiles, plastics, and coatings. But its environmental and human-health impacts are increasingly incompatible with a triple-bottom-line strategy:
Origin & Emissions
Carbon black is produced by burning fossil fuels such as heavy petroleum, coal tar, or oil in oxygen-limited conditions. If scaled globally, replacing carbon black across industries could mitigate 4.62 million tons of CO₂ annually — equivalent to a car driving around the Earth more than 100,000 times.Toxicity & Health Risks
The pigment contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trace metals that can affect workers and communities. Inhaling fine carbon particles is linked to respiratory irritation and potential carcinogenic outcomes.
For TS Designs, continuing to rely on such a material conflicted with its commitment to environmental integrity.
“Most of these pigments and dyes come from imported, fossil-based sources. We wanted something that could perform just as well—or better—without that environmental baggage.”
Researching Bio-Based Alternatives
Over a rigorous R&D process, TS Designs evaluated five potential pigment sources, including carbon black and other bio-based solutions. Led by longtime technical director Nelson Houser, the team applied a structured testing protocol. He secured samples, reviewed Nature Coatings’ technical literature and SDSs, and looked at the CAS numbers. Then he built a series of print tests based on TS Designs’ standard: 80 g/L, adjusted for solids content. With that, they ran reflectance data to determine actual strength.
The printed garments were then sent to a certified testing laboratory using the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) test methods for independent wash- and light-fastness testing — providing third-party validation that BioBlack met commercial durability requirements.
After extensive color-fastness and dye-process testing, BioBlack TX stood out as the clear winner — delivering stable, consistent color and durability while meeting every environmental and operational benchmark.
Internal lab testing by TS Designs confirmed these results with detailed quantitative data, including results below for BioBlack and carbon black.
“With an adjustment, it was essentially a plug-in replacement. Same equipment, same workflow, better story.”
Why Wood Waste Won
Each bio-based option offered potential, but only wood waste met the full checklist of performance, scalability, and circularity. TS Design found that other bio-based pigments, not BioBlack, produced interesting hues but lacked color depth and consistency for commercial use, and also suffered from limited supply and required process changes.
“You don’t have to go out and mine or grow anything new. It’s taking something that would’ve been waste and turning it into something valuable. That’s exactly the kind of innovation our industry needs.”
The U.S. alone generates roughly 50,000 tons of wood waste each year from discarded furniture, renovations, logging operations, and paper mills — most of which ends up incinerated or landfilled. BioBlack repurposes that abundant by-product stream.
Nature Coatings’ proprietary closed-loop process uses FSC-certified wood waste and renewable energy from its own operations to create the pigment. The system is zero-waste, non-toxic, and carbon-negative, producing the same deep shade as fossil-based carbon black — but without the emissions or health risks.
Because BioBlack is free from fossil carbon and heavy metals, printed fabrics remain cleaner in recycling streams and do not contribute to the contamination issues caused by traditional carbon black. This makes it easier for downstream recyclers to process post-consumer garments and maintain material value.
Impact Comparison: Carbon Black vs BioBlack TX vs Other Alternatives
Price Performance and Value Efficiency
While environmental and performance metrics led the evaluation, TS Designs also analyzed cost competitiveness — a crucial factor for any pigment substitution at scale.
Alternatives derived from plants or biosolids often needed 30–100 % more material to match target shade strength, eroding their commercial viability despite promising sustainability claims.
According to Nelson Houser, TS Designs’ technical advisor, “BioBlack™ achieved the best overall cost-to-performance ratio in TS Designs’ evaluation — proving that sustainability and economic efficiency can go hand-in-hand.
Relative Cost-to-Performance Comparison for BioBlack vs Carbon Black
From Pilot to Full Production
TS Designs first introduced BioBlack through a limited-edition run of Solid State Clothing T-shirts — a tangible way for consumers to experience sustainable innovation.
“When we have these new innovations… the announcement needs to be a product,” Henry said. “People can buy it, see it, and understand it. That’s our first step to getting a product out in the market.”
For that release, the design of the product itself told the story: the graphic was created by rolling BioBlack ink onto a River Birch log from TS Designs’ own wood-waste pile, scanning the imprint, and finishing the artwork by hand. The result — a stylized tree-ring pattern drawn by designer Ilsa Spaan — symbolized the full circle of waste turned into wearable sustainability.
The pilot’s success prompted TS Designs to begin implementing BioBlack across all printing operations — from small-batches to high-volume commercial runs. Production teams validated the pigment’s compatibility with existing systems and confirmed consistent print quality.
“TS Designs expects to complete its full conversion in the coming year, ensuring that every black print leaving the Burlington facility is made with BioBlack.”
Results: Performance, Partnership & Purpose
The shift to BioBlack has delivered meaningful gains across all three dimensions of TS Designs’ mission:
Environmental performance: The company eliminated a major source of fossil carbon from its supply chain, replacing it with a renewable, non-toxic alternative. BioBlack’s carbon-negative footprint helps offset upstream energy use in garment dyeing and finishing.
Operational integration: BioBlack TX required no retooling or new machinery — ensuring a smooth adoption and validating its role as a true drop-in pigment technology.
Product quality: Color richness, consistency, and wash-fastness equaled or exceeded previous carbon-black standards.
Brand integrity: The transition reinforces TS Designs’ leadership in sustainable domestic manufacturing and transparency, allowing the company to extend its triple-bottom-line values through every layer of production.
Consumer connection: The Solid State Clothing pilot helped translate a material innovation into a relatable story — one customers could literally wear.
“Long term, we want to change the playing field of our industry. There’s no silver-bullet solution to sustainability, but this is one real, tangible step — and it works.”
Meeting Global Standards and Certifications
Thanks to BioBlack, TS Designs can now align with the world’s leading textile and sustainability standards — a key milestone for brands seeking verified low-impact materials.
Global Standards and Certifications for BioBlack™
By integrating BioBlack, TS Designs is now positioned to support customers across North America and Europe who must meet these rapidly evolving sustainability requirements — proving that clean chemistry can be both high-performance and globally compliant.
Resilience Through Domestic Sourcing
For TS Designs, the switch to BioBlack™ wasn’t only about reducing emissions — it was also about building supply-chain resilience. In a time when global trade routes are increasingly unstable and tariffs on imported materials continue to rise, sourcing from a U.S.-based pigment manufacturer provides a critical advantage.
BioBlack™ is produced by Nature Coatings using domestic wood waste collected and processed in the United States. This local sourcing helps shields TS Designs from the volatility of global fossil markets and the price fluctuations that affect petroleum-derived carbon black.
“Most of the pigments and dyes used in our industry are imported. That’s a risk — not just environmentally, but operationally. When you can source domestically, you gain reliability, control, and transparency.”
The U.S. textile industry has faced increasing costs from tariffs on imported chemicals, colorants, and finished apparel — challenges that make homegrown innovation even more valuable. By partnering with a domestic supplier, TS Designs not only avoids these geopolitical pressures but strengthens a circular, American-made supply chain that keeps value — and accountability — closer to home.
A Shared Vision for a Better Industry
TS Designs’ adoption of BioBlack shows what happens when principle meets practicality: a proven pigment that performs, a supply chain that aligns with values and global instability, along with a partnership redefining what’s possible for U.S. apparel manufacturing.
At Nature Coatings, we share TS Designs’ conviction that sustainability is a journey, not a destination — and replacing one of the industry’s least sustainable materials with one of its cleanest is exactly the kind of progress that makes the journey worthwhile.
