For Eric Henry, it’s all about the journey.

The president and CEO of TS Designs, an apparel decorator in North Carolina, has been thinking about sustainability since he was a kid gardening with his grandfather.

He launched his screen-printing shop more than 40 years ago, doing contract work for big brands until most of that business went overseas with the passage of NAFTA. Rather than close up shop, Henry chose a different path and has focused his efforts on things like U.S. manufacturing, transparent supply chains, natural fibers and natural dyes. Henry was an early adopter of the B Corp model that puts people and planet on par with profit (TS Designs became certified by B Lab in 2008). Other initiatives have included QR codes on neck labels so people can track every step of their garment’s manufacture, a line of shirts with a supply chain that exists in a 768-mile radius and extensive research into using black walnut shells to create natural apparel dyes.

“I think the journey is more important than ever,” Henry says of sustainability. “Look beyond just the price and ask the question of where it’s made, how it’s made and the social and environmental impact of that purchase.”

In this episode of Promo Insiders, Henry chats with ASI Media Executive Editor Theresa Hegel about the benefits of natural fibers and dyes and the concept of “apparel manufacturing clusters” as an alternative to global apparel supply chains.