Yesterday’s guest on the Inside Ideas podcast with Marc Buckley was journalist and author, Lucianne Tonti. The fashion editor of The Saturday Paper, she is also a regular contributor to The Guardian where she writes the weekly series Closet Clinic. The regenerative fashion consultant was speaking to Marc about her new book: Sundressed: Natural Fabrics and the Future of Clothes.
And the form this future of clothes takes is being woven by the types of innovators supported by the Fashion for Good initiative, which is at the forefront of accelerating solutions for a sustainable fashion industry.
The clean dozen
Fashion for Good announced this week the 12 new start-ups joining its nine-month Global Platform innovation programme designed to help validate their technologies.
“We are excited to welcome 12 new innovators to the 2023 Fashion for Good Innovation Programme. We are inspired by the significant impact opportunities their technologies enable. With an emphasis on driving implementation, we provide them with the best support to expedite their exposure and growth into the market,” said Katrin Ley, Managing Director at Fashion for Good.
Blurbs on the selected startups were shared this week in a Fashion for Good press release – shown below. Startups in the industry should go to the FFG website to learn more about the support that is available through the initiative.
Virent uses its patented BioForming® technology to create the fuels and chemicals the world needs from a wide range of naturally occurring, renewable resources Virent’s patented catalytic chemistry converts biobased carbohydrate feedstocks into products molecularly identical to those made from petroleum. Virent’s technology can produce a range of fuel products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, as well as chemicals used for plastics, fibres and films.
ZymoChem offers bio-based materials powered by proprietary carbon conserving (C2) microbes that convert renewable feedstocks into high-value materials while radically minimising CO2 loss during the production phase. The efficiencies of their platform unlock superior economics – up to 50% lower cost than incumbents with a higher yield compared to today’s best in class biomanufacturing.
Polybion is growing premium, next-generation materials designed with nature and manufactured with biology. Their first product, CeliumTM, is a premium alternative to animal-based leather and petroleum-derived synthetics. It is grown by feeding bacteria with agroindustrial fruit waste; the bacteria, in turn, creates cellulose, a natural polymer.
Saltyco connects the regeneration of damaged wetlands to the production of healthier materials for the fashion industry. Their next-generation textile BioPuff ®, is a warm, lightweight and biodegradable insulation material made from one of the best plants for wetland regeneration.
LAMORAL COATINGS (THE NETHERLANDS)
Lamoral commercialises a high-performance, bio-based, fluor-free coating to replace today’s PFAS coatings and improve current C-0 offerings. With a bio-based, PFC- and MEKO-free truly durable water repellent that protects garments and their users from the elements.
CleanKore’s patented technology modifies the denim dye range to eliminate Potassium Permanganate spray, lower the carbon footprint & improve sustainability throughout the supply chain without increasing cost.
RESPONSIBLE (NORTHERN IRELAND)
RESPONSIBLE is a global circularity platform powered by advanced proprietary technology. The company is on a mission to scale circularity by offering solutions across the product life cycle and a premium take on reCommerce.
Founded by a team of scientists and engineers, Protein Evolution uses a combination of biology and chemistry to transform waste into high-value products. The company’s goal is to unlock the potential of waste to be a valuable resource, in a bid to help the materials industry transition to a lower-carbon, more circular economy.
QUINGDAO AMINO MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY (RE:LASTANE) (CHINA)
Re:lastane focuses on the separation and recycling of polyester and polyester blended fabrics. They have developed a patent pending “Relastane” polyester recycling system, which realises the separation of polyester fibres from cotton, nylon, spandex and other blended fibres.
DePoly’s advanced recycling technology converts unsorted, dirty end-of-life plastics and fibres into virgin-grade raw materials. They focus on items that cannot typically be recycled due to complex blends, dyes, contaminants, etc. Their low-energy process uses simple, green chemicals and operates at room temperature, all without the need to pre-wash, pre-sort, or separate out other materials.
Ioncell Oy develops patented Ioncell® technology, which transforms cellulosic bio-materials into new, high-performance textile fibres in a sustainable way. Their technology can improve the quality when textile waste is recycled into new fibres, therefore supporting the inevitable transformation to a circular economy in the clothing and textile industry.
Satma CE is a web based software that uses blockchain optionally to offer traceability across the waste-to-worth supply chain, including collection, segregation, recycling and processing.
The post Fashion in good hands with these new innovators first appeared on Innovators magazine.