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Category: In The Know on Ethical Fashion - Good On You

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The big issues in ethical and sustainable fashion. Everything you need to know to be an informed, responsible fashion consumer. Fashion without harm.

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https://www.vestiairecollective.com/journal/alexander-mcqueen-and-vestiaire-collective/

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Sourcing sustainable fabrics

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If you want to become a more environmentally friendly fashion brand, the fabrics you work with is a great place to start. Our friends at SupplyCompass weigh in on the pros and cons of different sustainable materials and where to find them.

By noissue - 02 December, 2020

SupplyCompass is a digital production platform for fashion brands and manufacturers that aims to transform the way products are designed by having sustainability as a core focus. We had a chat with their team about the different types of sustainable materials on the market, as well as how to find the material that's best suited to your business.
When it comes to a fashion brand's environmental footprint, why is sourcing sustainable fabrics so important? How big a part do the materials you use play?
It is estimated that 60-80% of a product's impact is determined in the design stage which includes choosing materials. This is one of the most fundamental areas for building a robust sustainability strategy for the brand. Choosing the right materials also has impacts on how and for how long the garment is used, and what happens to it after it is disposed of. For example, a blend of a natural and a synthetic material can make the recycling process extremely difficult, while choosing polyester for a garment that is washed often, can mean increased shedding of microplastics into waterways.

Every textile fibre has a certain social or environmental impact attached to it, whether it be water or energy consumed, land use, impact on local communities or a carbon footprint. Hence it is important to make an informed decision when choosing materials-generally the regenerative, organic and recycled versions have a lower impact than their conventional counterparts.

What are the pros and cons when it comes to the sustainable value of different clothing materials?

Switching to more sustainable fabrics is the easiest step towards building a sustainable supply chain. Let's take a look at cotton and linen:

Organic cotton fabric

Pros

The most popular environment friendly fabric and it's produced in 35 countries

The great aspect of organic cotton is it's produced without any pesticides, with 85% less water consumption to that of conventional cotton. This organic farming process reduces the carbon emission by 46% to that of conventional cotton

Organic cotton fibre is of better quality as they are hand picked. The long fibres give it smooth finish

Cons

The separation of fibre and seeds is an energy intensive process

The cost of organic cotton fabrics is slightly higher than conventional as the yield is low, increasing the cost of production, and the supply chain needs to be certified by a third party organization.

Linen fabric

Pros

Natural, biodegradable fabric made from flax plant

Absorbs 20x water without being damp, which makes it highly breathable and moisture wicking and perfect for summer collections

Resilient crop and requires less water to grow

Softness of fabric increases with time

Cons

The production of fabric is a mechanical process when the fibre is retted, beaten and combed to produce fabric. As it has sturdy nature, the fibre breaks easily if the machines are run at higher speed. Hence this increases the costs

Only 1% of linen is used in global apparel production

To better understand each of these materials, you can download our free range of sustainable material guides here. Our guides take a deeper look into the production process of the most common materials, understanding the human, animal and environmental impact, alternatives and what to consider when designing collections.

How does a fashion brand choose a sustainable material that's right for them? What are the first steps they should take, or factors they should consider?

Choosing sustainable materials completely depends on what products the brand is making, how the fibre is processed, where they are located and where their supply chain is set up. Products like tees can be made from organic cotton or hemp, while activewear or swimwear may necessarily need a synthetic fibre, in which rPET or Econyl is the best choice.

Hemp and bamboo are usually grown very sustainably but are often processed with copious amounts of chemicals; look for low carbon and closed-loop production instead. At the same time, it is also important to understand where you are sourcing from and comparing the carbon footprint of each material to the other. If you are manufacturing from India for example, it is better to source the material as close to the processing and making facility as possible, rather than import it from the other side of the world.

Some indexes such as the Higg MSI and existing Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) measure the impact of various materials and are useful reference points but do not always account for the impacts during use and disposal stages or for human and animal rights, and can slightly differ from each other. Two things to remember are to always look for certifications from recognized bodies that can certify both the social and environmental impact, and that it's always ideal to have a fibre basket rather than solely depending on or utilising a single fibre only.

What are some alternatives to leather on the market, and what are the pros and cons of these materials?

There are several alternatives to leather in the market and range from PU, fish skin, apple and pineapple to coconut, mushroom, cactus and plant waste. Many of these are as durable as commercial leather, are made from renewable or waste materials and can have the look and feel of real leather. For a deep-dive into all the leather alternatives currently sold in the market, download our free guide here.

The disadvantages of leather alternatives are that they are often times more expensive and may not have the same wide range of grains and finishes as commercial leather. Some of them need to be scaled up to be fully available commercially as they may still be in the R&D stages and not all of them are fully compostable as they are coated with a PU/chemical finish. However both the supply and demand for these alternatives has escalated rapidly so expect to see products from leather alternatives all around you in the near future.

What are some innovative eco-friendly materials you've seen enter the market recently, such as Allbirds crab shell t-shirts?

There are several new exciting materials being developed and released that are viable alternatives to some of the concerns that conventional materials have. Companies are using technology to explore the core of natural systems to integrate their properties and create new biomaterials with minimal environmental impact but great material output and design. For example Vegea leather made from grapes and Mirum by Natural Fibre Welding are exciting options for leather alternatives. Orange Fiber is a cellulosic fibre from citrus by-products and companies like SeaCell and AlgiKnit are harnessing the power of rapidly renewable sources like seaweed and algae.

Then there are several innovative recycled fibres such as Evernu, Renewcell and Recover that recycle discarded textiles into new materials, and Re:Down that recycles post-consumer down and feathers for insulation in the apparel and bedding industries. These companies are established but are constantly improving their technology.

Even with fibres that have been used for centuries, there are several new developments that make the process more sustainable. With hemp for example, one of the most sustainably grown fabrics, processing can be outdated and chemical intensive. However, we are partnering with hemp companies in India who are developing new technologies to both produce and process hemp sustainably while maintaining transparency back to the farm. Stay tuned for further updates from us soon. The Sustainable Angle's Future Fabrics Expo (where we exhibit at too) is a great place to find and source new materials and innovations every year.

What about trims and other details, such as buttons, zips, tags and labels? Are there ways to be more environmentally friendly when it comes to selecting materials for these smaller details on clothing?

It's always important to look at the smaller details and trims form a very important and often overlooked part of the sustainability embedding process. That is why we have partnered with several innovative companies in the space so that designers have a range of options readily available to them at every stage of the design and decision making process. For labels, see if you can work with organic cotton canvas or recycled polyester tape material. For buttons, look at wooden or corozo nut. Both buttons and zippers can also be made from recycled ocean plastic; our partner Oceanworks, a global marketplace has a range of options in this material.

For hangtags, use FSC-certified recycled paper or recycled cotton pulp waste paper; our partner in Southern India is a specialist in this.

Hangers are often called the disposable straws of the fashion industry since billions of them are bought and disposed of every year by brands and retailers. Our partner Arch & Hook is a sustainable hanger brand creating durable, quality-driven hangers from FSC-certified wood as well as recycled plastic.

Do you have any final advice or tips for we haven't covered when it comes to sourcing sustainable fabric for your fashion business?

Data around sustainability can often be confusing and limited. There is no one right way to approach sustainability and fabric that is considered the most sustainable, so at the end of the day it is up to you to make decisions based on what values are most important to you and why you are making a product.

It is important to do the required amount of research but ask for help from specialists with practical experience when you need to. Create measurable, ambitious but achievable targets and use a cradle-to-cradle approach when it comes to choosing a fabric. Remember that sustainability is a journey, not an end goal, and that progress is more important than perfection.

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How to source sustainable fabrics for your fashion brand

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If you want to become a more environmentally friendly fashion brand, the fabrics you work with is a great place to start. Our friends at SupplyCompass weigh in on the pros and cons of different sustainable materials and where to find them.

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Cellulose Carbamate process, from waste fibers to recycled fibres, by Infinited Fiber
Infinited Fiber Company

Transforming the fashion industry from its linear 'take, make, waste' model to a circular one, where materials are perpetually recycled, is considered the 'holy grail' of sustainability. With global apparel consumption projected to rise by 63% to 102 million tons in 2030, and an increase in clothing being sent to landfill accordingly (the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports that $500 billion of value is lost every year due to clothing underutilisation and a lack of recycling), achieving circularity is becoming even more critical. It has remained elusive, however, with collaborative system-wide changes across the fashion supply chain required in order to 'close the loop.' The focus of fashion brands to date has been on somewhat isolated initiatives, including encouraging consumers to mend and wear their clothes for longer, clothing resale, rental and recycling. Whilst consumer efforts are a positive step, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demand solutions on a global scale to halt climate change and restore biodiversity within specified timeframes, to meet agreed targets. The projected growth of the fashion industry and the resulting emissions and waste generation make a scaled circular fashion industry solution an urgent environmental imperative. But what level of stakeholder cooperation across the industry is needed to achieve circularity, and how would this be coordinated in a fiercely competitive market?
Creating A Circular Blueprint
Driven by the data cited above and the potential to deliver textile recycling at scale, Finnish biotechnology group Infinited Fiber Company have led a successful bid for over €6M of European Union research and innovation funding, to form a consortium to create a circular fashion industry blueprint. The funding supports the New Cotton Project's 12 consortium members, spanning Finland, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Turkey, to work together across waste management, recycling, retail, manufacturing and academia to define a new circular fashion system and business model that they hope will lead to industry-wide adoption-and a significant reduction in fashion's waste and environmental impact. What's highly novel about this project is that it unites companies who compete in the market, but also recognise that collaboration is needed to achieve circularity at the industry level. Industry giants Adidas and H&M are partners on this project and will work together to facilitate "the scale and volume needed to properly test this (technology)," said Infinited Fiber's CEO Petri Alava during a recent video call. Representing Fashion for Good, who are facilitating stakeholder collaboration during the project, was Kathleen Rademan: "What we have noticed is, in order to get something like chemical recycling off the ground, more than one brand is needed."

Consortium Partners

During the 3 year project, Infinited Fiber will provide 3 tons of their cellulose carbamate fibres (recycled from textile, cardboard and other high cellulose content waste) to H&M and Adidas, for use at their partner mills and manufacturers, Inovafil, Tekstina and Kipas, who already operate within the brands' supply chains. The mills will spin, dye, knit and weave the fibres into yarns and fabrics (single jersey and denim) for use in the brands' commercial fashion products. H&M and Adidas will obtain consumer feedback on the products throughout their life cycle, and at the end of life, take-back schemes (which H&M explained to me over email are still in the initial planning stages) will feed the products into sorting facilities, and from there, into either chemical recycling feedstock or resale channels, depending on the garment quality.

On the waste handling and processing side a number of consortium collaborators will conduct ongoing data collection and analysis to define new workflows and processes needed to deliver circularity at scale. Holland-based Frankenhuis, will sort and pre-process the textile waste, while the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (XAMK) will develop a technical solution for the continuous processing of textile waste fibres for pre-treatment. REvolve Waste's role is collecting and managing textile waste data to estimate feedstock availability in Europe and define the grade of the used textile waste. On the consumer and business retail side, RISE (the research institute of Sweden) will conduct the sustainability and techno-economic analyses alongside Infinited Fiber Company, in addition to managing the eco-labelling for the project and subsequent fabrics and garments. Finland's Aalto University will analyse the project's resulting ecosystem and circular business models on a more macro level, aiming to define the most feasible business model.

Kipas Textiles Factory
Kipas Textiles

Legislation on recycled textiles
The magnitude and complexity of this project is clear, and EU funding to drive the initiative is clearly pivotal. Commercial businesses face such unique challenges during the global pandemic, that such an ambitious project surely requires grant funding with the sector-wide environmental targets in mind. In fact, during our discussion, Kathleen Rademan and Petri Alava both mentioned potential EU regulations for mandatory recycled content in textiles, however Rademan declared: "We don't bet on legislation, we back innovation," indicating their commitment to ensuring that Infinited Fiber technology achieves global commercial viability. In terms of the motivator for fashion companies, Rademan says "brands are becoming more aware of (impact) reporting. This is top down (SDGs, carbon targets, recycled content targets) and bottom up (listening to consumer sentiment and demonstrating that through product)." Add to this the newly established Fashion Pact (H&M and Adidas are both signatories) which requires validated company-specific Science Based Targets on emission reductions, and involvement in achieving circularity at scale makes complete sense.
Circularity Enabling Environmental Impact Pricing
During a discussion with Aalto University Professor Kirsi Niimimaki, she elaborated on their role in leading the "ecosystem building," where they will create ways for the consortium members to share information within a co-dependent and collaborative framework that defines value creation beyond money. "We quite strongly believe that when we move to circular systems, the supply chain needs to be much more transparent - we need much more information. If it's possible to construct this transparent data system, that information could be part of the business (decision making) and part of the pricing system." Niimimaki suggested that such data collection would facilitate shared Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) and carbon footprint data, meaning that environmental impact "could then be included in the pricing system." This would be revolutionary in an industry where opacity maintains a product pricing system that is completely divorced from data on resource use, waste and emissions. It could also be pivotal in shining a light on the environmental impact fashion is having on developing countries, where much of its manufacturing is done. This project scope sits wholly within Europe, however it should be noted that the vast majority of global apparel production is in China and Bangladesh. I state this not to diminish the critical importance of this project, but to say that it will not produce an immediately implementable global blueprint solution, but it will pave the way for it.

Infinited Fiber Company wet spinning process
Infinited Fiber Company

Environmental Impact Reduction of Circularity
Before a new circular fashion system is implemented as a result of this project, quantification of the expected environmental benefits of Infinited Fiber's fibres and perpetual recycling method is crucial. What does the life cycle of an Infinited Fiber fibre-based product look like compared to a virgin fibre one, and is Infinited Fiber fibre more 'sustainable' that other plant based chemically synthesised fibres, like viscose? Infinited Fiber have just completed an LCA based on their current pilot operations. In an optimal scenario where production happens in a modern factory powered by renewable energy sources, carbon dioxide equivalent emissions (CO2e) from their cellulose carbamate fiber production are calculated to be below 800 kg/tonne of fiber produced from textile waste. For comparison, research indicates that the viscose fiber carbon emission equivalent in a modern European facility is around 1,200 kg/tonne and as high as 5,300 kg/tonne if produced in China, powered by coal. Fundamental to the success of this circular system, then, is the parallel development of global green energy infrastructure. In a timely announcement this week, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson committed to a radical green energy innovation plan and banning the sale of fossil fuel powered vehicles from 2030. The next President of the United States, Joe Biden, has committed to reentry into the Paris Agreement when he takes office, reconfirming the US commitment to environmental policy.

The New Cotton project itself will also include an LCA analysis that takes into account the whole value chain, from raw materials through to fiber, yarn and garment production, as well as end-of-life. To be viable, Alava explained to me that Infinited Fiber's share of the market would need to rival that of viscose, which currently stands at around 7% of global fibre production. Infinited Fiber are in discussion with two Chinese companies interested in licensing their recycling technology, offering promise to their aim of global expansion. However Alava concedes that the fashion industry is "relatively conservative...so we are not sure the industry is ready to invest in this." Undaunted, Alava said they are exploring other business models that could see them become a large-scale supplier themselves.

Since conducting the interviews for this article, H&M and cellulose chemical recycler Renewcell have announced a multi-year partnership where circulose pulp will be provided to the brand to replace a portion of its virgin fibre usage. But to transform to circular materials across the brand's vast product lines, more than one recycled cellulose supplier will be needed, they say. Nellie Lindeborg, who manages Assortment Sustainability for the group said: "We are always looking to widen and diversify our material portfolio for use across the group." She highlighted that cellulose carbamate is unique to Infinited Fiber Company, given that it provides fibres ready for spinning, rather than a pulp still requiring processing into fibres. H&M invested in the company in 2019 via their CO:LAB, and Lindeborg added that their overall "aim is that the entire industry should benefit from wider availability of these materials."

With Infinited Fiber Company's sights on global scaling of their technology, the outcomes of this three year New Cotton Project, which ends in September 2023, will (at least partly) determine their business model. As engineers and instigators of the first end-to-end multi-stakeholder circular fashion blueprint, our planet's health depends on their success.

... Read More

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H&M And Adidas Join Industry Consortium Partners Delivering A Blueprint For Circular Fashion

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With global apparel consumption projected to rise by 63% to 102 million tons in 2030, and an increase in clothing being sent to landfill accordingly (the Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports that $500 billion of value is lost every year due to clothing underutilisation and a lack of recycling), ach...

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The life cycle of a t-shirt - Angel Chang

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Viscose has a supply chain problem. Campaigners have identified the semi-synthetic textile, once labelled a sustainable choice, as a troubling reason for global deforestation as well as toxic chemical pollution.

But a new vision for man-made cellulosic fibres such as viscose is laid out in an ambitious report released last week by Textile Exchange and Forum for the Future, two global non-profits, in collaboration with leading industry players.

The man-made cellulosic fibre category, dominated by viscose (also known as rayon), includes modal, cupro, lyocell and acetate - all together they are the third-most common fibre used globally. The new report is a roadmap for addressing the environmental impacts of their production, but it also symbolises an important emerging shift in sustainability efforts - away from a focus on negative impacts, towards generating positive ones.

The big concern is deforestation and the associated decline in biodiversity. Destruction of ecosystems by human activity is thought to be the root cause of the Covid-19 pandemic - which scientists say is just a taste of what continued forest and biodiversity loss could mean for people and the planet.

Canopy, a Vancouver-based non-profit, has worked since 2013 with fashion companies including Kering, Stella McCartney and Eileen Fisher to shift their sourcing of viscose and other wood-based materials, used for everything from dresses to scarves to socks. Supporters say the campaign, called CanopyStyle, has made a significant dent in the destruction of endangered rainforest for viscose sourcing. A similar campaign has targeted the intensive chemical process used to transform the wood pulp into fibre.

But these environmental campaigns have existed in isolation, with no connective tissue between them or guiding vision to ensure that in solving one problem, the industry doesn't create another. The new report, Envisioning the Future of Man-made Cellulosic Fibres, aims to provide both.

"Bits of the jigsaw are working really well," says Sally Uren, Forum for the Future CEO who worked on the report. "But they need to be joined up."

Recognising the communities along the viscose supply chain

The term man-made cellulosics is a clunky way to differentiate the materials from cotton, by far the world's most common cellulose-based fibre, and to account for the intensive and man-made chemical process that dissolves and then regenerates the cellulose from wood pulp into fibre. It's not an efficient process - one ton of viscose uses up to 4.5 tons of trees - and its production relies on a host of chemicals including carbon disulfide, a toxic solvent that is harmful to human health.

What might stand out most in the report is its push for the cellulosics sector to address social factors, including poverty. The authors argue that the industry needs to provide better market access for smallholders. Some research has found that when people have a path out of poverty, deforestation in the region declines. "You can't look at commodities in isolation, and you can't look at commodities without looking at communities because you can't have one without the other," says Uren.

"I hope people come back from the current situation that we are in, and they consider timelines, [and] respect that things can take a little longer if you want to do things better."

American designer Eileen Fisher has worked with suppliers of cotton and wool to ensure decent wages and working conditions and to provide support for those adopting more sustainable practices. However, the same strategies don't apply to suppliers of wood-based materials, says Inka Apter, who leads fabric research and development for the brand. The report could fill that gap. "With the cotton farmers, it's a little bit easier to understand the implications [of adopting better farming practices] and what the burdens may be - getting the seed or growing organic or working with cooperatives," Apter says. "But with the wood, it gets a little bit more opaque."

For starters, it can come from so many different regions and types of sources, from tree plantations to managed forests to illegally logged trees. While cotton is an annual crop, trees have much longer and more variable timelines. Tracking the impacts of that sourcing on communities is much more complex.

Apter is impressed with the scope of the report but says implementation will be the real challenge. If it's successful, it could transform the entire viscose sector. Efforts to reduce chemical pollution, for example, have focused on limiting the release of carbon disulfide, a key solvent in viscose production. But Apter and advocates for the environment and health would rather see it eliminated. That would require different chemistry. The other solvents that do exist produce alternatives to viscose, but viscose is what brands and designers most want because of its unique versatility - it can mimic a range of other materials, from linen to silk.

Planning for a circular economy

LaRhea Pepper, managing director of Textile Exchange, recognises that for the report's vision to be realised, business models need to change. "It's a huge challenge in the current business model," says Pepper, explaining that companies need to replace their price-based paradigm with one that values ecological and social benefits. She points out that this shift is already underway at some of the most forward-thinking fashion businesses. Luxury group Kering, for example, has been applauded for its Environmental Profit and Loss methodology and report.

The shift can also include operating with longer timelines. Stella McCartney has found that crucial to her brand's sustainability efforts. "We are working three, four years in advance in order to grow the crops sustainably, without the use of harmful pesticides... and ship everything on a boat rather than air travel, for example, which all takes time," she says. "I hope people come back from the current situation that we are in, and they consider timelines, [and] respect that things can take a little longer if you want to do things better."

The report also covers the need for increased technological capacity for producing fibres from waste materials rather than wood; that includes both recycled fabrics as well as things like agricultural wastes. Such a focus could help the industry progress toward a circular economy, which involves clothes being used more, manufactured from safe and renewable materials and turned into future generations of clothing, says Francois Souchet, lead of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation 's Make Fashion Circular initiative. "To end the wasteful and polluting 'take, make, waste' model in the fashion industry, we need to create a circular economy," he says. "Man-made cellulosic fibres have an important role to play in that transformation."

"There are layers of work that need to happen with man-made cellulosics," says Pepper. "We're trying to get brands to engage with their supply chains and to know where their man-made cellulosics are coming from - just like they're doing with cotton and wool."

Ultimately, the hope is that the 2030 vision, which was developed in collaboration with industry players, will spur a shift toward addressing what the planet and people need to thrive - rather than the industry-centric approach of simply reducing its harm. "What we're trying to promote is a race to the top," says Pepper.

Key takeaway: Fashion's demand for viscose contributes to deforestation, but an important new report suggests a way forward that is more sustainable.

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Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.

More from this author:
Fashion's most interesting sustainability efforts can also help fight racism Sustainability in fashion relies on embracing diversity Fashion can't afford to wait for customers to demand sustainability

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Fashion's steep climb to sustainable viscose

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Viscose has a supply chain problem. Campaigners have identified the semi-synthetic textile, once labelled a sustainable choice, as a troubling reason for global deforestation as well as toxic chemical pollution. But a new vision for man-made cellulosic fibres such as viscose is laid out in an ambitious report released last week by Textile Exchange and Forum for the Future, two global non-profits, in collaboration with leading industry players.

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What Are the Best Lower-Impact Fabrics and Fibres on the Market Right Now? - Good On You

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Choosing clothes made from more sustainable fabrics is one of the best things we can do to make our wardrobes more eco-friendly. Here are our top eight picks.

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Wrap sustainable fabrics

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The Waste and Resources Action Programme (which operates as WRAP) is a registered UK Charity No. 1159512 and registered as a Company limited by guarantee in England & Wales No. 4125764. Registered office at Second Floor, Blenheim Court, 19 George Street, Banbury, Oxon, OX16 5BH.

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‘Put Earth first’: can a greener, fairer fashion industry emerge from crisis

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Fashion

The shutting down of society as we know it is giving a lot of time for reflection, not least in fashion circles. In an interview in the design magazine Dezeen, the influential trend forecaster Li Edelkoort has called it a "quarantine on consumption" that is having a devastating impact on our economy and culture, but ultimately offers "a blank page to a new beginning".

While sections of the fashion industry already knew they could not continue on their current trajectory, it was inconceivable that brands could be forced to slow down, let alone stop production altogether. But that is what has happened as famous names from Prada to Zara have turn ed their production lines to making medical gowns and masks, and luxury houses have changed from making perfume to sanitisers. It's an unprecedented interruption of an industry that has relied on speeding from one season's sales to the next. And it is bringing with it a new sense of connectedness, responsibility and empathy.

After Covid19, the best we can hope for the fashion industry is a rebirth that puts people and planet ahead of profits. Earth Hour this Saturday is a further reminder that every moment counts

Until factories started to feel the effects of Covid-19, the global fashion business was producing 150b n items of clothing each year, far in excess of the needs of a global population of 7.9 billion. Clothing consumption globally was in 2017 projected to rise still more, by 63% by 2030, according to the Global Fashion Agenda and Boston Consulting Group. Who knows if those projections will be dented now that bricks-and-mortar shops are closed, orders have halted and supply chains have been stopped in their tracks?

As factory orders dry up, the lowly paid, overworked garment workers without sick pay or any financial cushion are the ones who are paying the biggest price. The question is how, when the self-isolation and fear abates, we can use this temporary moratorium on production to correct the course of a carbon-guzzling and exploitative industry. We cannot continue down this path of unchecked overproduction, waste and human misery.

Fri 27 Mar 2020 02.00 EDT

On Saturday, people around the world will be reflecting on the temporary decrease in CO2 as they turn off their lights at 8.30pm (local time wherever they are), to take part in Earth Hour. This annual environmental campaign by WWF will remind us that, according to the UN, we have only 10 years to keep global warming to 1.5C. This is something the academics Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham are acutely aware of. In their new report, Earth Logic Fashion Action Research Plan, they write: "The time frame of 10 years is the same as a child's time at school. One eighth of most people's lifetime, or 10 annual reports for a business. Consider what you, your family, community, workplace will do in the coming 10 years. Every moment will count."
Conscious, ethical and cruelty-free: a guide to the language of sustainable fashion
Their argument pivots around the idea that the only way to ensure we cut carbon emissions and end the cycles of overproduction and waste is to imagine a whole new system that places the Earth's needs before those of industrial growth. In a post-Covid-19 world, that's beginning to look slightly more feasible. "We propose planet before industry as a radical idea in which the health and survival of our planet Earth is given precedence over business interests," they write.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought into stark focus the fact that business as usual can be stopped in its tracks. Anything, it seems, is now possible. According to the environmental journalist and broadcaster Lucy Siegle, who wrote the foreword to the Earth Logic report, this break is a "lifeline" to the industry and a "chance to reboot our efforts and change our course based on evidence and fact".

We are seeing 'a new sense of connectedness, responsibility and empathy'. Photograph: Danai Tsouloufa

"Once we realise that the current system is always going to be self-limiting as there are finite resources, putting Earth first is the only option," says Fletcher, of the London College of Fashion's Centre for Sustainable Fashion. This is not about tinkering around the edges of the existing way of working, creating "sustainable" collections or clothing recycling schemes: Earth Logic attacks the very root of the problem: the existing economic model itself. This means a shift from production to the maintenance, use and care of existing clothes. It means reducing the volume of clothes we produce, and in turn, the amount of resources we are using. It means moving from globalised, tangled and unsafe supply chains to small production centres based around the needs and desires of local communities. "We need to find a role for industry scattered across communities," says Fletcher, with multiple local hubs for people to be educated, to make and repair their clothes.

Patriarchy and growth logic are inextricably intertwined, says Tham. The same sorts of people are making the same sorts of decisions. According to Earth Logic, there would be respect for "fashion in non-western geographies. We can train the focus of fashion on supporting race and gender equality. Each perspective offers new models and practices for relating with fashion as well as broadening and diversifying the base of fashion expertise."

'Imagine a whole new system that places the Earth's needs before those of industrial growth.' Photograph: Danai Tsouloufa/Earth Logic

These are all points the next generation coming into the industry is demanding, too. "The questions students are asking are very different now," says Tham, who teaches fashion and economics students at the Linnaeus University, Sweden. How we design clothes must connect with the needs of society and the environment and work with them, not against them. We are seeing this happening with designers looking for ways to help make protective equipment and gowns for medical teams. These new positive role models must be allowed to lead the way forward.

'We are seeing that in times of real emergency, people's behaviour has to change.'

Academics Kate Fletcher and Mathilda Tham, who wrote the new report, Earth Logic, a Fashion Action Research Plan Photograph: Publicity image

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'Put Earth first': can a greener, fairer fashion industry emerge from crisis?

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Fashion The shutting down of society as we know it is giving a lot of time for reflection, not least in fashion circles. In an interview in the design magazine Dezeen, the influential trend forecaster Li Edelkoort has called it a "quarantine on consumption" that is having a devastating impact on our economy and culture, but ultimately offers "a blank page to a new beginning".

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Fast fashion speeding toward environmental disaster, report warns | Fashion | The Guardian

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Global Fashion Agenda

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Redesigning Value: How do we define value in fashion post-crisis?

The time for a reset has arrived. The worldwide pandemic is forcing fashion - a resource-intensive industry and a powerful engine for global growth and job creation - to undergo a dramatic transformation that is playing out in real time day by day, hour by hour.

When our industry begins to recover, we must be ambitious in rebuilding a better new normal. Redesigning Value, the updated theme for Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2020, 12-13 October, will navigate the current and future realities facing our industry as it weathers the storm of a global health and economic crisis - the repercussions of which will be felt for years to come.

This new theme aligns with emerging realities and will further explore the negative impacts of fashion, which have undeniably become more visible in recent weeks and months. Between now and October, we will all have to rethink how fashion operates to redefine value and spark positive, lasting change and impact.

"Through this challenging period, I have had the chance to speak with many industry leaders about the difficulties they are currently facing and what the future will look like post-pandemic. This crisis has forced a quarantine on the world and by extension a quarantine on consumption, raising the question of how this will impact the fashion landscape in the aftermath. Now is the time to think deeply about the constructs surrounding value in our fashion system so we can stimulate positive lasting change for our entire industry and planet." - Eva Kruse, CEO, Global Fashion Agenda

There will only be a green lining to this crisis if we take the opportunity to learn how we as an industry can reconcile our aspirations for short-term survival and prosperity with the desire to establish a long-term thriving industry that is environmentally, socially and economically sound.

Redesigning value will prompt us to create more resilient businesses by bringing sustainable practises to the core of the business models. By re-examining how we can strengthen our relationships to our supply chain partners, our own employees and also our customers, we can help brands discover a newfound purpose and a willingness to emerge on the other side more resilient than ever.

"We have an opportunity to use this moment to reset, rethink and learn. This is an opportunity to future-proof and make our business more resilient, a challenge that does not set up the industry for success in the long run if we take short-term actions now," urges Eva Kruse.

This crucial conversation will unfold at Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2020, which brings together decision-makers from across the globe and presents sustainable solutions.

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Copenhagen Fashion Summit 2020 reveals new theme

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Redesigning Value: How do we define value in fashion post-crisis? The time for a reset has arrived. The worldwide pandemic is forcing fashion - a resource-intensive industry and a powerful engine for global growth and job creation - to undergo a dramatic transformation that is playing out in real time day by day, hour by hour.

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"See You Tomorrow", Nordstrom's first foray into resale, required the buy-in from brand partners and executives to get off the ground.

Olivia Kim, VP of creative projects, says the need to respond to rapidly changing customer behaviour pushed the concept forward.

Resale is part of Nordstrom's strategy to test new concepts, deprioritising perfection, to gather insights.

Nordstrom has planted its flag in resale. The American retailer launched a pop-up shop called "See You Tomorrow" at its New York City store and a corresponding online resale component in January. Customers can shop a selection of clothing, accessories and jewellery from brands like Veronica Beard, Ganni and Balenciaga, either sourced from the Nordstrom Quality Centre, where lightly used returned items sit unsold, or from peers selling off unwanted wares.

The concept, which will live on through the summer as the company evaluates the business model, came together under Olivia Kim, Nordstrom's VP of creative projects, who called it "one of the hardest things" her team has led. Needing the blessings of all brands involved, cooperation from Nordstrom's internal teams and the help of a third-party partner, testing an emerging business model amounted to a more significant effort than usually falls under Kim's purview.

"Since I've been here, I've been leading a guinea pig department. There's a lot of trust," says Kim, who leads a five-person team. "We've pushed the company forward in acting small and nimbly."

Kim was approached by then co-president Pete Nordstrom (now president and chief brand officer) in 2013 to jazz up the department store's inventory selection. Her connections to interesting, offbeat and up-and-coming brands - Kim spent nearly 10 years at Opening Ceremony prior to Nordstrom's poaching - were seen as an advantage in driving foot traffic and bringing in new customers.

Overseeing the Pop-In@Nordstrom activations, launched the same year, Kim has ushered brands like Gentle Monster, Vitra Morrison, Everlane and Susan Alexandra into a selection of Nordstrom stores on a four to six weeks rotating schedule. Typically, her team brings new installations and partnerships to life in as little as six weeks. See You Tomorrow took six months from conception to launch.

The push into resale speaks to the way Nordstrom has experimented overall with new approaches. Its Nordstrom Local stores have popped up in cities like New York and LA to serve as small format service hubs; a recent partnership with Rent the Runway brought the rental model into the fold. The company's focus on innovative ideas is under pressure as department stores continue to be squeezed: its fourth-quarter 2019 earnings, announced Tuesday, missed estimates and sent shares tumbling 7.5 per cent.

The result of the resale experiment, Kim hopes, will be to learn more about both the buyers and the sellers in the resale market and further normalise the business model. It could also serve as a customer acquisition channel by offering a more affordable way to shop that doesn't include discounting. Regardless of outcome, its launch process demonstrates how a small and agile team within a broader organisation can push new ideas up the ladder.

Hacking logistics

For Kim, one of the first steps in bringing resale to Nordstrom was figuring out the logistical framework. The result: a partnership with Trove, formerly Yerdle , the turnkey resale platform that has powered the e-commerce backend logistics of brands including Patagonia and Eileen Fisher. Otherwise, Kim says, it would have taken up to twice as long to get the project off the ground.

Trove's system handles the cleaning, sorting and fulfilment of resale items through Nordstrom's online site and in-store pop-up. It also offers pricing recommendations using an algorithm that factors in considerations like whether or not a brand is trending. Internally, Kim's team led merchandising decisions and also worked with people on Nordstrom's broader financial, growth strategy, creative and PR teams. More people and pieces had to come together than usual to get the greenlight for a new business initiative, and that required tact, says Kim.

"You can't bulldoze your way through," she says, adding that there were a lot of sign-offs involved. "Having to slow down just a little to get everybody on board was really important."

Courting brands

To uphold Nordstrom's existing relationships, Kim had to cross ground that resale sites like The RealReal don't worry about: getting sign-off from every brand whose products could potentially be sold via resale. Kim likened the experience to "bringing 500 people with us on the journey".

"The conversations with the brands were hard, and there were a lot of them," she says. Kim and her team reached out to brand reps individually to explain their intent. "There were a lot of brands who wrote back and immediately said 'Absolutely not, we don't believe in that'."

Part of Nordstrom's conditions for operating resale was that it be fully transparent with all brands. To help facilitate the relationship, Nordstrom clears every product put up for resale and finalises their prices with brands. The hope is that being a transparent partner will make brands more comfortable and normalise the model.

"The more you talk about it, the more comfortable people will get. The more people who are onboard the more people become onboard," she says. "For brands it felt like a safe, comfortable way for them to engage with a customer through us as a trusted partner."

The most common concern among brands is that resale would cannibalise typical business, with customers skipping out on full-price products and instead opting for resale. Kim's belief is that resale actually breaks down into two customer patterns, that of the sellers, and that of the buyers. Resale contributes to seller's buying behaviour - a full-price handbag purchase is bolstered by the confidence that the bag has resale value; when it's resold, the money made back is then put towards a new purchase. Buyers, meanwhile, are typically younger, aspiring luxury customers who otherwise can't afford the brands they want to wear.

Understanding outcomes

Nordstrom's first foray into resale didn't come with sales goals or specific metrics to hit, Kim says, but rather the objective of listening and learning from customers' response. Her team is well positioned to listen to reactions thanks to its small size and ability to quickly adapt, she adds. She's also conditioned to be willing to make mistakes.

The goal is to debunk the idea that resale cannibalises full-price sales, and find out who the resale customer is by age and demographic. Kim points to Eileen Fisher's reworn resale business, also powered by Trove, which has a 70 per cent first-time customer rate, as proof of the model's customer acquisition potential.

Ultimately, Kim says, the point to remember is that retailers don't need to reinvent the wheel in order to break new ground.

"The word innovation gets thrown out a lot," she says. "Innovation can mean perfecting something, listening to customers and continuing to be a part of the experience with them. It doesn't need to be a shiny, brand new concept to make a difference."
To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author: "Resilient" to Covid-19, Farfetch continues to eye profitability Why modelling giant Elite is building a fashion brand Inside Le Tote's $100 million bet to rebuild Lord & Taylor

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The leader behind Nordstrom's leap into resale - Vogue Business Talent

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"See You Tomorrow", Nordstrom's first foray into resale, required the buy-in from brand partners and executives to get off the ground. Olivia Kim, VP of creative projects, says the need to respond to rapidly changing customer behaviour pushed the concept forward. Resale is part of Nordstrom's strategy to test new concepts, deprioritising perfection, to gather insights.

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Brands are increasingly offsetting the impact of runway shows, but critics argue fashion week still perpetuates the bigger problem of overproduction and conspicuous consumption.

Some progressive designers are treating fashion month as an opportunity to convene and rethink the industry's business model for greater sustainability.

Fashion month, with its concentration of top marketers and stylists in four style capitals for four weeks, is an opportunity to showcase eco-friendly fashion as desirable.

As fashion month kicks off in New York this week, the resource-intensive runway show is coming under increasing scrutiny. Last season, brands did everything from offsetting carbon emissions to planting a temporary grove of trees, but that's probably not enough.

The environmental impact of fashion shows is minuscule compared to, say, raw material sourcing and clothing manufacturing. But it is, in many ways, a physical manifestation of how far the industry is from where the planet needs it to be. Such presentations are the engine that keeps the wheels of overproduction and conspicuous consumption turning, argue a small but growing chorus of eco-conscious designers and climate change activists, and reform would go a long way.

"For me, the biggest problem is 100 per cent everything new, every season," says Patrick McDowell, the buzzy London designer who has built a name for his eco-friendly messaging.

Fashion shows as a force for change

Critics have slammed fashion shows with environmental themes for hypocrisy. Yet, such glitzy occasions are also an opportunity for the industry to convene and to communicate its priorities, says McDowell. Instead of showing a new collection, or any at all, in February, he'll be hosting a "curated swap shop". Guests can bring in clothes to exchange, and they'll have the option to sew upcycled Swarovski crystals onto their items at a table.

McDowell did something similar at a workshop in Milan last year. He recalls guests being surprised that it would take them half an hour to sew one crystal onto a garment. That, for him, was an accomplishment because it sparked a conversation and critical thinking. "'So now, do you understand the problem with a fully beaded dress?' It reconnected people with the idea of the craft. If it takes this long to do two stitches, can you imagine how long it takes to make a T-shirt?" he says.

Extinction Rebellion is again calling for the cancellation of London Fashion Week because so little has changed since last year, says Sara Arnold, co-ordinator of the group, which says it practices civil disobedience for environmental goals. "It's really business as usual. We have had these fashion pacts, companies saying they'll go net-zero by 2050 but it's really too late."

The group says it targets the fashion industry for change not only because of its impacts but also because its entire existence is premised on creativity and new ideas. "One of the reasons why we think the fashion industry is so important to target is because you can use it to vision a new way of living, and we need radical visioning right now," Arnold says.

There are also opportunities for enlightened organisers to help enact change. Copenhagen Fashion Week announced last week that it would require brands to meet a set of sustainability standards within three years if they are to keep showing. Copenhagen may wield influence given a recent buzz around the event, and the three-year requirement could result in some significant changes from brands.

Designer Phoebe English didn't wait for an edict, and her example is one that organising bodies may want to consider. The London label, which is stocked at au courant boutiques such as Dover Street Market, skipped three fashion weeks between 2018 and 2019 to evaluate priorities and operations. It rewrote its production guidelines, which now specify that collections are produced locally in small made-to-order batches, eliminating overproduction.

"It was frightening to do... but it's been so massively beneficial to have that time to reassess what, why and how we were doing fashion and how it can be relevant to now," says the designer.

Reusing and repurposing garments is front and centre at Helsinki Fashion Week, which claims to be the most sustainable fashion week in the world. (It runs on renewable energy and public transportation, among other things.) Founder Evelyn Mora says the event only features "designers who have implemented sustainability into their core business". It evaluates this by looking at criteria from raw material sourcing and fibre production to end-of-life management and brands' mission and business models.

Elevating green design

For all the momentum around sustainability, eco-friendly fashion remains a relative sideshow. Fashion shows, with their concentration of superstar stylists and marketers, could help to not only shift the public's perception of what is and isn't fashionable, but also drive a transformation in the quality and the quantity that consumers want.

English has been slowly increasing the percentage of waste fabric that each collection is made out of. Waste fabrics inevitably limit the number of units she can produce, but in treating them as limited-edition items, she's managed to frame that as an advantage. She's adjusted to a different sales process - showrooms basically operate on a first-come, first-served basis - and generally sees it as a win-win. "It's using a material that has no value, re-looking at it as a precious resource and putting value back in by selling it as a limited-edition," she says.

London's 50m, which stocks Phoebe English, says that most customers do not initially notice that there's anything particularly sustainable about the clothes. "Once customers know, it does help with sales as we find more and more consumers care about sustainability," says 50m founding director Tracey Suen. "The limited quality definitely creates demand."

Norwegian brand Holzweiler, which has made its name with its hoodies, scarves and other knitwear, chose not to build a set for its Copenhagen Fashion Week show last season. Instead, it used lighting to foster an intimate atmosphere on the catwalk.

"A show is also about creating an environment that tells a story, so of course it's tough doing this without building a set design," says brand director Susanne Holzweiler, adding that Holzweiler compensated by choosing a location that helped tell the story. The brand held its Copenhagen show last week in an old plastic sorting factory.

Numerous independent designers are using eco-friendly set design to showcase their story. Mother of Pearl, for instance, has featured a ball pit with balls made of recycled plastic, which designer Amy Powney saw as a living metaphor for the plastic invasion of our oceans that fashion is culpable in causing.

It will take work from big brands with significant marketing muscle and design knowhow to move the needle. There are some encouraging signs around the events themselves - although until someone decides to calculate a show's full footprint, it will be impossible to determine how much of a dent show-specific efforts make.

Louis Vuitton, for instance, chose not to use structural elements for its Spring/Summer 2020 men's show. (When asked if it planned to regularly forego building sets, the French brand only said venue decisions "depend on the inspirations of the collections".)

But all of these elements may only amount to ornamental details. The younger designers like McDowell prioritise sustainability not only in what they make but in the business models that fashion shows perpetuate. That is the larger, more fundamental gap that remains between a more sustainable fashion show and a more sustainable fashion industry.

Is it enough?

Pascal Morand, executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, says that French fashion's governing body is working to boost sustainability in the services it provides at Paris Fashion Week. The FHCM is building a shared tool that could potentially lead to open-source methodology and greater international collaboration. A trial will be run in late February to collect data on environmental and social impacts. Morand dismisses the premise, though, that fashion shows are fundamentally problematic.

"It is nonsense and dangerous to consider that events such as fashion weeks are somehow wasteful. Thinking that [they] will be replaced by digital events would be denying our empathy, sensory and emotional needs," he says in an email. "Sustainable development should never become a misleading pretext for imposing a utilitarian vision and philosophy of the world, which would ipso facto contradict the essence of fashion."

The younger, more radical designers don't necessarily disagree; they just may be treating the issue at hand with a little more urgency, while maintaining a love for the essence of fashion. "We are trained designers, and we have become lazy. It is our job and our responsibility to not only design garments but design systems that create positive clothes," says McDowell.

Correction: Pascal Morand is executive president of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. An earlier version of this story incorrectly called him its president. (6 February 2020)

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More from this author: Fashion's dirty microplastics secret How fashion can avoid blowing up the Paris Agreement The brands working to make footwear more sustainable

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Amid climate crisis, fashion rethinks the runway show

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Brands are increasingly offsetting the impact of runway shows, but critics argue fashion week still perpetuates the bigger problem of overproduction and conspicuous consumption. Some progressive designers are treating fashion month as an opportunity to convene and rethink the industry's business model for greater sustainability.

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Brands like Rothy's and Patagonia sell products made from recycled fabrics, which are almost entirely made of plastic waste.

A growing cohort of industry players believe long-term sustainability is more achievable if recycled products were made from upcycled fabrics.

Stella McCartney and Levi's have used recycled textiles in proof-of-concept products, but more brand buy-in is necessary to increase availability of the materials for mainstream use.

Polyester made from melted-down plastic - used water bottles, ocean debris - has a much lower carbon footprint than virgin polyester, and it can help keep waste out of landfills and oceans. Brands including Patagonia, Adidas and Rothy's use recycled plastic in their products, which are then marketed as more sustainable clothing choices.

But it's a plaster fix for a problem that requires longer-term solutions, say a growing number of sustainability experts.

Recycling used textiles into other textiles would carve a more direct path to the still-elusive concept of a circular economy. But it's a different process than plastic-to-polyester recycling, requiring technological innovation and in some cases new manufacturing practices. A number of companies, including Evrnu, Natural Fiber Welding, Worn Again Technologies and Tyton Biosciences, are at various stages both in scaling their capacity and in partnering with brands to make fabric recycling a possibility.

These companies each specialise in different capacities - recycling cotton, for example, or separating apparel's ubiquitous cotton-polyester blend - but their end results can be recycled again and again. They may also be strong enough to stand alone, rather than require blending with virgin materials. The recycled polyesters of today, popular among brands trying to reduce their environmental footprint, can do neither. It's a longevity play as fashion looks to reduce its environmental impact.

"We're taking everything full circle," says Christopher Stanev, co-founder and president of textile innovations company Evrnu. "Most of the systems today, including when you donate your garments, you're not fixing a problem. You're just creating a delay of the end of life of the garment before they end up in the landfill or the incinerator."

The problem with plastic

The main difference between plastic-to-textile and textile-to-textile recycling comes down to process. Most materials today are recycled mechanically, without having their chemical structure changed. That reduces the quality over time in plastics and textiles alike as fibres get shorter or the material weaker in the process.

Chemical recycling, however, breaks plastics down into their chemical building blocks, which can then be used to make a different material or more of the same material without compromising on quality.

Evrnu is the startup behind NuCycl, a technology for chemically recycling a range of fabrics including cotton and polyester. Stanev says Evrnu's process retains the quality of the original material, and in some cases, can improve it.

Evrnu collaborated with Adidas and Stella McCartney last year on a hoodie and with Levi's in 2016 on a pair of jeans made from discarded T-shirts. These were both proofs of concept - NuCycl hasn't reached the commercial market yet. Stanev says Evrnu is in discussions with Levi's, Stella McCartney, Adidas, Target and more than 60 other brands to develop products, but he wouldn't give a timeline for when they can be expected to launch. He says Evrnu's goal is to recycle one million tonnes of post-consumer fabric per year, but it will need brand buy-in: the company plans to scale by licensing its technology for suppliers to implement.

The market opportunity

Its cotton technology is ready for commercialisation, but the opportunity and demand exceed any one material; Evrnu has technologies in development to recycle seven different types or compositions of fabric. Tyton Biosciences, a Virginia-based startup, separates cotton from polyester while preserving both materials for recycling into future fabrics, a function that has eluded most others.

While the polyester can be turned right back into polyester, Tyton recycles cotton into a substitute for tree-based fibres like viscose and modal, which are associated with rampant deforestation globally. Some production efforts operate more sustainably than others, and the issue is gaining ground; in Davos, environmental group Canopy announced an action plan to replace half of the forest fibre used to make pulp for textiles and paper packaging with alternatives such as agricultural residues and waste cotton.

"Our goal is to keep natural resources in nature, and we want to do that by, instead of using natural resources for making clothing, using end-of-life textiles," says Tyton president and co-founder Peter Majeranowski.

He says all sectors of the fashion industry, from sportswear to luxury, have expressed interest in Tyton's technology. It's too early for him to name specific brands that could be looking to adopt it - though Patagonia is a likely one, as its investment arm led Tyton's Series A round - but Karla Mora, founder of Alante Capital, says the strong industry demand was key in her firm's decision to invest in Tyton.

"Even more than things like cleaner chemistries and dyes, it seemed like the industry wanted recycled fibres. They can tell that story, they can get that through the various levels of approval," she says. "That's what the companies wanted. The market appetite was there. It was big."

The market opportunity could increase competition, a positive in Mora's view - fashion needs massive investment increases to scale more of the technologies that will help the industry reduce its impacts.

"We need a lot of these companies to succeed for this innovation in the sustainable space to happen," she says. If they fail, the cost could be that investors get scared off of making future bets. "Their success helps drive the success of the entire space. There's that much need right now. It's definitely not a zero-sum game."

Longstanding challenges

Evrnu and Tyton don't cover all the roadblocks to the industry recycling the vast streams of used and excess fabrics currently discarded as waste. Cotton, for instance, is delicate and harder to recycle back into cotton. Natural Fiber Welding specialises in preserving or restoring the integrity of cotton fibres, which diminishes during recycling.

To turn some of these recycling practices into a reality for the industry, though, requires not just the technological capacity but an infrastructural shift. Natural Fiber Welding founder and CEO Luke Haverhals envisions the textile mill of the future will be one part recycling centre, one part traditional mill. "We view ourselves as the recycling centre," he says.

Textile collection - just getting the used fabrics to these recycling centres - remains a problem. Majeranowski of Tyton foresees a day when municipal recycling systems could take clothing just like any other recyclable, and get it to where it needs to be. That's a long way off. Composition can also raise issues: fabrics claiming to be 100 per cent cotton may actually have other materials mixed in. Evrnu and Tyton have created processes to identify what a garment is made of - but it would be easier, moving forward, if that weren't an issue at all.

Brands are making individual progress. Finnish label Marimekko last month released prototype garments with fibres from the Finnish company Spinnova, which makes cellulose-based textile fibres. The company uses virgin wood - Forest Stewardship Council-certified - as its primary material, but CEO Janne Poranen says they can recycle their fibres "again and again". He couldn't say whether or how Marimekko or Spinnova would build a take-back programme - the prototype is just a first step, but it shows Spinnova was able to produce the quality that the designer requires for its signature prints.

Majeranowski of Tyton is optimistic about the culmination of these efforts. "In an ideal world - and I think this is where the industry's heading - we'll be designing clothing for circularity."

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More from this author: What the food industry can teach fashion about sustainability The UN set 17 sustainability goals. It needs fashion's help meeting them Fashion has a waste problem. These companies want to fix it

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As fashion churns out more 'sustainable' goods, why is so much made from plastic?

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Brands like Rothy's and Patagonia sell products made from recycled fabrics, which are almost entirely made of plastic waste. A growing cohort of industry players believe long-term sustainability is more achievable if recycled products were made from upcycled fabrics.

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This story appears in the March 2020 issue ofNational Geographic magazine.

In Amsterdam I met a man who revealed to me the hidden currents of our lives-the massive flows of raw materials and products deployed, to such wonderful and damaging effect, by 7.7 billion humans. Our shared metabolism, you might say. It was a crisp fall morning, and I was sitting in a magnificent old brick pile on the Oosterpark, a palace of curved corridors and grand staircases and useless turrets. A century ago, when the Dutch were still extracting coffee, oil, and rubber from their colony in Indonesia, this building had been erected as a colonial research institute. Now it houses assorted do-gooder organizations. The one Marc de Wit works for is called Circle Economy, and it's part of a buzzing international movement that aims to reform how we've done just about everything for the past two centuries-since the rise of the steam engine, "if you need to pinpoint a time," de Wit said.

De Wit is 39, genial, bespectacled, a little disheveled, a chemist by training. He opened a pamphlet and spread out a diagram he called "an x-ray of our global economy." Unlike natural ecosystems, which operate in cycles-plants grow in soil, animals eat plants, dung replenishes soil-the industrial economy is largely linear. On the diagram, fat, colored currents of the four types of raw material-minerals, ores, fossil fuels, and biomass-surged from left to right, splitting and braiding as they became products that met seven human needs. Sand went into concrete apartment towers on six continents. Metal ore became ships, cars, and also combine harvesters-in a single year we harvested 22.2 billion tons of biomass, just to feed us all. Fossil fuels powered those vehicles, kept us warm, became plastic, became all kinds of things. The total flow into the economy in 2015 was 102.3 billion tons.

All good so far; amazing even, if you're the type to be amazed by human effort and ingenuity. It's what happens next, after our needs are met, that's the problem-the mother of all environmental problems, in fact. De Wit pointed to the gray fog on the right edge of the diagram. The gray fog is waste.

In 2015, he explained, about two-thirds of the material we scratched from the planet slipped through our fingers. More than 67 billion tons of hard-won stuff was lost, most of it scattered irretrievably. Plastic trash drifted into rivers and oceans; so did nitrates and phosphates leaching from fertilized fields. A third of all food rotted, even as the Amazon was deforested to produce more. Think of an environmental problem, and chances are it's connected to waste. That includes climate change: It happens because we burn fossil fuels and scatter the waste-carbon dioxide-into the atmosphere.

This may sound ridiculous, but as de Wit walked me through the numbers that morning, it felt like an epiphany. There was a unifying, exhilarating clarity to that wonky diagram, to the way it defined the task. Sure, it said, the threats we face are multifarious and overwhelming. Sure, they're planetary in scale. But really, to get along on this Earth, we must do just one thing: Stop wasting so much of it. De Wit pointed to a thin arrow that circled back, from right to left, along the bottom of the diagram, representing all the material we'd managed to capture through recycling, composting, and so on. It was only 9.3 billion tons: just 9 percent of the total.

The "circularity gap," as de Wit and his colleagues dubbed it when they presented their report at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2018, is relatively new in human history. It dates to our industrial use of fossil fuels in the 18th century. Until then, most of what humans did was done with muscle power, whether human or animal. Growing things, making things, shipping things took hard labor, which made them valuable. Our limited physical energy also restricted how big a dent we could put in the planet. It kept most of us very poor, however.

Cheap fossil energy, concentrated by geologic time and pressure in seams of coal or pools of oil, changed all that. It made it easier to extract raw materials anywhere, ship them to factories, and send the merchandise everywhere. Fossil fuels exploded our possibilities-and the process keeps intensifying. In the past half century, while the world's population has more than doubled, the amount of material flowing through the economy has more than tripled.

"Now we're reaching the limits," de Wit said.

For that same half century, environmentalists have been warning of limits to growth. The new "circular economy" movement is different. It's a collection of strategies-some old, such as reducing, reusing, and recycling, and some new, such as renting rather than owning things-that together are meant to reshape the global economy to eliminate waste. The circular economy doesn't aim to end growth; it aims to bend how we do things back into harmony with nature, so that growth can continue. "Prosperity in a world of finite resources," as European environment commissioner Janez Potočnik once put it, in the foreword to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation report. It said the circular economy could save European businesses up to $630 billion a year.

The idea is catching on, particularly in Europe, that small, crowded, rich but resource-poor continent. The European Union is investing billions in the strategy. The Netherlands has pledged to go fully circular by 2050. Amsterdam, Paris, and London all have plans. "It must happen," said Wayne Hubbard, head of the London Waste and Recycling Board, when I asked whether the circular economy could happen.

One man who definitely thinks it could happen, and whose work has proved revelatory to many others, is American architect William McDonough. With German chemist Michael Braungart, he wrote the visionary 2002 book Cradle to Cradle, which argues that products and economic processes could be designed such that all waste becomes fodder for something else. Before setting off for Europe, I made a pilgrimage to McDonough's office in Charlottesville, Virginia. Our conversation ricocheted from his childhood in Tokyo, through Plato, Aristotle, and Buckminster Fuller, to some new compostable blue jeans he was excited about, before I finally managed to ask him the nagging question: Is all this talk of an end to waste just pie in the sky?

"It's absolutely pie in the sky, no question about it," McDonough said. "You need pies in the sky to help us go forward. Because remember what Leibniz said."

I didn't remember much about that German philosopher.

"Leibniz said, 'If it is possible, therefore it exists.' And I'm saying, 'If we can make it exist, it's therefore possible.' "

Was that tautological? Was it wise? Did Leibniz really say that? It was intriguing, in any case. Not long after that, I took my busted old roller bag to be repaired (very circular, compared with buying a new one), packed the certified cradle-to-cradle jeans that McDonough had given me, and headed out to see what evidence of possible existence I could find for the circular economy.

The first small breaks in our natural circularity actually predate the 18th-century industrial revolution. The Romans, besides tossing broken amphorae around in an uninhibited way, pioneered a fraught invention: sewers. That is, they channeled human waste into rivers, instead of returning it to fields where, as any circularity maven will tell you, those nutrients belong. As a young boy in Tokyo in the 1950s (his parents were in the occupying American Army), McDonough recalls waking at night to the sound of farmers collecting the family's night soil. His mother would soothe him with lullabies about poop, sometimes in Japanese with an Alabama accent. It made a permanent impression.

The Romans, like the Phoenicians before them, also mined copper from the rich deposits at Río Tinto in Spain. But they recycled too: They melted down bronze statues from conquered peoples to make weapons. Copper has always been a prime target for recyclers. Compared with sewage, it's scarce and valuable.

In the yard at the Aurubis copper smelter in Lünen, in the Ruhr region of western Germany, a large bust of Lenin stands in a flower bed-a souvenir of the many bronze Lenins melted here, from towns around communist East Germany, after East and West were reunited in 1990. Aurubis, Europe's largest copper producer, is also the world's largest copper recycler. When the Lünen plant was built in 1916, at the height of World War I, copper for artillery shells was in short supply, and Germans were pulling bronze bells out of church towers. "Since that day, this plant has exclusively done recycling," said Detlev Laser, the deputy plant manager.

Copper, unlike plastic, say, can be recycled indefinitely without loss of quality-it's a perfect circular material. The Lünen plant still processes bulk copper, mostly pipes and cables, but it has had to adapt to waste with much lower concentrations. As Europe has replaced landfills with municipal incinerators, a lot of slag is showing up containing bits of metal-"because someone threw their cell phone in the trash" instead of the recycling bin, Laser said.

With Hendrik Roth, the plant's environmental manager, I watched an excavator drop bucketloads of electronic debris, including laptops, onto a sloping conveyor that carried it toward a shredder-the first of more than a dozen steps in the bewildering and deafening sorting process. At one station, a conveyor raced by, carrying hand-size shards of circuit boards. Some fell into an abyss; others leaped as if by their own volition onto a belt above. A camera system, Roth explained, was deciding whether each shard contained metal-and if not, activating an air jet under it at just the right instant.

Aurubis sells the aluminum and plastic it recovers to those industries; copper and other nonferrous metals go into its own ovens. In the tidy yard, the dust is swept daily and fed to the smelter. "We have no waste here," Laser said.

Worldwide, only about a fifth of all electronic waste is recycled, according to a 2017 UN report. Aurubis even takes shipments from the United States. "But I do wonder sometimes why such a highly industrialized country would give up such resources," Roth said. "They're sitting on billions." That's starting to change. Apple, for example, encourages customers to trade in old iPhones; an intelligent robot in Texas dismantles them and extracts materials for new devices.

But copper exemplifies a general challenge: There's a limit to what even aggressive recycling can accomplish. At Aurubis, recycled copper accounts for only a third of production; the rest still comes from mines. World copper production has quadrupled in the past half century and is still growing. The technologies we need to get off fossil fuels require a lot of copper; a single giant wind turbine uses about 33 tons.

"Demand is growing," Laser said. "You'll never cover that with recycling." The circular economy is going to require other strategies.

The emblem of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a set of nested circles, was on Dame Ellen's teal hoodie when we met in her headquarters, an old sailmaker's loft on the Isle of Wight. In 2005, at age 28, MacArthur finished sailing around the world on a 75-foot trimaran in a record time of just over 71 days-alone. She had packed 72 days' worth of food. She had raced storms off Antarctica and fixed a broken generator. She arrived home, having survived a microcosm of Spaceship Earth, with a visceral awareness of limited resources.

Why wasn't everyone talking about that? she wondered. She gave up competitive sailing and instead traded on her fame and access to corporate boardrooms-"it would be a waste not to use it," she told me-to establish an organization that has done more than any other to promote the circular economy, using a hierarchy of strategies. The best is the simplest: Waste less stuff by keeping it in use.

That choice hits many people most acutely in their closets. From 2000 to 2015, while the world population grew by a fifth, clothing production doubled, according to an Ellen MacArthur Foundation report, thanks to the explosion of "fast fashion." With so many cheap clothes, the report estimated, the average item was worn a third fewer times by 2015. That year, the world threw away more than $450 billion worth of clothes.

Jorik Boer makes a living rescuing some of them as head of the Boer Group, a Dutch family business that began a century ago on the streets of Rotterdam with his great-grandfather collecting rags, metal, and paper in a cart. Today, from his base in Dordrecht, Boer runs five plants in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Germany. Together they collect and sort-and resell for reuse or recycling-up to 460 tons of discarded clothing a day.

People have the wrong idea about what happens when they drop clothes into a donation bin, Boer said; they think the clothes are given directly to needy people. What usually happens instead is that companies like Boer buy donated clothing, sort it, and resell it-all over the world.

"You need a lot of experience to know where you can sell and reuse a piece of clothing," Boer said. Through the window behind him, I could see the rapid but practiced movements of women pulling clothes from conveyors, examining each item briefly, then pivoting and tossing it into one of 60 or so bags. Each woman sorts about three tons a day, Boer said. Sorters must have an eye for fashion-especially for the best stuff, just 5 or 10 percent of the total, which makes most of Boer's profit. In Russia and eastern Europe, prized items such as women's underwear can fetch up to five euros a kilogram ($2.50 a pound). Most lower quality material gets shipped in 55-kilogram bales to Africa, where it's sold for as little as 50 cents a kilo.

At one point Boer eyeballed my gray sport coat, which I felt quite confident of; he couldn't see the ink stains on the inside pocket. "We cannot sell your jacket anywhere," he volunteered cheerfully. "No one in the world wants to buy it." Boer said he would actually have to pay someone to take my unfashionable garment away.

But they buy used underwear? I was miffed.

"That's clean, used underwear," Boer said. People normally don't donate dirty clothes.

He gets more clothing these days than he can handle, mostly from Germany, which collects 75 percent of its discards: Town governments have gotten into the act. He can't find enough skilled workers. At the T-shirt grading station, I noticed an older man. "That's my dad," Boer explained. Marinus, the retired CEO, still pitches in. He loves the work.

The Boers' biggest worry is how clothing is changing. Right now the company is able to resell 60 percent of what it collects. Clothes that are kept in service and worn again are better for the planet-the material and energy that went into making them don't have to be replaced-and also for Boer. "It's what's financing this whole business," he said.

The other 40 percent, the clothes no one wants, are recycled as wipe cloths or shredded for insulation or mattress stuffing. Some are incinerated. The recycled fraction increasingly includes cheaply made, worn-out items. Boer loses money on almost all of it. Fast fashion, he said, could help put him out of business.

There's one form of recycling he makes a modest profit on. For decades Boer has shipped wool sweaters and other loose knits to companies in Prato, Italy, that mechanically tease the wool apart, recapturing long fibers that can become good-as-new garments. Woven cotton or polyester can't be recycled that way; the fibers end up too short. Half a dozen start-ups are working on technology to chemically recycle these fibers. To spur its development, Boer thinks the European Union should require new clothes to contain, say, 20 percent recycled fibers.

"In 10 years it will be there," Boer said. "It has to be there."

At Ellen MacArthur I heard enthusiasm for a different business model, one that might promote circularity in many economic sectors-a model based on renting rather than owning. Rent the Runway and other online clothes-rental companies make up less than a 10th of a percent of the global fashion market so far, but they're growing fast.

In theory, renting is more sustainable: If many people share the same item, fewer clothes might be needed overall. In practice, that's not certain; customers might just add luxury rentals to existing wardrobes. Renting will certainly add to the packaging, shipping, and dry-cleaning of clothes. Writing in Elle recently, journalist Elizabeth Cline, author of two books on fast fashion, tried to sort out the pros and cons. "Wearing what's already in your closet is the most sustainable way to get dressed," she concluded.

People can't go circular on their own; the system has to change. But individual choices do matter. "It's about using less stuff in the first place," said Liz Goodwin of the World Resources Institute.

In 2008 the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which Goodwin ran then, did one of the first major studies of food waste. The nonprofit surveyed more than 2,100 British families who had agreed to let inspectors paw through their garbage and weigh each food scrap. "Absolutely shocking," Goodwin recalled. "We found whole chickens in their wrappers." Nearly half of all salad and a quarter of all fruit was ending up in bins, as were nearly 400,000 tons of potatoes a year. In all, Britons were tossing one of every three bags of groceries.

As it turned out, they're not exceptional. Roughly a third of all food is wasted globally, at an annual cost of nearly a trillion dollars, WRAP's global director, Richard Swannell, told me. Over dinner at a restaurant in Oxford, at which we both took care to clean our plates, Swannell explained that before the WRAP study, no one was aware of just how much food-and money-was going to waste in Britain.

WRAP launched a chipper PR campaign ("Love Food Hate Waste"). It worked with women's groups to disseminate food-rescue tips. (A favorite was ways to dress up toast to save stale bread.) It also persuaded grocery chains to adopt some simple measures: Clearer, extended "use by" dates; smaller, resealable packages; an end to "buy one, get one free" sales on perishables. It was boring stuff, forgotten common sense, but it worked. By 2012 the amount of edible food wasted in Britain had fallen by a fifth. "We've had massive progress," Swannell said.

The progress has stalled lately, but no one ever thought common sense alone would end food waste. Artificial intelligence may be required. From a remodeled Victorian furniture factory in the Shoreditch section of London, Marc Zornes, CEO of Winnow, is pitching a high-tech solution that his start-up already has placed into 1,300 restaurant kitchens: smart garbage cans.

Zornes demonstrated one in his conference room, using a plastic chicken leg. Each time a cook or waiter dumps a pot or platter of something into a Winnow can, a scale measures the added weight and a camera snaps a picture. The AI software identifies the new garbage-at Ikea it has learned to distinguish three kinds of meatballs-and displays its cost.

Zornes claimed his clients-AccorHotels, the French multinational, is another big one-routinely cut food waste in half by listening to their garbage cans. Breakfast buffets are notorious, he said; most leftovers are discarded. "When you start measuring the problem, you start managing it," Zornes said. You make less of what you're throwing out. I had walked through Winnow's graffiti-decorated carriage doors expecting grooviness and hype; I walked out wanting to tell my nephew, a Ritz-Carlton chef, about Winnow.

A few days later I had a similar experience in Amsterdam at InStock, a restaurant that makes ambitious cuisine from surplus food. In a spare but cozily lit room, I sat down under a wooden sign that tallied the "rescued food"-780,054 kilograms, or more than 850 tons. One of the founders, Freke van Nimwegen, was at the bar checking the books. She joined me and told me her story as my prix fixe menu ran its courses.

Van Nimwegen was two years out of business school and working for Albert Heijn, the largest Dutch grocery chain, when she discovered the food waste problem. As an assistant store manager she wanted to do something about it, and she couldn't-food banks might take some bread but not all the produce. She and two co-workers came up with the idea for InStock in 2014 and persuaded the company to support it. It has gone from a pop-up to this restaurant to two others in Utrecht and The Hague, and for van Nimwegen, it was just getting really interesting.

"It's not that we had a dream to start a restaurant chain," she said. "Not at all. We wanted to do something about food waste."

My main course arrived: nuggets of "Kentucky Fried Goose." "Watch out, there can be bullets in the meat," said the waitress. Schiphol Airport, van Nimwegen explained, employs hunters to dispatch wild geese that might otherwise foul jet engines. The dead birds used to be incinerated; now they come here. The nuggets were chewy but tasty and bullet free. With eggplant chutney and red pepper coulis they went down nicely.

The chefs at InStock improvise with whatever they get. The food comes from Albert Heijn but also from producers, including farmers. "It's easy to point fingers at the supermarket," van Nimwegen said. "The whole supply chain, including the customer-everybody wants everything in stock. We're just spoiled, basically. The companies don't want to sell 'no.' So they'll always have a little bit too much."

In 2018 InStock started delivering surplus food to other restaurants. Van Nimwegen's priority now is to get contracts to supply corporate cafeterias. "The most important thing for us is to make volume," she said. "These kinds of places have a thousand people that need lunch." The Dutch have managed to decrease food waste by 29 percent since 2010, according to a government report, even more than the British.

Dessert was a fabulous foam of berries and cherries poached in red wine, from bottles open too long at the bar. The bill came in a toy shopping cart filled with misshapen fruit: a flat peach and a very skinny pear. I pocketed them to supplement the lunches I'd be rescuing from the breakfast buffet and, feeling a pleasant combination of woke and well-fed, cycled back to my hotel through the misty Amsterdam night.

In my room I found a bat flying in frantic circles. Watching the poor beast search for the open window, I sensed another gift, a metaphor this time. But at first I didn't know what to do with it.

Getting out of the trap we've entered with the linear economy, and back to an economy modeled on nature's, is going to take a lot of "divergent thinking," as psychologists call it. In Copenhagen I paused to admire the new municipal incinerator, which burns trash for energy and definitely diverges from the norm: There's an all-season ski slope on its roof. But my real destination was the nearby port of Kalundborg, something of a circular economy icon.

There I sat in a cramped conference room with the managers of 11 industrial plants, separate companies all, who have formed an unusual bond: They use each other's waste. The chairman of the group, Michael Hallgren, manages a Novo Nordisk plant that makes half the world's supply of insulin-and along with its sister company, Novozymes, 330,000 tons of spent yeast. That slurry is trucked to a bioenergy plant, where microbes convert it to enough biogas for 6,000 homes and enough fertilizer for nearly 50,000 acres. That's just the latest of 22 exchanges of waste-water, energy, or materials-that make up the Kalundborg Symbiosis.

It wasn't planned, said Lisbeth Randers, the town's symbiosis coordinator; it grew up over four decades, one bilateral deal at a time. A wallboard company came to Kalundborg in part because waste gas from the oil refinery was available as a cheap energy source; it later sourced gypsum from the nearby coal-fired power plant, which made it by scrubbing sulfur dioxide out of its smoke. None of this happened primarily for environmental reasons-but the Kalundborg Symbiosis, Randers said, reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 635,000 metric tons a year, while saving the participants $27 million. Hallgren is now overseeing the construction of an insulin plant in Clayton, North Carolina. "I have a dream that I can make a symbiosis work in Clayton," he said.

In the rolling fields of Westphalia in Germany, home to a famous kind of ham and, not incidentally, many pigs, I met a woman who, with no engineering education, has designed an industrial-scale solution to one of the region's major problems: too much pig manure. Nitrates leaching from overfertilized fields have polluted groundwater in about a quarter of Germany. A typical farmer around the town of Velen, where I met Doris Nienhaus, might spend $40,000 a year to truck nearly 2,000 tons of liquid manure more than a hundred miles away to a field that's not already manured up. "At some point it won't be economically viable," Nienhaus said.

Her solution is a plant that extracts the basic nutrients-phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium-from manure. Nienhaus, who used to work for the regional agricultural federation and has raised pigs, persuaded 90 farmers to invest $8.4 million. Their farms' manure is digested by microbes, and the resulting biogas fuels a generator that powers the plant, with electricity left over to sell to the grid. Fast centrifuges, a proprietary polymer, and hot ovens separate the digester glop into a brown liquid, rich in nitrogen and potassium, and an ash that is 35 percent phosphorus. All that will be sold; the plant will produce no waste, Nienhaus said. When I visited, it was in its test phase. Nienhaus displayed her first batch of phosphorus in a small white dish, like granules from a gold strike.

Once upon a time, every farmer ran a circular economy, keeping only as much livestock as his or her land could feed, and those animals pooped no more than the land could take. Industrial livestock operations broke that circle. A few years ago, I spent some time on a cattle feedlot in Texas; that's when I started thinking about the circular economy. I watched 110-car trains full of Iowa corn rumble into Hereford, Texas, and I saw hills of manure at the feedlot, waiting to be sent to local farms. Shouldn't that be going back to Iowa to fertilize the corn, I asked? Too expensive, was the answer-but if a plant like Nienhaus's were there, only the nutrients would need to be shipped. Maybe the circle could be unbroken again.

When Eben Bayer invented his new thing in 2006, he was an engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He was taking a class in invention, learning to think divergently, and the problem he was pondering-he'd read Cradle to Cradle- was the toxic glues in particleboard or fiberglass. Growing up on a Vermont farm, Bayer had spent hours shoveling wood chips into a furnace to make maple syrup. The wood chips often stuck together-because they'd been colonized by mycelium, the dense mesh of microscopic fibers that make up the roots of mushrooms. Bayer wondered: Could mushrooms grow a harmless glue?

The first product he and his partner Gavin McIntyre made at Ecovative Design, the company they founded, was packaging. They inoculated ground hemp fibers or wood chips with small amounts of mycelium, and the tiny white roots filled the spaces between the particles, enmeshing and gluing them. They found the stuff could be grown in molds of any shape. It stops growing when you dehydrate it-and when you're done with it, you can compost it. In the past decade, Ecovative has made more than a million pounds of packaging-packing corners, display molds for cosmetics-for customers willing to pay a little extra to be sustainable.

Lately they've moved on to bigger things-things that are 100 percent mushroom. In soil mycelium grows in layers of mesh, but when it hits the air, it starts forming mushrooms. Ecovative has figured out how to trick mycelium into a hybrid growth pattern, in which it lays down solid microlayers one after another. "It's like a biological 3-D printer," Bayer said. With investment funding and $9.2 million from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Ecovative is expanding a lab to figure out how to grow all manner of things-shoe soles, vegan leather, edible scaffolding for artificial steaks-from mycelium. In 2018 designer Stella McCartney made a handbag out of the stuff and showed it at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In the cradle-to-cradle vision of McDonough and Braungart, waste doesn't exist even as a concept. Every material is either a well-designed "technical nutrient," capable of being endlessly recycled, or a biological one, safe to eat or compost. Bayer shares that view-but he's betting most things will be biological in the future. "Biologically derived materials already fit into how Earth works," he said. "Spaceship Earth can digest this stuff."

Beyond good and evil

All the trash we make is not a sign that we're evil. It's a sign we're a little dumb. When I met Michael Braungart in Hamburg, Germany, he could barely wait for me to open my notebook before making this most essential point. He started his career as a Greenpeace activist, orchestrating protests at chemical companies, and has since consulted for many corporations. "We're fighting with cradle-to-cradle against a cultural heritage that comes out of religious beliefs," he said, meaning monotheistic ones. The legacy they've bequeathed to environmentalism, said Braungart, is the idea that nature is good and humans, in our effect on it, basically evil-the best we can do is limit the damage. To Braungart that's misguided and unambitious. He's an environmentalist who, like chemists and engineers, believes we can improve on nature. He once designed a biodegradable ice-cream wrapper implanted with wildflower seeds; you could litter it, and it would propagate beauty.

Outside Amsterdam I visited a 23-acre office park that McDonough's firm designed and Braungart helped select materials for, called Park 20/20. When the developer, Coert Zachariasse, made his own pilgrimage to Charlottesville a decade ago, he was hoping the guru would reveal exactly how to build a cradle-to-cradle office park. But McDonough demurred. "He said, 'We don't know yet, but we're going to figure it out,' " Zachariasse recalled. The developer felt disappointed at first-then liberated, empowered.

Park 20/20 is about three-quarters built, and it's already a green and pleasant office park. The facades are varied and imaginative, the spaces sunlit and inviting, the energy all renewable, the wastewater treated and recycled on-site. One of its coolest features is less apparent: Instead of the usual concrete-slab floors, the buildings have thinner, hollow, steel-beamed ones. They allow seven stories to fit in the usual height of six, using 30 percent less material overall.

In winter, warm water from the neighboring canal, stored underground since the previous summer, flows through pipes in each subfloor, heating the space above; in summer, cool canal water from the previous winter flows through pipes in each ceiling, cooling the space below. And unlike concrete slabs, the prefabricated floor-ceiling sections are designed to be disassembled and reused, should the building need to be reconfigured or demolished. The Park 20/20 buildings are "material banks"-whereas elsewhere, building materials make up the largest waste stream flowing into landfills.

In McDonough's office I sat on an old Herman Miller chair upholstered with the first product he and Braungart ever designed, a fabric made of wool and ramie, which is made from nettles. Both men insisted it was edible, and had I been a goat, I might have tested that assertion. As McDonough was talking to me about Leibniz and a world of possibilities, I found my mind drifting to an old movie called Diner, which I'm more familiar with. "If you don't have good dreams ... you got nightmares," Mickey Rourke's character says toward the end, as he and his young buddies are heading off into uncertainty. Maybe they'll grow up successfully, maybe not. And maybe, I thought, our whole species is in that situation-needing a dream to steer toward, in order to avoid the nightmare.

The circular economy is a dream that's inspiring a lot of people to do cool stuff. But-if I may close this journey with a thud-here's the thing: It's not happening. If you look away from the bright lights and at the dull numbers, the ones de Wit showed me, the "circularity gap" is growing, not shrinking. Our use of natural resources could double by 2050. Our carbon emissions are still increasing.

"Is it moving fast enough? Not really," de Wit said. "All indicators are in the red."

Like the other optimists I met, de Wit is counting on time. Building a circular economy will require an enormous cultural shift, on the scale of the industrial revolution. "You need stamina," de Wit said. "My sense is we can't do it with the generation in power. It will require a generation to take off." That was my generation he was hustling offstage; I didn't take it personally, though. Sure, we'll be pushing up daisies long before the circular economy arrives. But we'll be doing our bit for it that way.

Luca Locatelli's photos of Dutch agriculture in the September 2017 issue are on exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Senior editorRobert Kunzig wrote about cities in April 2019.

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This story appears in the March 2020 issue ofNational Geographic magazine. In Amsterdam I met a man who revealed to me the hidden currents of our lives-the massive flows of raw materials and products deployed, to such wonderful and damaging effect, by 7.7 billion humans. Our shared metabolism, you might say.

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Our goal is to create a business that is restorative and regenerative by design, striving to incorporate as many circular materials as possible into our collections.

Synthetic materials, such as nylon and polyester, can - and should - be recycled and come from recycled sources.

As a global population, we are using the equivalent of 1.5 planets worth of natural resources (WWF) .¹ Every year we continue to extract new raw materials to create products that most likely end up in landfill, where they take centuries to decompose.

The world is full of raw material that is already in use, or on its way to landfill, where it will take centuries to decompose. The most logical, and exciting, next step is to reuse what we already have. To turn 'waste' materials into something more luxurious to create a truly a truly circular, restorative system.

Recycled nylon

By 2020, our goal is to stop using virgin nylon. To do this, we are switching all of our current nylon to ECONYL® regenerated nylon.

ECONYL® takes recycled materials to a whole exciting new level by turning waste into resource. To make ECONYL®, waste such as industrial plastic, waste fabric and fishing nets from oceans is recycled and regenerated into a new nylon yarn that is exactly the same quality as virgin nylon.

Our collection of Falabella GO bags are made with ECONYL® yarn, and we are now lining all Falabella's with ECONYL® regenerated nylon. We also use ECONYL® in our outerwear.

Recycled polyester

Since 2012, all of our handbags have been lined using fabric made from recycled water bottles and we use recycled polyester instead of virgin polyester throughout our collections whenever possible. Most recently we sent it down the runway in our Summer 2018 runway show.

Currently, the polyester we use is made out of recycled plastic water bottles, which is what the vast majority of the recycled polyester around world is made from. To date this has been the only commercial option available to us, however we are seeking and supporting new technologies that will enable us, and the fashion industry, to recycle polyester fabrics back into fabrics. Only 1% of textiles are currently recycled back into textiles² and we believe that it is time for the fashion industry to deal with its own waste.

It is our goal to only use recycled polyester by 2025- five years longer than our projection for recycled nylon simply because the technology we need to reach this point is not yet available to us in a sustainable and circular way.

"Our planet has a waste and overconsumption problem, wreaking havoc on our environment. Single-use and disposable items, particularly from plastic, are ending up in landfills, with over 300 million tons of plastic produced every year. It is vital that we act now." - Stella McCartney, 2017, Sustainable Brands

Recycled fabrics - Fashion from the ocean

We depend on oceans every single day with every breath we take and every drop of water we drink. Oceans cover 72% of the Earth, supply 70% of the oxygen we breathe, holds 97% of the planet's water, and lock away 30% of carbon emissions. But our ocean is under threat. 3 4

Every year, approximately 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters our oceans. This is not only a great threat to marine wildlife, but to human health. And, if this continues, the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050. ⁵

In 2017, we partnered with Parley for the Oceans to raise awareness for ocean conservation and to fight marine plastic pollution. As part of our mission to combat marine plastics, we created two new products made from Parley Ocean Plastic™ in 2017: the adidas by Stella McCartney Ultra BOOST X sneaker and the limited edition 'Ocean Legend' Falabella GO backpack in support of Sea Shepherd.

ECONYL nylon & recycled polyester supply chain map

Kidswear recycled polyester supply chain map

¹ ' The Ecological Footprint is an indicator of human pressure of nautre', WWF

² "A New Textiles Economy: Redesigning Fashion's Future", The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017)

³ Why the ocean matters, National Geographic
⁴ How Ocean Pollution Affects Humans, Plastic Oceans
5 "The New Plastics Economy: Rethinking the Future of Plastics", The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2016)

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Recycled nylon and polyester | Stella McCartney

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Our goal is to create a business that is restorative and regenerative by design, striving to incorporate as many circular materials as possible into our collections. Synthetic materials, such as nylon and polyester, can - and should - be recycled and come from recycled sources.

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Primark announced in August that it will train 160,000 cotton farmers across China, India, Pakistan and China in environmentally friendly production methods.

The scheme, to be completed by 2022, is part of Primark's sustainable cotton programme, which targets the use of 100% sustainable cotton in all its product categories.

Each farmer that goes through the three-year programme is trained on the most appropriate farming techniques for their land, from seed selection, sowing, soil, water, pesticide and pest management, to picking, fibre quality, grading and storage of the harvested cotton.

The collection comprises one pair of skinny jeans in three different washes: indigo, black and light blue, which are available in UK and European stores for £13. Primark also launched its first-ever range of jeans made from 100% sustainable cotton in March - made using cotton purchased directly from farmers participating in its Sustainable Cotton Programme.

Primark said the launch forms part of its move to ensure that all cotton used in its products is sustainably sourced.
Timberland's 'purpose-led' store design
Timberland unveiled its brand-new sustainable store concept on London's Carnaby Street last month, offering customers an "urban oasis" in the heart of the capital.

Designed to bring nature into the city and highlight the retailer's wider sustainability efforts, the 2,594 sq ft shop features materials made from recycled industrial waste, a living green wall and trees, as well as information about its community projects and product-led technological innovations.

It forms part of Timberland's brand evolution to tell customers "who we are and what we are about", vice-president of global marketing Argu Secilmis told Drapers.

London marks the first of the new "purpose-led" store design, which all future stores will be modelled on.

This year, Timberland also committed to plant 50 million trees around the world by 2025.
John Lewis trials sustainability scheme
John Lewis is encouraging customers to think and act more ethically by piloting eight new sustainability practices in its Oxford store.

Announced in October, these include the removal of 5p plastic bags and click-and-collect packaging; recycling customers' unwanted hangers; offering fashion buy back; and replacing bubble wrap with recyclable packaging.

The focus is on reducing the amount of plastic and packaging that goes to landfill and comes in response to customers' growing awareness of their impact on the planet, John Lewis said. Stephen Cawley, head of sustainability, added that customer feedback will help to determine what practices John Lewis introduces in other shops.
Farfetch's revamped start-up programme
For its second-ever Dream Assembly programme, luxury fashion platform Farfetch placed a huge emphasis on sustainability.

Designed to support budding fashion technology businesses and entrepreneurs, the scheme invites shortlisted start-ups to partake in a seven-week programme, where they will receive mentorship, education, early-stage funding and access to investors.

This year's cohort had to demonstrate a clear focus on sustainability or promote social good and community values in response to the industry's increasing concern.

The eight chosen sustainable start-ups were: Thrift+, Good on You, Sozie, To The Market, EON Group, Material World, Panoply City and Save Your Wardrobe.

Farfetch also announced its partnership with vintage accessory and clothing curator Upteam - a Hong Kong-based Dream Assembly alumnus - to pilot a resale programme for luxury handbags.
MPs back sustainable fashion
MPs launched the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Sustainable Clothing and Textiles in July, signifying an important step in encouraging brands, retailers and the wider industry to become more ethically-focussed.

Led by chair Anne Main MP, the APPG is supported by retailers, industry experts and recycling bodies.

It outlined plans to analyse industry-based evidence and advise government on action that needs to be taken across the clothing and textiles sector. This will cover topics such as supply chains, material usage and consumer behaviours.

The group was formed after government rejected all recommendations in the environmental audit committee's "Fixing Fashion" report.

Anne Main lost her St Albans seat in the December general election to Liberal Democrat Daisy Cooper. The APPG is yet to appoint a new chair.
Kering's commitment to carbon neutrality
Luxury fashion group Kering is on a mission to become carbon neutral within its own operations and across its entire supply chain, including its fashion houses Balenciaga, Gucci, Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen.

The group-wide pledge will involve avoiding and reducing annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and offsetting all emissions since 2018, as well as supporting the conservation of forests and biodiversity around the world.

Kering's plans include: implementing Kering Standards for raw materials and manufacturing processes; becoming more energy efficient and upping its focus on renewable energy.
Zalando's venture into re-usable packaging
Sustainability was high on German etailer Zalando's agenda during 2019.

As well as announcing its new sustainability strategy, including becoming carbon neutral in its own operations, all deliveries and returns with immediate effect, it launched a reusable packaging trial in September.

The aim was to see how Zalando, which already uses 100% recycled paper boxes, could integrate re-usable packaging into its existing logistics processes.

During the period customers received their orders in shipping bags, which they were able to return to Zalando to use again via an enclosed return label.

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The best sustainable fashion initiatives of 2019

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Primark announced in August that it will train 160,000 cotton farmers across China, India, Pakistan and China in environmentally friendly production methods. The scheme, to be completed by 2022, is part of Primark's sustainable cotton programme, which targets the use of 100% sustainable cotton in all its product categories.

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There has been a lot of recent hype around deadstock fabric as a solution to garment production in the sustainable fashion world. But, what is it that you are really buying when you buy a dress made out of deadstock fabric. And, is it as eco-friendly as we have all been lead to believe?

In this article:

what is fashion made with deadstock fabric? and, what does deadstock mean?

So, what is deadstock? And, what does deadstock mean? Deadstock refers to old fabric that hasn't been able to sell. Maybe there are small damages, maybe the company who purchased it ordered too much. Maybe they are scraps from factories cutting room floor that are being sewn together and made into something new, like Zero Waste Daniel.

Or, maybe there is a small little-known industry secret.

how is deadstock fabric eco-friendly?

The thought process goes, that because this fabric is extra if it is not rescued by "eco" brands it will end up in a landfill. Therefore they are doing the world an environmental justice by making "waste" into fashion.

Not really. What most people don't know is that there is a difference between deadstock and available stock.

What is available stock fabric?

Available stock fabric is a fabric that a factory overproduces because they know that it will eventually sell. An example of stock fabrics that most factories and mills keep a ton of on hand is plain knit jersey fabric for t-shirts. They produce a lot because they know that they know there will always be a customer for t-shirts and the fabric, although it does not have a buyer now, will be purchased by someone very soon.

myth debunked - what's really happening...

Dying, printing, knitting, and weaving, require huge, complex machines. Some ranges can take up entire city blocks, and take multiple people to operate. It takes a lot of manpower to turn off the machines, clean them, set them up for the next fabric, and then run a new fabric. It is cheaper for mills to produce extra of a fabric that they plan to sell at a discount than to shut the machines off after the order is fulfilled.

This means that in their basic costing, mills plan to sell x percent at full price and y percent at a discounted "deadstock" price. At no point are they calculating a percent going to the landfill. Remember mills are in the business of making money, not wasting it.

deadstock market places are just a fancy way of saying jobber

If the mills can't sell the fabric then they will pass it onto a jobber. What is a fabric jobber? A fabric jobber takes fabric from all over a country, or sometimes even the world, and re-sells it for a premium (higher than what you would pay a fabric mill directly for it).

Jobbers have existed since the industrial revolution when machines instead of people started making textiles. But, like everything else in fashion they are now being greenwashed.

The most famous of jobbers is probably Mood, based in NYC, and prominently featured on Project Runway, make it work people. I wouldn't call jobbers eco-friendly, they are just another cog in the fashion supply chain. Again, fashion is a business, that makes money. The last thing that anyone would want is to lose money by sending fabric to a landfill. It would sit in storage for years before that happened.

are deadstock clothing brands unethical?

Available stock options are a great model for mills, it helps them to run efficiently. But, it is not an ethical model for a clothing brand that markets itself as eco-friendly - it's taking advantage of consumers' lack of manufacturing knowledge.

Problems with available stock fabrics

By buying available stock fashion you are buying into the concept of overproduction. And remember not to let those greenwashers fool you. Most of the deadstock that is being sold is really just available, purposely over produced yardage.

Western brands aren't saving anything

A big part of factories' willingness to overproduce is growing local markets. Rest assured that this fabric overproduced was never intended to end up in a landfill, it most likely would end up making lower price clothing for a third world economy.

"Western markets simply don't matter as much as they used to. India produces twice as much clothing for its own consumers as it does for us. Fifty-six percent of the clothing produced in China is for the Chinese market. Both of those numbers are only going to grow." - Michael Hobbes for The Huffington Post

Problems with deadstock fabric

If a brand is buying true deadstock. The kind that by definition is damaged in some way that makes the original brand that ordered it not want it, then you as a consumer are actually buying a lower quality product.

When the fabric gets rejected by a brand, it happens for a reason. Maybe that fabric is not passing strength testing so holes form. Or, maybe in the case of waterproof fabric, the finish is not performing so a product made with it won't protect you from the rain. Maybe it didn't pass chemical testing and has too much formaldehyde or another toxic chemical in it still. There are hundreds of reasons why a fabric could have been rejected. And mills do not have to disclose this at the time of purchase.

Lack of transparency

Deadstock has become a loophole for brands like Reformation which allows them to use non-eco-friendly fabrics like polyester. Reformation claims that using already produced polyester is better than it going to a landfill. But, as I already proved, it was never actually going to be wasted.

But, there is a second problem with the deadstock fabric being associated with the sustainability model. And, that is transparency.

In an article on Sourcing Journal, one of the only things that me and The Queen of Raw could agree on is that there is no real way of knowing if a fabric is a true deadstock, or a factory is just calling it that to sell it to eco-driven brands making them feel good about buying cheap polyester that was dyed with cancer-causing dyes and finishes.

If you don't have a subscription to Sourcing Journal, it's a great industry publication and if you sign up for an account they let you read a few articles a month free. Here is a little preview of some of the stuff we got into in the article I was featured in.

"We shouldn't be burning textiles or garments or getting rid of them in any way but these markets are making it too easy to overproduce, have the benefits of economies of scale and then get rid of [these fabrics]," she explained.

twice the price for half the quality

If you are ok with this kind of environmental b.s. think about this - available and dead fabric is sold for a heavy discount so mills can get rid of it, fashion companies then mark up the price under the "eco" or "vintage" label so they are doubly inflating their margins, and you the consumer are paying twice as much for a product that is half the quality.

I literally walked through warehouse after warehouse of fabric, but, remember... there is a plan for all this

what are better options to dead stock fabric?

if you care about keeping fabric out of landfills, then don't buy as much - the less clothing you buy the less you will throw away, and the less that will end up in a landfill

buy second hand - one man's waste is another's treasure, give new life to a pre owned garment

buy directly from small artisans - who make in small batches so there is no waste

look for vintage deadstock. There are so many cool people on Instagram and Etsy that take old vintage clothing and re-sew it into modern silhouettes. Try shopping from them.

deadstock for small brands - the pros

I don't want to leave you with all negatvies about deadstock fabric. There are always positives.

Deadstock is a great option for brands just starting out. Because the fabric is already made, there are no minimums. This makes it easy for designers that are small and self-funded to buy a few yards, and not have to invest capital into fabric they may not need.

and, the craziest deadstock I ever saw...

but first, let me take a selfie - with all of this block printed deadstock fabric

Did you know that there are some US importers that actually sell THIS VERY FABRIC as "vintage"? One meter costs me about 300 rupees (less than $5), and I have seen it sold in NYC for over $500! Buyer beware! And, check this out if you want to learn more about fake vintage.

Lesson recap...

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Deadstock Fabric is NOT as Sustainable as You Think

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There has been a lot of recent hype around deadstock fabric as a solution to garment production in the sustainable fashion world. But, what is it that you are really buying when you buy a dress made out of deadstock fabric. And, is it as eco-friendly as we have all been lead to believe?

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The Environmental Audit Committee is calling on the UK government to make fashion retailers take responsibility for the waste they create.
In a new report, , the Environmental Audit Committee ( EAC) calls on the UK government to make fashion retailers take responsibility for the waste they create - suggesting, among other measures, a 1p producer responsibility charge on each item of clothing that could pay for better clothing collection and recycling.

In June 2018, the EAC launched an inquiry into the sustainability of the fashion industry, surveying 16 leading UK fashion retailers on what, if anything, they are doing to reduce the environmental and social impact of the clothes and shoes they sell. Within the report are key recommendations that the EAC hopes parliament will pass into law. As the EAC states in the report, "The fashion industry has marked its own homework for too long."

The report outlines key recommendations for Parliament that cover not only waste, but also the importance of education, and improving human rights and other responsible supply chain practices:

Mandatory environmental targets for fashion retailers with a turnover above £36 million;

The continued evolution of circularity

Hear about the latest progress in advancing a global circular economy from practitioners and experts in a variety of industries - at SB'20 Long Beach.

An Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme to reduce textile waste with a one-penny charge per garment on producers;

The scheme should reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts and penalize those that do not - using the tax system to shift the balance of incentives in favor of reuse, repair and recycling to support responsible producers.

The Government should follow Sweden's lead and reduce VAT on repair services.

Lessons on designing, creating, mending and repairing clothes should be part of school curricula

The Government should publish a publicly accessible list of retailers required to release a modern slavery statement. This should be supported by an appropriate penalty for those companies who fail to report and comply with the Modern Slavery Act.

The fashion industry must come together to set out a blueprint for a net zero emissions world, reducing their carbon consumption back to 1990 levels.

Environmental Audit Committee Chair Mary Creagh MP comments below:

Sustainable clothing: "voluntary approach has failed"

The report warns that although some parts of the fashion industry are making progress in reducing their carbon and water consumption, these improvements have been outweighed by the increased volumes of clothing being sold. It concludes that a voluntary approach to improving the sustainability of the fashion industry is failing, with just 10 fashion retailers signed up to reduce their water, waste and carbon footprints.

It recommends that compliance with WRAP's Sustainability Clothing Action Plan targets should be made mandatory for all retailers with a turnover of more than £36 million as a 'license to practice.'

It is also recommended that Government work with retailers to increase use of digital supply chain technology for better traceability.

New economic models for fashion

The MPs say that we need new economic models for fashion that are based on reducing the material consumption associated with growth. To drive improvements, the Government should reform taxation to reward fashion companies that design products with lower environmental impacts.

This could include extending the proposed tax on virgin plastics to synthetic textile products to stimulate the market for recycled fibers in the UK. The Committee also wants the new EPR scheme to accelerate government and industry research into the environmental performance of different materials and measures to reduce microfiber pollution.

The report also calls on Ministers to explore how they can support new sharing economy models such as hiring, swapping or subscription clothes services.

Government must act to end throwaway fashion

Increasing a garment's lifetime is one of the most effective means of reducing its environmental footprint. Around 300,000 tonnes of clothing ends up in household bins every year with around 80% of this incinerated and 20% sent to landfill.

A charge of one penny per garment producers as part of a new EPR scheme could raise £35 million for investment in better clothing collection and recycling in the UK. The Committee is also calling on the Government to ban incineration or landfilling of unsold stock that can be reused or recycled.

Ending labor exploitation

While many clothing brands are produced in Asian countries with low labor costs and weak environmental governance, there has been a recently growth in garment manufacturing in the UK, as brands and retailers seek to respond faster to consumer demand. Unsurprisingly, manufacturers are under pressure from retailers to produce garments at unrealistically low prices - as a result, the EAC heard evidence that sub-minimum wage issues are widespread in Leicester's garment factories.

The report calls for changes to the Modern Slavery Act and Companies Act to increase transparency, and require large fashion brands and retailers to perform due diligence checks across their supply chains to ensure their products are produced without forced or child labor.

In a statement,Fashion Revolution - a key contributor to the report - said it welcomes the EAC's findings:

"We too want to see a thriving fashion industry in the UK that employs people, inspires creativity and contributes to sustainable livelihoods in the UK and around the world, and we believe that brands and retailers have an obligation to address the fundamental business model," said Policy Director Sarah Ditty. "We believe that the fashion industry in the United Kingdom and globally needs far-reaching systemic change in order to tackle poverty, inequality and environmental degradation, and greater transparency is the first crucial step towards solving its human rights and environmental crises. We hope to see the policymakers and citizens across the UK work hard to make sure that these recommendations are adopted into policy."

While agreeing that the proposed tax is a "good first step," Becky Willan, Managing Director of brand purpose consultancy Given London, adds: "A tax initiative like this does put well-placed pressure on fashion brands, but the challenges of making the industry truly sustainable are so much broader and more complex than simply recycling, [which] does little to address the throwaway culture that exists at the heart of 'fast fashion. Consumer behaviour and attitudes also need to be transformed - to reverse the trend of overconsumption, we need to unlock a much bigger culture shift."

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UK Gov Proposes Tax, Other Incentives to Help End Throwaway Fashion

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The Environmental Audit Committee is calling on the UK government to make fashion retailers take responsibility for the waste they create. In a new report, , the Environmental Audit Committee ( EAC) calls on the UK government to make fashion retailers take responsibility for the waste they create - suggesting, among other measures, a 1p producer responsibility charge on each item of clothing that could pay for better clothing collection and recycling.

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We use organic cotton to create products in a way that enriches the environment and improves conditions for farmers.

What is organic cotton?

Organic farming works with nature, instead of against it.

Organic cotton farming was developed by social entrepreneurs, farmers and NGOs who - like many of us - did not like the overuse of pesticides, or the social problems caused by production practice, including farmer debt and sickness caused by chemicals.

Organic cotton eliminates the use of toxic and persistent chemicals, improves soil health and increases water conservation. All of which is better for the environment, and for farmers and their communities.

These benefits explain why we have been increasing the amount of certified organic cotton we use in our collections over the years. Today, 61% of the cotton we use is certified organic. We use organic cotton across all of our collections and products - we use it in our kidswear, denim, jersey, knitwear, shirting, dresses, shoes and bags.

The benefits of organic cotton

Conventional cotton farming has a significant environmental impact. It requires toxic pesticides and fertilisers, which causes biodiversity loss and can damage farmers' health. Cotton crops are also highly water-intensive. It can take more than 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton; equivalent to a single T-shirt and pair of jeans.¹

Organic cotton farming offers a solution. It is a more balanced way of producing cotton that considers the whole ecosystem.

Organic cotton farming also supports biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, and helps to mitigate climate change by increasing the ability of soils to sequester carbon.

Organic farming techniques use significantly less water as the crops are mainly rain-fed instead of irrigated. And because there are no toxic chemicals used in organic farming, there are no unnecessary toxins going into the ground. This enriches the soil and helps biodiversity to flourish.

Organic cotton farming is also beneficial to farmers. Under the right conditions, organic farming offers better livelihoods because farmers do not have to rely on expensive chemicals. Also, the premium prices paid for organic products helps farmers to increase their incomes. And not using hazardous pesticides and chemical fertilisers is better for farmers' health.

Types of cotton

Organic cotton

Organic cotton is grown without the use of toxic and persistent pesticides and synthetic fertilisers.

Organic farming requires crop rotation and composting, which promotes soil health and helps lock CO2 into the soil, helping to mitigate climate change.²

Organic cotton does not use genetically modified seeds.

Conventional cotton

Cotton alone accounts for almost 7% of all employment in some low-income countries.³

Conventionally grown cotton uses more insecticides than any other single crop, nearly $2.6 billion worth of pesticides are sprayed on cotton fields each year.⁴

Cotton production uses 2.5% of the world's arable land, but accounts for 16% of all pesticides used; in India 50% of all pesticides are used for cotton production, with negative impacts on farmers' health.⁵

Organic certifications

We believe that standards and certifications when used correctly can be one of the most powerful tools in the industry. They support the integrity of product claims by providing verification from an independent third-party.

We only use organic cotton that has been certified to the GOTS or OCS standard.

Cotton in the EP&L

In terms of volumes, cotton is our most used raw material.

In 2016 around 60% of all the cotton we used in our products was organic.

Using our EP&L tool, we are able to compare the average environmental impacts of conventional vs. organic cotton farming per kilogram of cotton.

The environmental impacts of conventional cotton production are driven by the large quantities of water required to cultivate the crop, the conversion of land for agricultural use, and the heavy use of toxic pesticides and fertilisers.

Organic farming has a much lower environmental impact; it uses significantly less water from local water resources and does not allow the use of toxic chemicals, which improves soil health and reduces water pollution impacts.

The future of cotton

In order to ensure that the cotton we use is being grown in a regenerative way, we are working on gaining farm-level traceability for our cotton. In 2016, we were able to trace the origins of 94% of the cotton used back to the country it came from.

The next step is to map the cotton to the farm-level to gain better insights into on-the-ground practices and measurement of improvements to soil. Soil is an important carbon sink so improving soil health is a vital natural climate solution, and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to mitigate against climate change.

Cotton supply chain map

¹ Cotton Farming, WWF

² Organic Cotton, Soil Association

³ Cotton overview, WWF

⁴ ' The Deadly Chemicals in Cotton ', Environmental Justice Foundation

⁵ Chemical Cotton, Rodial Institute

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We use organic cotton to create products in a way that enriches the environment and improves conditions for farmers. What is organic cotton? Organic farming works with nature, instead of against it.

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World's consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes a year

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The amount of material consumed by humanity has passed 100bn tonnes every year, a report has revealed, but the proportion being recycled is falling. The climate and wildlife emergencies are driven by the unsustainable extraction of fossil fuels, metals, building materials and trees.

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If there's one thing you can count on finding in anybody's wardrobe, it's a pair of jeans - and the chances are those jeans will be blue.

The original work trousers, invented by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in 1873, were dyed with indigo derived from plants. By 1882, however, indigo was being synthesised, and producing denim blue now involves large quantities of petroleum, as well as toxic substances such as formaldehyde and cyanide.

Meanwhile, because indigo isn't water soluble, more toxic chemicals - corrosive to workers and deadly to marine life - need to be added to turn it into a liquid dye.

But San Francisco biotech firm Tinctorium believes it has the answer: genetically engineering bacteria to mirror the way the Japanese indigo plant, Polygonum Tinctorium, makes and holds its colour.

"Because bacteria are powerful multipliers, when you put them in the right conditions, we can grow these organisms to create dye product in a much more scalable and sustainable manner that isn't reliant on petroleum," says co-founder and chief executive Michelle Zhu.

The company is already producing yarn and is working to make jeans in the next two years in a process that Ms Zhu says will be competitive with existing methods in both cost and price.

And Tinctorium isn't the only company working to replace harsh chemicals with bioengineered organisms. France's Pili, for example, says that its microbial fermentation process can save 100 tonnes of petroleum and 10 tonnes of toxic chemicals per tonne of product.

"Instead of using petroleum as the raw material, the process uses renewable carbon such as agricultural waste that is transformed by micro-organisms instead of corrosive chemicals," says creative director Marie-Sarah Adenis.

"The process uses approximately five times less water and ten times less energy because microbes work at room temperature."

While Pili doesn't foresee commercial-scale production before 2021, UK-based Colorifix is already working with textile manufacturers such as Switzerland's Forster Rohner and India's Arvind, as well as fashion giant H&M.

The company was founded in 2016 by James Ajioka, Orr Yarkoni and David Nugent following a visit to Kathmandu as part of a project funded by the Wellcome Trust to develop a biosensor for detecting arsenic in drinking water.

"When we went and drove around the city, the rivers and the aqueducts were just toxic. The real problem in Kathmandu is that all of the textile industries are just dumping their waste straight into the river, and a lot of that was from textile dyeing," says Mr Ajoka.

As part of a previous project, Mr Ajioka had already bioengineered microbes to produce colour, and after further research, Colorifix was born.

While Tinctorium co-opts plant genes to make microbes make colour, Colorifix casts its net more widely.

"What we can do is take a parrot feather, scrape a few cells off the tail and then look in the DNA for the message 'make red'," explains Mr Yarkoni.

"Although all life uses DNA, each organism uses a different 'dialect', so we put that message in the dialect of the micro-organism and it can start making that pigment the same way the parrot does, starting from sugar and nitrogen," he says.

"We do it by fermentation - the same process you use to make alcohol. But instead of making alcohol, we make pigment."

One advantage of fermentation is that the base unit is sugar: easily available and requiring no major infrastructure to produce or refine. And, as Mr Ajioka points out, "We know that with fermentation, scaling up ends up being a fairly cheap activity - otherwise, beer wouldn't be as available as it is."

Another big plus for the process is that, unlike most dyeing technology, the process works across a wide range of materials.

"For instance, polyester and cotton need different types of dyes and generally different types of machines to dye them. Most apparel out there today is actually polycotton, and if you're not weaving it with pre-dyed thread, it needs to be cross-dyed, which means you're dyeing it twice," says Dr Orr.

"We can dye polycotton, so that already halves the amount of water being processed and the amount of chemicals and CO2 emissions."

Bacteria are even being used to produce hair dye - although the process is in its very earliest stages. University of Manchester students recently won a gold medal in the International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition for genetically engineering E. coli bacteria to secrete proteins that can colour, repair and straighten hair.

Meanwhile, the University of Cambridge and Dutch biotechnology company Hoekmine are mutating bacteria to give them structural colour - colour created by the geometry of a surface, rather than pigment.

It's a trick used in nature by peacocks and blue morpho butterflies, among others.

The researchers change the dimensions of bacteria, or their ability to move, to change the wavelengths of light they reflect and thus their colour.

Silvia Vignolini from Cambridge's chemistry department says the technique could lead to pigments that can be easily produced in volume and that can change colour on demand.

"The future is open for biodegradable paints on our cars and walls," says Dr Vignolini, "simply by growing exactly the colour and appearance we want."

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Making beautiful colours without toxic chemicals

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If there's one thing you can count on finding in anybody's wardrobe, it's a pair of jeans - and the chances are those jeans will be blue. The original work trousers, invented by Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss in 1873, were dyed with indigo derived from plants.

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Kingpins Transformers: Catalysts - Michelle Zhu

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Bacteria Dyed Textiles: The New Alternative to Synthetic and Plant Dyes

Water waste and chemicals are two disadvantages commonly associated with the production of synthetic dyes. The Vienna Textile Lab created an innovative alternative by using strands of bacteria to create the dye, which can then be applied to textiles.

Bacteria dyed textiles are derived from naturally occurring bacteria, making them a 100% natural and chemical free. Bacteria are identified and grown to extract colorants that are then purified into pigments. During this process, no crude oil is needed, unlike in the production of many synthetic colors.

It also has an advantage over the production of vegetable and plant dyes which are dependent on seasons, weather conditions and geography. Instead, suitable bacterial strains are stored in laboratories and can be reproduced and multiplied at any time. The color is dependent on the type of bacteria used. Colors such as blue, purple, red, yellow, and orange have been achieved so far. All have superior colorfastness and they can be applied to a variety of different materials such as cotton, wool, angora, and polyester.

About Vienna Textile Lab

The Austrian company is making quite an impact by reinventing the way the world sees textiles. Founder, Karin Fleck and her team are on a mission to make dying fabrics easier and more ecologically friendly.

Vienna Textile Lab plans to sell the finished dyed fabric during the beginning stages of commercialization. In the future, the company plans to license out the technology to textile mills. Applications include fashion, footwear, accessories, upholstery, and bedding.
Join the Material Connexion Database to See More

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Material Insight: Bacteria Dyed Textiles

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Water waste and chemicals are two disadvantages commonly associated with the production of synthetic dyes. The Vienna Textile Lab created an innovative alternative by using strands of bacteria to create the dye, which can then be applied to textiles. Bacteria dyed textiles are derived from naturally occurring bacteria, making them a 100% natural and chemical free.

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Waste news

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At the Pallatzky company in Bielefeld, almost 50 000 m² are all about the processing of metal scrap. Steel mill, foundry, ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap is recycled and returned to the material...

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At the Pallatzky company in Bielefeld, almost 50 000 m² are all about the processing of metal scrap. Steel mill, foundry, ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap is recycled and returned to the material...

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Image: Orange Fiber by Esther Lewis From silk made with orange skins to plastic buttons from potatoes, food and fashion go hand in hand when it comes to imagining a more sustainable future for the industry. Fashion writer Francine Heath investigates the most innovative materials on the market made from fruit and vegetable fibres.
"Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events," commented a shrewd Diana Vreeland in the late '70s, and how relevant her words are proving to be today. "You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes." The former Vogue editor also remarked that style isn't like canned soup that can simply be bought anywhere, yet perhaps she didn't know how the food and fashion industries would come to work together in that very revolution.

Whether repurposing food waste or simply harnessing the DNA of plants to create innovative new fibers, companies around are proving fruit and vegetables to be integral to the fabrics of the future. From replacements for oil-based synthetics and silk to plant-based alternatives to leather, the six materials below show just how food can help fashion be more sustainable. We've long heard the phrase 'you are what you eat', but does a lower impact industry mean wearing it too?

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Six Sustainable Fabrics Made From Fruit And Vegetables

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Image: Orange Fiber by Esther Lewis From silk made with orange skins to plastic buttons from potatoes, food and fashion go hand in hand when it comes to imagining a more sustainable future for the industry. Fashion writer Francine Heath investigates the most innovative materials on the market made from fruit and vegetable fibres.

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Affects of decline on Fast Fashion on FE Factories

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How the death of fast fashion is transforming Asia's garment industry - Nikkei Asian Review

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In this way, a small group of BCI Farmers in Kanakya entrusted Balubhai and the BCI Farmer committee to start buying bio-pesticides like neem oil (made from the fruits and seeds of the neem tree) and beauveria bassiana (a fungus used as a biological insecticide) on their behalf, from a trader in nearby Una. By purchasing these inputs collectively, Balubhai and the other farmers saved approximately 25%, compared to buying individually. Building on this initial success, a further ten committees were established in local villages, enabling farmers to obtain healthier, plant-based natural pesticides at prices they could afford.

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BCI Farmers in India Form Their Own Farmer-Owned Collective and Improve Their Livelihoods

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In this way, a small group of BCI Farmers in Kanakya entrusted Balubhai and the BCI Farmer committee to start buying bio-pesticides like neem oil (made from the fruits and seeds of the neem tree) and beauveria bassiana (a fungus used as a biological insecticide) on their behalf, from a trader in nearby Una.

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CEO AGENDA

REDESIGNING FASHION'S BUSINESS MODEL

The current model has served as a powerful engine for global growth and development for the past 100 years, but we believe there is a compelling business case for those who invest in long-term social and environmental sustainability, beyond short-term financial incentives. While we acknowledge that changing established practices is not an easy feat, we also remain convinced that the fashion industry can act as inspirational forerunner.

Already today, the fashion industry finds itself in a transformational state where company owners and shareholders seek to protect the long-term viability of their investments and acknowledge clear business opportunities by devoting themselves to sustainable development. A great opportunity for long-lasting and purpose-driven value creation is apparent, calling for creative leadership to champion change management and forward-looking approaches to progress by redefining measures of success and decoupling growth from resource constraints.

We urge you as industry leaders to investigate new business models outside current market mechanisms to drive change, implement innovation and tap into collaborative business opportunities. This is not only essential to future-proof your business, but it is also crucial for humanity to operate within planetary boundaries and to meet the needs of future generations.

The current model has served as a powerful engine for global growth and development for the past 100 years, but we believe there is a compelling business case for those who invest in long-term social and environmental sustainability, beyond short-term financial incentives. While we acknowledge that changing established practices is not an easy feat, we also remain convinced that the fashion industry can act as inspirational forerunner.

Already today, the fashion industry finds itself in a transformational state where company owners and shareholders seek to protect the long-term viability of their investments and acknowledge clear business opportunities by devoting themselves to sustainable development. A great opportunity for long-lasting and purpose-driven value creation is apparent, calling for creative leadership to champion change management and forward-looking approaches to progress by redefining measures of success and decoupling growth from resource constraints.

We urge you as industry leaders to investigate new business models outside current market mechanisms to drive change, implement innovation and tap into collaborative business opportunities. This is not only essential to future-proof your business, but it is also crucial for humanity to operate within planetary boundaries and to meet the needs of future generations.

2020 SPOTLIGHT

BIODIVERSITY

The CEO Agenda 2020 shines a light on biodiversity among the existing priorities and provides further guidance for fashion brands to take action. Biodiversity is integrated within the core priorities Supply Chain Traceability, Reversing Climate Change, Efficient Use of Water, Energy and Chemicals, and within the transformational priority Sustainable Material Mix. To ease navigation, the bee icon indicates where you can find more information on biodiversity.

Biodiversity is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural systems it forms and includes the variability among living organisms as well as the diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems. It represents the life support system of the Earth, with human livelihoods also directly dependent on genetic, species and ecosystem diversity and function. ¹

Not only does all economic activity depend on services provided by nature ² but the fashion industry's increasing demand and utilisation of energy, land, water and natural resources results in grave loss of ecosystems and species as well as microfibre pollution to name a few. Biodiversity, along with the conservation and restoration of nature should therefore urgently be taken into account for the industry moving forward.

Core priority for immediate implementation

Supply chain traceability

Trace tier one and two manufacturers ³

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Deadstock fabric and unsold inventory are weighing down the fashion industry, which is responsible for 10 per cent of the world's carbon emissions.

Companies looking to solve this problem are collecting unused fabric and finding places to sell excess inventory.

Brands can avoid overproduction altogether by using smarter trend prediction and fabric cutting tools.

In the 18 months since Burberry faced public outrage for burning $37 million worth of excess product in 2017, overproduction remains one of fashion's costliest and most environmentally damaging open secrets.

In an effort to clear inventory without markdowns, other brands, including H&M, Nike and Louis Vuitton, have destroyed excess merchandise. Deadstock, a term used to describe merchandise that is never sold to consumers, is compounded by the amount of fabric left in factories after a production or style cancellation, as well as rampant returns.

The fashion industry, responsible for 10 per cent of the world's carbon emissions, is facing broader pressure to reduce its environmental impact, and brands are recognising the need to find more sustainable solutions for unsold items. (Burberry, for its part, banned the burning of excess goods in 2018.)

Alternatives are slowly taking shape. Businesses have launched that help brands change their approach to excess material and inventory, while new fashion brands are changing industry standards by building business models that incorporate used or leftover fabric into new collections, reducing reliance on raw resources. The success of these efforts, however, will ultimately depend on expanding brand buy-in.

The problem with unsold inventory

A key issue driving overproduction is the potential risk of inventory shortages, which would result in lost sales and frustrated customers. Until recently, brands faced no scrutiny over what they did with the items that didn't sell. But as consumers demand more sustainable fashion - and as the e-commerce market inundates retailers with product returns, many of which go straight to landfill - the opportunity for businesses to swoop in offering solutions has surged.

Parker Lane Group, a UK-based company that works with clients to handle excess inventory and customer returns, helps brands find markets for unsold clothing and recycles items that can't be resold. (This ranges from off-price retailers to buyers in conservative countries that like discounted modest swimsuits unsold in markets where bikinis are popular.) The company's goal is to find the most efficient use for each item. "All waste has value if you know how to handle it," says chief executive Raffy Kassardjian. The company, launched in 2010, currently has secondary markets established in more than 60 countries, its own sorting facility in Poland and a recycling centre in Tunisia.

Brands are incentivised to work with Parker Lane for the economic savings. Without disclosing specifics, Kassardjian says one of the company's biggest clients reported between a 30 to 40 per cent increase in value monetised from unsold inventory since working with Parker Lane, compared with processing it independently. "We focus on returning value to brands. We want to generate as much value as we can," Kassardjian says. The company has plans in the works to expand into consumer-facing operations with retailers, coordinating where excess inventory is resold.

US-based Optoro offers brands a similar service for dealing with unsold goods. Using AI and machine-learning software, its platform processes millions of items a year, marking each for resale or donation. According to the company's head of sustainability Ann Starodaj, the majority of items are put up for resale, meaning the product could go to several different channels, including the brands' outlet platforms, Amazon, Ebay and Optoro's resale site, Blinq.

Both companies accommodate brands that don't want products with logos or trademarked items being resold in discount markets, but Optoro and Parker Lane primarily work with high-volume activewear or high street brands, not image-sensitive luxury brands. One of Optoro's goals is to show luxury brands the potential value of remarketing unsold items. While lower volume, luxury brands still contend with unsold products, as Burberry demonstrated. The brand now donates excess fabric to a women's cooperative in Italy, working with organisations to recycle waste and exploring ways to repurpose raw materials and some unsold finished products. Burberry claims to be the only luxury brand committed to not destroying unsold items; Kering and LVMH did not respond for comment.

New fashion from old fabric

Some fashion designers see new opportunity in excess fabric in the supply chain. In 2013, designer Rachel Faller started the ethically made women's clothing and accessory line Tonlé, made from textiles cast off by factories in Cambodia, where she lived for five years. These materials include end-of-season excess and fabric pieces leftover during the cutting process, the result of factories optimising for saving time rather than minimising fabric waste, says Faller.

Using whatever materials are available as a starting point in a design process can be limiting, but that's a cost Faller sees as necessary. "The earth's resources are already beyond tapped. We believe that restraint is the way of the future, and we have grounded our business model in these practices."

New York label Paskho was founded by former Giorgio Armani and Perry Ellis executive Patrick Robinson with a similar goal to use up waste found in apparel factories, which costs between 20 to 38 per cent less than new fabric. If the brand, which sells men's and women's travel wear, does source new material, it's approved by Bluesign, a sustainable textile certification scheme. Robinson says none of the material goes to waste, a commitment made possible by a computerised factory process that optimises smart fabric cutting.

Deadstock can be an efficient way for other brands to experiment. About 15 per cent of Reformation's products are made with deadstock, which it uses as a source of novelty and speciality fabrics. "If we want to try something different, deadstock allows us to do that without developing new fabrics or ordering a minimum amount," vice president of sustainability Kathleen Talbot writes in an email. She says that in most cases, Reformation looks for materials to fit a specific need, such as embellished fabrics and faux fur, but the company also uses what mills tell it is available when it's a good fit.

Quantities of these unused fabrics are vast enough that entrepreneurs have also started creating systematic ways to funnel them into the hands of those who will use them. New York City-based Queen of Raw operates an online marketplace that buys and sells unused fabric waste. "It's in mint condition. It just sits in warehouses collecting dust. It didn't make sense for the planet, and it also didn't make sense for businesses," says co-founder Stephanie Benedetto.

She says brands can recoup up to 15 per cent of their bottom line by letting Queen of Raw sell their unused fabric stocks. In the last year, the company has grown 110 per cent year-on-year and has over 100,000 users that include fast fashion brands and luxury houses. But according to Benedetto and her team's calculations, $120 billion worth of fabric ends up in the landfill every year, meaning there's still much room left to grow.

Targeting a different segment of the supply chain, FabScrap collects 6,000 pounds of fabric scraps weekly from corporate fashion offices, factories and cutting rooms in New York City. It then sells those online and in its physical shop near the Fashion Institute of Technology to a clientele that ranges from sewing hobbyists to emerging designers focused on sustainability. Founder Jessica Schreiber says her company provides an annual report to the 400-plus brands it works with detailing how each brand's materials were used and the resulting environmental benefits.

For brands just dipping their toes into sustainability, she says, it's a measurable place to start that doesn't create reputational risk, as materials are not identifiable by brand.

Solving for overproduction

While convincing brands to funnel unsold inventory into secondary markets extends the life of products, and using deadstock fabric helps eliminate waste, neither solution helps to eliminate overproduction. Overproduction is a result of seasonal inventory and miscalculated demand predictions, while excess inventory can stem from failed quality control and pulled production.

ZigZag Global, which manages customer return logistics for brands, analyses data from returned items and provides it to clients to optimise production levels. This helps brands better predict what sizes and colours to stock for which markets. Managing director Patrick Eve says that brands typically overproduce by about 40 per cent. "What we want to do is help the retailer produce the right number of goods."

Francois Souchet, who leads the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's Make Fashion Circular initiative, believes that tackling the overproduction problem at its source will require fundamental changes in how the industry approaches garment design and plans for production. The ubiquity of large order minimums - for final products as well as in earlier manufacturing stages, such as fabric sourcing - builds waste into every step of production, something that can be avoided. Souchet points to Zara, which has faced criticism for propelling the wasteful fast fashion model but tests new products in markets before ramping up production, helping it to avoid wasted inventory.

Faller's hope is for production and design to be integrated. "Designers are usually working in a box that is totally isolated from the production constraints. Another team typically figures out how to get everything made, cost-effectively, after the design team hands it over," she says. But as long as most brands don't own their production, progress will be difficult. "The incentives aren't aligned to reduce waste or find creative ways to use their own waste - never mind take care of garment makers or the environment."
To receive the Vogue Business Sustainability Edit, sign up here. Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com. More from this author:
Fashion's biodiversity problem (part 1)

Fashion is belatedly trying to save Earth's biodiversity (part 2)
How fashion brands are experimenting with resale

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Fashion has a waste problem. These companies want to fix it

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Deadstock fabric and unsold inventory are weighing down the fashion industry, which is responsible for 10 per cent of the world's carbon emissions. Companies looking to solve this problem are collecting unused fabric and finding places to sell excess inventory. Brands can avoid overproduction altogether by using smarter trend prediction and fabric cutting tools.

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Companies Fashion Technology Sustainability Retail Beauty Data

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Asos sets “ambitious commitments” on plastic packaging

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Patagonia gives a new twist to its commitment to sustainability. The American company has opened a store for Worn Wear, its clothing resale business launched in 2017, in which it buys products from its customers that are in good condition, in exchange for store credit. The store will be active until early 2020.

The ReCrafted collection as well as original garments will be available at the point of sale. Also, the store will have workshops dedicated to repair these garments. Patagonia was founded by the climber Yvon Chouinard in 1973 and although initially focused on the manufacture of climbing equipment, he changed his ideology to focus on products that respect the environment.

Since its foundation, Patagonia has become a six hundred-million-dollar business that has more than fifty stores worldwide, always calling awareness towards consumerism as they did in 2013 with their Christmas campaign Don't buy this jacket, published in The New York Times.

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Patagonia takes sustainability even further: opens secondhand store

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Patagonia gives a new twist to its commitment to sustainability. The American company has opened a store for Worn Wear, its clothing resale business launched in 2017, in which it buys products from its customers that are in good condition, in exchange for store credit. The store will be active until early 2020.

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Circular economy introduction

In our current economy, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste - the process is linear. In a circular economy, by contrast, we stop waste being produced in the first place.

The circular economy is based on three principles, driven by design:

It is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and materials. A circular economy decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It is a resilient system that is good for business, people and the environment.

The circular economy is a systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution.

We must transform every element of our take-make-waste system: how we manage resources, how we make and use products, and what we do with the materials afterwards. Only then can we create a thriving circular economy that can benefit everyone within the limits of our planet.

A way to transform our system

What will it take to transform our throwaway economy into one where waste is eliminated, resources are circulated, and nature is regenerated?

The circular economy gives us the tools to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss together, while addressing important social needs.

It gives us the power to grow prosperity, jobs, and resilience while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, waste, and pollution.

How the circular economy works

Get the basics or explore the circular economy in detail.

Circular economy principles

A circular economy is based on three principles, all driven by design.

Circular economy examples

See the circular economy in action with these case studies from brands, businesses and policy makers.

Apeel

thredUP

Natura Brazil

Working with nature to make food last longer

Apeel is a company that has come up with an innovative way to eliminate single-use shrink wrap plastic packaging on fresh fruit and veg, while at the same time tackling food waste.

Apeel is a layer of edible, plant-based coating applied to fresh products that mimics and enhances the natural defences of fruit and vegetables. This slows down the two main things that cause spoilage - water loss and oxidation.

explore the example

Video series: What is the circular economy?

Explore the circular economy by topic

Resources, guidance and tools

Use our practical tools and resources to put circular principles into practice and find courses and materials for learners and teachers.

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In our current economy, we take materials from the Earth, make products from them, and eventually throw them away as waste - the process is linear. In a circular economy, by contrast, we stop waste being produced in the first place. It is underpinned by a transition to renewable energy and materials.

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WGSN on LinkedIn: "Global conversations around sustainability have prompted travel brands to encourage their consumers to make more conscious decisions. Discover the brands micro-nudging consumers towards behavioural change. http://bit.ly/2CNh3PC "

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November 15, 2019: WGSN posted an article on LinkedIn

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Recommerce Edited report

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Why everyone's talking about recommerce — EDITED

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There is a way to turn used cotton and viscose into new biodegradable pulp, new fibers, new yarn, new fabrics and new garments that can be produced and worn with a clear conscience. Because we have closed the loop. Recycling clothes finally works.

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"adidas' strategy is simple: create product that not only performs for the athlete, but for the world at large. Designing footwear and apparel with upcycled plastic waste was our first step. The next challenge is to end the concept of waste entirely, in this case creating products that are made to be remade.

We don't have all the answers and we know we can't do it alone, so by collaborating with partners who share our same vision, as we've done with Evrnu, we can combine adidas by Stella McCartney's sports industry expertise with specialist knowledge to bring about a waste-free world."

James Carnes, Vice President of Strategy Creation at adidas

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"adidas' strategy is simple: create product that not only performs for the athlete, but for the world at large. Designing footwear and apparel with upcycled plastic waste was our first step. The next challenge is to end the concept of waste entirely, in this case creating products that are made to be remade.

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Every year, the average American throws out 80 pounds of clothing, which amounts to 14 billion tons across the entire population. Some of these clothes are donated or sold on the secondhand market. But ultimately, they all end up in the same place: the trash heap. These days, T-shirts, jeans, prom dresses, and shoes make up about 8% of landfill waste. But imagine if you could throw a your ratty old t-shirt or worn-out jeans into the recycling bin, along with your plastic water bottle and aluminum beer can. The clothes would then get sent to a facility where they would be broken down and turned back into new T-shirts and jeans.

Paul Dillinger, Levi's head of innovation, believes this future is around the corner. And he wants Levi's to be ready for the day that large-scale clothing recycling becomes available. Levi's recently launched a capsule collection through its eco-friendlier Wellthread line that is designed to be easily processed by an industrial fabric-recycling plant. "We are building a design practice to retrain designers to design clothes that can be more efficiently taken back, recovered, and turned into next-generation materials," Dillinger says.

The capsule collection was made in collaboration with surf brand Outerknown. On the surface, it looks much like the other clothes you might find at a Levi's store. There are graphic tees, Western-style shirts, jeans, and even a trucker jacket. But what's different about the line is that each item is made from a single material.

It is currently difficult to recycle mixed materials, which is why plastic and aluminum manufacturers have to abide by strict government-mandated standards before an item can be certified recyclable. Since there is no mandate around garment recycling yet, Levi's designers imposed a material standard on themselves. "It's a lot of deep R&D on the sundries, the threads, the pocketing, the types of labels," Dillinger says. "All of these need to be made from the same material and be taken apart easily. But it needs to come together in a way that looks credible, like a thing you already know and want."

For instance, the T-shirts are made entirely from cotton (including 25% recycled cotton from jeans and other scraps). There is also s fleece-lined trucker jacket that is cleverly designed so you can take out the polyester fleece lining to recycle it separately from the hemp denim. "We very carefully made the fleece detachable from the interior, so you could have a more heavyweight garment that serves the need for the winter season and a lighter one for when it's warmer," he says. "When it's time to recycle it, the liner is made entirely from polyester, from the threads to the label, everything, while the shell is made entirely out of cottonized hemp. When they're separated, they are the ideal input into both the cotton, cellulosic (fibers made from plants), or polyester recycling system."

There are many startups tinkering with sustainable practices: Everlane is working to eradicate virgin plastic from its supply chain, from the synthetic fibers in garments to the plastic bags in which clothes are shipped; Allbirds is designing sneakers from sustainable fibers like wool and tree fiber, while also working to become completely carbon neutral; For Days manufactures T-shirts out of organic cotton, then recycles them when the customer is done with them.

For a large heritage brand like Levi's-which generates $5.6 billion in revenue a year by selling millions of jeans in 110 countries-it's not enough to develop a new material or technique. The company's real challenge is figuring out whether it can execute a particular material or process across hundreds of factories in 30 countries. That's why the Wellthread line is so important, Dillinger says. "You have to put (the new design) through the supply chain to validate that the opportunity is real and substantiate it in real production scenarios," Dillinger says. "You can't do that until you actually make, manufacture, distribute, and sell the product."

The Wellthread collection is a microcosm of the struggles of large, multinational brands trying to move toward a more sustainable future. One of the risks, Dillinger says, is putting too much strain on its network of existing suppliers by asking them to do things they're not yet equipped to do. "If we introduce a new practice too fast, or at too large a scale, we put it at risk of failure," Dillinger says. "We don't want to get the reputation for being too difficult, too risky, or too problematic. So we need to test things at a smaller scale, then slowly try to introduce them to the rest of the company."

If Levi's were to make all of its products recyclable, it would theoretically be able to divert millions of clothes from the landfill as soon as fabric recycling is available. The question, then, is when fabric recycling will become mainstream. Technology is not what is holding us back, Dillinger says. The problem is that there hasn't been a concerted effort to create a national fabric recycling infrastructure, like we have with paper, plastic, and aluminum. "There hasn't been an urgency around the collection, recovery, and repurposing of garments," he says.

Dillinger points out that the U.S. government had a strong incentive for recycling aluminum as part of the war efforts for both the first and second World Wars, but there was no similar impetus for clothes. "We all knew it was our job to make sure we kept our nation safe by recycling that tin can," he says. "Kids were dragging their little wagons around the neighborhood to collect more metal. And for that reason, there's an infrastructure around metal recovery that persists to this day, is robust, and exists in all 50 states."

Then, in the 1970s, the government invested in creating recycling facilities for glass and paper, thanks to a growing awareness of the environmental impact of waste. But by then, clothing was already so complex, made from fabrics that incorporated different materials, that there was no straightforward way to break it down. Over the past few years, several startups have made breakthroughs in fabric recycling, but they are all experimental for the time being and have not reached enough scale to become mainstream. Evrnu grinds old textiles and Re:Newcell melts them, before turning them into new fibers, while Worn Again breaks polyester down at a polymer level before reconstituting it.

Dillinger believes it will be hard for any one individual company to create a nationwide clothing recycling system on par with paper or glass recycling. "Its a type of infrastructure that is too large for a single company to take on," he says. "The companies that are investing in fabric recycling technologies are generally doing it at a loss. It's too big a lift for a single company to execute, and it's not anything that a citizen or consumer can do either."

In other words, Dillinger believes governments will need to create policies to make fabric recycling the norm, while companies and designers need to design clothing that's ready for recycling. So far, the U.S. government has not made fabric recycling a priority. Some states, such as Massachusetts, encourage residents to donate clothes to retailers that collect clothes to be repurposed or recycled. But other countries are beginning to develop policies that force brands and consumers to be more conscious about the fabric waste they are creating. In the United Kingdom, for instance, a recent bill proposed taxing each item of clothing to fund the creation of fabric recycling infrastructure. It failed to pass in Parliament, but Dillinger believes ideas like this are a sign that change is on the horizon.

"We might be skeptical about the viability of this kind of action in the United States right now, but I think this is a temporary thing," Dillinger says. "At a macro level, we need to rely on progressive governments to lead the way. But as a company, we need to be much better at designing the product that will be optimized for that infrastructure in the future."

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Levi's wants to invent the jeans you'll be wearing in 2050

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Every year, the average American throws out 80 pounds of clothing, which amounts to 14 billion tons across the entire population. Some of these clothes are donated or sold on the secondhand market. But ultimately, they all end up in the same place: the trash heap.

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A 'Fast Fashion' Tax? Britain Has a Radical New Plan to Spur Clothing Recycling and Reduce Waste

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Report focuses on environmental, social costs of fast fashion.

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Made with sustainably sourced wood, Eastman Naia™ cellulosic yarn brings the richness of nature to comfortable and effortlessly luxurious fabrics.

With Eastman Naia™ cellulosic yarn, you don't have to compromise.

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Eastman Naia™ cellulosic yarn is the perfect choice for fabrics in womenswear, intimate apparel, and linings. Designers can be comfortable choosing Naia™. The yarn transforms into luxurious, soft, and easy-to-care-for fabrics, giving designers more freedom and choice.

Eastman Naia™ cellulosic yarn, the ultimate name in fashion apparel, offers a differentiated product for brands looking to innovate in their next collection. Create comfortable, easy-to-care-for, and luxurious fabrics-all thanks to inherent qualities found in Naia™ from Eastman.

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Eastman Naia™ cellulosic yarn, the ultimate name in fashion apparel, offers a differentiated product for brands looking to innovate in their next collection. Made from sustainably sourced wood, Naia™ is the perfect choice for fabrics in womenswear, intimate apparel, and linings.

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Startups are developing plant-based alternatives to silk | Vogue Business

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They are

1. Removal of 5p plastic carrier bags

2. Re-usable click-and-collect packaging

3. Removal and recycling of click-and-collect packaging

4. Replacing bubble wrap with new, recyclable packaging for china and glass purchases

5. "Eco" home deliveries

6. Recycling unwanted hangers from any brand or retailer

7. Fashion "Buy Back" - customers can exchange up to three items of pre-owne clothing from any brand stocked at John Lewis for £3 per item

8. "Beauty cycle" - customers can recycle used beauty product packaging in exchange for £5 off their next beauty purchase

The retailer said it hopes the new pilot will save "thousands of tonnes of plastic and packaging from going to landfill", and that removing 5p plastic bags from the shop could save five tonnes of plastic in one year.

Head of sustainability Stephen Cawley said: "Our customers told us that they want us to help them reduce their impact on the planet, and that reducing and recycling packaging is key for them.

"Our message that we want customers to take away just the product, and to reduce and re-use the packaging that they don't, will be clearly communicated throughout the shop."

He added that John Lewis will listen to customer feedback before deciding what to introduce in other shops.

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John Lewis pilots in-store sustainability scheme

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They are 1. Removal of 5p plastic carrier bags 2. Re-usable click-and-collect packaging 3. Removal and recycling of click-and-collect packaging 4. Replacing bubble wrap with new, recyclable packaging for china and glass purchases 5. "Eco" home deliveries 6. Recycling unwanted hangers from any brand or retailer 7.

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Can it ever be green to buy clothes and only wear them once? Well it might be, if you buy second-hand ones and sell them again when you're finished with them.

As concerns rise over the unsustainable price tag of fast fashion, some young people are looking online for a way to look good for less without hurting the planet.

Sylvie Mackower, 20, from London wasn't thinking about the environment when she set up an account on an app called Depop to sell on items she no longer wore.

"I really just wanted to get rid of old clothes and get a bit of money doing it," she says.

The Depop social shopping app blends the aesthetic and social aspects of Instagram with the buy-and-sell format of eBay. It was established in 2011 by Simon Bekerman and now has over 15 million users in 147 countries.

Since creating her account five years ago Sylvie has become more conscious of sustainability and encourages young people to consider their footprint while shopping.

"Not purchasing new items where possible and recycling things you get tired of leaves you with a pretty small consumption footprint," she says.

"This is what people have to commit to if we want to hold onto our planet."

Depop is not the only app targeting this space - many second-hand clothes are traded on eBay, and even the fast-fashion retailer Asos has a Marketplace feature which allows users to resell used clothes.

"There is certainly a trend in young people seeking out second-hand clothing," says Prof Tim Cooper, head of Nottingham Trent University's clothing sustainability research group.

"A lot of people prefer to shop online rather than visit second-hand shops, so it is positive that young people are looking into shopping more sustainably."

Prof Cooper's research into fashion sustainability was used by a group of MPs who called on the government to implement a clothing tax in the summer.

He believes more can be done to persuade younger people to lower their clothing consumption.

"I think as long as we have cheap fast fashion goods we are going to have a problem. The issue with clothing consumption is the sheer volume of garments produced which end up in landfill," he says.

Prof Cooper believes that mainstream brands which integrate second-hand clothing into their stores are encouraging sustainable shopping.

Lauren Ashcroft, 21 from Durham uses Depop regularly to change her wardrobe sustainably on a budget.

"You feel better about buying from a Depop seller because you aren't supporting a company that mass produces clothing.

"I think sites like Depop are good because you can often find exactly what you want at a more affordable price as well."

"My generation tend to need to shop on a budget, and it's quite easy to negotiate the price with sellers online if you think the price is too steep," she says.

Lauren also believes that social shopping apps are useful for buying clothing for events like Halloween, as costumes often end up in landfill after one use.

"I bought and sold my Cruella Deville costume I wore two years ago," she says.

"Most people change their Halloween costume each year, so it's better to buy a costume second-hand and sell it on as it generates less waste."

Although many people use Depop buy and sell clothing they no longer use, other users open up business which specialise in second-hand clothing.

Kieran Thwaites, 22, from Loughborough, first started Thwaites Vintage on Depop in 2015 and has amassed 30k followers on the app.

"I would always encourage people to shop vintage clothing so less ends up at landfill. I grew up visiting charity shops with my family, we have always been a bit thrifty like that.

"In sixth form I decided to sell my old clothes on Depop and had some luck. Then I started selling in specific niches, which is my biggest advice to anyone trying to run a vintage store."

Since launching his business Kieran has become more eco-friendly, and regularly sets up pop-up events around the UK to generate less waste and speak to customers.

"I have recently made the switch to recyclable mailing bags and use paper bags rather than plastic, I try to run my business responsibly."

He is also working with Leicestershire council to encourage young consumers to shop more sustainably.

"One of the ideas I pitched was a £10 charity shop challenge. I want to show people you can actually get decent clothes for a decent price."

Sustainability is a main motivator for Nikki Millar, 29, from Leicester, who urges young people to be creative with their clothing and shop vintage.

"I'm an avid carbooter, I love seeing old items get a new life," she says.

"At the the time I started my business the high street was very unimaginative and the internet barely existed so online shopping was a no-go for me."

"I had built up quite the collection of colourful cartoon duvet covers so I began making my own clothes. People would always ask where they could buy my clothes so I started a Depop."

As well as Depop, Nikki has since opened up Silly Girl Club as a boutique on Asos Marketplace which features small boutique businesses selling vintage clothing and handmade items.

Although she now has a bigger platform there has always been an underlying environmental motivation for her brand.

"The textile industry creates more CO2 emissions than the combination of aviation and shipping," she says. "I would love to see people wearing more pre-loved stuff.

"It's conscious consumerism and as a bonus, you won't see someone else wearing the same outfit. I'm proud to say 99% of my wardrobe is pre-loved."

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Depop: Can pre-loved clothes make fast fashion sustainable?

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Can it ever be green to buy clothes and only wear them once? Well it might be, if you buy second-hand ones and sell them again when you're finished with them. As concerns rise over the unsustainable price tag of fast fashion, some young people are looking online for a way to look good for less without hurting the planet.

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The quick guide on how rental services are taking over fashion — EDITED

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Welcome to Thomas Insights - every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what's happening in industry. Sign up here to get the day's top stories delivered straight to your inbox.

In recent years the fashion industry has become increasingly scrutinized for its lack of sustainability.

Last year, for example, luxury fashion house Burberry made headlines when its annual report revealed $37 million worth of surplus clothing and cosmetics had been burned in order to preserve its brand. With the industry responsible for 20% of global water waste, it's no surprise that activists and a new generation of designers are determinedly calling for and driving sustainability initiatives in this space.

Fashion Week historically showcases grand displays of headline-grabbing excess and extravagance, which subsequently inspires the next frenzied cycle of fast fashion. However, sustainability efforts have been front and center at recent Fashion Weeks in London, New York, Helsinki, and Milan.

Gucci pledged to make its entire supply chain carbon-neutral, which included planting a tree for each attendee in Milan. Leather was banned in Helsinki and the legendary week was reserved exclusively for brands launching sustainable collections. In London, a symposium was held at the Finnish Institute to discuss the future of sustainable fashion and creativity.

How the Clothing Industry Can Incorporate Sustainability into Fashion

There are a number of ways in which brands can operate more sustainably, including:

Using recycled, upcycled, renewable, and responsibly sourced materials

Donating surplus clothing and materials to charity

Providing in-house repair and refurbish services

Changing business models to reduce the frequency of collections released each year

Going cruelty-free (removing animal products including leather and fur from production)

Paying living wages at every step of the supply chain

For some groups and activists, including climate campaign movement Extinction Rebellion, these efforts are not deemed satisfactory because they do not address the severity of today's climate crisis. A number of demonstrations at London Fashion Week called for the industry to be canceled in its entirety.

Today, eco-conscious consumers are getting creative with their use of second-hand, thrift, and vintage stores, along with resale sites like thredUP and MyWardrobe, which resell previously worn luxury and high-quality clothing brands.
Image Credit: @Dior / Twitter
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The Latest in Global Fashion Week Trends: Sustainability

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Welcome to Thomas Insights - every day, we publish the latest news and analysis to keep our readers up to date on what's happening in industry. Sign up here to get the day's top stories delivered straight to your inbox. In recent years the fashion industry has become increasingly scrutinized for its lack of sustainability.

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Every hour, Americans throw away 2.5 million water bottles and 80% ends up in landfills. Plastic water bottles can take between 400 and 1,000 years to decompose. However, only 1 in 5 plastic bottles are recycled. Every hour, Americans throw away 2.5 million water bottles and 80% ends up in landfills.

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Arch & Hook BLUE® is a 100% recycled, fully closed loop, alternative for plastic hangers. These hangers are initially intended for use in the 'garment on hanger' (GOH) transport stage of fashion retail distribution. In this stage garments are transported from factories to stores before being discarded and replaced by branded front of house hangers. GOH is considered one of the most polluting stages in the apparel lifecycle.

With Arch & Hook BLUE® weprovide a sustainable alternative for the hundreds of billions of hangers that end up in landfill each year due to the 'garment on hanger' process. These hangers are made from a mixture of plastic and other waste found in the ocean and collected in the world's most polluted areas. The mixture of materials is sorted and separated, shredded, transported, and prepared as raw material suitable for hangers.

Thanks to clever notches and add-on bars and clips, the modular patent-pending BLUE® hangers can be used for any garment, in any combination. At the end of their lifespan, BLUE® hangers can be collected and recycled into new hangers, over and over again.

Arch & Hook invites you to "Switch to BLUE" and join Arch & Hook's BLUE® fully circular hanger program, which is launched during the London Fashion Week SS20 with the support of fashion designer Roland Mouret and the British Fashion Council.

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Arch & Hook BLUE | 100% recycled hangers | Made from marine plastics.

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Arch & Hook BLUE® is a 100% recycled, fully closed loop, alternative for plastic hangers. These hangers are initially intended for use in the 'garment on hanger' (GOH) transport stage of fashion retail distribution. In this stage garments are transported from factories to stores before being discarded and replaced by branded front of house hangers.

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Written by on

Luxury online retailer Farfetch has teamed up with on-demand donation service Thrift+ to allow its customers to earn money and donate to a charity of their choice by giving away clothes they no longer use.

So how does it work? Farfetch shoppers will be able to order a Thrift+ x Farfetch donation bag online that they can pack their unwanted fashion items into before either booking a free collection service or dropping it off at a local drop-off point. Items are then sent to Thrift+ where the company photographs the items and lists them for sale online on its website. Once an item is sold, a third of the proceeds are donated to a charity of the customer's choice, a third is given to the customer as Farfetch credit, and a third is used to cover Thrift+'s costs. Customers are also given the choice to forgo Farfetch credit and send that third of the money to their chosen charity, too. Thrift+ supports donations to any of the 160,000 registered charities in the UK.

Thrift x Farfetch is a UK only partnership.

Thomas Berry, director of sustainable business at Farfetch, said in a statement: "We know our consumers would like an easy way to clear their wardrobes of unused items, and at the same time, they would like to feel positive about it. Thrift+ x Farfetch links our customer base with an innovative service that improves the donation experience and has a positive impact by giving good quality clothes another useful life and supporting multiple charities. This is a natural extension to our Farfetch Second Life resale programme, focused on luxury handbags, and part of our broader approach to sustainability."

Joe Metcalfe, founder of Thrift+, added: "We make donating second-hand clothes more effective, more transparent and more convenient giving second-hand shoppers the same quality shopping experience as regular shoppers. Thrift+ was founded with the mission of bringing charity shops online. For this reason, we are delighted to be partnering with the leading global technology platform for the luxury fashion industry and to support them on their sustainability journey."
Photo: Susie Bubble, Thrift+. Courtesy of Farfetch

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Farfetch teams up with second-hand clothing platform Thrift+

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Written by on Luxury online retailer Farfetch has teamed up with on-demand donation service Thrift+ to allow its customers to earn money and donate to a charity of their choice by giving away clothes they no longer use. So how does it work?

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We love the feeling of a new garment that moves our planet towards a greener and better future. ECONYL® regenerated nylon makes what you believe in match with what you wear

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That's why we created this Digital Hub: a place where our community can get together, make conscious purchases of products made with ECONYL®, and learn more about how to be truly sustainable. These garments can Live & Repeat, changing shape and function, and so we can help preserve our planet's resources. From waste to garment, over and over again, in a virtuous and infinite loop.

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Welcome on our e-shop - ECONYL® Regenerated Nylon

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We love the feeling of a new garment that moves our planet towards a greener and better future. ECONYL® makes what you wear match what you believe in.

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SAVOIR-FAIRE

WE ARE ANIMAL FRIENDS

MEET OUR PARTNERS

WANT TO WORK WITH US ? GET IN TOUCH

We've been developing high end faux fur for more than 300 top fashion brands which have stopped using the real fur.

No brand, no company, no institution can argue against the fact that faux fur should replace all animal furs.

Everybody is instinctively attached to the sweet feeling of animal fur and its natural beauty. However many are appalled by the way animal fur is produced in factory farms. Thanksfully today, technologies and innovations allow us to have new ways to design amazing and ethical alternatives to fur.

Long an advocate for innovation, and committed to environmental protection and corporate social responsibility, ECOPEL aims to make a difference in the textile and apparel industry and wants to add its positive contribution to the way fashion is created.

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SAVOIR-FAIRE WE ARE ANIMAL FRIENDS MEET OUR PARTNERS WANT TO WORK WITH US ? GET IN TOUCH We've been developing high end faux fur for more than 300 top fashion brands which have stopped using the real fur. No brand, no company, no institution can argue against the fact that faux fur should replace all animal furs.

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Stella McCartney is launching Koba, which claims both a lower carbon footprint and more luxurious feel than existing faux fur alternatives.

The new LVMH partner is open to helping other brands adopt Koba, which it hopes will become an industry standard.

McCartney's partners are working on new generations of the faux fur in order to give designers more options.

Stella McCartney's Spring/Summer 2020 show in Paris on Monday will feature a selection of faux fur coats, but one noteworthy piece won't even make it down the runway. Held backstage for a private photo shoot, the coat, made from a corn byproduct blended with recycled polyester, marks the debut of bio-based faux fur Koba in the eco-friendly designer's repertoire. It could also be a game-changer for the industry.

While brands like Gucci and Burberry have transitioned away from animal fur, existing alternatives are made from petroleum-based products. Current faux fur options are made from modacrylic, which is used in higher-priced markets, and polyester, which can be recycled but is lower in quality. The corn-based component in Koba promises to both reduce the material's total carbon footprint while elevating its quality to a calibre that fits the needs of a luxury brand.

"Polyester isn't the same quality that we want, and the modacrylic doesn't give us the sustainability that we want," says Claire Bergkamp, Stella McCartney's worldwide director of sustainability and innovation. "This is kind of bridging that gap."

Stella McCartney plans to roll out Koba coats to stores sometime in 2020. It is the first major sustainability-related announcement from Stella McCartney since LVMH acquired a minority stake in the brand in July and designated the namesake designer a special advisor on sustainability to the luxury group. The relationship is too new to say how this material will feed into any of LVMH's other brands says Bergkamp, although she adds that Stella McCartney is keen for Koba to become an industry standard and happy to talk to any interested labels.

"This has to be a collaborative effort. It is a moment of climate crisis - and it is a genuine crisis," Bergkamp says. "We want to show what's possible, and show that these sustainable improvements can be beautiful [and] luxurious."

The number of A/W19 products currently in stores that feature faux fur has increased by 24 per cent year-on-year, according to Edited analyst Kayla Marci. Alternative fur items at luxury price points increased by a slower 13 per cent - with synthetic fabrics like modacrylic and polyester being the materials of choice.

McCartney, a longtime animal advocate, has always shunned real fur for ethical reasons, but the quest for eco-friendly substitutes has been an elusive one. Koba is a collaboration between Stella McCartney; Ecopel, a faux fur developer that is also an existing supplier; and Dupont, the chemical conglomerate. Initial conversations between the partners began about two years ago. On the technical side, Koba took 10 months to create, says Arnaud Brunois, a spokesperson at Ecopel.

According to Dupont, the bio-based material uses up to 30 per cent less energy and produces 63 per cent less greenhouse gas emissions than polyester. Koba, which is 37 per cent bio-based and 63 per cent recycled polyester, is also recyclable with other polyester products, says Brunois.

Dupont and Ecopel are already working on new generations of Koba, which Bergkamp explains will expand its versatility. For instance, this could allow designers to offer faux fur in different lengths, further boosting the creative team's options.

That, ultimately, is Stella McCartney's main goal. "We want to give people the option to look the way they want to look and do it in a sustainable way," says Bergkamp.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story indicated that Stella McCartney would preview two Koba coats. The brand subsequently decided to show one. (30 September 2019)
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Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
More from this author: Fashion's uphill quest for 100% carbon neutrality Is footwear funding the burning of the Amazon? How Econyl became fashion's favourite eco-friendly material

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Can Stella McCartney make faux fur sustainable?

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Stella McCartney is launching Koba, which claims both a lower carbon footprint and more luxurious feel than existing faux fur alternatives. The new LVMH partner is open to helping other brands adopt Koba, which it hopes will become an industry standard. McCartney's partners are working on new generations of the faux fur in order to give designers more options.

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Fabric out of ground coffee

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What if we could make new textiles from your trash? Imagine wearing a dress which is made using the leftover coffee grounds from your morning coffee? This future may be closer than you think. The textile industry has been implementing new technologies and developing new fibres which are both innovative and better for the industry from a social and environmental sustainable point of view for some time now. Which should come as no surprise, considering the fashion industry is considered to be one of the most polluting industries in the world. Textile innovation is the direct link to the next step in ensuring the entire industry becomes more sustainable.

At the moment, the majority of the resources used by the textile and fashion industry, such as cotton and polyester, are in limited supply and the increasing demand for them is harming the planet. Take cotton for example. Cotton production currently accounts for approximately 2.5 percent of the world's arable land according to WWF. But cotton farming accounts for 24 percent of the global sales of insecticides and 11 percent of pesticides, most of which is directly released into the environment. This, in turn, has dire consequences on the health of the farmer who is exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis and also contaminates the water and soil of the surrounding communities. What's more, cotton consumes a vast amount of water - between 6,000 and 10,000 litres of water are needed to grow a single kilo of cotton. This is why innovative textiles, such as fabrics made from coffee grounds, seaweed, pineapple leaves or recycled plastic bottles are so important as they are the foundation of the fashion industry greener future.

Making clothing out of recycled coffee grounds

In this new series, FashionUnited explores the sustainable alternatives and textile innovations which are currently being developed all over the world in order to raise awareness for the need of new, innovative and sustainable materials in the fashion industry. And S.Café is a prime example one of the leading textile innovations. Created by Taiwanese textile company Singtex, S.Café is a yarn made from coffee grounds which offers excellent natural anti-door qualities, in addition to UV ray protection and quick drying time and recycled polyester. Singtex's technology combines the post-patented processed coffee ground and polymer to create master batches before spinning it into yarn. "S.Café technology, with a low-temperature, high-pressure and energy saving process, combines coffee grounds onto the yarn surface, changing the characteristics of the filament, and offers up to 200 percent faster drying time compared to cotton," states the brand on its website.

The resulting coffee yarn is multi-functional and can be used in a variety of products, from outdoor and sports performance wear to household items used every day. The coffee grounds used to create the yarn are taken and recycled from some of the world's largest coffee vendors, like Starbucks. In this way, the company gives a second life to coffee grounds which would have otherwise ended up in the trash. "There is never a need to waste time and energy to produce the essential S.Café raw material, as there is always coffee being consumed, therefore there will always be coffee grounds to be collected and used," adds the brand. In addition, garments made from S.Café can also be composted at the end of their life, ensuring they do not go to waste in one of the world's landfills and used to grow more coffee, giving it a circular lifecycle.

Since its launch in 2009, Singtex has developed a wide range of products made from S.Café, such as underwear, bedding and even footwear. The company is keen to continue advancing and developing further products for the textile and fashion industry alike. For example, P4Dry uses repurposed coffee grounds to create a 3D printed layer with four principle functions. Then there is Mylithe, the latest development of S.Café which uses an "air texture" method to give the fabric a cotton-like feel while maintaining its original properties. "We will continue to develop to achieve a full range of eco-friendly coffee products," said Jason Chen, founder of S.Café and President of Singtex in an interview with the Fashion Globe. "In addition to textiles, we would like to improve a large extension of S.Café and apply it to different fields of business."

"In order to achieve full use of waste: grains, grounds or slags, we will continue to explore further options. In the past eight years, we have successfully developed some private brands including S.Cafe, Ice Cafe, eco²sy, P4Dry, sefia™, mylithe™, Airnest, AEx Technology and Coffee cotton allowing us to create a whirlwind in new textiles leading the growth of output value and scale in the eco-friendly field." In order to ensure that all their new products are up to standard, the company also holds a number of internationally recognised sustainable certifications, such as Blue Sign, Oekotex and Cradle-to-Cradle. And thanks to its ongoing international collaborations within the fashion sector the fabric can already be found in a number of products from leading fashion companies such as Timberland, American Eagle, North Face and Puma.

Now, the challenge remains in taking the fibre global and ensuring more apparel brands incorporate it into their collections in lieu of conventional fabrics and that it extends its reach to outside of the fashion industry.

Article orginally written by Alicia Carrasco Rozas for FashionUnited ES. Edited and translated for FashionUnited UK by Vivian Hendriksz

Read more on Sustainable textile innovations here: Lotus Fibres

Photos: Singtex Industrial CO. LTD.

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Sustainable Textile Innovations: Coffee Ground fibre

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What if we could make new textiles from your trash? Imagine wearing a dress which is made using the leftover coffee grounds from your morning coffee? This future may be closer than you think. The textile industry has been implementing new techno

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Fabric out of Pinapple

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New materials, processes, and techniques are often the result of the successful merger of fashion and technology and help drive the industry towards a more sustainable future. Technological developments in the fashion and textile industry are undoubtedly one of the key factors driving real change in terms of sustainability, which is why FashionUnited aims to explore new materials and innovative processes which are being developed and tests around the globe in this new series.

After learning more about fabrics made from used coffee grounds and lotus fibers, FashionUnited turns its focus to a vegan alternative to leather, which is made from none other than pineapple leaves. Although the idea may sound unbelievable, Ananas Anman has developed a natural and non-woven textile out of pineapple leaves, known as Piñatex, which is remarkably similar to leather. The sustainable alternative was created by Dr. Carmen Hijosa, after she spent years working in the leather industry and saw first-hand the environmental and ethical impact of the material.

"The inspiration to use the fibres found in pineapple leaves came in part from the use of this raw material in traditional delicate fabrics," explains Hijosa, who also adds that it "the subsequential step to turn this innovation into a more robust textile which was also commercially viable was the result of many years of research and development." As a direct witness to the environmental consequences of tanning, Hijosa was personally inspired to develop Piñatex, as she foresaw the numerous benefits the new sustainable fabric could have on agricultural communities.

Piñatex: a sustainable and vegan alternative to leather

The result of years of work was the development of a new type of natural tissue, which is 100 percent vegan and sustainable as it is made from pineapple leaf fibres, a by-product from the pineapple harvest in the Philippines. "The fibres are extracted from the leaves during a process called decortication, which is done at the plantation by the farming community," explains the company in a statement.

"The fibres then undergo an industrial process to become a nonwoven textile, which is the base of Piñatex. The final step takes place at a textile finishing company in Spain, where our unique finishing process is done before being shipped all over the world." In addition, the by-product derived from the manufacturing process of Piñatex is biomass, which is converted into organic fertilizer or bio-gas and used by the farming communities, thereby closing the loop of the material's production.

Unlike the production process of traditional leather, the manufacturing process of Piñatex does not include the use of toxic chemicals and heavy metals, which are harmful to both the environment and the people making the material. In addition, the material does not contain any animal by-products and is made from the waste of an existing industry, making it a more sustainable choice in comparison to leather. Piñatex is also said to be a strong, yet versatile, breathable, soft and flexible, material which can be easily printed on, stitched and cut making it suitable for a number of fashion products.

Piñatex has won a number of prizes over the years thanks to these unique characteristics. It was the first raw material to with the Innovation Award in 2015 and named the Grand Designs Green Hero in 2016. The brand was also named a certified cruelty-free label in 2015 by PETA. The fashion industry has responded very positively to Piñatex and there is already a wide range of brands which use or have sampled Piñatex, ranging from footwear, fashion accessories, clothing and interior furniture brands. For example, eco-activist Livia Firth recently wore a silver dress made from PiñatexORO, created by Italian designer Laura Strambi to the Met Gala. Brand including TimeIVChange, Alexandra K and Bourgeois already offer products made from Piñatex.

As news concerning the brand continues to grow, Piñatex is very aware that its next big step is to continue developing and stabilizing its supply chain to meet the growing demand for its pineapple leaf, in a way which does not compromise its mission and fundamental values concerning environmental, ethical, social and economic sustainability.

Photo: Courtesy of Piñatex

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Sustainable Textile Innovations: Piñatex, the vegan alternative to leather

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New materials, processes, and techniques are often the result of the successful merger of fashion and technology and help drive the industry towards a more sustainable future.

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Sustainable garment is what we want ...how to get it

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Vegan leather and faux leather are the same thing - There is a range of materials that can be used to make vegan leather
including synthetics like plastic and natural materials such as cork. essentially a fake 'leather' material that does not use animal skin.

The most commonly used materials for synthetic leathers are polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyurethane (PU), which are plastic based materials. Another term for fake leather is "pleather" which comes from the term plastic leather.

These two commonly used synthetic materials in particular have raised questions about the safety and dangers of vegan leather to the environment. Very few vegan leathers are made from natural materials although it is possible to find more eco friendly products made from materials like cork, kelp and even pineapple leaves.

Whilst does not include vegan leather options, we do take an eco-friendly and environmentally-aware approach to both leather tanning and finishing.

HOW IS VEGAN LEATHER MADE?

Synthetic leather is produced with different chemicals and a totally different industrial process to real leather. Bonding together a plastic coating to a fabric backing is the most common way to make faux leather; the types of plastic used in these coatings vary and this is what defines whether or not it is eco friendly.

Although PVC is in much less use than it was in the 1960's and 70's, it can still be found in the composition of some vegan leather. PVC releases dioxins, which are potentially dangerous in confined spaces and especially dangerous if burnt. It also uses plasticisers such as phthalates to make it flexible. Depending on the type of phthalate used, they're extremely toxic. It has been described by Greenpeace as the "single most environmentally damaging type of plastic".

The more modern and slightly less damaging plastic is PU, which is constantly being technically developed to reduce its flaws such as the hazardous toxins it releases during manufacturing and the oil based polymers it's made with which make use of fossil fuels.

WHAT DOES VEGAN LEATHER SMELL LIKE?

Vegan/Faux leather that is made with PVC or PU often has a very strange smell from the chemicals. It's often described as a 'fishy' smell and can often be very hard to get rid especially while trying not to ruin the material. PVC can also outgas dangerous toxins that give off this nasty smell.

WHAT DOES VEGAN LEATHER LOOK LIKE?

Vegan leather comes in several different forms and qualities, so some are more 'leather-like' than others. Generally speaking, and focusing on good quality vegan leather, there isn't that much difference to real leather. However, as vegan leather is synthetic, it doesn't form a patina like real leather does when ageing and it is much less breathable as the pores that are printed onto the surface of pleather are artificial.

VEGAN VERSUS REAL LEATHER:

The main concern for most people when deciding between vegan and real leather is the impact it has on animals and the environment. However, whilst the term vegan leather might imply an environmentally friendly product, this is not always the case.

IS VEGAN LEATHER GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT?

Faux leather is known as vegan leather because the material used is never from animal skins but although this is a huge benefit for animal activists, the manufacture of synthetic leather is not beneficial to the environment or humans due to the toxins in the plastics used to make them. The manufacture and disposal of PVC-based synthetics let out hazardous dioxins, which can cause developmental and reproductive issues and even cause cancer. The synthetics used in vegan leathers also don't fully biodegrade, although they can be broken down to a degree, they can also release toxic particles and phthalates, which can affect the health of animals and the environment.

IS VEGAN LEATHER BETTER THAN REAL LEATHER?

Quality and durability are also important things to consider when comparing vegan and real leather. V egan leather is often a lot thinner than real leather and much more light weight which is great for fashion as it makes it potentially easier to work with, however it also makes it less durable than real leather. A real, good quality leather can last decades when cared for, whereas you might only get a year or so out of a pair of shoes made from good quality faux leather. This is an important factor when deciding between fake leather and real leather as the environmental impact of replacing a fake leather product multiple times is arguably more damaging than the purchase of one real leather item.

Synthetic leathers also wear out very unattractively whereas real leather ages over time and forms a patina, which is considered to add character to leather.

Faux leather, especially PVC based, isn't breathable either where as real leather has pores through which skin is able to breathe. So for clothing items such as jackets, vegan leather can be uncomfortable when worn for long periods of time.

In addition to environmental factors, faux leather is typically a lot cheaper than real leather products. This is because it's cheaper to produce synthetic plastic leather than it is to produce real leather. The craftsmanship of leather products is a highly skilled job and bespoke leather products such as sofas, jackets and luggage can be thousands of dollars. Manufacturers are able to command these prices because they are considered both high quality and highly durable.

MAINTAINING VEGAN LEATHER

As vegan leather is made with a plastic coating, it is already waterproof. This makes it easier to clean by using a mild detergent or just by wiping it with a damp cloth, however it also means that conditioning products can't penetrate it to stop it from drying up and cracking, which can happen if the fake leather is in the sun a lot and also if it's a particularly poor quality material. However, you can get certain products, which will cover the surface of the plastic to prevent high temperatures and sun rays from cracking the surface. Such products can also help to soften the material.

HOW TO REPAIR VEGAN LEATHER

You can replace or patch up the damaged area with a faux leather repair kit that can be bought online - they're easy to use and suited to different types of faux leather.

IS VEGAN LEATHER GOOD QUALITY?

Vegan leather can come in different standards of quality and as with real leather, the higher the quality, the longer it will last. Faux leather is generally a lot cheaper and of a lower quality to real leather, even at a high standard. Vegan leather is ultimately much less durable than real leather and tends to be thinner so it's not uncommon for it to tear or scuff badly over time.

HOW TO UNWRINKLE VEGAN LEATHER

It is important that you do not try to iron wrinkled vegan leather by putting the iron directly onto the material. The method you should use to remove wrinkles depends on the quality of the material - because synthetic 'pleathers' have plastic in them, they do not mix well with heat and it can often ruin the product completely. High quality faux leathers can be steamed to remove wrinkles if protected with a sheet, towel or lining as they are much more forgiving against heat however there still should be a lot of care taken when doing this. It is important that you don't heat your fake leather for more than 30 seconds.

HOW TO SHRINK VEGAN LEATHER

METHOD:

1. Wash the item in your washing machine on warm to clean off the article and prevent any contamination from 'baking' into the plastic material of the pleather.

2. Put the polyurethane item into an old pillowcase and tie off the top with a shoelace or piece of string to prevent it from falling out. Materials like this may get hot enough to stick to the dryer's drum, damaging the jacket and making a mess, so avoid this happening at all costs.

3. Set the dryer on high. Let the cycle go for about an hour. Allow the jacket to cool off and then test fit it. Repeat the cycle as needed, using progressively shorter drying times until satisfied.

CAN YOU STRETCH VEGAN LEATHER

Faux leather does stretch, but not as much as real leather. You need to be careful when trying to stretch fake leather because it increases the risk of it cracking, so it's best to avoid it all together.

CAN YOU DISTRESS VEGAN LEATHER?

Trying to distress faux leather will more often than not result in damaging the item. Most people tend to create a distressed affect on faux leather using thin layers of acrylic/fabric paints - thick layers can result in the vegan leather cracking and peeling the top layer entirely. Be sure to use paints/dyes suitable for the material, as solvents often eat away at pleather.

Remember to test the paint on a small inconspicuous area of the product first before applying all over.

HOW TO DYE VEGAN LEATHER

Faux leather is not as permeable as real leather, which means the material cannot easily absorb coloured dye. Therefore, even after dyeing your faux leather product you should be aware that the process will most likely need to be repeated throughout the products life span as the colour wears off over time.

METHOD:

1. Prepare the pleather surface by wiping it down with a clean cloth to remove any dust or dirt particles. For a thorough clean, it's recommended to wipe the product down with pure alcohol.

2. Once clean and dry your vegan leather product is ready to be dyed with upholstery paint. Please see the instructions on the paint product for the recommended drying time.

Remember to test the paint on a small inconspicuous area of the product first before applying all over.

HOW TO SOFTEN VEGAN LEATHER

Vegan leather is less permeable than real leather, and therefore traditional leather conditioning products have little impact on softening the material. Vinyl conditioner is typically recommended to soften faux leather, and should be applied with a soft cloth in small circular motions. Excess conditioner should then be removed with a clean cloth before leaving the product to dry. The process can be repeated until the level of softness desired is achieved.

Written by Camilla Shep

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All You Need To Know About Vegan Leather

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Vegan leather and faux leather are the same thing - essentially a fake 'leather' material that does not use animal skin. There is a range of materials that can be used to make vegan leather including synthetics like plastic and natural materials such as cork.

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