Fashion for Good (FFG), an initiative co-founded by William McDonough, to encourage the transition to a safe then circular fashion industry, announced 13 new start-ups joining the FFG Accelerator Progam’s seventh batch. Each year since FFG’s founding in 2017, the Accelerator has chosen 10-15 innovative start-ups to provide access to office space, mentorships and connections to their investor network.
McDonough and FFG collaborate to advance a beneficial fashion system based on the Cradle to Cradle Circular Economy and the Five Goods framework: Good Materials, Good Economy, Good Energy, Good Water and Good Lives. The Five Goods represent an aspirational framework that goes beyond ‘take, make, waste’ and instead focuses on ‘take, make, remake.’
“Fashion for Good is inviting everyone from designers and material suppliers to manufacturers and customers – all the members of the apparel and fashion value chains – to come together now in collaborative advantage to co-create products that benefit people and the Earth,” said McDonough.
The selected innovators of the seventh batch are: Bear Fiber, Cooltrans Technology, Dryfiber, Econic, Fairbrics, Full Circle Bioplastics, Galy, HydroCotton, Imogo, Nrel, Ortain, Recycrom and Tinctorium.
Bear Fiber – USA
Bear Fiber is developing a novel biotechnological cottonisation process and manufacturing platform for fibre production with hemp that uses less water and energy. The cotton-like hemp fibre and yarns can be easily spun with cotton to produce textiles and finished garments.
Cooltrans Technology – Taiwan
Cooltrans Technology employs low-carbon, environmentally friendly inkjet and gravure printing technology and eco-friendly dyes for textile printing, renders delicate and vivid prints to textile fabrics.
Dryfiber – USA
Dryfiber provides a fluorine-free durable water and oil repellent textile finish which is completely water-bourne and can be applied through traditional finishing processes.
Econic – UK
Econic provides an innovative catalyst technology that facilitates incorporation of waste CO2 as a raw material into polyols, replacing up to 50% of traditional oil-based feedstocks. Waste CO2 is cheaper than oil-based raw materials, plus offers enhanced product performance and environmental benefits.
Fairbrics – France
Fairbrics provides a novel process to create ethylene glycol (a component of polyester) from waste CO2. The resultant chemical is identical both chemically and practically to petroleum-based ethylene glycol.
Full Cycle Bioplastics – USA
Full Cycle’s patented technology converts waste streams such as inedible food waste, agricultural by-products and used paper/cardboard into Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) bioplastics that degrade in the soil and the ocean.
GALY – USA
GALY engineers cotton in labs through the multiplication of cells directly into the cotton fibre, removing steps of traditional cotton farming. As a result they can grow cotton without the use of pesticides or fertilisers, using considerably less water.
Hydrocotton – UK
HydroCotton grows sustainable cotton in a transparent way. HydroCotton is developing a technology for cotton agriculture that reduces water and fertiliser by 80%, while also being grown in an insecticide-free environment.
Imogo – Sweden
Imogo focuses on sustainable production processes, primarily in the textile industry. Their innovative new processes for dyeing textile materials that can dramatically reduce the wasteful use of water, chemistry and energy in the textile dyeing process.
NREL – USA
NREL works on the development of a polyurethane for carbon capture, reuse and sequestration. They use microalgae as a feedstock to explore the production of various products for polyurethanes, polyurethanes, plastic composites to name a few.
Oritain – UK
Oritain provides a traceability innovation with science that originates from the criminal forensic field, using selected stable isotopes to identify a product region. They provide a unique and fast process with highly reliable, accurate results.
Recycrom – Italy
Recycrom is a dyestuffs range made using recycled, used clothing, fibrous material and textiles scraps made from cellulosic fibres. The dyestuff can colour any cellulosic and natural fibre as well polyamide.
TINCTORIUM – USA
Tinctorium produce natural, pre-reduced Indigo dyes that are a drop-in replacement for synthetic Indigo, free of impurities with the same performance as synthetic Indigo.
Interested in learning more about how fashion can be safe first, then circular? Contact us.
