Fashion For Good Launches The Renewable Carbon Textiles Project To Accelerate The Development Of Biosynthetic Fibres For Apparel

Image Courtesy of Fashion For Good

AMSTERDAM – Fashion for Good launches the Renewable Carbon Textiles Project today, bringing together a pioneering consortium to accelerate the development of Polyhydroxyalkanoates or PHA polymer fibres; a promising biosynthetic alternative to fossil based fibres with the potential to reduce carbon emissions in the fashion supply chain.

The project brings together key industry players to investigate, test and validate the solutions provided by innovators in the PHA polymer space.

With catalytic funding provided by Laudes Foundation, collaborating partners include BESTSELLER, Norrøna, PVH Corp. and the Fabrics Division of W. L. Gore & Associates providing industry expertise and financial support.

Participating innovators Bio Craft Innovation (formerly Biomize), Full Cycle Bioplastics and Newlight Technologies contribute their solutions to validate their potential, providing insights to scale the industry in the long term.

“There is an urgent need to find replacements for the predominantly fossil based fibres in the fashion industry through solutions such as biosynthetics from renewable sources. PHA polymers represent an exciting, yet challenging solution for reducing carbon emissions in the fashion industry, and this project aims to drive further innovation in this space to bring them to scale.” – Katrin Ley, Managing Director – Fashion for Good 

The fashion industry accounts for around 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG-e), with 38% of these emissions coming from raw material production, preparation and processing and 3% from end-of-use.

Polyester fibre is one of the most widely used in the fashion industry making up 52% of global fibre production.

The production of these virgin fossil-based polyester fibres are responsible for increased greenhouse gas emissions3 and their use results in the release of microplastics into the natural environment.

Under the umbrella of the Renewable Carbon Framework initiated by nova-Institute, Biosynthetics made from renewable sources, such as agricultural byproducts, provide a solution to reduce plastic production and, ultimately, a brand’s overarching carbon footprint. In particular, PHA polymers provide a bio-based, marine and soil compostable solution to fossil-fuel derived polyester fibres, and could be a possible holy grail to decarbonising the fashion industry.

“Biopolymers represent an exciting area of innovation to help tackle both the use of virgin resources whilst opening up potential solutions for other sustainability challenges. Within this space, the family of PHA polymers is particularly exciting as they have a variety of performance characteristics, many of which are still to be explored. This project is a fantastic opportunity to drive forward fibre development which has the potential to be incredibly disruptive to the industry.” – Sophie Mather, biov8tion, a Fashion for Good Advisor  

This project focuses on validating the technical feasibility of the output, working with the Nonwovens Innovation & Research Institute (NIRI) to run the melt spinning trials. This allows for a comparative evaluation which can provide key learnings on how to best support and bring these technologies to scale.

“One of the key pillars of our vision to create fashion that Wastes Nothing and Welcomes All is reducing our negative impacts to zero, with targets on eliminating carbon emissions and innovating for circularity. With initiatives like this, we are helping to drive tangible, meaningful change. It’s fantastic to be working with these companies and fellow Fashion for Good partners to drive fashion forward, for good.” – Kashif Noor, Director of Innovation, Tommy Hilfiger 

Next Steps

In the coming months, the innovators will begin developing their individual PHA formulations, which will be shipped to NIRI for melt-spinning trials.

Once the trials are complete, environmental degradation testing will commence. At project completion, aimed at the end of 2022 – barring impact from the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, the results from the project will be published by Fashion for Good in a report which will be available to the public.

“PHA is a promising class of polymers which have significant potential for use in textiles. This project provides an opportunity to contribute to the technical development of the fibre and is also a platform to explore possible future applications” – Brian Levy, Open Innovation, W. L. Gore & Associates

What Are PHAs And How Are They Made

PHAs belong to an emerging class of biobased, marine and soil compostable polymers.

They are produced through a fermentation process using various carbon-based feedstocks, including organic food waste, methane gas and captured CO2.

They have a wide range of chemical, thermal and mechanical properties and can be engineered to have similar performance characteristics as conventional synthetic fibres.

PHA has been used to make films and packaging products but so far there have been limited fibre applications.

Alongside this, only a handful of companies currently produce PHA meaning supply is limited.