In a post-carbon world, ‘sustainable fashion’ will be impossible without leveraging materials science. What does this mean for brands?
PANGAIA is a new kind of business – a material science company on a mission to change the world of lifestyle products through problem-solving science and new innovative materials. We believe in both the power of brands, and the influence of businesses to reverse devastating degeneration and take us to regeneration.
Contextualising fashion’s dwindling resources
Decarbonisation targets and the planetary boundaries mean that businesses will compete for dwindling resources and innovation opportunities in the scramble towards 30% emissions reductions by 2030 and ‘net zero’ by 2050. But other environmental threats to ecology and biodiversity loom just as large, and companies must secure access to sustainable materials and processes through joint ventures and industrial partnerships, or risk being left behind.
At around 8% of global carbon emissions, clothing and footwear’s contribution to global warming may look relatively modest; the production of cement - a single industrial material - shockingly emits the same amount (source). That’s another story for another day, perhaps.
Beyond carbon, fashion (shorthand for clothing and footwear) has resource problems including high demand for industrially grown cotton, reliance on fossil fuels for synthetic fibres, and chemical waste generation. As the global population grows and consumption levels rise, fashion’s impact across all metrics is rising too. Regarding carbon emissions alone, Quantis calculates that “the apparel industry’s production impacts on climate change increased 35% between 2005 and 2016 and are projected to steadily rise in 2030 if a business-as-usual scenario prevails”.
This ‘business-as-usual’ scenario slams the brakes on decarbonisation and protecting people, natural resources, ecology and biodiversity unless fashion’s culprit materials and processes are replaced by restorative and non-toxic ones.
Fashion’s biggest emitter: textile production
How can brands tackle the worst of their impacts in a supply chain they don't own or control? Brands need to urgently establish partnerships with low impact material and manufacturing innovators to enable investment and scaling and to guarantee supply - and to have a hope of meeting their ambitious impact reduction targets.
Without such partnerships, brands have no levers to pull in mitigating the worst of their environmental impacts.
Slashing textile impacts through innovation partnerships
Developing low impact material solutions is outside of the fashion industry’s operational model and knowledge base - it’s slow, expensive and rooted in materials science. Since mass outsourcing began in the 70s, fashion brands have been in the business of selling products, not making them.
But PANGAIA bucks that trend. We’re a brand and a materials science company, founded in 2019 and proposing unprecedented collaboration between these traditionally siloed areas.
As such, the company comprises two businesses in one: an R&D arm (PANGAIA Science) to find, devise, and develop solutions to fashion’s most urgent environmental problems, and a D2C brand to test those solutions. The result? A hybrid innovator/brand that can prove the performance, sustainability and commercial credentials of its solutions to an industry in dire need of such solutions. PANGAIA Science operates B2B - partnering with brands to supply and develop fibres, textiles and treatments, whilst PANGAIA is the lifestyle brand.
This approach alleviates the need for brands to invest in or establish their own materials science divisions. PANGAIA is a collaborator and solutions provider - not a competitor - opening up a new model of partnership for brands wanting to reduce their textile impacts.
The company is on a mission to instigate positive impact on the planet, but we recognise that we can’t move fast enough if we work alone. Industry transformation will not happen unless we open our science and innovations up to everyone.
PANGAIA’s proprietary innovations to date include FLWRDWN, an insulating fibre-alternative to animal down, made from the petals of a species of regenerative wildflowers; and PPRMNT, an antibacterial textile treatment that reduces the need for frequent washing but avoids traditional chemicals that contain heavy metals.
We’re also reconfiguring a multitude of plant-based fibres to create cotton-equivalent and viscose-like materials with a lower environmental footprint than the incumbents. The use of alternative plant fibres, like Himalayan nettle and seaweed, alleviates ecological impacts by negating industrial agriculture, as they grow untended in nature. With cotton and all other plant fibres accounting for 30% of the global fibre market, swapping in regenerative fibres can be a significant sustainability win.
Calculating global capacity to harvest these fibres, within the planetary boundaries, is the next challenge in determining their scope within our sustainable textile future - a feat we’re currently undertaking.
Fashion’s new era of symbiotic partnerships
PANGAIA is not alone in developing materials science solutions, with technology companies including Spinnova, Renewcell and Infinited Fiber Company each creating a lower-impact method of producing alternatives to cotton and viscose.
Synthetic fibres account for over 60% of the global fibre market and shed plastic microfibers during washing, leading to the term ‘plastic soup’ to describe the earth’s oceans. Compounding this, most synthetics are made from petrochemicals. Kintra - with whom PANGAIA has a long-term innovation partnership - are replacing fossil fuel feedstocks with waste starch (a by-product of the food industry). The aim is to create synthetic textiles with all the performance characteristics of today’s nylon and polyester, with none of the toxicity.
Another company in this space is Genomatica, which turns plant starch into nylon and recently teamed up with Lululemon through a multi-year partnership, to replace a portion of their conventional nylon with Genomatica’s ‘bio-nylon’. It still sheds microplastics, though, despite its plant-based input material. There is still work to be done in this area, and PANGAIA is conducting research, in partnership with MTIX, to prevent shedding by applying laser technology to alter the synthetic fibre surface.
Other examples of brands buying into sustainable material supplies with a long-term focus (some of them are not even at scale yet) include Allbirds (as mentioned in Mary Fellowes’ article) investing in Natural Fiber Welding (for plant-based leather alternatives) and Hermés partnering with MycoWorks to use their Fine Mycelium - a high-performance material that matches the feel and durability of cowhide leather, but is engineered from fungi.
In these new partnership models, whether investment, joint ventures or industrial partnerships - both brands and materials innovators stand to benefit. Brands funnel capital to innovators and provide visibility in exchange for cutting-edge sustainable materials that hit their impact reduction targets and meet the expectations of eco-conscious consumers. These new materials, ideally, would deliver vast impact reduction from regenerative feedstocks and decarbonised production, allowing for sales growth without environmental harm - the holy grail.
The competition paradox: to share will be to win
At PANGAIA we’re operating a B2B and D2C business model – and backing the philosophy that to share is to win. By partnering with brands, we can provide them with low impact materials or develop solutions according to specific brands’ needs.
In our innovation model, we win when others do. As more brands partner with us and adopt our solutions, we will achieve scale while they achieve impact reduction. In turn, these partnerships will fund expansion of our research and help us to bring new solutions to market. With a team of 10 R&D and materials science specialists, we’re ready and waiting to work with you and help you grow, but not at the expense of the planet.
By Brooke Roberts-Islam, Sustainability Editor and Consultant and Eva Kruse, SVP Impact & Global Engagement – PANGAIA
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