Good Fashion: Nonprofit Fashion for Good is linking with Alpine Group in a new sustainability-billed partnership.
The partnership builds on work to date including the year-old pilot program to find more sustainable solutions for black pigment. The project aims to validate and scale black pigments derived from waste feedstocks such as industrial carbon, algae and wood that could replace synthetic dyes.
Participating innovators such as Graviky Labs, Nature Coating and Living Ink, who produce black pigment from industrial carbon emissions and waste algae, will have their technologies validated and performance of their technical features assessed.
“Alpine Group has bold ambitions and tremendous commitment toward commercializing leading innovations. We are thrilled to bring them onboard as we work collectively to scale technologies that transform an industry,” said Fashion for Good managing director Katrin Ley.
The Fashion for Good platform unites brands, manufacturers and suppliers to collaborate on industry change and fostering circular solutions. The Amsterdam-based organization runs the Innovation Program, which provides fashion brands with access to funding, mentors and experts to take new methods to scale, as well as the Foundational Projects that aim to accelerate supply chain implementation.
Their Good Fashion Fund also works with producers in India, Bangladesh and Vietnam to shift at scale to more sustainable production processes. Corporate partners span Galeries Lafayette, Kering and PVH.
Alpine Group’s dedicated innovation hub, Paradise Textiles, has worked on sustainability initiatives including textile-to-textile recycling technology at scale, as well as research on bio-based alternatives including corn and hemp as raw materials. Its Alex Apparel arm currently produces 27 million garments per year.
Open Call: Grant applications opened Tuesday for an industry-led decarbonization funding project.
The nonprofit Apparel Impact Institute is spearheading the efforts after unveiling Its Climate Solutions Portfolio last year as part of a collaborative funding effort aptly called the “Fashion Climate Fund.” Brands such as Lululemon and H&M Group are already part of Aii’s $250 million fund to decarbonize the fashion supply chain by funding solutions.
Aii’s hope is that the funding initiative will bolster existing progress (like the estimated $38 million in cost savings last year from programs like Clean by Design) and accelerate fashion’s decarbonization efforts.
The application is open Jan. 31 to March 1 and seeks solutions across the apparel supply chain. Grant allotments spanning $50,000 to $250,000 a year will be deployed beginning in June as determined by efficacy, reach, scale and cost, per Aii. The Climate Solutions Portfolio will be live in July, at which time Aii will announce the first funded solutions through the Fashion Climate Fund.
To be eligible for the Climate Solutions Portfolio, organizations — regardless of size and scale — must submit high-quality, verified data. Per Linda Greer, a scientist and advisory council member to Aii, high-quality data, specifically, entails quantifiable energy performance metrics or engineering methodology (and calculations) that can be verified.
Aii was jointly founded in 2017 by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC), and companies such as Target, Gap, PVH and HSBC.