De-carbonizing Fashion

Last week, even after Earth Day 2024 came and went, SOSV continued, like so many other entities, on their planetary health mission. And that meant more sessions for me to attend and absorb on my journey toward getting increasingly involved. The next session I attended was about several start-ups and their journey to de-carbonize the textile and fashion industry. While Sabriya Stukes, PhD, SOSV Partner, moderated the conversation, I took a bunch of notes, and it was candidly a blast of information but my key takeaways were:

I would not have realized it, but according to the founders on this call, the textile and fashion supply chain is running on some of the most antiquated equipment and business processes known to the industrialized world. I heard rumors of green-columnar notebooks, sketchy-to-inhumane labor practices, and thick-with-opacity operations lacking empirical data. Those are the extant issues, before considering climate and sustainability! Due to these constraints, it is hard to measure, but estimates attribute 5-10% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to the textile industry, along with significant water pollution.

As the saying goes, the larger the problem, the bigger the opportunity space; however, we must be mindful. If the whole planet turns into zombies except for ONE person – well, the opportunity might be a bit overwhelming and that person might fail to realize said opportunity. Ergo, as tempting as it might be to kick this can to the right, it sounds like this problem is beyond ripe for action. And, as Gilberto (see below for introduction) explained, even if people make a 1% dent in de-carbonizing fashion, that’s a lot!

In many ways, as demonstrated by the three ventures outlined above, de-carbonizing yields improvements for everyone involved: better products, better information management and a healthier planet. And yet, people get stuck in their current patterns and it can seem like the current pattern is easier even when there is more benefit on all fronts from pursuing a new approach. All three founders called out a need to reshape the mindset across consumers, designers and industry:

• Beth: Encouraged folks to just keep an open mind. There is a lot “green hushing” occurring in fashion, there is constant marketing to consume and treat fashion as a disposable product, so she just encourages people to spend a little time digging into where their clothes come from and ask more questions.
  
• Gilberto: Similarly asked people to know more, to back their opinions with reliable data. Often times, for example, consumers are just looking at the fashion itself and the price, but they aren’t considering the underlying system issues of pollution or people living off $100/week in that supply chain. And for founders, he underscored how much opportunity exists within this specific industry.
  
• Onur: Drew a parallel to Tesla. Yes, almost every industry needs to address climate and tech issues, but like Tesla, people don’t have to settle for a lesser product. A person can buy a Tesla because it is an awesome car, and, oh by the way, it is better for the environment. Similarly, in fashion, if people are willing to make a purchase that is outside their normal pattern, they might find they get a superior product, superior fit and, oh by the way, it is better for the environment.

Of course, the tech in this article is all brand new. Remember when Tesla first came to market, they hard to start by selling the Roadster because not only were the margins larger, but it was an exclusive enough product that they could actually meet the demand and ramp enough capital to design and build the more accessibly-priced models in the future. So, for now, it might be that some of these greener fashion ventures are a bit pricey, but as volume increases, those prices can come down. Someday, I will get a pair of Vega 3D pants for $50. OK, maybe $99.

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