American companies are finding innovative ways to reduce the environmental cost of fashion. According to the UN, the fashion industry accounts for 10% of carbon emissions and 20% of global wastewater.
In response, designers and innovators are creating more sustainable and eco-friendly fast fashion options. American innovators, in particular, are rising to the challenge and using creativity
to produce clothing made from natural raw materials.
The American footwear company Allbirds creates sandals made from sugar grown in Brazil. The Allbirds SweetFoam™ is a running shoe made from sugarcane and is the first to use green EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) resin, which is also a material for making sandals.
It is also the first carbon-negative EVA, meaning that Allbirds removes more carbon from the air than it generates in the production of the shoes. “Sugarcane is grown and processed in Brazil, and its byproducts are used to power the plant and fertilize the fields,” the company states.
The American company Nothing New uses recycled materials in its footwear. Almost all the shoe — from the canvas of the shoe body to the laces — is made from recycled plastic.
A pair of shoes is made with the equivalent of 5 plastic water bottles and saves 600 liters of water because of this.
Leather — used in the manufacture of shoes, bags, and clothing — has a high environmental cost.
That’s why two American companies, Bolt Threads and MycoWorks, are creating leather-like material made from mushroom mycelium — the fibrous underground fungal structure of
Photo: shutterstock-Hartmut Goldhahn[/caption>
mushrooms.
The resulting fibrous material can be treated and processed like leather, generating countless possibilities for use. Fashion designers outside the United States and American sportswear companies Adidas and Lululemon recently signed a joint development agreement with Bolt Threads to use its mushroom-based artificial leather, Mylo™, in shoes and bags.
“Up to 72% of a company’s total environmental impact comes from the raw materials they use,” he said. “Leather, specifically, is classified as the third most harmful material to the environment, after silk and alpaca wool.”
Unlike raising cattle for leather, mushroom cultivation emits low greenhouse gases and requires little water.
Source: www.share.america.gov