UK start-ups win Global Change Awards to speed up textile industry transformation
17/07/2023
Three UK start-ups – Algreen, Nanoloom and DyeRecycle, have been selected for the Global Change Award, an early-stage innovation challenge from the H&M Foundation aiming to transform the fashion industry.
The companies, specialising in material and recycling innovations, have been selected out of a total of 10 firms to each win €200,000 and embark on the year-long GCA Impact Accelerator. They will receive coaching and support from the H&M Foundation, alongside Accenture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and The Mills Fabrica to accelerate their journey from idea to scale.
Algreen is a Global Change Award winner 2023
Algreen specialises in biobased foams, adhesives and coatings crafted from natural sources. The company has developed a biobased alternative to the foam used in shoes, coatings for coats or the invisible seams on gym clothes, which all include polyurethane. Polyurethane can cause microplastic pollution, whereas Algreen’s developments are based on sustainable and biodegradable solutions based on algal products made with regenerative technology.
Nanoloom is a Global Change Award winner 2023
Nanoloom is seeking to address the issue of plastic microfibres shed from garments, by spinning graphene into biodegradable fibre and making it wearable. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel, incredibly lightweight and highly flexible. Nanoloom’s fibres and fabrics are extremely strong, elastic and customisable in terms of their properties. They can be hydrophobic or hydrophilic, are non-toxic, biodegradable and recyclable.
DyeRecycle is a Global Change Award winner 2023
DyeRecycle uses green chemistry to give discarded fabric a second chance and salvage their dyes — enabling the colour from an old garment to be extracted, revived, and used to dye new fabrics.
The process selectively extract dyes from waste fibres, and transfer the dyes to a new fabric. This eliminates the use of new dyes in the dyeing process, while enabling more efficient fibre-to-fibre recycling by providing decoloured white fibre as a high value uniform input for mechanical and chemical fibre recyclers. The liquid used for the process is recycled and reused, making the process fully circular by design. Every garment dyed with DyeRecycle is said to use 85% less chemicals, 66% less water and generates 75% less carbon emissions.
Karl-Johan Persson, H&M Foundation board member said: “We have an urgent opportunity to support innovations that could transform the entire fashion industry – that’s why we’re doubling the grant and the number of winners. We’re giving these innovators a total of 2 million euros and access to our accelerator program – but we’re also giving the industry an opportunity to connect with these brilliant innovators. I’m excited to see the impact these innovators will make on the industry.”
“There’s a wide range of solutions among this year’s winners,” said Christiane Dolva, Strategy Lead at the H&M Foundation. “If scaled, I believe they could have a real impact on the industry – which needs a holistic transformation if we are to reach a planet positive fashion future. We look forward to working with the winners during the accelerator and help enable their innovations to accelerate and scale.”
The full list of Global Change Award winners can be found here.