With Collective Impact methodology chosen as guiding force, we brought in 10 partners, all experts within their field, to tackle different challenges faced by waste pickers as had been identified through the ethnographic survey, with the objective of addressing several concerns together — not just water or education or work safety or earning capacity or housing & social security — but all of these. To provide waste pickers holistic solutions with equity and equitable access to outcomes by all populations as foundational benchmarks of the initiative.

We adopted the Collective Impact approach — a highly structured method to build a collective of community members, organizations, and institutions that advance equity by learning and working together — as it catered to all that we wanted to achieve, and provided the  collaborative framework needed to overcome complex socio-economic problems. 

‍As we successfully close the first phase of Saamuhika Shakti, and march strongly into the second phase this January 2024, we’re proud to report that our partners in Bengaluru, India, have not only demonstrated  that collaboration is possible, but have also showed that by working together, more is possible than the sum of its parts. 

However, we didn’t start this way. 

Our aim to shift power relations, create inclusive societies, and ensure equity for the long term required patience, adaptability, and continuous communication, as it is not easy to completely reimagine how different actors collaborate, that too in a system where too many organizations are used to working in isolation from one another. 

The work was not without challenges… Read the full story at saamuhikashakti.org

Since then, it has gone from mostly being used to assess potential negative impacts of large government projects to becoming an integral part of the work done by everyone from multilateral development banks and non-governmental organizations to social entrepreneurs and the private sector.

Despite its importance, measuring social impact is far from a straightforward exercise and more than 150 different methodologies have been developed for wide use, according to the Journal of Global Policy. More recently, many social innovators and the philanthropic donors that fund them have started questioning how to meaningfully measure the impact interventions – and funding – are having. To many in the social impact space, the current practice of impact measurement is coming up short, with too much focus being placed on the reporting of outputs such as the number of women reached by a skills training program or the number of jobs created by a startup. 

The complex challenges facing the world today require interventions that go beyond band-aid solutions to tackling the root causes of poverty or inequality by actually changing the system that upholds them in the first place. And trying to measure it requires a totally different approach – and mindset.

“Complex issues like systems change are context-sensitive. We
all have intent, but there is no recipe for systems change. So when you’re in a game of systems change, you’re in a game of maybe. We improve the probability that we can get an outcome, but there’s nothing guaranteed,” said Mark Cabaj, an expert in social innovation, strategic learning, and evaluation and the president of the consulting company From Here to There.

H&M Foundation spoke to Cabaj about why many organizations still struggle to measure systems change and why organizations should go beyond just tracking outputs if they want to contribute to lasting change.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

For organizations looking to achieve social impact, it’s easier to collect low-hanging fruit and strive for easily quantifiable impact – such as the number of mosquito bed nets handed out – than to tackle the root causes of poverty or inequality. But why is it important to also measure deeper systems change if more organizations are to take on this challenge?

It’s a classic challenge showing how it’s easier to default to tracking outputs and just assume that something magical will happen. It’s natural behavior ever since we started normalizing logic models and results frameworks. I’m really interested in measurement, but I’m very cautious about measurement because it’s only one small part of evaluation. I think we have obsessive measurement disorder – we follow the principle that it’s really important to focus on outcomes and outputs. The question is, when do you go beyond simply tracking outputs? How do you do it in a feasible way? And how do you actually get measurements that mean something?

“I’m really interested in measurement, but I’m very cautious about measurement because it’s only one small part of evaluation.”

Mark Cabaj

There are even cases when measurement isn’t necessary. Take vaccination campaigns – if you follow a logic model that lays out the outcomes and research has already shown that vaccines reduce COVID-19 cases, you might not have to measure all of the outcomes. Why would you track a first principle there’s already evidence for? Instead, you might want to evaluate the quality of the implementation of the campaign or see which communities you might be missing.  We should in principle measure impact, but depending on the strategy and the existing evidence base, it may not be a good use of time and resources.

How can funders who want to see at least some feedback on the impact their money is having approach impact measurement? 

The challenge of philanthropy is investing in social innovators and wanting to get some kind of feedback about whether your dollars are making a difference. But it actually takes a lot of expertise and resources to do impact measurement well. When we started doing evaluations in the 1970s and ’80s, we had big think tanks and research institutes trying to track outcomes with a lot of expertise and money. 

And then there was this accountability shift and instead of financing these think tanks and having them do the evaluation, we downgraded the responsibility of tracking impact to non-governmental organizations and those doing the work. While NGOs are mostly really good at what they’re doing, they hardly ever get resources to do decent tracking, and almost never have the required expertise. We don’t have the infrastructure for NGOs to properly measure impact and we need to invest in their capability to do so. 

I spent my whole life trying to track outcomes. And sometimes I’m so desperate to find out, but there’s actually no feasible way of knowing the impact. But that doesn’t mean I would not invest in an idea that logically seems good. For example, I would invest in almost any clever communication campaign that focuses on the beliefs of those reluctant to admit climate change is real. It’s probably not going to be possible to know the exact impact of that work, but it’s still worth spending money on it and it’s the right thing to do. 

You mentioned that measurement is only a small part of evaluation. So what else goes into impact evaluation if done well? 

Good evaluation of systems change actually starts by asking questions about strategic learning. Let’s say a farmer growing coffee beans only gets $9 dollars a day, so what are we learning about the systems that prevent him from earning more? Strategic learning is when you intervene, you get feedback on the outcomes, and then you ask ‘What are we learning about the nature of the problem we’re trying to address and the strengths and limitations of our strategy?’. 

Most evaluations are not used, and that’s partly because we’re data and measurement-rich, but sense-making and use-making poor. Our sense-making processes aren’t very good and we don’t pay attention to how we facilitate the insights gathered from evaluation to make actual changes because we turn it into a measurement exercise. 

“Most evaluations are not used, and that’s partly because we’re data and measurement-rich, but sense-making and use-making poor.”

Mark Cabaj

When I read a report, I have three questions: what is the change, how do they describe it, and is there at least enough sense-making to provoke me into agreeing or disagreeing? Then the next question is, ‘So what now? Tell me the implications of the things you measure.’ That’s when it starts bridging into the zone of usefulness. Without it, it’s just noise.

There’s been a recent shift towards international organizations focusing more on addressing unequal power structures to shift power to local organizations and communities. But how do you measure and quantify something as complex as power? 

Tracking change – particularly power and systems change – almost always requires mixed methods, meaning qualitative and quantitative, because there are no narratives without numbers and no numbers without narratives. So one of the challenges of the evaluator when looking at something like shifting power is to ask: ‘What does that outcome look like? What do you mean by power? And how is it shifted?’ 

There’s this instinct and an impulse in a group to say we want to change power, and the evaluator’s job is to help people make that explicit and say ‘Well, what does it look like? What’s the theory of change?’. So we actually have to help people sharpen up what they mean by these outcome statements, and then we can do something about it. Just saying what you mean by power is a very useful exercise for innovators.

Measuring long-lasting and meaningful systems change might seem like an insurmountable task to many organizations, especially in the beginning. So where do you start?

First, you need to ask what system you’re trying to change. If it’s the health system, for example, how big is that system, is it the health system in Nepal, or across the planet? Or is it just in one city? Then you want to consider the characteristics and try to describe the system as much as possible. How is it behaving now? And how do you want the system to change and behave after your intervention? 

“For systems change, you have to be able to handle ambiguity and have a tolerance for risk, and you have to be able to accept failure.”

Mark Cabaj

You also need to consider that systems change happens through little tipping points – slowly, but then suddenly. And everyone wants to be that tipping point, that last snowflake to break the branch. But it’s difficult to know how much of that “tipping” you’re responsible for. Consider your ability to create the conditions for systems change without ever pretending that you will know for certain that you’re gonna be the last snowflake to break the branch, but you can track to what degree you’re adding on snowflakes.

And so when people say I want systems change but I want predictable outcomes, my response is always ‘Get out of that game, you won’t handle it.’ Go take on simple things like vaccination rates, you can handle that. For systems change, you have to be able to handle ambiguity and have a tolerance for risk, and you have to be able to accept failure.

As many industries are looking to minimize waste and save resources, the demand for recycled materials in the fashion industry has increased. However, recycling certain materials can sometimes be a tricky process, especially leather waste can be difficult to recycle. Much of the recycled leather contains harmful chemical residues, such as chromium VI, which result from the tanning process. These chemical residuals are carried through in the conventional recycling process.

To enable a planet positive industry, by accelerating vital research and supporting breakthrough innovation to scale, H&M Foundation is collaborating with HKRITA in the programme Planet First. One of the research projects, reProLeather, has resulted in a new technology to separate the chromium VI from the shredded leather fibres and create a bio-based, alternative to the PU and PVC binders, thereby creating a new form of recycled leather that is biodegradable and recyclable.

The reProLeather successfully restructured post-consumer leather fibres into leather sheets in its research stage. HKRITA is now seeking industry partners to optimize production properties and enhance functions, paving the way for improved industry applicability in the future.

“As a philanthropic change agent for the entire industry, we take risks to unlock needed solutions with the ambition to find technologies that can contribute to a planet positive fashion future. I’m always open to sharing our findings openly with others, to find industry actors ready to adopt bold innovations and reProLeather could be one of these solutions. I hope to see it scale soon.”

Christiane Dolva, Strategy Lead at H&M Foundation

The technology

reProLeather is a recycled leather system that separates, categorises and recycles post-consumer leather products into useful raw materials for the manufacturing of new products.

It is carried out in two steps, beginning with shredding a whole post-consumer leather product into pieces until leather fibres of high purity are obtained and removing free chromium by transforming it into a soluble salt or complex compound. Then the separated leather fibres react with bio-based binders such as sugar or protein under mild conditions, and collagen fibres become interconnected and form a new leather.

Regenerated leather obtained with such a novel bio-based approach is water-resistant and biodegradable, resulting in a ‘virtuous circle’ for leather recycling.

Key technological advancements:

• Utilizing environmentally friendly bio-based binders (e.g., sugar or protein) as substitutes for synthetic PU and PVC, resulting in a new sheet of leather.
• Employing a reaction process that minimizes the formation of toxic chromium VI during recycling.
• Successfully restructuring the pro-consumer leather fibres to form a leather sheet.

Benefits for the industry:

• Mitigating environmental harm and health concerns stemming from chrome tanning in leather production.
• Providing an eco-friendly alternative to traditional recycled leather.
• Incorporating raw collagen fibres that enhances the tactile experience.
• Ensuring the recycled leather is durable enough for further manufacturing.

Sunglasses made from packets of chips sold out in a blink of an eye

Ashaya are recycling innovators with a pioneering social-impact-first approach. They have managed to recycle one of the most unrecyclable materials; metalized multi-layered plastic packaging (often used for food and snacks) and turn it into new commercial products, while also employing and upskilling waste pickers throughout their processes. Their first products included a new brand of sunglasses, called Without. The sunglasses were launched in BETA mode on Feb 16th, 2023, with the goal of selling 500 products in 3 months. Impressively, the product went viral and they sold out their first batch in just 6 days. Having sold close to 1000 products, the BETA mode was closed on March 20th. ”We are now working on upgrading the sunglasses, adding colours and designs and releasing the next version hopefully by June 2023.” says Anish Malpani, Founder of Ashaya. ”We are also exploring other products like lamps and premium furniture, but that’s in the early stages. In the long run, we will hopefully start selling materials B2B – that’s the most viable way of scaling up our enterprise so that more waste can be recycled and more waste pickers can be employed.”

”In the long run, we will hopefully start selling materials B2B – that’s the most viable way of scaling up our enterprise so that more waste can be recycled and more waste pickers can be employed.”

Anish Malpani, Founder, Ashaya

Phool’s leather from discarded temple flowers gains traction

Phool (the Hindi word for flower) is an Indian biomaterial company based in Kanpur that has developed an alternative to animal and plastic leather (‘Fleather’) using discarded temple flowers that would otherwise have been thrown into the Ganges river. Simultaneously Phool is creating valuable employment opportunities for a marginalised community, so far employing over 163 female ‘flowercyclers’ from waste picker communities who collect waste flowers. In time, they hope to employ 5,000. A justified ambition, given that they recently partnered with PVH Corporation, the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, in a pilot to make fleather bags. And already more brands from different industries are showing great interest. 

Reti Ecotech are getting ready to hit the market

Old clothes can do a lot of things – being converted into bricks and furniture is one of them! Bengaluru-based start up Reti Ecotech aims to collect and convert end of life-textiles into bricks and panels, thereby redirecting tonnes of waste cloth from landfills. As winners of Techtonic in 2022, Reti Ecotech have now joined Social Alpha’s program, to receive support in their lab-to-market journey. Jahnavi Rao, co-founder explains, We are growing our team and our capacity, working on improving our product and delving into a market strategy. Some interesting pilot projects with potential customers are being are being prepared now. It’s an exciting phase of our journey, and we’re getting to learn a lot.”

”We are growing our team and our capacity, working on improving our product and delving into a market strategy. Some interesting pilot projects with potential customers are being are being prepared now.”

Jahnavi Rao, Co-Foundaer, Rei-Ecotech

Padcare scored a blank check on TV show Shark Tank India

Padcare Labs has created an automated hygiene management system that can break down disposed sanitary pads into cellulose and plastic that can then be upcycled into new products. At the same time, they contribute to safeguarding women, changing attitudes around menstrual hygiene, all the while incorporating and employing waste pickers throughout their operations. 

Earlier this year, Padcare Founder and CEO Ajinkya Dhariya was one of the contenders in the popular TV show Shark Tank India, where he presented the idea of Padcare to a panel of potential investors. Amazingly, one of the investors, Peyush Bansal, presented Padcare with a blank check, giving the team the opportunity to considerably boost their operations. 

Ajinkya Dhariya tells us:

”Post Shark tank, we are receiving a lot of inquiries from all over India, we are now expanding to 4 more cities. We received inquiries from varied strata – Government – Supreme Court of India, Local Municipal Corporations from  various cities (Approaching for a city level projects) and various Corporates , Housing Societies and Education Institutes. We have also observed reduced sales cycle time indicating that people are better able to trust the brand. And we have been receiving multiple inquiries from around the globe.”

“Post Shark tank, we are receiving a lot of inquiries from all over India, we are now expanding to 4 more cities. (…) And we have been receiving multiple inquiries from around the globe.”

Ajinkya Dhariya, Founder and CEO , Padcare Labs

EON’s digital ID is enabling over 100 million items to be resold and recycled

“EON embeds principles of connectivity, intelligence and circularity in hundreds of millions of products, and has built some of the industry’s most fundamental product data infrastructure for circular commerce: connecting data between suppliers, brands, resellers, recyclers, customers, and more,” declares EON’s founder and CEO Natasha Frank.

According to her, every single product has a story to tell: from where and how it was made, to when and by what brand it was sold. EON gives the world’s products a voice — in the shape of a digital ID — that unlocks total traceability and boosts the resale and recycling of discarded items.

Since winning the Global Change Award in 2017, EON has scaled at lightning speed and entered into global partnerships with retail heavyweights like Net-A-Porter and Zalando.

“EON was just an idea when I applied for the GCA. Winning the award encouraged me to turn it into a business, and seven years later, here I am.”

Natasha Franck

In seven short years, the company has enabled more than a hundred million products to become digital and traceable. Still, these astounding numbers are just a fraction of the 80 billion pieces of clothing sold worldwide yearly. But the company’s implementation rate is constantly adding speed, and to Natasha Franck, reaching billions of products will be achieved within this decade.

“In five years, every product will have a unique digital ID, giving every product a voice and ensuring products are valued, managed and utilised to benefit our society, economy and environment. EON’s technology is powering that future.”

Dimpora’s mineral-based membranes are moving from lab to launch

The clothes designed to shield us from the elements are almost exclusively crafted from materials that harm the environment. As a consequence, conventional activewear presents a conflict between the desire to experience the natural world, and the desire to maintain it. With biodegradable, non-toxic and mineral-based membranes, Dimpora is resolving this conflict.

“We push for circularity of our membranes and laminates, ensuring we design products with an end-of-life strategy. We use our platform technology to turn the most circular and sustainable raw materials into functional membranes,” says Dimpora’s founder and CTO Anna Beltzung.

When winning the GCA in 2019, the company had only developed early lab samples based on co-founder Mario Stucki’s PHD thesis. The win catalysed their scaling journey.

“The accelerator programme opened up doors and allowed us to build a network in three textile hubs worldwide. And what really helped was the financial contribution, the help in marketing materials, and the recognition in the industry: we were taken seriously!”

Anna Beltzung

Four years in the making, Dimpora has grown from a team of two to a company of eleven and in 2022, the start-up commercialised its first product.

“We are now producing thousands of square meters in a single production run. This made it possible to serve our first commercial order with the Swiss glove brand Snowlife in 2022. And the re-order is already delivered for the coming season.”

Saltyco’s latest pilot can produce 400 tonnes of regenerative fibre-filler

BioPuff by saltyco isn’t a vegan alternative to goose down; it’s a regenerative alternative to it. With cutting-edge technology, saltyco turns native wetland plants into fibre-filler and heals damaged lands in the process.

“For the textile industry to reach net zero, both wetland regeneration and the move to healthier textiles must happen. BioPuff is a solution that brings these two urgent challenges together in one solution,” says Julian Ellis-Brown, co-founder and CEO of saltyco.

The team’s disruptive idea won them the GCA in 2022, an event transforming their start-up journey in a number of ways, according to the founders.

“The win helped build confidence with investors as it showcased an industry-leading organisation was getting behind our idea. The GCA also built traction with brands, exposing us to more innovators within fashion who are keen to explore next-generation textiles.”

Julian Ellis-Brown

Introducing a novel technology and a game-changing material innovation to society is a time-consuming and complex process. Currently, the saltyco team is focusing on sampling, product development, and launching a seed funding round.

“Our new pilot machinery will have the capacity to produce 400 tonnes of BioPuff per year, regenerating thousands of hectares of wetland and locking tens of thousands of kilograms of CO2 back into the ground,” says Julian Ellis-Brown.

Explore all past GCA winners and subscribe to the GCA Newsletter to track their progress.

The two new partners are Stichting Enviu Nederland (Enviu) and Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF). Together with the existing collective, they will include waste workers already within the Saamuhika Shakti program into two work streams:

• A micro-entrepreneurship model on textile waste
• A circular B2B linen enterprise

“Our goal is to generate additional income streams through textile waste”, says Maria Bystedt, Strategy Lead, H&M Foundation. “Historically there has been minimal income opportunities for waste pickers in textiles, mainly because of the lack of interested buyers. Through this initiative, we are promoting inclusive circularity and improving waste pickers’ livelihood opportunities. This involves setting up grassroots waste enterprises that are managed by waste pickers, establishing connections to resellers and recyclers, and educating the public on proper handling of their textile waste.”

Manjula, Nadiya and Radhika are all involved in waste picking and part of Saamuhika Shakti.

India accounts for 8.5% of global textile waste generation. Out of total textile waste circulation in the country, domestic post-consumer collection contributes 51%, 42% comes from pre-consumer sources, and 7% is imported post-consumer waste. Furthermore, it is estimated that up to 25% of fabric is wasted during the cutting process in apparel production. Innovations in textile waste management are emerging, but as of yet, the economic value chain bypasses the waste picker. 

This new setup within H&M Foundation’s initiative Saamuhika Shakti is contributing to a larger multi-year textile-recycling program across India, adding on a social perspective, ensuring that the voices of waste pickers are part of the equation. The larger program is also seed funded by IKEA Foundation.

“Our goal is to generate additional income streams through textile waste. Through this initiative, we are promoting inclusive circularity and improving waste pickers’ livelihood opportunities.”

Maria Bystedt, Strategy Lead, H&M Foundation

“At Enviu, partnering with Saamuhika Shakti allows us to collectively work towards creating better economic opportunities while addressing systemic challenges, and social issues and creating a circular fashion ecosystem. By joining forces, we strive to create a more dignified future for waste pickers and contribute to building a sustainable world.”

Jiska Coppoolse, Program Lead, Enviu

As a philanthropic change agent for the entire industry, H&M Foundation acts with urgency and takes risks to unlock needed solutions with the ambition to find technologies that can contribute to a planet positive fashion future.

As a non-profit, we have the urgent opportunity to create change by supporting disruptive research that could lead us there. Innovation is transformation and Acousweep is proof that it’s worth investing in impatient research.

Christiane Dolva, Strategy Lead H&M Foundation

Professor Christine Loh, Chief Development Strategist at the Institute for the Environment, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, agrees that this technology has great potential.

Green tech has just taken a leap forward in Hong Kong. Acousweep will help the garment and other industries to stop a highly damaging form of pollution. HKRITA used a new technique to remove the microplastics by using soundwave-based system, preventing them from getting into the sea and being ingested by sea life that can even be ingested by humans along the food chain. Acousweep has the capacity to revolutionize industry.

Professor Christine Loh, Chief Development Strategist at the Institute for the Environment, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Acousweep utilises sweeping acoustic waves in a specially shaped chamber to physically trap and separate microplastic fibres from wastewater effectively. No chemical, solvent or biological additives are needed. The separated microplastics drip into a collection tank for further treatment, such as recycling. The existing lab scale treatment system handles 20 litres of water per hour while the upscaled version will be able to treat 5.000-10.000 litres of water per hour.

Visuals, free to use: https://hmfoundation.bynder.com/web/5d12e495f30d1edf/acousweep—hkrita-research/

For more information or scheduling interviews please contact:

Jasmina Sofić
Media Relations Responsible, H&M Foundation
Mobile +46 73 465 59 59
E-mail: jasmina.sofic@hmfoundation.com

MATERIAL

Algreen (UK)

Algreen invents the world’s first entirely biobased polyurethane that is both recyclable and biodegradable for sustainable fashion. Polyurethanes are widely used in the fashion industry for making foam, adhesive and waterproof coatings.

ALT TEX (Canada)

ALT TEX has created the world’s first carbon neutral and biodegradable polyester alternative, engineered from the world’s largest landfill contributor – food waste. The bio polyester eliminates the fashion industry’s dependence on carbon-intensive fabrics.

Arda Biomaterials (UK)

Arda Biomaterials transforms a widely available feedstock, the waste grain from the brewing industry, into an animal & plastic-free leather alternative that is scalable and which will ultimately undercut the price of leather and plastic-filled alternates.                        

Bylon: a truly circular fiber (US)

Sci-Lume Labs converts biobased carbon into a biodegradable high-performance fiber called Bylon. Circular and drop-in ready, it is a scalable value-added fiber that will reduce our dependence on petroleum-based, synthetic fibers today… and in the future.

Dynamic Adaptive Textile-tech (Sweden)

We provide smart multi-sizing components, integrated in apparels and shoes, which enables shift to different sizes on-demand, multiple times for perfect-fit. This creates sustainability in both the production and consumption stages of the value chain.                         

KBCols Sciences Pvt. Ltd. (India)

The use of synthetic colours (derived from petroleum) has led to many challenges. KBCols, a biotech studio fuelled by innovation, is producing sustainable natural bio-colours from small living safe micro-organisms to colour the world in a different way!

Nanoloom (UK)

Ultra high-performing textiles, based on wonder material graphene and biomimicry, which are biodegradable and recyclable plus lightweight, strong, elastic and waterproof without additives. Adoption is driven by the performance increase over last-gen tech.

OCEANIUM (UK)

OCEANIUM’s kelp fiber has multiple and diverse potential as a base material for textiles, apparel, packaging and other uses. OCEANIUM’s kelp fiber is one of the outputs of our unique clean, green and proprietary biorefinery technology.

PHYCOFIBER-REGENERATIVE FABRIC (Brazil)

Fashion is one of the most polluting industries. For a systemic change, we developed a circular and regenerative product, from traceable cultivation with traditional communities to the production of yarn with eco-friendly and scalable technologies.

Radiant Matter (UK)

The next generation of vibrantly glittering colour and material solutions for the circular textiles economy, removing the fashion industries reliance on dyes, metals, minerals and micro plastics.

Rethread Africa (Kenya)

Rethread is redefining the future of sustainable circular fashion.

Spinning Like Spiders (UK)

By replicating spiders’ spinning, we provide a unique protein-based yarn, which uses renewable inputs, requires low-energy processing and minimal chemicals. The yarns outperform many typical textiles and eliminates microplastics and petrochemical usage.

PRODUCTION

Billion Liter Water Savings (US)

Our fully developed and proprietary carbon dioxide cleaning technology can be adapted to clean raw natural fibers (cotton, wool, etc.) Implementing this technology into textile production will save billions of litres of water annually.

COLOURizd (US)

COLOURizd is a technology to colour cellulosic yarn. COLOURizd technology injects pigment and a binder into a yarn bundle to create a beautifully coloured yarn through a continuous process.

RECYCLING

DyeRecycle (UK)

DyeRecycle is the first technology that tackles chemical circularity in the fashion industry through circular dyeing via recycled dyes and the decolouring of textile waste fibres which increases the fibre value and enable more efficient recycling of fibres.

Refiberd (US)

Refiberd has developed an AI and spectroscopy-based textile sorting system that sorts post-consumer garments within a 1% material range with >90% accuracy (i.e., can detect with >90% accuracy that a garment is 98.5-99.5% polyester and 0.5-1.5% spandex).

Reti Ecotech (India)

With the goal of preventing textile waste from going into landfills, Reti Ecotech is the first company in India to convert textile waste into indoor construction panels to meet the growing demand for sustainable construction materials.

reverse.fashion (Germany)

Our automated sorting machine enables the fashion industry to recycle and reuse every product at the highest possible value by combining the strengths of AI-powered image recognition, Raman spectroscopy and RFID based DPPs capturing relevant product data.

ShareTex (Sweden)

ShareTex targets the recycling of cellulosic waste textiles regardless of the properties of the starting material. The fractions that cannot be transformed into new textiles are instead transformed into sugar that can be used to produce biochemicals.

Tereform (US)

We have developed a platform for textile-to-textile recycling for polyesters. This technology is effective in the presence of additives such as elastane, nylons, and dyes, enabling production of recycled garments without compromising on cost or quality.

DESIGN

SXD (US)

SXD is a tech-powered design platform for fashion brands and designers wanting to turn their simple sketches into iconic designs with zero fabric waste, less material consumption, and cost savings. We reimagine patternmaking.

Linda Greer, the fashion industry’s go-to sustainability scientist, is one expert panellist. She’s most keen to help identify solutions best suited to help the industry succeed in its mission to reduce GHG emissions.

“The apparel industry is at a pivotal moment in its sustainability work, with ambitious quantitative goals to reduce its GHG emissions by 45% by 2030, but without a large portfolio of solutions to help achieve those goals. The Global Change Award can play an important role in identifying and promoting exciting, innovative solutions to assist in the reduction efforts that brands will be undertaking with increased urgency in the coming 5+ years, and I’m keen to help identify those solutions best suited to help the industry succeed in this mission,” Greer says.

But we can’t only rely on innovations, can we? If we want change to happen, we need the industry to believe that change is possible. One of our expert panellists is Miles Kubheka, a trailblazing entrepreneur who is part of the GCA because he believes that change does not happen organically, it needs some nudging.

“Change often requires a catalyst that spurs it on and creates the vision and foresight for people to join a movement. It often requires leadership to steward the first responders who then create it into a movement. I am excited to be part of the GCA because I see this award as that catalyst which propels those working towards solutions to solve systemic problems,” Kubheka says.

Caroline Brown, experienced executive in the fashion industry and another expert panellist, knows that the road from lab to pivot and scale is a complex one and there is a need for unexpected collaborations and partnerships in order for the GCA winners to succeed.

“GCA brings together the valuable partnership between early-stage innovation, large corporate involvement, and capital – which are all critical to the future of fashion. The program is an accelerant to great ideas and has the ability to turn a ground breaking innovation into a reality for companies, consumers and the environment alike,” Brown says.

Many of the entrants into GCA do not come from the fashion industry and therefore look at solutions from a completely new lens – which can ignite real innovation. She’s excited to see creativity and an ever-growing level of approaching of concepts from a completely new angle.

“The beauty of the fashion industry at the moment for smart innovators is that there is room across the entire value chain – beginning in the design room of a company all the way through to the end of life of a garment. The need for solutions is great everywhere – and interdependent upon each other as the solutions live within a complete product life cycle. For example, a biodegradable material will only degrade if it lands in the right place after use, a transparency technology that can aid material identification for sorting is only as affective as the processor’s ability to read it and so on. The need is huge and this is why we see incredible thinkers, scientists or technologists coming into the sector right now,” Brown continues.

The GCA Expert Panel consists of seven independent panellists that have extensive knowledge within fashion, business, investments, entrepreneurship, and innovation. They are part of selecting our winners and play an active role in the GCA Impact Accelerator. They all participate pro bono.

Learn more about the GCA Expert Panel.

If the fashion industry is to play its part in helping tackle climate change, isolated efforts alone cannot be relied on. Therefore, large-scale solutions that connect both people and the planet are fundamental when looking towards a sustainable future.

“Looking at the challenges for the industry, it’s clear that we need to come together to build a new type of system, new types of supply chains where we are looking at the effects and perspectives of people as well as the planet from the beginning.”

Anna Gedda, Global Manager, H&M Foundation

Watch the full interview.