Sustainable Companies You Need To Know

We all know that lemons make lemonade, but did you know that food such as coffee waste and oranges are being used to make clothing?

Last week, I was fortunate to meet Kristine Upesleja. Kristine Upesleja is an international lecturer and the Founder and President of MADISONS. MADISONS is a consulting firm focused on innovative materials, processes, and trends in the fashion and design world. With more than 20 years of experience in fashion and design, Kristine has profoundly shaped the fashion industry’s relationship with materials. She has been featured as an expert on Wearable Technology, Smart Fabrics, and Sustainable Fashion and in publications such as French Vogue.

Kristine spoke to me about how the fashion industry is at the forefront of making fabrics made from innovative and sustainable materials. But more importantly, she informed me about which companies are using innovative materials to make clothing and accessories. I will share the companies Kristine informed me about so we can all keep an eye out for them as our society moves towards sustainability.

Bananatex is the world’s first durable, waterproof fabric made from banana plants. It is produced in the Philippines within a natural ecosystem of sustainable forestry that requires no chemical treatments. Bananatex offers an alternative to the synthetic fabrics that the majority of bags are made of today. Bananatex is incredibly strong and durable while remaining soft, lightweight, and supple. Bananatex offers a wide variety of trendy backpacks, hip pouches, and other sustainable, durable, and fully biodegradable accessories.

S.Café makes products out of leftover coffee grounds. S.Café utilizes coffee’s natural ability to block odors to create products for outdoor and sports performance apparel and household items we use every day. Also, S.Café’s fabrics and products provide excellent odor control, UV protection, and fast-drying benefits. Since coffee is continuously consumed, there is no wasted energy or time to produce S.Café’s raw materials!

Bolt Threads is a material solutions company. This company uses nature as an inspiration to invent innovative sustainable materials. Bolt Threads partnered with Lululmeon, Kering, and Stella McCartney; these companies will soon start selling clothing made from Both Thread’s innovative materials. Bolt threads invented two technologies that will be commercially available from their partners.

Bolt Threads recently created a sustainable alternative to leather. The ‘leather’ is made from renewable mycelium, a mushroom root that grows in the soil. This mushroom leather was used in a recent collection by Stella McCartney.

Bolt Threads also created micro silk, a man-made silk made from yeast. This forward-thinking company studied silk proteins spun by spiders. They developed proteins inspired by spider’s silk by using bioengineering to put genes into yeast. They produced the protein in large quantities through fermentation, using yeast, sugar, and water. Then, they spin the protein into fibers that can be made into fabrics and garments. Microsilk can be produced with less environmental impact than traditional textile manufacturing, with the potential to biodegrade at the end of its useful life.

Orange Fiber is an Italian company that is the world’s first and only brand to create patented materials made from citrus juice by-products. Orange Fiber creates high-quality fabrics for the fashion-luxury sector using hundreds of thousands of tons of by-products that the citrus processing industry produces annually. 100% citrus textiles are soft and silky, lightweight, and can be opaque or shiny, depending on the production. In 2019, Orange Fiber was used for the Conscious Exclusive Collection of the Swedish brand H&M.

Even if you do not see yourself buying products from these innovative brands, they are important to keep in mind from a business or investment standpoint. These companies are at the forefront of progress and will no doubt change the fashion industry.