The next round of Global Change Award (GCA) will open 20 October 2022.
For 2023, the GCA is looking for ideas within three categories:
- Regenerate – solutions towards positive effects
- Repurpose – solutions towards circularity
- Reimagine – solutions we have not even thought about yet
Five winning teams share a grant of €1 million and get access to a one-year-long GCA Impact Accelerator provided by the H&M Foundation, in collaboration with Accenture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and The Mills Fabrica.
The award: Non-profit H&M Foundation launched the Global Change Award in 2015 with "a vision to accelerate the process of creating a sustainable future for fashion and textile, and thereby protect our planet."
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), one of Europe’s leading technical and engineering universities, offers GCA winners science and technology legacy, a framework for innovation development and guidance in key commercialisation areas.
- The Mills by the Nan Fung Group, run revitalisation projects where old textile factories in Hong Kong and London are turned into experimental retail and innovation destinations. The Mills’ investment arm, The Mills Fabrica, bridge the gap between innovators and industry players through their incubator programme, impact fund and innovation spaces.
Basic criteria:
- The challenge is open to any individual and groups of up to four people over 18 years of age anywhere in the world. It is also open for institutions, organisations and social businesses, as well as for joint ventures, consortiums and other types of partnerships.
- The Global Change Award is not open for solely commercial entities.
- At the early stage, the idea has not yet been proven. It can still be only a drawing on a piece of paper. This stage is very critical and where many start-ups fail due to lack of funding, market knowledge or perhaps because the team isn’t right.
The ideas that will work:
The GCA wants to find tomorrow’s game-changers—early stage innovations that can accelerate the transformation to a planet positive fashion and textile industry. This means changing how raw material is produced, how energy is used, and the way garments are currently designed, produced, shipped, bought, used and recycled by adding disruptive technology, processes, or new business models.
- Regenerate—solutions towards positive effects: Innovations with the ability to give more back, moving beyond neutralising negative impact, and pushing towards positive effects. Ranging from contributing to better soil, cleaner water and air to improving biodiversity. For instance, it could be regenerative fibres, sequestration, and innovative solutions enabling growth within planetary boundaries.
- Repurpose—solutions towards circularity: Innovations spanning over the entire value chain of fashion and textiles, from the design process, production and materials to packaging and transportation. For example, it could be prolonging product life span, enable resources to loop into never-ending cycles, or setting the stage for new ways to consume fashion.
- Reimagine—solutions we haven’t even thought of yet: Innovations using technology or new business models that makes fashion smarter and challenges the current systems. It could be ranging from reducing climate impact to rethinking how and where products can be made or consumed, equipping the industry with the tools and new ways of creating business value.
