Natural is the way to go, or so reiterate the 10 winners of the Global Change Award 2023, who will share a €2 million grant from nonprofit H&M Foundation.
- The winners were announced Thursday.
THE WINNERS: Thumbnail sketches of the winners:
- Algreen has developed biobased polyurethane (PU) and is commercialising it in various industries such as medical, fashion, packaging, furniture and construction markets. Its production line includes facemasks glue, fabric glue, apparel coating, shoes foam, vegan leather, chipboard and label.
- Alt Tex is creating the world’s most radically sustainable polyester alternative, from one of the world’s largest landfill contributors – food waste.
- KBCols Sciences Pvt Ltd is a biotech studio that produces biocolours which are natural, sustainable, and reproducible in shade, paving a new era in fashion technology, personal care, food, feed and many more.
- Nanoloom engineers the next level advanced materials—whether from graphene or the biomimicry of butterflies, offering unparalled strength and elasticity, conductivity, hydrophobicity and a biodegradable and recyclable end of life.
- Phycolabs has developed matural-based textile fibres derived from macroalgae.
- Rethread Africa has developed the technology to turn agricultural waste into biodegradable textile fabric with the “big hairy ambitious goal” to replace 15% of polyester over the next decade.
- DyeRecycle, by turning to sustainable green chemistry is trying to close the loop for dyes in the textile industry while also enabling fibre circularity. It extends the service life of dyestuff to colour a new garment by using textile waste as an untapped feedstock for dyes and colours.
- Refiberd’s sorting technology can help divert up to 70% of the textile waste stream to high value recyclers, disrupting the cycle and unlocking new opportunities across the industry.
- Tereform's core technology utilises earth-abundant metal catalysts and the oxygen in air to deconstruct waste plastics. The process can tolerate mixed inputs while generating easy-to-separate product outputs. Current progress is centred on scale-up efforts and validation of the system on a variety of post-consumer materials.
- SXD or Shelly Xu Design is building a design-tech solution that turns brands’ leftover/wasted textiles into zero waste clothing with about 55% lower cost.
About the award: The Global Change Award is an early-stage innovation challenge seeking bright minds that can transform fashion.
- Every year, H&M Foundation selects and supports the five most impactful innovations with the ultimate aspiration of a planet positive fashion future.
- This year, H&M Foundation has doubled both the grant and number of winners to speed up the transformation.
- H&M Foundation launched the GCA to provide the tools, connections, and resources necessary for early-stage innovations to move from idea to scale as quickly as possible.
- The winners receive €200,000 each and embark on the yearlong GCA Impact Accelerator.
- H&M Foundation together with GCA's core partners Accenture, KTH Royal Institute of Technology and The Mills Fabrica offer tailored coaching and support to accelerate their journey from idea to scale.
WHAT THEY 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 programme—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.
— Karl-Johan Persson
Chairman / Board Member
H&M Group / H&M Foundation
There's a wide range of solutions among this year's winners. 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.
— Christiane Dolva
Strategy Lead
H&M Foundation
