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UNLOCKING SCALABILITY

Despite the clear necessity, the road to widespread adoption of sustainable innovation is steep. Polyester, which dominates 54% of the fibre market, and conventional cotton, which holds 22%, are deeply embedded due to their low cost and established supply chains, but are resource-intensive, major contributors to waste, with insufficient scalable end-of-life solutions. The cost associated with the integration of innovations, such as new machinery, increased R&D needs and the redundancy of existing machines makes adoption extremely challenging. To reduce the fashion industry’s environmental footprint, these innovations need to transition from capsule collections to full-scale commercial production at competitive prices.

Problem Statement

While next-generation innovations present promising alternatives, they remain trapped in the early stages of scaling, with market penetration still below 1%. High development costs and long lead times exacerbate this issue, keeping these innovations out of the mainstream. Additionally, first-of-a-kind production facilities face engineering and market risks, complicating the path to scale and making competitive unit economics a key challenge. To truly unlock scalability, we need collective action, forward-looking supply chain partners, innovative financing mechanisms & policy action across countries.

Our Objective: Bend the sustainability cost-curve and drive to tipping point for widespread adoption

What do we hope to achieve by working in this area?

At Fashion For Good, we are dedicated to overcoming these challenges by strategically bending the sustainability cost curve. Our goal is to push these innovations to the tipping point where they become not just environmentally necessary but also economically competitive at equal or better performance for widespread adoption. Over 7 years we have supported the validation journey of innovators, and over the last two years as these innovators took steps towards scale, we set up a scaling function to identify the commercialisation challenges and to set up disruptive collective actions to navigate these challenges.

How do we address this area?

To achieve this, Fashion For Good employs a multi-faceted approach across three critical spheres of influence:

  • Innovators: We collaborate with innovators to amplify their impact, focusing on key areas such as materials and processing. By providing targeted support in demand creation, supply chain access, and cost efficiency, we help innovators navigate the complex journey to commercialisation.

  • Industry: We mobilise the fashion industry, both at the individual and collective level, to aggregate demand, contain the variables in the fashion supply chain to ns, and de-risk financing. By creating consortia and partnerships, we attempt to provide the scale necessary to reduce costs and support the widespread adoption of sustainable.

  • System Level: At a systemic level, we engage with investors and policymakers to unlock the necessary financing and create a supportive policy environment. This includes not only aligning financial mechanisms with sustainability goals but also advocating for the development of critical infrastructure, such as collection, sorting, and preprocessing facilities for recycling. By addressing these larger systemic issues and fostering the necessary infrastructure, we create the conditions where sustainable innovations can thrive, scale, and become the standard across the fashion industry.

Through this comprehensive approach, Fashion For Good is leading the transformation of the fashion industry towards a sustainable future. By tackling the challenges of scalability and commercial viability, we are paving the way for next-generation innovations to replace conventional counterparts, ultimately leading to a significant reduction in the industry’s environmental impact. Our mission is to ensure that sustainable fashion becomes the norm, contributing to global efforts to combat climate change and protect our planet for future generation.

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