Institute of Positive Fashion - 10. Innovation Investment

KEY STAKEHOLDERS

LEAD

ENABLERS

KEY SYNERGY TOPICS

CIRCULAR AND SHARING BUSINESS MODELS
DEMAND FOR RECYCLED AND RENEWABLE FIBRES
ENHANCED IDENTIFICATION AND TRACKING
POST-USE ECOSYSTEM
SORTATION AND RECYCLING
ECOSYSTEM MODELLING
POLICY AND REGULATION

To achieve the multiple elements of the target state, more capital is needed for circular businesses, technologies, and infrastructure. Greater funding will support the activities of stakeholders across the ecosystem in developing circular models and promote the economy for maintenance, repair, and resale of clothes. As has been noted throughout this report, there is a need for significant capital investment to achieve the target state and its three desired outcomes. The current investment gap is most clear in the UK’s waste infrastructure and its capacity for optimised sorting and recovery at the end of use. The transition is therefore a unique opportunity for government and investors to work together to invest in innovation and infrastructure across the ecosystem. The government will be a key stakeholder in providing, enabling, and supporting this investment.

Additionally, brands, retailers, and reprocessors should look to leverage government support and private capital that will become increasingly available in the coming years as efforts to transition to a circular economy gather pace.

CHRISTIAN TOENNESEN

DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, SELFRIDGES

“There’s a huge capital investment needed to make upgrades to sourcing and processing. Government should also help to accelerate this as part of their national decarbonisation plans.”

Recommendations

Financing emerging technologies: Government to provide direct financial support for businesses developing technologies that enable closed-loop and regenerative recycling and related infrastructure. This will position the UK as a global leader in these technologies and ensure that uncertainty in policy direction does not restrict opportunities for private investment.
Investing in advanced sorting: Government to convene multi-stakeholder initiatives, with brands and reprocessors, to coordinate investment into new sorting technologies, such as near-infrared (NIR), and large-scale facilities for their use. Sorting technologies must be able to sort according to fibre composition and colour. They must also ensure that used clothing is appropriately pre-processed through cleaning, removal of hardware, and product disassembly.
Providing grants and incubation: Government to support innovation and R&D by providing grants and technical support to start-ups and innovators who adopt circular business models. Such support should have the explicit aim to create world leading UK-based intellectual property and to help smaller companies compete with big brands.
Directing investment towards circular performance: Investors to work with government and industry bodies to push businesses in the fashion industry to demonstrate clear strategies and action plans for transitioning to circular business models. As a part of this, investors should continue to embed circular economy principles in disclosure standards that go beyond traditional Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards

SIMON PLATTS

RESPONSIBLE SOURCING, DIRECTOR, ASOS

“For the retailer, for the environment, for the customer, the best thing would be to only make what people want. There are technology innovations coming through, like increased digitisation, that would really support that.”

CASE STUDY

Laudes Foundation

RELEVANT ACTION AREAS

INNOVATION INVESTMENT

Laudes Foundation, launched in 2020, is building on the work of C&A Foundation by broadening its mandate to tackle deep systemic issues of production and consumption through transforming the fashion and built environment industries, both of which have an outsized negative impact on carbon emissions and social inclusion. At the same time, it focuses on finance and capital markets, whose influence impacts decisions and corporate action throughout the real economy.

Laudes is the founding partner of Fashion for Good, an industry innovation accelerator whose objective is to change the global trajectory of sustainable innovation in fashion. In order to foster a regenerative and just material system, Laudes accelerates investments into next-gen and circular materials that can substitute oil based synthetic fibres. For this it funds pilots to validate innovations for scale.

In collaboration with the Institute of Sustainable Communities, the World Resources Institute and the Wageningen University & Research, Laudes commissioned the ‘Spinning Future Threads’ research to study 40 agricultural residues as textile fibre feedstock in South and South East Asia. With global fibre production reaching100 million tonnes per year in 2019, the report recommends alternative use of waste streams, from rice straw to pineapple leaves, generating new revenue streams for low-income agricultural communities.