Developing the first scaleable cotton and viscose replacements made from up to 100% agricultural banana waste.
Developing the first scaleable cotton and viscose replacements made from up to 100% agricultural banana waste.
61% of the fashion industry’s shortfall in meeting global CO2 reduction targets comes from ‘upstream operations’ - predominantly materials and their production. ‘Sustainable’ textiles available on the market do not improve impact enough to meet reduction targets.
In addition to carbon impacts, cotton accounts for 16% of global insecticide use, exacerbating biodiversity loss and water pollution/scarcity. 27000 litres of water is required to produce one cotton t-shirt, isn’t that insane?
Viscose production causes deforestation of 300 million trees annually, 30% from endangered forests.
The fashion industry risks fines and reputational damage if it fails to meet incoming mandatory sustainability regulation. Meanwhile damage to the environment and people in fashion’s supply chains escalates.
Current approaches for creating more impactful sustainable textiles have failed to meet demand within mainstream fashion due to quality control/pricing/market fit issues.
29acacia noted this unmet need and is developing the first scalable cotton and viscose replacements made from up to 100% agricultural banana waste, to deliver a low-cost plug-and-play product for the ready-to-wear fashion market.
Once fruited, it is felled, burned and a new tree is planted.
29acacia extracts fibre from felled trees; a genuine waste by-product of the food industry.
29acacia can make enough luxury textiles to reach the moon and back 10x annually using just this one waste stream, instead of using land/water/energy/pesticides to grow cotton, or fell trees for viscose.
With its unique supply chain and technology, 29acacia's process delivers consistent textile quality that no other developer has achieved, whilst reducing market price by 40-60% compared with next-gen textile competitors.
29acacia’s innovation reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared with organic cotton and viscose.
Production by-products, pulp and organic fertiliser, go to paper-making partners and farmers for zero waste circularity.
Supported by academic and commercial research parters, this is the first of many geographies and waste streams 29acacia will tackle.
The results of 29acacia's first pilot launched on the runway at London Fashion Week and were covered by VOGUE. If you're a brand looking to drive sustainable collaboration in the fashion and interior textile industries, get in touch.
Global fashion brand Founder/CEO
Two decades of fashion industry thought leadership and big brand consultancy
MA Material Innovation
(Royal College of Art)
Agricultural impact Founder/COO
Scaled de-centralised supply chains
across India
Forbes 30U30 Asia
(Manufacturing)