These 5 startups are poised to disrupt the fashion industry for the better
While some clothing companies have made great strides to clean up the polluting fashion industry, what we really need are innovators that can disrupt the industry and put us on a path towards truly sustainable fashion. With that in mind, here are five exciting startups that are set to make waves in Read More...
Fabric is freshwater-intensive. These students have a saltwater alternative
Producing fabrics often relies heavily on scarce freshwater. In fact, just one kilogram of cotton requires as much as 20,000 liters of freshwater to be made. To tackle the overconsumption of freshwater by the fashion industry, students from the Royal College of Art have created an alternative Read More...
Finnish design brand to make its dresses from compostable wood-pulp fabric
Incorporating sustainability into fashion design is something we preach here at The Optimist Daily. That’s why we’re happy to see an increasing number of startups and more popular retailers get on the wagon to make the fashion industry greener. The latest case comes from a partnership between Read More...
Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s to be fur free by 2021
Macy’s and its subsidiary, Bloomingdale's, have announced that they will remove any authentic fur products from their stores by 2021. Considering that Macy’s private brands are already fur-free, expanding the practice to all commerce was the next natural step for the company. The ban only Read More...
Your next pair of sneakers may be made of foam from algae blooms
Last week we wrote about a new pair of sneakers from the brand Cariuma made from bamboo, sugarcane, and natural cork. This time around, we present another new sustainable option from the brand Native Shoes that makes use of algae foam from the algae blooms that have been occurring across the Read More...
These algae-based clothes photosynthesize while you wear them
Talk about thinking outside the box, a designer by the name of Roya Aghighi has designed clothes from algae that turn carbon dioxide into oxygen via photosynthesis. Named Biogarmentry, the clothes are the proof of concept for a textile made with living, photosynthetic cells. To make the fabric Read More...
Indulge in 40 beauty brands that pamper you - and the planet
Navigating environmentally friendly beauty products can be a challenge. Are glass containers better than plastic if they are heavier and more energy-intensive to transport? Is organic and GMO-free worth it if the ingredients can only be grown thousands of miles away? Picking beauty products depends Read More...
Bury this shirt once it’s worn out. It will become “worm food” in 12 weeks.
A tech-based clothing startup by the name of Vollebak has developed a T-shirt that can either be put in a compost bin or buried in the ground once it’s reached the end of its life. That’s because the shirt is made entirely from wood pulp and algae, which breaks down in soil or in a composter Read More...
You can toss these shoes into the compost once they’re worn out
Look down at your feet. Your shoes might seem innocuous, but they contain lots of forms of plastic, and often leather, giving them their own sizeable carbon footprint. As all companies try to limit their plastic use, shoe manufacturers are trying to design new shoes with lower embedded Read More...
A Kenyan company is making sustainable clothes out of stinging nettles
The stinging nettle is a weedy, invasive species of plant that spreads like wildfire once it gets a foothold anywhere. The plant can be used for medicinal reasons, but in truth, there are more pesky nettles on the planet than anyone could possibly make use of. At least, so it seemed. Soon enough Read More...