Bye '80s Pleather. This "Animal-Free" Trend is About to Go Mainstream - Material Innovation Initiative's Nicole Rawling

10/24/20 • 54 min

From making leather out of mushrooms to growing silk in a lab, innovative textile startups around the world are reinventing how we make and consume materials. Nicole Rawling is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Material Innovation Initiative. Her organization is working to bring together scientists, entrepreneurs, retailers, and consumers—to accelerate the global trend towards a new era of animal-free fashion, automotive, and home goods industries. In this episode, she shares: - The story behind Material Innovation Initiative and this growing movement. - The reasons why we need to stop relying on animal materials such as leather, wool, silk, down, fur, and exotic skins. - The unique and cutting-edge types of innovation and technologies next-gen material startups are using. - How the next-gen materials trend might go mainstream even faster than the fast-growing plant-based food and meat alternatives industry. AND how to learn more—or get involved in this space.
Material Innovation Initiative's website: https://www.materialinnovation.org/

Support the Show.

Support the Show.

Previous Episode

How Fungi-Based "Super Bacon" Could Revolutionize Plant-Based Eating - Prime Roots' Kimberlie Le

Prime Roots' co-founder & CEO Kimberlie Le and her team are working to bring a new more affordable, ethical, nutritious, and sustainable protein to the world. How? The Berkeley, California-based startup is creating high protein meats and seafood—including their landmark bacon product—from a revolutionary whole food superprotein: Koji. And, they are growing, packing, and distributing it from their facilities, which drives down costs and resources while ramping up production.
Prime Roots website: https://www.primeroots.com/

Support the Show.

Next Episode

Baby Formula 2.0: Is Lab-Grown Breastmilk the Next Parenting Trend? - TurtleTree Labs' Fengru Lin & Max Rye

TurtleTree Labs—a Singapore-based startup—has set its sights on disrupting the baby formula industry, which is projected to grow to US$103 Billion by 2026. Co-founders Fengru Lin and Max Rye explain how they are using donated human stem cells to create mammary cells in the lab that lactate real human breast milk! Their first-of-its-kind biotech approach is getting a lot of support—from investors and from the Singaporean government—and the company believes it could be in the market within the next year. Once they perfect human breast milk, they plan to expand their sustainable, contaminant-free milk production methods to encompass other mammalian species including cows.
TurtleTree Labs' website: https://turtletreelabs.com/

Support the Show.