Spotted: Leather is one of the most energy-inefficient and destructive textiles. In addition to animal wealfare concerns, leather production involves large amounts of energy, land, and water, alongside the use of harmful chemicals – leading to deforestation and pollution. One way to reduce the environmental impact of the textile industry is to introduce more circularity into the production process. And this is exactly what startup ALT.Leather has done.
Unlike some other alternative leathers, bio-based ALT.Leather is not made from fossil fuel-based materials like PVC. Instead, the company used agricultural waste to develop a unique fibre with a structure that mimics the 3D webbing of animal leather, which helps to make the final product durable and strong.
The company’s founder, Tina Funder, told Springwise: “Our product contains zero petroleum plastic, zero animal products and is ethically made.” The Australian company also uses 100 per cent Australian ingredients, reducing emissions from transportation.
ALT.Leather recently closed an oversubscribed seed funding round, raising AU$1.1 million (around €667,000), exceeding the initial target of AU$750,000 (around €455,000). The round was led by investment firm Wollemi Capital Group.
Springwise is spotting more and more innovators making use of bio-based materials and textiles. These include a bio-based approach to leather recycling and textiles made from pineapple waste.
Two British materials companies, Sages and Osmose, have collaborated to dye sheets of mycelium with natural food waste, mimicking the appearance of tanned leather and suggesting a colourful future for the biomaterial.
Osmose is a company making a leather alternative from mycelium – the fibrous underground root network of mushrooms – while Sages makes natural dyes from food waste such as avocado pits, blueberries, red cabbages and onion skins, which are normally applied to textiles.
The two believe they’ve achieved a world first with their collaboration, combining two emerging areas of sustainable material development to colour mycelium without resorting to petroleum-based synthetic dyes, thereby keeping the product non-toxic and able to biodegrade safely in soil.
Sages and Osmose have developed a natural dying process for mycelium leather
“There are lots of different types of vegan leather alternatives to traditional leather but the majority of them use either synthetic colourations or they use plasticisers, so they’re non-biodegradable,” said Sages CEO Emily Taylor.
“We wanted to explore an option where we could have a fully biodegradable leather that has also been coloured in a biodegradable and sustainable manner,” she continued.
Companies that prioritise biodegradability have offered mycelium in its natural shades of white and brown or black, which Osmose CEO Aurelie Fontan says is much easier to achieve naturally.
“I think the challenge for mycelium leather was that the offering just wasn’t there in terms of aesthetic,” she said. “When you’re presenting for brands and you’re like ‘we can only do brown’, it’s a little bit boring for them.”
The companies experimented with different food wastes in the dyeing process
“The colour sector is somewhere where you can develop your USP, essentially, which is why working with Sages is so interesting,” Fontan added.
Osmose and Sages have created tan-coloured mycelium sheets using avocado waste, which Sages sources from an importer and guacamole factory in Milton Keynes, where tens of tonnes of leftover pits and skins are produced each week.
It was a new area for both companies, as the food waste dye takes differently to mycelium leather than it does to the usually cellulose-based textiles that Sages has worked with.
The duo collaborated with materials science researchers at the UK’s Cranfield University on the project, for which the researchers focused on how to transfer and fix the dye to the material using “green chemistry” – an area of chemistry that aims to cut out hazardous substances.
In this case, the researchers sought to replace the formic acid and fluorinated acids that are often used in tanning to dissolve the polymers of the leather so it can be infused with dye. Instead, the team developed a method, which they say is significantly less toxic.
After working with Cranfield University, Sages and Osmose expanded the experiment and trialled other waste streams such as blueberries and onion skins to see what colours they could get, producing mycelium swatches in shades of violet and bordeaux.
Taylor and Fontan say they are trying to develop a process for mycelium that is akin to leather tanning, where both colour and durability properties are added in one or two steps. Their equivalent, they say, would be to dye and waterproof the material at the same time.
The tan colour was created by using waste avocado pits and skins
Osmose’s focus now is on developing a waterproof coating for their mycelium that, like the dye, is bio-based, non-toxic and able to biodegrade safely in soil. This is notoriously a challenge for plant-based leather alternatives, which almost always rely on a protective synthetic coating.
“It’s really hard to design a solution that fits all materials, which is basically what everyone is struggling with,” said Fontan. “Someone might have pineapple leather and they have their own coating but it doesn’t mean it’s going to work on mushroom and so on.”
Unlike some companies, however, Osmose says it does not want to bring a product with a non-biodegradable coating to market.
“If you’re doing a composite, it will not biodegrade at the end of life, which is compromising all the good work that you’ve been doing before that step,” Fontan said.
Mycelium is one of the most popular emerging leather alternatives. It has already appeared in luxury goods such as a bag by Hermes, clothing by Stella McCartney and trainers by Adidas.
Spotted: Spent grain from brewing practices is usually burned, sent to landfill, made into gas, or used as cheap feed for livestock. All of these are low-value enterprises. So, instead, one startup, Arda Biomaterials, is utilising this cheap waste product to create leather, without needing to farm animals for their hides.
Arda Biomaterials is currently working with breweries from South London’s ‘Bermondsey Beer Mile’, which was once the leather tanning district of the City of London, to make its leather alternative.
The material is produced by taking the grain that has had its sugar removed for brewing purposes, also known as brewer’s spent grain (BSG). This grain is rich in protein and fibre, which makes it an ideal blueprint for an alternative to conventional leather. It is chemically treated and manipulated in order to create a material that resembles conventional animal leather, a process developed by the company’s founders Edward TJ Mitchell and Brett Cotton.
Arda Biomaterials has just received a £1.1 million (around €1.3 million) investment led by Clean Growth Fund, a UK cleantech venture capital fund. Now, the company is hoping to both reach a completed product and subsequently start launching its material in a limited capacity next year, and scale the business from there.
Reimagining material production is one important step we must take towards net zero. Springwise has also spotted one company that makes plastic alternatives out of invasive plant species, as well as one startup in the archive that aims to replace plastic bubble wrap with a wool-based alternative.
Spotted: Plastic is everywhere. In fact, as microplastics are found in more and more places – the bottom of the ocean, the food chain, and inside our bodies for example – concern over the use of plastics is growing. However, there are few products that can replicate plastic’s usefulness, especially as a topcoat on products such as leather and flooring. Until now, that is. Sustainable materials brand von Holzhausen has recently announced a new plastic-free topcoat that could replace the use of petroleum-based materials.
Called Liquidplant, the new customisable product is 100 per cent plant-based, petroleum-free, and completely biodegradable. The product is designed for use as a coating on products such as traditional and synthetic leather, paper, wood, plastic, and fabric.
The coating is made from sustainably grown materials, including corn sugar, castor oil, and flaxseed oil. It has similar qualities to traditional topcoats, including being flexible, as well as stain-, scratch-, and water-resistant. The company says Liquidplant can be used on its own or paired with von Holzhausen’s Terra Backing material. And at the end of its usable life, the products can be recycled into more Liquidplant.
Founded by former automotive designer Vicki von Holzhausen, the company has developed a number of vegan materials, including a bamboo-based leather, and leathers crafted from recycled consumer plastic. The company states its mission as replacing “all the animal leather in the world with non-animal leather. [It believes] in the power of plants and in transforming discarded materials into remarkable ones.”
Vegan leather is everywhere now, and its use is growing as the products become more sophisticated and luxurious. Springwise has spotted leather substitutes made from products as diverse as mycelium, fruit waste, and flowers.
Portuguese practice AB+AC Architects has designed a multifunctional wellness centre in Lisbon that doubles up as an artists’ residence.
The Open Hearts wellness centre is arranged around one large room, which AB+AC Architects refers to as the shala. This Sanskrit term refers to the idea of home but also, in the context of yoga, a place where people can learn and practise together.
The Open Hearts centre is orientated around a curtained room known as the shala
As well as yoga classes, this adaptable space will host everything from breathwork classes and sound baths to meditation sessions, film screenings, dining experiences and creative writing workshops.
Running around the periphery of the shala are floor-to-ceiling curtains crafted from white vegan leather, which can be drawn to keep the room out of view from the bustling street outdoors.
At the front of the room, a wall of gold-tinted mirrors conceals a series of storage compartments. When an event is being held, the room can also be temporarily dressed with floor cushions and long birchwood tables.
Behind the shala is the artists’ residence
“Normally, when a design is very flexible, there is a risk of ending up with a very generic or sterile space, as if the only way to address adaptability is through non-specific design,” explained AB+AC Architects.
“We knew that creating a neutral mood that could accommodate a variety of programs would not be stimulating, so we decided that the centre had to be able to evoke different emotions based on the function occurring at that given moment.”
This includes a dining room and bespoke kitchen
A grand limestone archway to the side of the shala grants access to the artists’ residence, which is entered via a narrow lounge area.
The room is topped with a light-up ceiling that measures eight metres long and, when the artist is hosting an exhibition, washes their work in a complementary glow.
Next up is a small dining area and a custom-made kitchen suite featuring wooden cabinetry and a terrazzo-style countertop.
Surfaces in the adjacent bedroom are painted a crisp shade of white while the corner dedicated to the bathroom – complete with a freestanding tub – is clad in distinctive terracotta tiles.
The same gold-tinged mirrors from the shala are used here to help disguise the toilet.
A terracotta-tiled bathroom contrasts with the white walls of the bedroom
Should the resident artist want some fresh air, they can head outside to the small private patio.
Here, a concrete planter that winds around the edge of the space is overspilling with leafy tropical plants, while volcanic stone pebbles are scattered over the floor.
Foliage lines the private outdoor patio of the artists’ residence
Open Hearts Lisbon has been shortlisted in the civic and cultural interior category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
Other projects in the running include a cow shed-turned-library, a historic cinema in Berlin and the world’s first multi-storey skatepark.
Spotted: Inversa, a sustainable Florida-based fashion brand, has announced a new type of sustainable leather with a unique selling point. The exotic leather is made from lionfish, a species that is highly invasive. Native to the tropical waters of the Indian and South Pacific Oceans, lionfish were first detected in US waters in the 1980s, potentially as a result of aquarium releases. The increasing presence of the highly predatory fish in Florida’s Atlantic waters is believed to be having a significant impact on the health of coral reefs and the ecosystems they support.
The idea of using the fish for leather was inspired by indigenous practices, and the goal of the initiative is to reduce the pressure on marine ecosystems while also providing an alternative to cow leather – a material criticised by many on ethical and environmental grounds.
Inversa’s leather is extremely versatile and flexible. It can be used in a variety of applications, from fashion to furniture. The company is partnering with a number of brands, including Italian footwear brand P448 and Teton Leather, who will produce accessories using the lionfish leather.
In addition to helping the environment by removing a damaging invader, Inversa’s innovative tanning process for the leather has a very small footprint using just 200 millilitres of water per skin.
The startup was recently a finalist for the Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge grant by the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA).
Springwise has spotted numerous sustainable leather innovations including the world’s first cell cultivated leather, leather made from grape skins, and plastic-free leather made from hemp.
Spotted: The development of vegan leather that looks and feels like the most luxurious animal leather, is a major goal for designers. Startup Polybion specialises in organic, vegan leather made in a closed-loop production process. The company uses local sources of industrial fruit waste as the basis for its material and has already identified additional waste streams should demand grow.
Called Celium, Polybion’s leather is grown to a variety of thicknesses. Fungi and bacteria feed on the fruit waste, producing cellulose as a byproduct of that process. The Polybion team then stabilises the growing material at the desired size and depth before treating it to be ready for dying and other bespoke processes. Customisable and strong, Celium can be produced with an infinite variety of grains and embossments, along with varying levels of water resistance.
Already, Polybion has identified enough biowaste nearby to create up to 168 million square feet of the vegan leather each year. From vehicle interiors and footwear to homewares and fashion, large-scale organic leather production could make significant inroads in multiple industries seeking more sustainable resources.
The scope of new leather options is widening by the day, with creators and innovators in many industries finding new ways of working with surprising ingredients. Springwise has spotted a number of leather alternatives, with two recent innovations being lab-grown leather and a leather bag made from grape skin.
Spotted: As the world becomes increasingly aware of the ethical and environmental issues associated with traditional leather production, companies and retailers are on a mission to find high-quality leather alternatives. Lab-grown meat has received a lot of attention, with several companies’ products expected to hit the shelves in 2022 and 2023. Now, another startup is in position to scale up the production of lab-grown leather.
Vitrolabs is developing a process that can efficiently produce leather from only a few cells in an environmentally friendly way. This process involves taking a biopsy—a one-time collection of cells—from a live animal. These cells are then grown in a nutrient-rich environment – dividing and forming into tissue that can then be turned into leather. The composition of the material produced through this process achieves the complexity of traditional hides. This addresses a problem often levelled at other leather alternatives – that consumers crave the luxurious quality of real leather.
Last autumn, the company expanded into a new facility to pilot production, and as the company makes its way to commercialisation, it has received $46 million (around €43 million) in a new round of funding.
“There has been an explosion of companies that are developing alternative materials to leather,” explains VitroLabs CEO Ingvar Helgason. “At VitroLabs, our cultivated animal leather preserves the biological characteristics that the industry, craftsmen, and consumers know and love about leather, while eliminating the most environmentally and ethically detrimental aspects of the conventional leather manufacturing process associated with its sourcing.”
Many innovators are developing leather alternatives made using materials such as apples, hemp, and grape waste. However, VitroLabs is the first innovator spotted by Springwsie that is taking a lab-grown approach to sustainable leather.
