It's no secret that the fashion industry is under growing pressure to lessen its environmental impact, achieve shareholder goals, satisfy customer demand, and abide by changing environmental legislation.
An abundance of alternatives to leather are flooding the market, using materials like grapes, cacti, and other bio-based products. This pressure is seen in the skyrocketing demand for non-plastic and non-animal materials. The Material Innovation Initiative's 2021 State of the Industry study predicts that this industry would grow to be worth $2.2 billion annually by 2026.
While many of these alternative leather technologies claim to have lower carbon footprints than current leathers, many still contain enough plastic to prevent efficient biodegradation and may not provide any significant advantages over either animal or plastic-based leathers. Plastic textiles, including many "vegan" leathers, account for 36% of all global plastic waste, according to Bain & Company research.
While these vegan leathers were a positive move, they are more of a red herring that draws attention away from issues like microplastic contamination, landfill overpopulation, and ocean accumulation. The consequences of these problems are so grave that the United Nations just decided to stop plastic pollution. It is clear that the best answer is a comprehensive one, one that does not rely on plastic and does not use animal skins, which emit carbon dioxide and are terrible to animals.
Mycelium-derived materials can be used in this situation.
Alternative leathers made from mycelium may be the incredibly unusual product development solution that satisfies both the low-carbon and almost zero plastic use requirements.
The marketplace has taken note.
The first peer-reviewed "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for Reishi" has been published in the Environmental Sciences Europe journal and was reviewed by sustainability experts Ellie Williams, Katarzyna Cenian, and Laura Golsteijn from environmental consultant PRé Sustainability. Reishi is a new class of luxury material made from mycelium and developed by biotechnology company, MycoWorks. To date, brands and businesses including Hermès, Heron Preston, and General Motors have employed MycoWorks' products.
The MycoWorks-funded paper "The Life Cycle Assessment of MycoWorks Reishi: the First Low-Carbon and Biodegradable Alternative Leather" describes the product's environmental profile and cradle-to-gate carbon footprint.
Things to know
Not all mycelium products that are released onto the market are devoid of plastic. Only three of the 11 enterprises under investigation—MycoWorks, Mogu, and Ecovative—were claimed to be wholly plant-based. Each of them has not yet had the carbon intensity of production disclosed. According to the paper, Mogu and MycoWork's Reishi employ a passive growing approach whereas Ecovative's Forager substance uses an active growth strategy.
Large volumes of carbon dioxide are pumped into the growth chamber throughout the active growing process because a high CO2 atmosphere encourages mycelium growth while inhibiting mushroom sprouting. Due to the burning of fuels and the CO2 generation source, as well as the subsequent release of this CO2 into the atmosphere throughout the mycelium growth phase, Ecovative's carbon footprint is probably considerable. But, MycoWorks and Mogu don't use any gas while they are passively growing.
Bolt Threads, Modern Meadow, Vegea, and Desserto are just a few of the companies that employ plastic to make materials that function on par with leather from animals. According to the paper, the amount of CO2 used by the Ecovative method used to create its Forager material and the mycelium for Bolt Threads' Mylo option is so high that it may even outpace that of animal leathers by an order of magnitude. Mycelium materials from MycoWorks and Mogu are the only two contenders that are available as low-carbon, biodegradable materials with a natural haptic. Although the carbon footprint of Mogu has not yet been made public, the study by MycoWork includes information on the carbon footprint of reishi.
Again, MycoWorks commissioned the analysis, and Ecovative, for one, objects to how it describes the company's production method.
A representative for Ecovative remarked, "The assertion is unfounded and based on data that is not applicable to the growing process of Forager mycelium materials or Ecovative's AirMycelium technology." Our team is really satisfied with our initial internal study of our production method and the planet-positive advantages they may provide to the fashion industry. Ecovative will do a thorough LCA on Forager hides and foams in the next 12 months.
The conclusions of the paper were also challenged by Modern Meadow, which claimed that it did not employ plastic-based materials. Bolt Threads labeled as "patently incorrect" the inconsistencies surrounding its claimed carbon consumption.
Bolt Threads director of corporate responsibility Libby Sommer stated, "While we celebrate and value progress across the category of alternative leathers and don't want to discourage any innovation on a similar mission, we must emphatically state that the carbon dioxide (CO2) calculation reported by MycoWorks is patently false and has never represented the production of Mylo. Mycelium's ability to develop would be hampered by the amount of carbon dioxide MycoWorks assigns to our manufacturing process, and it may even be fatal to our organism.
Also, the amount of CO2 generated throughout our process of mycelium growth is four orders of magnitude less than predicted by MycoWorks, according to data collected over a number of years. We were astonished and appalled to find MycoWorks making false claims like this one as a partner firm working with mycelium materials, Sommers stated. "We have invested in numerous impact assessments to guide our scale-up in addition to employing a number of sustainability strategies to reduce our impact," the statement reads. "As part of our commitment to building materials and production systems that prioritize the health of people as well as the planet."
It employs a passive growing technique, according to Mogu. Desserto claimed that none of its ingredients contain any mycelium. Vegea did not respond to a request for comment from Sourcing Journal.
As an alternative to conventional animal leather, McyoWorks Inc. makes Reishi, a relatively novel biomaterial. It is manufactured using Fine Mycelium, a biotechnology platform developed by MycoWorks to build mycelium—the thin fibrous network that comprises the fungal organism—into specially grown, built-to-order materials. The material produced by this patented method, which goes through dyeing, lubricating, and finishing procedures to be converted into the leather-like product Reishi, is also referred to as fine mycelium.
Reishi is biodegradable because of its non-crosslinked, pure biomass structural makeup, however it is currently unknown whether it satisfies the low-carbon requirements because that information is not disclosed. Hence, a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) was conducted with the primary goal of testing the claimed benefits of Reishi and contrasting how it works in various production-scale situations to see whether it satisfies the dual requirements necessary for low-impact alternative leathers.
What happened
An LCA gathers the inputs and outputs of a system for a product and assesses any potential environmental effects. It may be used to measure how a product affects many categories, including eutrophication, land usage, ecotoxicity, and climate change. As a result, measuring a product's carbon footprint—or its effect on climate change—is considered a starting point for evaluating its ecological performance. The possible dangers and effects of environmental emissions of micro and nanoplastics are not taken into consideration by current LCAs.
Reishi clothing is made by MycoWorks with or without fabric and in situ embedded fabric. A variety of fabric materials are available for embedding. The "structural foundation addition" made of fabric is placed in a tray, where the mycelium develops and fills the fabric before growing on top of it to embed it. Another possibility is for the mycelium to develop sufficient strength and resilience without the addition of extra material to serve as the structural foundation. Three different types of materials were modeled for the study that was published in Environmental Sciences Europe: mycelium with cotton (mycelium with 100% cotton material embedded in it), mycelium with recycled polyester (mycelium with 100% recycled non-woven polyester embedded in it), and mycelium alone (no fabric material embedded within the mycelium as a structural base, using solely mycelium).
The material for the integrated fabric is the sole difference between each of these model versions.
The findings
Under the "pilot-scale day one" scenario, the carbon footprint of 1 m2 of post-processed, completed, and packed Reishi was 17.65 kilogram CO2 eq. for cotton, 14.9 kg CO2 eq. for recycled polyester, and 14.5 kg CO2 eq. for mycelium alone. The footprint was decreased to its present level at the pilot scale of 9.34 kilogram CO2 eq. using cotton as the fabric material option, 6.59 kg CO2 eq. using recycled polyester, and 6.20 kg CO2 eq. using mycelium alone after adopting technological adjustments and process optimization.
The overall carbon footprint figures for Reishi made with the three fabric options—mycelium with cotton, mycelium with recycled polyester, and mycelium alone—are shown for each scenario. The major conclusions of the contribution study for Reishi made only using mycelium, which illustrates the relative contributions of several manufacturing and post-processing phases to the overall product carbon footprint, are presented next. Being a material with natural haptics and fulfilling the same performance, quality, and hand feel as animal leather, Reishi has previously been proven to meet the requirements for the qualitative features of the functional unit.
Reishi's carbon footprint was discovered to be as little as 2.76 kg CO2-eq per m2, or 8%, of the value of the benchmark estimated for bovine leather. In addition, it was discovered that Reishi had less of an impact than bovine leather when modeled for eutrophication, ecotoxicity, human health consequences, and other impact categories. Reishi's effect "hotspots" were identified, with increased energy efficiency in mycelium growth—in particular, the sterilization of raw material inputs using autoclave tools—offering the greatest potential for further reduction. It also demonstrates that the carbon footprint of MycoWorks' passive mycelium development method is two orders of magnitude lower than that of existing mycelium growth methods that actively use carbon dioxide gas, which MycoWorks' method doesn't need.
Reishi can be produced by MycoWorks with or without an incorporated fabric material that the client specifies. Different fabrics have very different effects; for instance, virgin cotton, virgin polyester, and recycled polyester have carbon footprints of 11.29, 5.59, and 1.11 kgCO2 eq./kg of textile, respectively. This suggests that the fabric choice has a big impact on the final total carbon footprint of Reishi.
Reishi has potential as a low-impact, leather-like material with natural haptics, according to the research.
The environmental impact of fungi-based leather-like materials has been the subject of studies, but the study described in this paper is the first to quantify the ecological implications of Reishi utilizing data from primary production using LCA. Although comparing Reishi's environmental impact to a specific natural material was outside the purview of this study, the article modeled a benchmark bovine leather to put it in the perspective of other natural materials—i.e., natural haptics—available on the market.
Reishi leaves behind a lot less carbon than the industry standard bovine leather. The benchmark leather has a carbon footprint of 32.98 kg CO2 eq. per m2, which is far greater than Reishi's carbon footprint, which is now 6.20 kg CO2 eq. per m2 (with mycelium alone) (an 81 percent reduction). These savings over conventional leather are comparable to those touted by plastic-haptic leather substitute goods. The numerous methodological variations, however, prevent any direct reduction comparisons from being made. Modern Meadow predicts a decrease of 79 percent for Bioleather1, Natural Fiber Welding predicts a reduction of 93 percent for Mirium, Adriano di Marti predicts a reduction of 94 percent for Desserto, and a reduction of 94 percent is predicted for Vegea.
Reishi has a lower carbon footprint than benchmark bovine leather, but there are no environmental trade-offs, according to a comparison of their combined environmental impact. According to the benchmark leather's overall environmental footprint, the impact on "cancer human health consequences" is the greatest when compared to the other impact categories. Yet, for Reishi, the "resource consumption" effect categories seemed to be the most pertinent. This suggests that if Reishi was used instead of the benchmark leather, there wouldn't be any evident load shifting.
Next steps
Mycelium is a technology that has been evolving for a number of years and has recently undergone industrialisation and scale-up. Only a few thousand square meters have been made. This study aimed to demonstrate the material's advantageous sustainability profile, which includes a carbon footprint of 2.76 kg CO2 eq/m2 (a 94 percent reduction compared to bovine leather), a significantly reduced impact on eutrophication, ecotoxicity, and human health when produced at only a few hundred thousand square meters per year.
It is becoming increasingly important for consumers of these materials to have access to high-quality, sustainable alternatives given the urgency surrounding taking action to reduce the impact of climate change from industries that use significant amounts of carbon-intensive or polluting materials, like animal and plastic leathers, as well as the evolving climate policies to adhere to. This study provides a foundation for marketers to access Reishi's carbon footprint as a material option. Reishi is a new kind of material, not merely a substitute for leather. MycoWorks Vice President of Product Bill Morris remarked.
Yet, not everyone is certain that these results are reliable.
"It is amazing that this paper, which was published in Environmental Sciences Europe, made it through the journal's peer review process. The use of subjective analysis (such as haptics or handfeel) and the estimates and assumptions made in the comparative analysis with other companies' products are just a few of the aspects of this study that don't adhere to the standards of scientific rigor and integrity, according to Nicole Rawling, CEO of Material Innovation Institute, an independent think tank. The study's problems are so complex that we wouldn't be shocked if the journal took the paper down until a fresh analysis was done that adhered to these scientific standards.
