The textile waste It is one of the great environmental problems of society, just as today we know the dangerous impact that poor management of plastic waste has on our environment. Our clothes must stop being garbage: by 2030, 134 million tons of textiles are expected to be discarded annually.
Promoting the circular transformation of the fashion industry for a horizon free of textile waste is the purpose with which the startup, T_NEUTRAL, was born. It is a platform climate tech that allows textile producers to measure, reduce and compensate their “Textile Footprint”a new measurement and traceability parameter, a pioneer in the world, that identifies the amount of textile generated during the production and commercial process.
The main objective is to help textile producers pcan have 100% traceability of the textile involved in its operations. In this way they will be able to measure, reduce and compensate their Textile Footprint, offering them insights that allow them to act accordingly, responsibly, on reliable and actionable data. Thus, they will consciously contribute to the transformation towards a circular fashion model and offer their clients greater transparency.
From Spain to the world
The founders of the startup, Mariana and Charlotte Gramunt, are experts in sustainable fashion and have more than 7 years of experience in the sector – the former an innovation consultant and the latter a designer. In 2017, both created a firm, Sidikai, to vindicate the role of fashion as an agent of positive change and the transformation of the industry. In 2020, T_NEUTRAL was born.
“As a result of our experience in the sector, we realized that textile waste is at the heart of fashion and is a serious environmental and social problem. We believe in the power of innovation as a catalyst for change, which is why we decided to focus our creative capacity on this problem that fashion has been generating for so long. A change of model is vital, from linear to circular, through real and effective solutions at the sector level. T_NEUTRAL is born from collective responsibility, impact-oriented technology and rigor, introducing a new measurement and traceability parameter, which allows any textile producer to measure, reduce and compensate its ‘Textile Footprint’ to work on its mythification and achieve complete disposal of textile waste. the entrepreneurs explain.
Despite the efforts of fashion brands to adopt more sustainable practices in their business models, one of the most pressing environmental problems in the industry is textile waste: 87% of discarded textiles end up in a landfill or incinerated, take more than 200 years to decompose and generate toxic emissions into the air, land and water. To provide a new solution, the Gramunt sisters present their own and pioneering methodology in the world, the “Textile Footprint”, whose main objectives are:
- To size: Quantify and trace the textile resulting from the producer’s activity as well as the mitigation practices carried out.
- Reduce: Provide actionable metrics to take responsibility for runaway textiles and incorporate practices that reduce the Textile Footprint and advance circularity.
- Make up for (beta): Currently developing the first Textile Footprint compensation platform. A mechanism to take responsibility for leaked textiles through contributions to initiatives at the forefront of waste management. Expected for 2023.
