What is sustainability? How is sustainability perceived in the context of fashion? And, how do we define and approach sustainable practices? 

 

How we define sustainability will inform how we make sustainable decisions and how we adapt and change our current practices. Once we compare our contemporary approach to fashion sustainability and draw parallels from the Mitigation Hierarchy (Business and Biodiversity Offsets Programme), it is not difficult to identify the blind spot where there is no fashion company that is tapping into — positive environmental contribution that actually nurtures the ecosystem instead of against it.

 
We, therefore, propose a different approach to understanding sustainability, which we have coined as Regenerative Sustainability Activism.

 

Instead of taking a passive reductionism or down/re/upcycling approach, Regenerative Sustainability Activism advocates proactive engagement from an industrial entry point. Essentially, it is about making sustainability as easy and accessible as daily conveniences like putting on clothes and commuting.

 

One great example is to design garments that have photosynthetic or pollution-filtering properties. This will allow the fashion industry to have an output for carbon negativity (climate positivity) rather than reducing or offsetting the footprint.

 

With this concept in mind, we embarked on the research of developing the Photosynthetic Coating™️. While post carbon refers to post carbon emission, photosynthesis activity which absorbs carbon dioxide becomes the obvious starting point.