Plug and Play, Kering unveil the 12 companies selected for "Fashion for Good"

Plug and Play and Kering have announced the 12 companies selected to participate in the business acceleration programme “Fashion for Good.” The goal of the program being to “quickly integrate innovation in the luxury and apparel sectors, taking into account sustainable development criteria,” the participating companies will be supported for three months.

Agraloop, which collects food production waste in order to turn it into textile fibres; Amadou, a business working with Amadou mushroom skins as an alternative to animal hide; and Dragon, the company at the origin of a new water filtration system, which is designed to reduce the use of chemical products in the textile industry; have been selected from over 250 applications.

Also of note are: Dropel, a company creating high-performance fabrics from a biodegradable polymer that improves fibre lifespans; ICA Bremen, which employs nanotechnology to identify the optimum ratios between organic cotto and traditional products in textiles; as well as Myco Tex, a start-up that has created a 100% mushroom-based fibre with low water consumption.

Others having attracted the attention of Kering and Plug and Play are MySource, a digital platform enabling fashion professionals access to information for the creation of sustainable enterprise; Pili-bio, a business aiming to replace petrochemical colorants with natural products thanks to micro-organisms; and RePack, a packaging start-up which could reduce the carbon footprint of e-commerce by up to 80%.

Last but not least, Sundar is a digital supply chain platform; Versus, a company developing technology towards the water-free cleaning of clothing and fibres by means of recycled carbon dioxide in fluid form; and Tipa, who hopes that biodegradable packaging will also be a part of this development.

By becoming the first partner with “Plug and Play-Fashion for Goods,” Kering plans to reinforce its social and environmental initiatives. The French luxury group has in fact been expanding its activity in this area for the past few years, and received the Science Based Target certificate in 2016 in recognition of its environmental strategy. No doubt then that Kering will be able to make the most of its partnership with “Fashion for Goods” to further improve its processes.

Kering is not the only key fashion or distribution player to focus on innovation: H&M has set up its Global Change Award, and C&A has created its C&A Foundation, which moreover was one of the initial supporters of the “Fashion for Goods” programme.

Plug and Play, Kering unveil the 12 companies selected for "Fashion for Good"

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