Kicking carbon out of textile colourisation

Colour is one of the most critical attributes of fashion and textile products. The industry goes to incredible lengths to perfect this characteristic and as a result, relies on well established, high performance but unfortunately very high energy application processes. In addition, the colourants used today are almost entirely fossil fuel based, misaligned with the global drive to transition to renewable bio-based feedstocks.

Colouration is now widely recognised as the highest energy process in textile manufacturing with ~30% of energy use in wet processing[1] , it generates significant water pollution and relies upon fossil fuel extraction with major environmental harms. Colouration is responsible for globally significant greenhouse gas direct emissions and multiple negative effects on the environment.