Our Winners
Meet our heroes – the winners of the Global Change Award – and find out how their innovations are reinventing the fashion and textile industry.
Innovation has the power to do it, and previous GCA winners prove it. Already, several past winners are used by, or in collaborations with, global brands and businesses to transform the entire textile industry.
Below you get an overview of our GCA winners through the years.
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Fairbrics
Instead of emitting carbon dioxide into the air, this innovation collects the gas, activates it and transforms it into sustainable polyester fabric that looks and feels just like regular polyester.
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Galy
Galy uses biotechnology to create lab-grown cotton, a process that uses less water, no land and emits far less greenhouse gas than conventional cotton. And it’s fast, as much as ten times faster than growing cotton on land.
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Green Nettle Textile
Is it possible to make a business on hard-to-access, thin-soiled steep slopes where irrigation is tricky, and machines can’t reach? Green Nettle Textile holds the answer. Their innovation turns nettles into a linen-like fabric, and creates job opportunities for smallholder farmers in the process.
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Ioncell
This technology turns used textiles, pulp and even old newspapers into new textile fibres sustainably and without harmful chemicals. The process converts cellulose into fibers which in turn can be made into long-lasting fabrics.
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KBCols Sciences
The textile industry’s standard dyeing practices are major contributors to freshwater pollution. KBCols is spearheading next-generation dyes, derived from living microorganisms with the potential to shift one of the most critical steps in the entire supply chain and turn it planet positive.
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Le Qara
This innovation transforms Peruvian flowers and fruits into lab-grown leather. And with the help of microorganisms, it’s possible to mimic virtually any desired leather texture, colour, toughness and thickness. Making the product versatile and attractive on the market.
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Mestic
From manure to couture — Mestic extracts and uses the cellulose from cow waste to create a bio-textile similar to cotton. Reducing methane gas production and water pollution in the process.
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MycoTEX by NEFFA
This innovation fuses mushroom roots with 3D technology. MycoTEX creates custom-made, fungi-based clothing without the need to cut and sew. And as an extra perk, the garments can be composted at end-of-life.
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Nanoloom
Graphene is the stuff of science fiction: 200 times stronger than steel, incredibly lightweight and highly flexible. Nanoloom is pushing the frontiers of modern science by spinning graphene into biodegradable fibre and making it wearable.
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Orange Fiber
Freshly squeezed, perfectly sun-kissed and ready to be rocked. Orange Fiber creates refined, silk-like textiles from citrus juice by-products.
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Petit Pli
Inspired by space engineering and the ingenius folding techniques of origami, Petit Pli has developed an innovation that offers durable and appealing clothes that grow with its wearer.
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PhycoLabs
PhycoLabs transforms seaweed into regenerative fabrics and sources the miracle organism from farming communities along Brazil’s vast coastline. The output? A traceable and regenerative material that improves the health of the planet — and the wealth of its traditional communities.