An innovative endeavour led by Hennes & Mauritz or H&M Foundation, the Global Change Award has revealed the names of its winners for the year 2018.
The fashion industry has been under a lot of heat on issues of sustainability and environmental protection owing to the detrimental effects of fast-fashion that offer cheap and hazardous clothing at thrift rates. With its Global Change Award, H&M, in collaboration with Accenture and KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, aims to promote the shift from linear fashion to circular fashion by rewarding sustainable early-stage innovation ideas among prospective candidates.
This year, the winning ideas to have made the cut include Crop-A-Porter, which makes sustainable bio-textiles from food crop harvest leftovers such as flaxseeds, sugarcane and pineapples; Algae Apparel, which implements the use of algae as a dye by converting it into bio-fibre and eco-friendly dye that is beneficial to the human skin; Smart Stitch, which makes decomposable, dissolvable nylon thread crafted of water, plant waste and solar energy instead of oil, which facilitates recycling and repairing; The Regenerator, which separates cotton and polyester blends for recycling clothing, and Fungi Fashion, which custom makes clothes from decomposing mushroom roots.
“This year’s Global Change Award winners are about disrupting business-as-usual to help transition us to a low-carbon and circular economy,” stated Vikram Widge, who heads the Climate Finance and Policy for International Finance Corporation and was also a member of the award’s jury.
The company now asks the public to cast their vote online to help split the 1 million euro grant prize, voting for which will be open untill March 16, 2018. The idea with the most votes receives 300,000 euros, or US $ 326,000; the runner-up gets 250,000 euros or US $ 272,000 and the remaining three get 150,000 euros or US $ 163,000 each.
You can cast your vote here: www.globalchangeaward.com
All selected winners get access to a one-year accelerator programme across Europe, America and Asia, which commences from March 21.
The decision of the public vote will be announced during an award ceremony to be held in Stockholm on March 20.
