#015 We Borrow From Nature, not take from it…

Fermentation with colours

“We use synthetic biology to copy how nature makes colours. We then grow these colours using microorganisms (very similar to how you make beer but instead of alcohol, we’re making colours). This means our pigments are made from entirely green and renewable chemistry, as opposed to hazardous petrochemicals.  

Our technology also causes the transfer of these pigments from the microorganisms to fabric, meaning it not only produces dyes but delivers them onto the fabric, effectively dyeing it. All of the ingredients of our dye liquor are agricultural by-products that have a significantly lower impact on environmental pollution than current methods.  We don’t use mordants, linkers, or binders, meaning we significantly reduce the chemical footprint of the dyeing process and therefore the amount of pollution. “

BRANDS CAN CHANGE THE ECOSYSTEM

“Our important partners are brands, mills, and dye houses. We want to give them access to this new technology in a way that doesn’t come at a huge cost and can produce great environmental savings. Brands are the first point of contact for us as they sell the final product to the customer and they need to understand what the unique benefits of the products are in order to generate demand for it.  

Mills are our primary customers. They are selling the product on to the brand and essentially run the supply chain up to a retail point. Dye Houses manufacture the product for the mills and, generally, mills put us in contact with the dyehouse they are using such that we can provide tech transfer and services towards making the mills orders. Ultimately, we want to help our customers save water and energy as well as reducing their waste management costs.  

The potential is to reduce the current 6 trillion litres of water used per year for dyeing and to eliminate the 700k tonnes of petrochemicals used in dyeing each year, in addition to preventing 200k of those 700k tonnes ending up in our drinking water.”

What is your definition of the Circular Economy? 

“Circular economy for our concept is one where the only losses to the product come from the heat in the processing steps and carbon emissions in transport. In a circular economy, you must be able to utilise waste and you utilise sustainable materials that are renewable in origin (non-petrochemicals or other irreplaceable materials). The product life cycle must allow for it to be entirely reused, recycled, or upcycled in order to classify as circular. “

Purpose, not profit on a day to day, month to month level.

“Purpose not profit. We designed our business model with purpose in mind and adjusted it so as to remain profitable. Our view on sustainability is that the technology must be environmentally, socially and financially sustainable in order to generate long term impact. How that reflects is being responsive and adaptive to customer and market needs, with regards to sustainability and practices, and actively engaging in relevant communities and networks.”

According to Georgina Gilmore, Commercial Manager at Colorifix: “Orr creates an openness to explore new ideas from the whole team, no idea is unheard. This ability is matched with a true interest in others and their ideas. Purpose not profit is proven by the Colorifix culture on a day to day, month to month level. Every decision and conversation revolves around bettering the planet and sustainability rather than chasing profit margin and lining pockets. It is his ability to link an academic level of research with a passion for improvement in the industry is infectious throughout the whole team. “

COMPETITIVENESS AROUND THE WORLD

“Our whole business is built around sustainable and circular feedstocks where we capture as much carbon as possible from the original agricultural material beyond its primary purpose (sugar, biodiesel).  The competitive advantage is using these feedstocks where they can be produced in most places around the globe, means you have a decentralised production as opposed to today’s pigment production, which is centered around 5 countries in the world.  The reality for us is that this is what everyone wants and cares about right now; this is what the customer is looking for so it’s easy for us to engage.”

But there is still a long way to go

“R&D and innovation in synthetic biology has a relatively large plastic footprint (test tubes, pipet tips, etc).  It would be great if that can be shifted without a compromise on development time and quality, but there are no available alternatives at this time.  

Also, we still need to travel a lot, and ship kit around.  There are some areas in our business model, i.e. fermentation kit, that we are still sourcing from only one place – ideally we would get the kit built more locally and thereby stimulate the local economy, further cut shipping costs and carbon emission, and further approach an efficient circular model.”

“The last time mankind was sustainable was pre-agriculture. It’s therefore hard for us to imagine. In order to have a consumer society where we have more than we can carry or need, we must have clean energy, perfect environmental remediation in place, clean transport, more circular food stocks, nitrogen and phosphorus recovery mechanisms or technologies. In essence we need lots of innovation to take place before we can even consider a model that is remotely sustainable in a consumer culture.”

What can you do?

I’ve started using less detergent for washing my clothes and dishes etc, due to water pollution – the biggest source of pollution beyond the products we buy is what we put into our water before we drain it.