Finalists announced for the 2020 European Social Innovation Competition
The European Social Innovation Competition is run by the European Commission across all European countries and now in its eighth year. The 2020 Competition is titled ‘Reimagine Fashion – changing behaviours for sustainable fashion’. We were looking for ideas that seek to improve the environmental and social impact of the fashion market. On September 21st, the European Commission announced the Finalists of 2020. Read more about them in this article.
- KL'ers involved
- Anne Mieke Eggenkamp ae@kl.nl
- Fien Hebly
The Competition++CompetitionRead more about this competition and the jury.
offers one-to-one dedicated mentoring by locally-based coaches, access to an online pool of experts from across Europe, exclusive webinars covering topics about social innovation, a social innovation academy including group workshops, discussion panels and guests, ongoing peer support and networking with fellow entrants, online promotion and 50,000 euros of prize money.
Kennisland is one of the driving organisations of the Competition since 2013. Read more about the Social Innovation Competition and Kennisland here.
This year’s innovations aim to reduce the overall environmental footprint and improve the societal impact of the fashion market, help make it more accessible and fair, and aspire to change behaviours in a sustainable way. Solutions clearly aim at delivering impact, pursue sustainability, and be scalable or replicable post-competition – at local, national or European levels. Read more about the ‘Reimagine Fashion’ theme here.
Check out the Finalists:
(in alphabetical order)
Airwear by Fairbrics (France)
Fairbrics’ breakthrough technology will make it possible to reach a truly circular economy for the textile industry by converting cheap and harmful CO2 that is emitted throughout the fabric manufacturing process into new synthetic fabrics, such as polyester yarns.
Kleiderly (Germany)
Kleiderly are inventing an innovative solution to keep clothing out of landfill and incineration by utilising textile waste and recycling it into a new, durable material which can be used to replace oil-based plastics, and turned into anything from furniture to suitcases.
MycoTex (Netherlands)
MycoTEX develops sustainable clothing from compostable mushroom roots. MycoTEX uses a 3D production process to create seamless garments without the need to cut and sew. Their holistic approach is shortening the supply chain by cleverly combining existing elements from different industries and eliminating the need for chemicals and pesticides.
Post Carbon Fashion (United Kingdom)
They aim to lower the threshold of sustainable innovations by opening the door of research and laboratory to the public while providing the pathway to climate positivity through fashion. They provide sustainable and regenerative dyeing and coating services for textile applications through microbiological processes that are zero-waste and climate-positive
resortecs (Belgium)
Zippers and buttons make garment recycling and reuse complicated, as the removal of such details calls for manual assistance, making the process both costly and time consuming. resortecs® dissolvable stitching thread and heat-dismountable rivets makes for easy disassembly, recycling and reuse of textile products at an industrial-scale.
ROND – CO2 reduced soles from discarded fabric (Denmark)
ROND develops footwear insoles that are sweat and shock absorbent by upcycling and re-establishing fibers from discarded textiles and fashion residues into the industry cycle, in turn, creating awareness of how everyday items could be reused through sustainable connection, and reducing CO2 emissions in the fashion industry.
Senstile (Spain)
Senstile reaches beyond the visual experiences of fashion with their innovative search engine that uses AI to consider the physical properties of textiles to identify, match, and compare textiles digitally, at scale with no-touch.
Snake (Croatia)
Snake is a digital commerce platform which applies augmented reality and enables the development of digital fashion by changing the way fashion is consumed with the aim to reverse the trend of single-use attitude and lead to better environmental and social influence to the European and global market.
The first Lyocell hemp fibre: Hempcell™ (Germany)
Hempcell wants to co-develop and commercialize European Hemp Lyocell fibres as a new, uncompromisingly sustainable alternative for the fashion industry. This method, which excels in circularity, decomposability and water usage, consists of changing the surface texture of raw materials that aren’t as soft as cotton, yet just as suitable for clothing, if not more.
WhyWeCraft: Cultural Sustainability in Fashion (Romania)
Their objective is to prevent mindless textile and garment consumption in the EU and revive the heritage of European textile crafts by integrating traditional craftsmanship in the contemporary fashion development process and stimulate artisan-designer collaborations.
- KL'ers involved
- Anne Mieke Eggenkamp ae@kl.nl
- Fien Hebly fh@kl.nl
