🌱 Exploring carbon negative materials
A guest post by Design Director and Strategist, Andrew Spitz
Happy Monday! Every Monday we suit up and get serious - digging into a climate topic, rounding up the past week’s Good(s) News and sharing updates from across FTF, so you’re never out of the loop.
Normally, I’m a glass half full kind of gal, but today…I’m ready to get negative. Carbon negative that is! Last month I received a lovely message from a reader complimenting the newsletter, we took one look at his job description and said we HAVE to harvest his expertise for our Monday newsletter. And here it is!
For over a decade, Andrew was the director of a company he founded called FROLIC studio, a sustainability-led product design and innovation studio, and certified B Corp. Now, Andrew consults for product and innovation teams as a design director and strategist, focusing on driving circularity and decarbonising products.
Join us in learning how innovative materials can help FMCG brands reduce (or even eliminate) their product’s embedded carbon emissions.
> In Focus
Using Materials to Remove Carbon From the Atmosphere
by Andrew Spitz
“Net zero by 20__” pledges are so hot right now that they’re above 1.5º C pre-industrial levels, alongside buzzwords that can lead to carbon washing, like carbon neutral, carbon negative, climate positive, bio-based, and regenerative. These statements encourage brands to produce more and consumers to indulge guilt-free — much like the hilarious depiction in the SNL sketch: Fast Fashion Ad - “Don’t worry ‘bout it”. We clearly have a lot to deal with on the consumption side of things, and regulations are tightening such claims, but can we in parallel decarbonise materials and turn our products into a climate ally?
The right material for the right use
All physical products require input materials but not all materials have the same requirements. Some are there to (shortly) protect the main product during the logistics. We want those to have low to no minimal impact and ideally regenerate natural systems along the way.
There’s a whole suite of organic matter that captures atmospheric carbon as it grows without competing for land needed for food production or other uses. They are designed to come and go by flowing through the natural carbon cycle. Some nice examples are:
Sylvicta - wood fibre used to create transparent films in packaging, replacing plastic alternatives
Ecovative - mycelium foam which has been used by Grown to create packaging for candles and foam for padded accessories
Sway - algae-based plastic alternative that can be home composted
Fibrepac - packaging made from elephant grass grown in the UK
Vivomer - mono-material packaging made using precision fermentation
Then we have those products that should last for a long time. Think of furniture, car interiors, carpets, building insulation, picture frames, and even urns, just look around and you’ll see dozens of such products. Much of their impact has been emitted even before going onto the market. And here’s where there is an opportunity to rethink the products around us as ways to remove greenhouse gas emissions and lock them for a long time. After all, carbon is the 6th most abundant element on earth and the building block of just about everything and everyone around us. Carbon is to be loved, as long as there isn’t too much of it in our atmosphere.
Products as carbon ‘insets’
We’ve seen how most carbon offsets can be worthless, and even when they are the good kind of projects, it’s still a little crazy to pollute someplace and “deal with the issue” somewhere far away. Good practice aims to reduce one's own footprint as much as possible before offsetting. Carbon insetting is all about integrating sustainable practices within a company's own operations to directly reduce its carbon footprint. For this to work in products, they need to store carbon, preventing its release into the atmosphere.
A material is carbon-negative when it stores more carbon than was emitted during its production and ideally its full cradle-to-grave lifecycle.
Which brands are leading the way?
Powered by biochar: Interface, the largest producer of office carpet tiles, has developed carbon-negative carpet tiles (cradle-to-gate) using their CQuest™BioX backing with a 28% carbon-negative filler. These tiles store more carbon than is emitted during production and are designed to be easily recyclable through their take-back programme.
Biochar is full of potential, and carbon. It’s a carbon-rich material made by turning biomass like agricultural waste or sewage sludge into a stable carbon-rich material through an oxygen-deprived burning process. It can lock away carbon for thousands of years that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.
Powered by cork: A nice FMCG example is Lush’s dry shampoo bar packaging, made from pure cork. The Cork Pot removes 33 times its weight in carbon dioxide as well as being a replacement for the expected plastic alternative. It’s a win-win.
Cork is a versatile material, and according to Amorim Cork Composites, for every tonne of cork produced, cork forests can sequester up to 73 tonnes of CO2e. Cork can be used in its natural form or as a composite, offering lightweight advantages for shipping. As a mono-material, cork can be composted, or recycled at specific facilities, and can be recycled indefinitely. Only the bark of the oak tree is used and as it regenerates its bark, it absorbs on average five times more CO2e than those left untouched.
The caveat: Hello circularity
Permanence -The moment the product reaches its end-of-life and is incinerated, the stored carbon goes right back to where it doesn’t belong: the atmosphere. The concept of ‘permanence’ is vital here. Capturing atmospheric carbon is not enough; it must be locked up throughout the product’s lifecycle and beyond, ideally for over a hundred years.
Composites, rife with greenwashing -In practice, not many applications are suitable for mono-materials, so often one would use a carbon-rich material as a filler or pigment, for example in (bio)plastics. It's crucial to ensure these composites are non-toxic and biodegradable to avoid disrupting recycling streams. Many companies will add a claim that it’s made from, for example, ‘paper’ but is still mixed in with 43% of conventional plastic. So it’s important to look critically at this.
A circular approach
Use materials that sequester carbon and regenerate natural systems
Avoid toxic binders and check recyclability in regional recycling streams
Keep them in use for as long as possible
Recover the material at the end of use to refashion it into new products
Before diving head first, we should consider if systemic changes might be more impactful than relying on embedding carbon into products. While a system change is a must, carbon-negative materials are emerging as a powerful tool for environmental responsibility and I’m very excited to see how all this develops.
> Follow up with…
Resource: Plastic Free is a very well-researched (paid) resource. As they put it: “Bringing you thousands of scalable solutions and daily intelligence on circular design, next-gen materials and systems change for the world’s most progressive brands.”
Resource: At FROLIC studio, we released a Research Digest on designing with sustainable strategies and materials.
> Last week in consumer goods x climate…
The Good(s) News
Up and coming brands…
🎯 Pip & Nut announced that they joined Tony's Chocolonely Tony's Open Chain initiative, aiming to improve the chocolate supply chain. They are the first UK snack brand to commit in this initiative.
🎯 Circ® announced their second collection in collaboration with Zara Woman, where they are using 100% Circ® Lyocell material (which was derived from 50% recycled textile waste). They are working towards achieving a scalable model for circular fashion.
🎯 Scout & Cellar announced that they are B Corp certified.
🎯 Kelpi announced their new kilo-lab facility as a hub of innovation. This facility allowes them to fast-track materials development roadmap and bringing cutting-edge products to market faster. This accelerated development process ensures they can meet the evolving needs of packaging partners.
Bigger organisations…
⭐ Ocado Retail announced their online refill scheme as part of its work with the UK Refill Coalition. Looking to reduce single-use packaging in consumers’ shops, this pilot project is staged across two phases. Containers are pre-filled with products and delivered to customers where they then return the container to be washed and filled at the supplier.
⭐ Tesco announced their trial of digital product passports (DPP), working with Fabacus, for their F&F fashion products. This allows consumers to see where products were sourced and additional information about the garments’ supply chain.
⭐ Marks & Spencer announced that they are moving their single and twin garlic baguettes into paper packaging. This moves makes them the first UK retailer to do so, removing 5.5 million units of plastics.
Want good news sooner? We post our top 5 stories every Friday on LinkedIn! If your CPG brand has good news to share, let us know.👇
> In case you missed it
Want more? Here’s what’s happening across FTF at the moment…
We’re gearing up…to gear down. We plan to have a little summer break over the coming weeks and even though we will miss pinging into your inbox, we also look forward to some time to get re-energised and digest the excitement of the past few months.
Above & Beyond featured us in their list of favourite climate and start up newsletters. We really appreciate the love!
Last Thursday in The Check-Out we interviewed Renewal Mill’s Lydia Oxley. Jenny finds out about the challenges and rewards of an upcycled food supply chain.
Want more? Hang tight for ‘The Check-Out’ this Thursday for the latest brands in our basket. In the meantime, if you have any topics that you would like us to dig into, ping us an email on info@followingthefootprints.com to say hi!
Much love,
Team FTF
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