Sydney Gladman and Ranjani Theregowda: Next-Gen Materials

"We need to move away from animal derived materials, but we also need to move away from petroleum based traditional materials. So what is out there, what can we do? That demand is strong and supply is where the issue is."  - Sydney Gladman     On June 12th the New York Times put out an article titled, How Fashion Giants Recast Plastic as Good for the Planet. The article, written by Hiroko Takeuchi, caused quite a stir within the Species Unite and I'm sure many other vegan communities. It criticizes something called the Higg Index, a suite of tools that assesses social and environmental impacts of products, including animal based and synthetic materials. The article left many people confused and I received a lot of emails asking me, "should we even be wearing vegan leather?" (The answer is yes.)   In order to be better able to explain what the article was really about, I needed some help. So, I reached out to my friend Nicole Rawling, the executive director at the Material Innovation Initiative (MII), the non-profit that's advancing next gen materials. Next gen materials are high performance, animal free and more sustainable for fashion, automotive and home goods. MII provides expertise while bringing all the key players together to get these materials from concept to commercialization.   Nicole introduced me to Sydney Gladman, the chief scientific officer at MII and Ranjani Theregowda, MII's environmental data scientist, so that they could answer my many questions about the article, about the future of materials as well as our current situation. I have been excited about next gen materials for a long time, but I'm even more so after speaking with them. It's happening - we're on the way and to a future that no longer uses animals for fashion, autos, and home goods. And, MII is doing everything that they can to speed that future up.   LINKS: https://www.materialinnovation.org/   Instagram https://www.instagram.com/materialinnovation/   Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaterialInnovation/