Month: October 2020

World Circular Textiles Day, which takes place every year on 8th October, has been launched to celebrate the efforts of a growing community of companies, organisations and individuals actively working towards a circular textile’s future. This platform has been designed and powered by Worn Again Technologies in collaboration with Circle Economy and UAL – Centre of Circular Design. We aim for it to become a living, breathing online time capsule to celebrate and encourage this momentum towards circularity and to record the progress. The co-founders Cyndi Rhoades, Founder of Worn Again Technologies, Dr. Kate Goldsworthy and Professor Rebecca Earley, Co-Directors at Centre for Circular Design (CCD), University of the Arts London (UAL) and Gwen Cunningham, Lead Textiles Programme at Circle Economy, have imagined a future when full circularity has been achieved… a time when there is dignity, equity and equality. A time when our shared textiles resources, in the form of products and raw materials, are kept in continual circulation. Virgin resources are no longer needed. By working backwards, or ‘retro engineering’ the stepping-stones for getting there, we believe that the roadmap to get there becomes more manageable and we will succeed in our collective goals. A vision from 2050…  “Today we celebrate the success of an entirely transformed industry and those who have made it happen. A global ambition that was set out thirty years ago across an ecosystem of interconnected stakeholders has been achieved: the circularity of textiles resources.” Full Circularity: a 2050 Retrospective released during the launch event is a provocation mapping out three phases to full circularity. A starting point which needs the support and engagement of key players – leading brands, organisations, authorities and individuals – to achieve the goal. Many of the pioneers of the industry – organisations, brands, local authorities – have already signed up at the launch to making circularity a reality. The co-founders invite anyone who is impassioned and excited by our vision for Full Circularity: 2050 to join the community. The countdown to 2050 has started! If you want to get involved, click here Enjoy listening the co-founders with their crystal balls in conversation with special guests at the launch event, click here For more info, visit WCTD website www.worldcirculartextilesday.com

After a rigorous selection process involving hundreds of companies across the globe, Worn Again Technologies has been selected to join 13 other leading entrepreneurs from across the UK & Europe in the Unreasonable Impact programme. Unreasonable Impact UK & Europe is a multi-week virtual gathering designed to support growth-stage ventures across the UK & Europe by providing entrepreneurs with the resources, mentorship, and global network of support they need to rapidly create jobs and address key global issues. This programme marks the eleventh cohort of the Unreasonable Impact movement worldwide.

With the global pandemic continuing to have an enormous impact on all aspects of life, including the global workforce, migration, and the environment, supporting entrepreneurial solutions addressing these challenges is critical. Unreasonable Impact, a unique partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group is focussed on supporting and scaling up high-growth ventures within the green economy, ensuring that their impactful solutions reach new markets, transform even more lives and create thousands more jobs in the process.

Impacting the future of food, energy, sustainable living and supply chains, each entrepreneur is selected to participate based on their potential to address key social and environmental issues and to create at least 500 jobs within the next five years.

The programme connects the entrepreneurs to a global community of power-house mentors and industry specialists, including experts from across Barclays through tried and tested methodologies and approaches.

This eleventh Unreasonable Impact programme will take place from October 12, 2020 – March 3, 2021, in a virtual environment and format. The participating companies, joining the programme with us, include: All Plants, Biohm, Connected Energy, Deep Branch Biotechnology, Eco Wave Power, ECOncrete, Ecoppia,  Farmstand, Kitro, Novihum Technologies, Project Etopia, Silicon Microgravity and Tipa.

For more information and a full list of mentors, and specialists participating, click here: Unreasonable Impact UK & Europe Programme 2020

 

About Unreasonable Impact, created with Barclays

Unreasonable Impact is an innovative multi-year multi-geographic partnership between Barclays and Unreasonable Group to launch the world’s first global network focused on scaling up entrepreneurial solutions that will help employ thousands worldwide in the emerging green economy. To date, the more than 120 ventures that comprise the global cohort operate in more than 180 countries, have raised over $3bn USD in funding, have generated over $2.7bn USD in revenue, and have created more than 37,000 net new jobs since joining Unreasonable Impact.

For more information, please visit www.unreasonableimpact.com.

 

About Barclays

Barclays is a British universal bank. The company is diversified by business, by different types of customers and clients, and by geography. Barclays’ businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by their service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group.

For further information about Barclays, please visit www.barclays.com

 

About Unreasonable Group

Bringing together a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, creatives and business leaders, Unreasonable acts as a catalytic platform for entrepreneurs tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges facing us today.  From designing highly curated immersive programmes, facilitating access to a global network of mentors to operating a private equity fund and providing advanced storytelling and media activities, Unreasonable operates at the highest intersection of business and impact.  It is uniquely positioned to support growth stage entrepreneurs solving key global environment and social challenges to scale up through the deployment of knowledge, networks and capital.

Worn Again Technologies’ Founder Cyndi Rhoades has convened a Circular Advisory Panel (CAP) for guidance and influence as the company progresses towards commercialisation in the circular textile economy. The CAP will help design, develop and support the adoption of our Circular Licensing Model, giving an authoritative and global perspective on how to successfully embed our future business in circularity. The panel is in place to help deliver tangible success to our future plant operator customers, preparing them to access their markets and giving them a competitive advantage as a result of collective insights. We are delighted to have brought together such a high-profile and cross-disciplinary group relevant to the development of a circular business, comprising experts from key areas within textiles circularity and our wider network: circular and systems design, manufacture, fashion and textiles, digitisation, transparency, policy, economics, waste disposal, recycling innovation and engagement. These trailblazers will help oversee our progress, push for further opportunities or identify any threats from within their respective industries, and bring their unique and system-specific insight to our growing knowledge hub. Like any technology company, we face significant challenges when scaling up. As a circular company, we face an even steeper mountain to climb as we cannot only depend on the success of our own technology development and business model trajectory; we must also support and connect with all of the other moving elements in our circular system to succeed. This outward-looking approach will build solid cross-system foundations and relationships for Worn Again Technologies, to anticipate potential commercial hurdles, and to minimise future risk through knowledge-sharing as we grow and develop our business.