Lululemon used tiny organisms instead of fossil fuels to make the nylon for its new shirt
Summary
Lululemon has started to sell shirts that are made partly with nylon created from plant-based sources, instead of raw materials that come from the petrochemical industry, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Conventional adipic acid manufacturing processes releases nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is as much as 200 times more potent than carbon dioxide, Wallace told CNBC. A preliminary life cycle analysis suggests that the bio-nylon will offer at least a 50% reduction in carbon emissions, said Sasha Calder, the head of Impact at Geno. Remaking supply chains that have depended on fossil fuel-based ingredients is generally a hot topic right now, according to Christopher Reddy, an environmental chemist and a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who studies how plastics break down in the environment. "Across our portfolio, we review each technology before it goes to market to ensure that the carbon profile offers significant sustainability benefits, while also being cost-competitive and of similar or better performance as the incumbent source its replacing," Genos Schilling told CNBC.