HKRITA and H&M Foundation expand research partnership
The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textile and Apparel (HKRITA) has announced a new, five-year collaboration with the H&M Foundation, an independent, non-profit global foundation funded by the Stefan Persson family, the founders and main owners of retail group H&M.
Building on a partnership that has already been in place for four years, they have chosen ‘Planet First’ as the theme for this extended collaboration, the aim of which will be to drive further sustainable development of the textile and fashion industry.
HKRITA will conduct research on current and new technology and look into the possibilities for commercialising them. H&M Foundation will invest $12 million in the programme; further support could come from the Hong Kong government’s Innovation and Technology Fund.
“Our goal is to find technologies and solutions that we can openly share with the industry to ensure rapid scaling and a positive impact,” said HKRITA chief executive, Edwin Keh, at the time of the announcement.
He said that, as far as the partners can tell, this is “the most ambitious programme of its type, designed to move the needle in this industry”.
For his part, the H&M Foundation’s innovation lead, Erik Bang, added: “We don’t know what a planet-positive fashion industry will look like; no one does. The partnership with HKRITA has exceeded our expectations and we are excited to expand it in scope and ambition.”
A garment-to-garment recycling machine based at one of H&M’s stores in Stockholm is one of the achievements of the existing partnership.
Innovations the two partners will seek to take forward in future include a yarn that will capture CO2 from the air, a bio-based option for removing indigo from wastewater treatment plants at denim mills, and a system for using the recycled cellulose powder decomposed from the cotton in cotton-polyester blends to produce regenerated viscose fibre.
