As Spinnova is firmly headed for commercial phase, we have some further brand development underway.
The best brands both correlate with what’s within and what the consumer wants. This isn’t your average branding exercise though. When trying to prioritize the value propositions of our sustainable fibre, what we’re really doing is trying to decide which one of our planet’s many challenges matters most.
One thing we can be sure of: climate change is real to a vast majority of the world population, and most of us are worried about it. The single biggest contributor to climate change is carbon dioxide, CO2, that’s emitted in e.g. energy production, transport and industrial production. Hence, climate positive products that mitigate CO2 levels are probably a winning bet.
We’re already starting to see branding decisions like this. Sneaker brand Allbirds just announced their new running shoe that emits almost 30% less CO2 than the average trainer. To ensure full transparency, Allbirds uses a third party to verify the CO2 savings of the product. Very cool, very important.
What remains to be seen is what consumers do. At the end of the day, how well is the threat of growing emissions (for one) recognized globally? Will it make us choose a more sustainable item when it’s buying decision time? This will be interesting to look back on in a few years’ time.
Back to the world’s biggest problems. You know what else than fresh air is crucial for life on planet Earth? Fresh water. I think this accumulating problem is a bit of a creeping one – whereas it’s just as grave as emissions, it seems somewhat overlooked alongside climate change. Fresh water is expected to become increasingly scarce, partly due to climate change. Only some 2% of the planet’s water is fresh.
Guess what some 70% of that is used for? Irrigation. Although most of this crop is food for the growing population, a huge amount also goes to farm cotton. The amount of water used to produce cotton seems like the kind of luxury we can no longer afford.
Trees don’t need watering, and responsibly managed trees are a carbon sink, mitigating CO2 levels. Hence, our fibre helps solve two of the biggest problems of our planet – plus a bunch more.
Speaking of that: We will soon have a real treat for you, as we’re about to publish an impact report explaining how our fibre compares to some other fibres from an environmental point of view. It’s not yet a full life cycle analysis, but a good start in this pre-commercial phase. Stay tuned!
Stay sustained <3
Emmi