Your Next Shirt Could Come From CO2 – The New Worlds Of Fashion, Food
'We harness the power of the tiny microbe,' Zara Summers, Ph.D. explained, 'They're eating gas, they're eating CO2, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, and they're turning them into ethanol…this is the oldest metabolism on earth.'
'These microbes are called acetogens, your oldest ancestor, if you will,' she said at The Earth Day Women's Summit on April 22, 2025 at EarthX2025 in Dallas, Texas. 'They are descendants of early life,' she said, presenting a white t-shirt (with a black swoosh on it) and a pair of fuchsia leggings that she said were made from captured CO2.
Then she continued her mini-chemistry lesson telling us how these microbes can make other things we need every day. 'They turn it into ethanol, and so all we have to do is a little bit of chemistry on the back end and take that ethanol…and you slam together and make long polymers, and those long polymers become your jet fuel. This is your sustainable aviation fuel, or as the new administration would like us to call it, synthetic aviation fuel, whatever.'
Screenshot of list of products made from petroleum - Ranken-Energy.com
The key point to me from Summers was, 'Once you have ethylene, it's actually a building block of everything that petroleum is, is used for today.'
Think about all the things made from petroleum today, beyond the gas in your car or truck. Polyester, plastic, pesticides, cement, asphalt, tires, nail polish, refrigerators, eyeglasses, aspirin, the list goes on because literally hundreds, maybe thousands of different products are made from petroleum.
Zara Summers, LanzaTech
'Pretty much any synthetic fiber that you can get from Fossil, we have a path to create.,' she said. 'Instead of pumping that carbon monoxide and dioxide directly into the atmosphere, we pump it into our massive, kind of like a brewery, but cooler, huge, huge 500,000 liter tanks of living, breathing, spinning out ethanol microbes. And so we harness that. It's a continuous process. So it's very much like a, a refining process,' is how Summers described their process in layperson's terms. She also said they are making a new edible protein out of captured CO2.
It sounds like science fiction but it's the new world of fashion and food, as innovators like Summers, who is Chief Science Officer at LanzaTech, find innovative ways to address the climate crisis.
Zara Summers explains fuchsia CO2 leggings held by Joan Michelson at The Earth Day Women's Summit - ... More 4-22-2-25
They have 'partnered with REI' on running apparel, with Gucci on perfume, and with Athleta on those leggings, as well as with Lululemon and 'a lot of brands.' Athleta, she said, 'committed that they want to hit about 25% of the polyester that they're, of the carbon that is going into these leggings, is going to be from emissions produced ethanol. This is a massive step change.'
'This is about giving women knowledge and skills about climate change. Before we talked to these women, they actually thought that climate change was a divine intervention and they didn't understand it. They had no idea that the changes that they were seeing were due to weather patterns. They thought it was something that was more divine,' Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect explained at the Summit. CottonConnect is a nonprofit that trains and empowers female farmers in India, China, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, and Bangladesh to grow cotton sustainably, and financially sustainable businesses. They have deals with Primark and Carrefour (in Europe), among others.
'These women are quite near big urban centers, but just haven't had access to training and knowledge,' she added.
Screenshot - Woman in cotton field on CottonConnect.org
These female farmers face 117 degree heat Fahrenheit, and changes in their water sources, and their cattle not producing as much milk, among other consequences of climate change, Ward delineated.
The techniques CottonConnect teaches the women to use often originate in indigenous cultures, she said. 'So, we're almost going back to some original techniques that we are rediscovering,' including how to make natural pesticides with things already on their farm. King Charles III uses one on his sheep, she offered intriguingly.
'There's the positive impact on from regenerative, but also there's that sort of positive impact in terms of the status of women in these communities,' Ward emphasized. These women have more influence.
Screenshot - TraceBale - CottonConnect.org
CottonConnect and the farmers can track where their cotton is used, because they give every farm a tracking system, including a DNA marker, which enables them to track their cotton through the supply chain to your local retailer. They have traced 1.7 billion t-shirts, so far, she disclosed.
'We know that globally we have enough production on planet Earth in order to ensure proper nutrition – and again, nutrition's very different from caloric and a full belly, as we know from all of the health issues that are more in developed worlds. But, there's serious distribution problems,' Robin Currey, Ph.D. explained on the panel.
Connecticut Food Bank
That means, 'that not everybody has equitable access to the kinds of foods that they need and want, at the times that they need them. So there's, there's quite a bit of instability,' Currey cautioned. She is a professor focused on sustainable food systems, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Southwestern University.
What are 'food systems'? As Currey explained, 'food systems have to do with everything, from production to processing, distribution, the utilization. So that's like how we prepare it, how we're cooking it,' and of course food waste.
David Lemons, left, and Leo Brito unload discarded food as its mixed in to start a 12-month ... More competing process at Zero Waste Houston, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023, in Conroe. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
Unfortunately, food waste in the United States is a massive 40%. Talk about a distribution problem; think about all the hungry people that 40% of wasted food – or even half of it – could feed if it was distributed to those who need it.
These remarkable innovations are driven by the challenge to address the climate crisis and make our lives better. They also empower women as both businesspeople and consumers.
Consumers have a lot power with our purchases, especially women, who make or influence 85% of them.
Listen to the full Earth Day Women's Summit panel, and individual interviews with Robin Currey, Zara Summers, and Alison Ward on Electric Ladies Podcast.
A woman searches for a sweater at a Uniqlo store on January 4, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by ... More)
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