Where can I access them?

The media can make new materials appear to be ready sooner than they are. All biomaterials are not the same. The level of scientific and technological complexity involved in the production of a new biomaterial can vary significantly. One of the easiest (and fastest) methods is taking a by-product or waste product from another process, mixing it with a binder and perhaps adding a textile backer to create a material such as a leather alternative. One of the more challenging methods, is to grow a novel material in a lab using mammalian cells to produce a leather or fur-like material without an animal.

In many places leather and/or textile infrastructure has been lost to production overseas. Finding or gaining access to specialized technical expertise and facilities can take years. In some cases it has to be built from scratch locally which takes even longer.

In reality, it can take 5-15 years to achieve the expected material performance specifications. Then, it can take a few more years until commercial availability.

The timeline can depend on:

As with the introduction of most new technologies, many new biomaterials will likely be more expensive in the short term than existing materials. This is due to production of relatively small quantities - it will take time to achieve the economies of scale. The existing cheap materials we use so much of (e.g. polyester and cotton), have had the benefit of decades of scaled mass production and continued efficiency savings that result in today's low prices. Biomaterials should be expected to experience similar cost reductions as they scale and become more efficiently produced over time. Until biomaterials are available at scale, demand will continue to outstrip supply and prices will remain on the high side.

In some cases, for example growing mycelium materials, these biomaterials require entirely new types of manufacturing facility. It can take 12-36 months to build a new facility and get production up and running. Large amounts of capital investment are required to fund such projects. To achieve economies of scale, many such facilities need to be built around the world close to customer demand.

Since biomaterial innovation can be an expensive multi-year journey, the priority for innovators is to raise enough investment to run their companies until they are ready to sell their products. Innovators also want to understand customer specific needs. Global brands wanting to adopt alternative materials are well placed to partner with innovators as they can offer both investment support and product development expertise, particularly in unlocking their own supply chain partners. Brand partnerships often feature investment in return for exclusive access to the new material. 

The volume of material needed to supply a global brand is a challenge for innovators starting with small production capacity. This means initial strategic brand partners can tie up access to a material for multiple years. Subsequent brands have to wait until production can service the needs of the broader industry. In many instances luxury or sport brands are the first customers of such new innovations as they can afford to be patient.

Too much exclusivity can slow innovation and growth. Forming an investment consortia with other brands, supply chain partners, and experts can speed up innovation and spread risk.

Sustainable materials can meet the needs of the present without impacting the future. Adoption of biomaterials may improve various pressing environmental threats, from reducing water and land use, to harnessing renewable resources. Although it should be noted that biomaterials are not necessarily biodegradable.

It can be challenging for material startups to measure sustainability. In the early years of innovation, the process and materials are still in development resulting in a lack of reliable data. It can take many years, even decades, to scale a technology, gather data, and fully understand its holistic impacts.

Undertaking a lifecycle assessment (LCA) can provide insights around the potential impacts, and therefore sustainability profile, of a particular material. However, LCAs are an expensive process which early innovators often can not afford. LCAs make more sense once a production process is locked and scaled. Until then, it may be more helpful to track inputs and outputs to show progress over time.  

The following potential impact areas are important to consider:

GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism.

Genetically modified organisms are organisms such as plants, animals or microorganisms, in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally or by traditional cross-breeding. The technology is often called ‘modern biotechnology’, ‘gene editing’, sometimes also ‘recombinant DNA technology’ or ‘genetic engineering’. It allows selected individual genes to be transferred from one organism into another, also between non related species.

GMO materials are not new. Genetically modified crops for food and fiber have been consumed since the 1990s. The majority of the global cotton crop is grown from genetically modified seeds. In the USA, the cotton t-shirt you are wearing is more likely than not to be made of GMO cotton. Materials made from agricultural waste mixed with a binder, such as some ‘leather alternatives’, may include GMO feedstocks.

GMOs may be used in the production of a material but not be present in the final material itself. For example, a material produced using fermentation may require sugar to feed a microorganism. The sugar could come from a GMO crop but will be used up in the fermentation process. The organism may or may not be genetically modified itself. The microorganism transforms the sugar into an ingredient that is isolated and used to form a material. 

A GMO may be designed specifically to produce a material. An example is a bacterial or yeast cell genetically engineered to produce the building block for a material. An example of such a building block is a protein similar to a silk protein. The cell is genetically engineered to produce a genetically designed protein. That protein will be produced during a fermentation process after which it is isolated, purified, and formed into a material. According to EU regulation, even though the material was produced by a genetically modified organism, since the final material is not made up of the organism or its genetic material, it is not classed as a GMO product.