Latest news with #ZaraSummers
Forbes
30-06-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Your Next Shirt Could Come From CO2 – The New Worlds Of Fashion, Food
Zara Summers w CO2 T-shirt & Joan - ED Women's Summit - 4-22-2025 '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 - 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 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 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 ... 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Forbes
01-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Career Advice Women Leaders Want You To Know This Earth Day
women colorful hats - Pixabay -5963960 At The Earth Day Women's Summit last week, about a dozen accomplished female innovators and leaders talked to the audience about specific strategies for growing a clean green economy, including how to communicate creatively, sustainable business practices that work financially, socially and environmentally, and about new financial, investment and business models. They also described how agricultural innovations are reinventing fashion and food, in unexpected ways, and the impact on women who make up the majority of the fashion workforce and small-scale farmers. Several of the women who spoke also gave insightful career advice, specifically for women in midcareer on Electric Ladies Podcast. Zara Summers taling on panel - ED Women's Summit - 4-22-2025 'Naming it sometimes helps, right?...Say you're scared right now, but, what is the honest absolute worst thing that could happen? And when you really talk through it internally, you realize like, yeah, even it doesn't go well, but look at all the experience I'm going to gain.…And if you look at it from that perspective, it becomes less scary.' Zara Summers, Chief Science Officer, LanzaTech Telle Whitney 'For many engineers, especially women, but pretty much any engineer, they haven't necessarily been trained to communicate their ideas. And I think if you want to take your career to the next level, learning how to tell your story and what you want is really an important skill….It's just as important as the product development itself. And I'll say that again, it's as important as the product development itself and for many engineers, but especially women that is a tough lesson to really take in.' Telle Whitney, Author of the new book. 'Rebooting Tech Culture: How to Ignite Innovation and Build Organizations Where Everyone Can Thrive'; Co-Founder of Anita Borg Institute For Women in Technology and Cofounder of the Grace Hopper Conference. Jennifer Hough facilitating Circles at ED Women's Summit 'Especially when you've heard someone can be difficult or someone can be skeptical or cynical, it might take three lunches to get to know them well enough. If you make that the priority, that is going to mean the world to the results that you're seeking the world, huge, massive.' Jennifer Hough, author of 'Unstuck: The Physics Of Getting Out Of Your Own Way,' TEDx speaker and advisor to leaders. Chelsea Henderson on Comms-Culture panel at Earth Day Women's Summit 4-22-2025 'Women are really great at supporting other women. And so I think leaning into that and hearing, you know, the pitfalls, what was hard, what was easy. A lot of times we get focused on talking about what's hard and not on what's fun or what has been easier or what makes your day…. Plus don't let imposter syndrome cripple you.' Chelsea Henderson, Director of Editorial Content at RepublicEn ('conservatives for climate change' and author of 'Glacial: The inside story of climate politics.' Alison Ward speaking on panel - ED Women's Summit - 4-22-2025 Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect As we close out Earth Day Month, these women remind us that we have choices about what we do with who we are, how we frame issues in our minds, what we buy, who we hang out with, what we are learning, and how we spend our time.
Forbes
30-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Surprising Future Of (Sustainable) Fashion
Zara Summers explains fuchsia leggings made from captured CO2 (l to r) Joan Michelson, Summers, ... More Robin Currey, Alison Ward at Earth Day Women's Summit - 4-22-2025 We may not think one pair of leggings or one t-shirt or cotton dresses that we buy make a difference in the planet or the economy, but they do, according to innovative women leaders in the fashion supply chain at The Earth Day Women's Summit last week at EarthX2025. How can they tell? Some items are labeled. Some of the products sold by LuluLemon, or the parkas and fleece jackets sold by Craig Hoppers in the UK are labeled as CO2 Renew, for example, because they are made from captured CO2 through a process developed by LanzaTech, their Chief Science Officer Zara Summers, Ph.D. explained at the Summit. Summers previously led the ExxonMobil biosciences division for 10 years. 'It's ask yourself, what am I buying today? Is there an alternative that, where this carbon has a second life?' she suggested. The United Nations says the garment industry is the second highest CO2-emitting industry, and that garments make up 7% of our landfills and put 500,000 tons of microplastics into the oceans each year. Screenshot - UN Fashion Alliance Summers explained that the LanzaTech process, oversimplified, is leveraging microbes that turn CO2 into ethanol. That ethanol can become sustainable aviation fuel, for example. 'It's actually a building block of everything that petroleum is used for today,' she said. Joan Michelson holds up CO2-based T-shirt while Zara Summers explains it - at The Earth Day Women's ... More Summit - 4-22-2025 She added that they can make 'pretty much any synthetic fiber that you can get from fossil, we have a path to create.' Then she showed the audience two pieces of clothing she says they made from captured CO2. 'This running shirt started off as a carbon emission from a steel mill in China. And so we're able to, 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.' They also partnered with REI on products. The other clothing is a pair of fuchsia-purple leggings by Athleta of Lululemon (pictured above), which she said were also made from captured CO2. She added that Lululemon has a stated goal of having ~25% of the polyester they use in these leggings 'to be from emissions produced ethanol.' She said it's 'a massive step change.' In the garment industry, 80% of the workers are women. Summers said that she and her team visit the factories using their products because, 'we follow through the whole supply chain.' CottonConnect - women & cotton & climate report 2025 'They (manufacturers and retailers) need to know the people in their supply chains and know where their cotton's coming from,' Alison Ward, CEO of CottonConnect said in a session at the Summit about food, fashion and agriculture in the face of the climate crisis. 'We've started with the farmer and started tracking the cotton from that farmer up in the supply chain.' By using sophisticated tracking systems, they can tell which farm cotton is sourced from in the CottonConnect network. 'We work with people like Primark, Carrefour, big French retailer across Europe and Asia, really. How do we hold them account in their supply chains?' Now they have a QR code, too. 'So when the farmer sells their cotton, that QR code scans that and it goes up into our tracking system,' adding that at this point, 'the equivalent of 1.7 billion t-shirts are being traced through our system.' CottonConnect is a global organization that trains small-scale farmers in regenerative and sustainable agricultural techniques and technologies, especially female farmers in India, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Peru and Pakistan. They also create partnerships with fashion brands to help those farmers bring their cotton to market. In addition, 'now there's some really clever techs through a couple of companies. There's one which is an isotope test. So you can test the soil in the village, and then the isotope tells you that that cotton is from that soil in that village.' Alison Ward speaking on panel - The Earth Day Women's Summit - 4-22-2025 'There's also a DNA marker that you can spray on the cotton and then it goes through all of the washers and all of the different processing, and you can tell that that is the unique DNA marker that was sprayed at a particular point in the supply chain. So technology's really leaping forward,' Ward explained. Cotton makes up about 25% of global textile production, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and brands are being pressured by consumers – 85% of whom are women – to use more sustainable and ethical business practices. Even in today's economy, a 2024 study by PwC found that a majority of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainably-produced products. 'But right now, just 30% of the world's cotton is classed as 'sustainable',' according to CottonConnect. Paying attention to these steps on the manufacturing side, and buying aligned with our values, are ways we as consumers drive the market.
