Dyeing clothes uses lots of fossil fuel. Startups are vying to fix that

Dyed cloth is hung to dry at a factory in Bangladesh. DyeCoo says its process for getting colorants onto fabric doesn’t use any water or bonding chemicals — water is still needed for rinsing, though — and can halve a factory’s typical water use and emissions from textile dyeing. While the fashion industry gets flak for producing cheap clothes, burning unwanted stock, relying on plastic-based materials and shipping goods around the globe, the energy-intensive dyeing process is one of its most intractable challenges. “It’s fueling demand and maintaining that demand in places that would otherwise be shifting away.” According to one report from environmental consultancy Quantis, boilers running on coal and natural gas were responsible for 44% of the carbon footprint in textile dyeing in 2016, and electricity from coal-burning power plants accounted for another 17%. Jana van den Bergen, a dyeing specialist at Fashion for Good, says sustainable dyeing is “moving fast, especially because regulation is coming in.” Overcoming technological, economic, logistical and regulatory challenges will be increasingly necessary if the fashion industry is to make good on its climate goals.