I was very fortunate to grow up on a family farm in Iowa.
The lessons I learned from my parents and grandparents
are that people need to respect
the environments that they live in.
Humans have always had the responsibility
to take care of the planet,
and when we don't take care of the planet,
The fashion industry is one of the biggest polluters.
Today, two-thirds of the tonnage of all clothing
on the planet are plastics
that are actually produced by the burning of oil.
If we're going to solve a problem
as big as plastics in fashion,
then we need a very, very potent answer.
Fortunately, the answer's already been invented.
In the fashion industry, plastics are everywhere.
Your clothing, every single thing that might be on your body
is going to have some percentage of plastics.
Synthetics are ubiquitous in the fashion industry.
Polyester, for example, all of it comes from oil.
Anything that's synthetic is driving climate change
because those materials are high in carbon footprint.
They also cause problems at the end of their life
with toxicity that enters the environment.
One of the new environmental issues of our time
is the proliferation of plastic pollution.
Polyester synthetics, polyurethanes, et cetera,
those materials are forever materials.
Not only are microplastics
found in every ecosystem on Earth,
but we're also starting to find them inside of our bodies,
so we're finding 'em in lung tissues.
We're finding them in our blood.
So ultimately the fashion industry is guilty of
creating this never ending cycle of
destructive, forever materials into our bodies,
I saw the problem of humanity's overuse
and that's why I started Natural Fiber Welding.
The purpose of Natural Fiber Welding
is to make materials that are all natural.
We do this by using the efficiencies of plants.
Plants are amazing and a great solution
They are natural, they are circular.
Any sort of waste stream that might be created out of it
can go back into the loop, and that loop remains intact.
The chemistry of nature already knows
how to put complex materials together.
Natural Fiber Welding is simply reordering
and restructuring, reformatting those materials
to be your clothes, your shoes, your furniture.
The natural elements that Natural Fiber Welding uses
are abundant around the world.
We have a national rubber.
We have our coconut husks.
We also have natural pigments that are being utilized
to change the variations of the colors as well.
All of those different kinds of ingredients
we use in new ways and in different combinations
to deliver materials that perform.
We can even take what's left behind,
the byproducts of food, and make fabrics and shoes.
Being an ecopreneur means
we get to work on challenging problems
that can have a meaningful impact in the world,
that can be good for society, for people,
and also for the planet that we share.
The reason why plastics have been adopted
at such a large scale is 'cause you can mold
and shape those synthetic polymers very quickly
into everyday things that we use and enjoy.
Natural Fiber Welding could shape natural fiber
and thus natural nutrients,
into the kinds of shapes that means
that nutrients can replace plastics.
We now have four families of materials,
MIRUM, which is a leather-like alternative,
CLARUS, which is a family of high performance textiles,
TUNERA, a family of foams,
and PLIANT, of family of molded bio composites.
We have to ensure that our ingredients, our materials,
everything is a hundred percent natural bio-based.
This is how we're going to achieve our sustainability goals
by coming together and having no compromises.
The goal of Natural Fiber Welding
has always been to produce technologies and materials
that can have a global impact.
Scaling is the top priority.
Without scale, there is no impact.
You need different kinds of technologies
that can be deployed globally very, very rapidly.
NFW is the only company that is able to scale up
from a research development point
where we are able to create something
that is a hundred percent natural
without compromising and utilizing
any synthetic in our materials.
To have a scalable impact means
we have to be relevant to everybody.
We're working with brands like Allbirds,
Ralph Lauren, and UNLESS Collective.
NFW and UNLESS are picking a fight with plastics.
We've got to say enough is enough.
The shared vision that UNLESS and NFW have
We will not put anything in our products
that is plastic based, that is petroleum based,
that is not made to harmlessly go away.
That's really the benefit that NFW brings to us
and helps us both present the world with the first ever
hundred percent plant and mineral based shoe.
Shoes, that at the end of their life,
you can grind them up and give them back to the Earth.
At NFW we talk about circularity a lot.
What that means is that the things that we make
can return back to nature
to the same environments that they came from,
and as they're decomposing they're not doing any harm.
It's extremely fulfilling,
all the developmental efforts that have gone on
to really see our products come to life.
We as a brand don't exist without NFW.
Plant-based solutions provide
zero harmful ways to end of life.
When you ask me what is it that the circular industry
will do for the world, it will help heal it.
How I measure impact is by what happens to the material
when it goes into the environment.
Success means that I know that the material becomes food
for little critters that live in the soil.
When you combine people that really deeply understand
the products that people crave
with scientists that understand now
how to make those products in all natural ways,
business to business interface together,
then amazing things can happen.
The consumer is clearly asking for better choices
I think everybody in the industry
needs to start to look for solutions that are uncompromised.
To be inherently circular, to be sustainable,
I believe right now is the need of the hour.
More new plant matter grows in a day on planet Earth
that the combined tonnage of all the plastics
produced by people in years.
You can have all the materials that you need
for the fashion industry and beyond
in a sustainable, even regenerative way.
When we tie into the abundance of nature,
people can have what they need
responsibly and sustainably, and their children can too.
We all need to participate in healing in the world
and some of the crisis we see out here with climate change.
Our goal is to be a lighthouse brand for others to follow.
Every single day I feel very happy
coming into work knowing that
I'm playing a little part in saving the planet
and ensuring whatever we do today
is going to have an effect for it for our future.
My wife and I care deeply about the world
that our children will grow up in
and taking on the challenge of plastics
is to take on the challenge of leaving the world
in a better state than how we found it.
I think my grandparents would be proud
that we work with the Earth
and we're taking care of not just the planet,
we're taking care of people.
