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Business of climate change
Business

Keel Labs’ seaweed yarn, backed by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, can tackle fashion pollution

  • Company hopes its product, made from polymer extracted from seaweed, can replace traditional fibres that have high environmental costs
  • Billionaire Li’s private investment arm Horizons Ventures and the investment arm of H&M Group are among the company’s investors

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Keel Labs claims its yarn can reduce the fashion industry’s environmental footprint. Photo: Handout
Martin Choi

Li Ka-shing-backed start-up Keel Labs is spinning yarn from seaweed to transform the textile industry and tackle pollution in the fashion sector’s supply chain.

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The North Carolina-based start-up, founded in 2017 by designers Tessa Callaghan, Aleksandra Gosiewski and Aaron Nesser, has developed a yarn from kelp to replace the traditional fibres used in garments and textiles.

“What we were coming to see and realise was that this industry that we know and love, [which] is so integral to our day-to-day lives, is filled with waste, pollution and degradation of our climate,” Callaghan, co-founder and CEO of Keel Labs, said in an interview. “And it weighed on our consciences.”

The textile supply chain is the source of multifaceted environmental degradation. Although cotton grows on only 2.4 per cent of the world’s cropland, it accounts for 10 per cent of global pesticide application and, within the pesticide category, 22.5 per cent of the world’s insecticide use, according to McKinsey.
Keel Labs extracts polymers that occur naturally in kelp to create its seaweed-based yarn. Photo: Handout
Keel Labs extracts polymers that occur naturally in kelp to create its seaweed-based yarn. Photo: Handout

Some 2,700 litres (713 gallons) of water is required to produce a single cotton T-shirt, enough to sustain one person for 900 days, based on calculations by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

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