Project
Domain Flagship Textiles F1
The world is in transition; our food, our energy, but also our materials are subject of change. In a transition towards renewable materials, fossil feedstocks are phased out. For this, we need to develop new ways of producing the materials we use (plastics, textiles, building materials, etc.) and also come up with strategies to support and speed up this transition. In the investment theme: ‘Transformative Bioeconomies: Towards a materials transition that phases out fossil feedstock’, we aim to connect disciplines from all over WUR to engage in this challenge.
In the field of transition studies, we aim to develop new methodologies, concepts and tools to integrate knowledge and experience from different disciplines or stakeholder groups, and that help to support transitions in a broader sense. In the field of the materials transition, we want to support the technological and institutional development towards the introduction of sustainable renewable materials and phasing out fossil feedstock. To combine these two goals, we worked in the context of two application domains in which both the methodological innovations in transition approach, and the new innovations supporting the materials transition can be tested and developed further. One of these application domains is the Domain Flagship Textiles.
Textiles Activities in this 3-year during project were quite divers: we wrote a baseline report describing the textile sector and possible pathways towards phasing out fossil feedstocks (dematerialization and technical challenges); action based research was done on the topics of wool and regenerative agriculture; education support was given in the form of lectures and student guidance; small projects (wildcards) dealing with textiles were supported; scientific publications were written, and several outreach activities were undertaken. Most tangible result was the creation of pop-up expo called “My fossil-free wardrobe”, that was launched during the Circular Bioeconomy Symposium end of 2024. With this popup expo, we also visited the Dutch Design Week for interaction with consumers about their preferences for clothing. Take home message of this project was that connection and communication with consumers are crucial in transition studies like this.