Photography by Sharon Radisch.
“Remember, it all started with biology and nature. Everything we made, everything we had, came from biology,” says Suzanne Lee, CEO of Biofabricate and two-time TED Talker. “But, it wasn’t scaleable.” Back then, that is. The first, second and third Industrial Revolutions followed suit with money and mass in mind, enabling production and consumption at a rate that was previously impossible. “Humanity turned to chemistry; switching the natural for quick and easily synthesised manmade materials,” she tells me, continuing, “But, we’ve come full circle. Now, we have the tools to make the same things – without killing the animal, without cutting down the tree. We can programme biology to do it in a much more efficient way using minimal and renewable resources.”
Suzanne Lee, who calls in via Zoom from New York, trained as a fashion designer. She’s a Jaqueline of all trades (and master of them all, too), soon expanding her oeuvre into research at Central Saint Martins and sustainability consultancy. Suzanne’s interests always gravitated towards what fashion might look like down the line, a fifty year prediction of such informed the foundations of her book ‘Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe’. Twenty years on and the fashion prophet’s predictions are proving accurate. Today, growable suits, digital jackets and spray-on dresses are far from futuristic. In fact, they’re quite familiar.
Next up, it’s not rayon nor is it regenerated, instead it’s an Industrial Revolution that Suzanne predicts. One that reimagines a material world built efficiently and responsibly with biology – not oil. It’s “The Material Revolution.”
It was through a serendipitous encounter with biologist (and later collaborator) Dr. David Hepworth in an art gallery at the turn of the century when Suzanne first liaised on the possibilities of microbially grown materials. A light bulb moment, she tells me. “David said to me: “There’s another way to imagine fibre production. We could look at living organisms to produce fibres for us.” I said to him: “Are you telling me that I could grow a dress in a vat of liquid?” to which he responded, “Yeah.” It changed everything for me.” Soon after, Suzanne both coined the term Biocouture™ and co-founded a company named after it.
“‘Biocouture™ was thinking about design and biology and how we could grow the materials of the future using living organisms,” she tells me. Suzanne grew cellulose using microbes in a kombucha tea style recipe to make biodegradable garments.
She was ahead of the curve. “We got lots of press but in terms of convincing investors that this is the future, no one was listening. We were twenty years too early,” her tone is laced with frustration. “The technology was absolutely right but people just weren’t ready.” Biocouture™ ended in 2012 and concluded with a TED talk (a must-watch, by the way) that summarised her findings.
With a bank of knowledge curated over decades, Suzanne is an expert on biodesign, bio-innovation and sustainability. She became the first chief creative officer at a biotech company called Modern Meadow before leaving to found her next venture: Biofabricate, which hosts, consults and educates a global network of bio-innovators, startups, designers, investors, and brands who are fathoming material futures.
“Working with talented scientists makes you realise just how much creativity there is in science – in the experimental side, the brain work, the problem solving. It’s something we don’t give enough credit for either.” The sweet spot for material futures is where the two come together. “Where empirical data-based, evidence-tested, hypothesis-focused science meets hunch-driven, intangible and tacit ideation,” she says, noting how much learning and exchange can happen between the two disciplines. The key is in collaboration. Between science and design. Between mankind and Mother Nature.
Is there a reluctance to act with urgency? Why is it that we’re still using harmful manufacturing processes when we have better alternatives? I ask. “I don’t think there’s any reluctance,” Suzanne says, omnisciently stating that this is a common misnomer. “The problem is that innovation of any kind takes time. All the technologies and alternatives we’re talking about that are necessary for fashion to reinvent itself take years to test and develop. When you look at the history of materials, materials like polyester, leather, cotton have had decades, even hundreds if not thousands of years to get to the point they’re at now in how we use them. We take them for granted, they’re cheap, they’re scaled.”
“We’re asking tiny startups to basically reinvent fibres using the code of life itself. The problem is not that consumers aren’t asking for it, they really are. And, the demand for material innovation far outstrips supply. The challenge is money, time and that we’re catering to an industry that is inherently impatient.”
Where oil fuelled production drove industrialisation in the 20th century, biology will drive that of the 21st. For Suzanne, the revolution is inevitable. “We’re dealing with the fallout of past material innovations. The cheapness of petrochemicals, the abundance of synthetics, microplastic and microfibre pollution and the leakage of toxic chemicals that are all bad for human health and for the planet.” It’s a wake up call moment and we’re beginning to accept that the innovation of the past might not have been so great after all. We need a new approach.
“How do we undo the damage we’ve done, innovatively, without causing further damage?"
“I think it was Steve Jobs who said that the biggest innovation of the 21st century will be the intersection of biology and technology.” (It was). “These tools are becoming widely available and ever cheaper. High school kids can start designing and editing DNA to build something from biology in a similar fashion to how kids like Bill Gates and Jobs once learnt to build computer software. The 21st century equivalent is writing with the code of life,” says Suzanne, totally enthused. “This is why it’s the next industrial revolution.”
It’s only the beginning, Suzanne tells me, the dawn of a new age. It’s this that keeps her fire burning under the darkening cloud of reality whereby carbon emissions at the level they’re at are pushing us closer to the point of no return.
As determined at the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, efforts must limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. A study published in the European Geosciences Union’s Earth System Dynamics Journal applies a model that combines climate simulations with methods from statistical physics accounting for climate uncertainties whilst considering whether removing carbon from the atmosphere might buy us some time. The above considered with a warming threshold of a lenient 2 degrees suggests that the point of no return will arrive in 2035. If actions are strong, this could be delayed to 2042. With the same assumptions but a strict 1.5 degree warming threshold, the point of no return has already passed.
In the last five years, there has been an explosion of innovations from biomaterials to climate technologies. “This area has really kicked into gear, even since COVID. There’s nothing we’re not prepared to look at to solve these issues.” It’s a renaissance of technology and everyone is solution-focused. We’re now asking the important questions, seeking solutions that are healthier for humans and the planet. “How do we undo the damage we’ve done, innovatively, without causing further damage?” Suzanne queries, rhetorically.
Do you believe biotechnology is the answer? “There is no one technology or solution. There never is. But a lot can be done with biology and biotechnology because it touches on everything in the way we build and construct our world,” she says, barely stopping to breathe before adding: “What biology enables you to do is use fewer resources, better: less land, less water, less energy – and all, hopefully, without toxic chemistries, enabling a world in which we can have abundance without exploitation and extraction and all the kinds of processes that created this shitshow in the first place.” Period.
Growing commercial goods using bacteria and microbes is daunting to many. There are unintended consequences to any technology, right? Suzanne believes we’re right to be sceptical if scepticism translates into thorough testing in a regulated and monitored environment to ensure an alternative is genuinely better for us and the planet before we embrace it. “But, this is not a given,” says Suzanne, wishing that this applied across the board. “There has been an initial generation of new materials, you know – the Vegan Leathers,” which often claim to be eco, “many of them are nothing more than a monstrous hybrid of some biomass mashed up with a petrochemical polymer.” She’s pissed off but continues: “How is that better? What is that better than? It’s not recyclable. It’s not necessarily biodegradable. It still needs all the same chemistry that existing petrochemical-based materials use. We need to be more thoughtful and responsible.”
Suzanne fears that this sort of greenwashing could lead to young consumers feeling confused and mistrustful towards biomaterials and innovations, too. But, as the EU cracks down on greenwashing, she’s hopeful legislation will help. “It’s critical that we have a system in place that stops people from making unproven claims about various technologies and materials. And, as more and more organisations, like Biofabricate, are equipping people with education, they’ll be able to spot it for themselves.”
Consumer ignorance remains rife. A 2021 report by Zalando found that 58% of survey respondents believe they should understand product materials but only 38% regularly investigate information, 53% believe ethical labour policies are important but only 23% investigate said policies and 60% said transparency is important but only 20% actively sought out information as part of their purchasing process. How can we remedy consumer ignorance or deniability?
“You clearly have less faith than I do, Rose,” she laughs, continuing: “It’s a multi-pronged answer. Education for starters. Not enough people understand what’s possible which is why it’s so important to do education and that, in part, is what Biofabricate focuses on,” says Suzanne, continuing: “We want kids to want to study bioinnovation at school, creating a whole generation of people who are thinking about building things the way nature does. We want to find a way to make learning interesting and engaging, more of a conversation.” An inter-generational one.
Will the Material Revolution allow for a fast model of fashion to persist? I ask. “Humans like newness, self-expression. These are fundamental human characteristics and they’re not going to go away. So, as long as they’re there, we need to find new ways of feeding them or radical ways to change the global behaviour of mankind.” I think she’s joking about the latter. “While we can try to tackle the psychology of consumption, I don’t see a resolution to this anytime soon, so if we’re going to live with this, we have to do it in a way which is circular and keeps feedstocks and nutrients in a cycle rather than using extractive processes. How do we make people feel fulfilled and satisfied whilst producing in a way that doesn’t cause harm?” Biology.