New Year, New Ventures – Fashion, China & Mushrooms

New Year, New Ventures – Fashion, China & Mushrooms – Happy New Year! Given that global warming hit 1.55°C for 2024 (the hottest year on record) we look to step up action and push on. So this month we’ve rounded up some new ventures to inspire just that – from circular fashion in China to mushrooms tiles & milk made from tiger nuts. Plus, with President Trump withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement (again), we look to see if China’s stepping up with the Top 10 trends for responsible investment in China in 2025.

Fashion is still dirty, thirsty & wasteful but more and more fashion’s impact on the climate is being called out. As Dr. Christina Dean, Founder/ Chair of Redress shares, unchecked, fashion could use a quarter of the world’s carbon budget by 2050, which is why going circular is a must.

She adds that as the largest textile producer, China has a key role in the transition to circular fashion. This led to their collab with Vogue China & XiaoHongShu on a 2-part docu-series where discarded garments were redesigned for a prominent fashion influencer. Get more on this collab, watch the series and find out about a significant unaddressed financing opportunity.

Indeed, it’s all eyes on China as the US takes a backseat on climate. Thank goodness China remains committed to its carbon peak and neutrality targets despite domestic economic pressures says SynTao Green Finance and China SIF. They share their top 10 trends for responsible investment in China in 2025.

They cover everything from China’s green transition and monetary policies driving ESG growth to standardisation & expansion of disclosure and signals that more climate adaptation measures will be taken to the expansion of the national carbon market. Don’t miss out, get it all in their trends to see opportunities & inform your new climate ventures.

Elsewhere, tiles are being made from mushrooms. Specifically, Mycelium, which as Paul Songdechakraiwut, CEO & Co-Founder of Mush Composites, tells us is one of nature’s most powerful yet overlooked materials. It’s lightweight, durable, and grows using agricultural waste, making it not just sustainable but regenerative.

Songdechakraiwut believes that as awareness of high embodied carbon in buildings grows, mycelium will play an increasingly central role in the future of sustainable design. Get a look at the tiles, understand how they are made and other sustainable benefits they have in our interview.

What about milk that can turn deserts into farmland? Tiga Milk can and that’s the next new venture; a plant-based milk made from tiger nuts. Desertification is often overlooked but a quarter of Earth’s land is desert. Tiger nuts not only thrive in deserts but transform barren lands into fertile grounds for the cultivation of other crops. This is one of the reasons Edmund Chan Ka-ming, Co-Founder of Meat the Next developed Tiga Milk.

Using Hong Kong as launchpad, Tiga Milk is expanding overseas. Already, Matcha Tokyo & Pret A Manger have adopted Tiga Milk. Get the Tiga Milk development story – challenges, breakthroughs, enzymatic technologies and more.

Hopefully these have inspired you to start new climate ventures. But sadly as we write this, the apocalyptic LA fires are still burning and much more will need to be done. The year of the Snake will soon be upon us – stay tuned for our 5 Trends for the snake year next month…