At its Textile Sustainability Conference held in Dublin, Ireland, this week, the Textile Exchange announced the winners of its inaugural Ryan Young Climate+ Awards for sustainable textile industry leaders.

The recipients have been honoured for their work in driving progress towards the defining goal of the Textile Exchange Climate+ Strategy – a 45% greenhouse gas reduction in the textile fibre and material production phase by 2030.

Climate Leader awards are dedicated to individuals, teams, or departments within an organisation displaying an overall commitment to meeting the Climate+ strategy goals, while Rising Star awards recognise young leaders with up to three years’ sustainability experience who have already demonstrated impressive initiative and leadership.

The awards were established in memory of the late Ryan Young, chief operating officer at Textile Exchange from 2017 to 2020. In response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warning that countries must halve emissions from textile production by 2030 to avoid dangerous impacts from climate change, Young led the creation of the Climate+ strategy.

 “We are honouring Ryan Young’s pioneering efforts with the creation of these awards,” said La Rhea Pepper, founder and CEO at the Textile Exchange. “He often used to say, ‘Do we want to be someone who is part of the solution or someone who is part of the continued problem?’ I think he would agree that all of today’s winners want to lead the solutions.”

The Ryan Young Climate+ Awards 2021 winners are:

-Rebecca Burgess executive director of Fibershed, an organisation based near San Francisco, California. Burgess has been recognised as a climate leader for her work with growers, scientists and textile brands to research, demonstrate, and operationalise “climate-beneficial” cotton and wool. These fibres come from regional and regenerative farming systems that draw carbon from the atmosphere into the soil.

-Prama Bhardwaj of Mantis World, the first printwear company in Europe to introduce organic cotton to its market. The company has been making casual apparel for babies, kids and adults for over two decades. Prama Bhardwaj is recognised for converting all of the brands’ cotton to organic, six years ahead of schedule.

-Margot Lyons of Coyuchi, a California-based manufacturer of home textiles and apparel made solely from organic fibres. Coyuchi is the first partner to supply its own materials to be recycled through its take back programme.

-Helene Smits of Recover. Based in Spain, Recover focuses on scaling the production and adoption of recycled cotton fibre in the textile industry. It turns discarded fabric into fibre for apparel and home textiles using a high-tech, low impact separation process.

-Annabelle Hutter of Säntis Textiles, which offers products made from 100% recycled pre-and post-consumer cotton waste. Hutter has been recognised for her close work with leading fashion brands regarding the company’s RCO100 recycled cotton, and her own Born on Saturday brand of hand-made 100% recycled cotton tote bags and t-shirts.

-Landon Nash, of Tact & Stone was named the industry’s rising star. Tact & Stone is a menswear company making a range of apparel from button-down shirts to pants and blazers. From the start, it has only used certified organic and recycled fibres and materials while pursuing circularity with a take-back programme launching by end of this year.

With more than 600 members who represent leading brands, retailers and suppliers, Textile Exchange is a global nonprofit which manages and promotes a suite of six leading industry standards, as well as collecting and publishing critical industry data and insights that enable brands and retailers to measure, manage and track their use of preferred fibre and materials.

www.TextileExchange.org