Norwich textile dye company shortlisted for Earthshot Prize

Its work has been recognised with the announcement that it is a finalist for this year’s Earthshot Prize in the Build a Waste-free World category. The Earthshot Prize has been designed to find and grow the solutions that will repair our planet over the next 10 years and is regarded by many as an equivalent to the Nobel Prizes.

Orr Yarkoni, CEO of Colorifix (Image: Colorifix)

Orr Yarkoni, CEO of Colorifix, said: “At the core of our business is the ambition to genuinely improve the impact that the textile and fashion industries have on our planet. We are now working with numerous partners to scale our dye technology so that we can really make a difference.

“Being a finalist for the Earthshot Prize is an honour for us as a team but also an acknowledgement to our technology, showing it truly delivers significant benefits to the companies that adopt it as well as for our planet.

"Colorifix is bringing the fashion industry back to its roots and harnessing the power of the natural world to produce clothes in a more sustainable way. We believe our solution can be transformative for the industry to ensure the protection of our water, air and land for future generations."

Colorifix is working to reduce the textile industry's impact on the environment by creating dyes that use less water, chemicals and energy (Image: Colorifix)

Colorifix is one of three category finalists and there are four other categories: Protect and Restore Nature, Clean Our Air, Revive Our Oceans and Fix Our Climate.

There is a £1m prize on offer to the overall winner and all the finalists will receive mentorship, resources and technical support from The Earthshot Prize Fellowship Programme, a year-long programme to accelerate the growth of their creations. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 7 at a ceremony in Singapore.

The fashion industry not only creates waste in our landfills; it also wastes precious water and strains natural resources because of the energy-intensive process used for dyeing fabrics.

Before the 19th century, fabric dyes were derived from natural plants and crops and colourful clothing was considered a luxury reserved only for the wealthy and privileged. After the industrial revolution brought about synthetic dyes, colourful dyed fabrics and clothing became accessible to the masses and created the modern fashion industry.

However, chemically synthesised dyes have come at a significant cost as they seep into rivers, harm wildlife and use vast amounts of water resources. Fabric dyeing consumes five trillion litres of water every year, the equivalent of two million Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Colorifix uses DNA from plants, animals or insects to create colour pigments (Image: Colorifix)

Colorifix has developed a revolutionary dyeing process to help the textile industry dramatically reduce its footprint using a biological process to produce, deposit and fix pigment, with no need to ship large containers with dye around the world. Instead, using Colorifix’s patented approach, the dye can be grown locally by the textile manufacturers through fermentation using fewer resources such as water and creating much less waste.

Colorifix identifies naturally occurring colours from plants, animals or insects and using online databases, finds the specific genes that cause it to produce that pigment. That DNA is then built into a host bacteria or yeast, which acts as a tiny factory, reading the new genetic information and making the pigment in the same way it is produced in nature. The microbes grow in a fermenter, just like the way beer is brewed, creating vats of dye within a day.

While the conventional textile and dye industry uses polluting chemicals, refined petrochemicals and large volumes of water, producing toxic waste, the Colorifix technology replaces chemistry with biology. Each colour can be shipped as tiny amounts of microorganisms to be grown locally with Colorifix proprietary fermenters at customers’ sites, cutting transport emissions and costs. Furthermore, the production process itself reduces water consumption, electricity and carbon dioxide emissions.

Colorifix has already worked with retail giant H&M and is now busy establishing links across the fashion and textile industry to bring its dye technology to market at a larger scale.

Colorifix has partnered with clothing and footwear brand Pangaia to create two dyes for its range of hoodies (Image: Pangaia)

It recently partnered with clothing and footwear brand Pangaia to create two dyes for its range of hoodies. One for its Blue Cocoon colour, which was made from pigments found in silk cocoons, and the other Midway Geyser Pink, named after the famous Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, which uses pigments found around the springs.

Another collaboration was with US ‘future-proof’ fashion brand Vollebak, which used the Colorifix dye approach to create two shades of its blue DNA T-shirt.

“Norwich Research Park has been a great place to grow and develop our business," said Orr. "The park has been very supportive in helping us to operate and having access to great scientific minds has really aided our thinking. As we continue to expand over the next few years, we look forward to growing our team and become a greater part of the Norfolk business community.”

Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, the science park management organisation of Norwich Research Park (Image: Chris Ball Photography)

Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, the science park management organisation of Norwich Research Park, said: “I would like to congratulate Colorifix on being shortlisted for the Earthshot Prize. It is great to see the company go from strength-to-strength, from a start-up on the Research Park campus, employing a small handful of people, to a high-growth company, employing over 70 people, and being considered as one of the most innovative companies in the world, working to save our planet.

“We are working closely with the Colorifix team to support their planned growth. They are brilliant role models for our new spin out entrepreneurs and the companies staying, and growing, at Norwich Research Park.

“We wish the whole Colorifix team the best of luck and are so proud that they are representing Norwich in such a high profile and worthwhile way.”

The impact Colorifix is having on the textile and fashion industries has been chronicled in a brand new film series presented by Global Fashion Agenda and produced by BBC StoryWorks.