Ideas change everything

Fashion has a pollution problem -- can biology fix it?

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Natsai Audrey Chieza |

TED@BCG Milan

• October 2017

Natsai Audrey Chieza is a designer on a mission -- to reduce pollution in the fashion industry while creating amazing new things to wear. In her lab, she noticed that the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor makes a striking red-purple pigment, and now she's using it to develop bold, color-fast fabric dye that cuts down on water waste and chemical runoff, compared with traditional dyes. And she isn't alone in using synthetic biology to redefine our material future; think -- "leather" made from mushrooms and superstrong yarn made from spider-silk protein. We're not going to build the future with fossil fuels, Chieza says. We're going to build it with biology.

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Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Natsai Audrey Chieza is a designer on a mission -- to reduce pollution in the fashion industry while creating amazing new things to wear. In her lab, she noticed that the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor makes a striking red-purple pigment, and now she's using it to develop bold, color-fast fabric dye that cuts down on water waste and chemical runoff, compared with traditional dyes. And she isn't alone in using synthetic biology to redefine our material future; think -- "leather" made from mushrooms and superstrong yarn made from spider-silk protein. We're not going to build the future with fossil fuels, Chieza says. We're going to build it with biology.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Learn more about Faber Futures, a creative R&D studio that conceptualizes, prototypes and evaluates the resilience of biomaterials.

Follow Natsai Audrey Chieza on Twitter.

About the speaker

Natsai Audrey Chieza

Founder, designer

See speaker profile

Operating at the intersection of design, nature and technology, Natsai Audrey Chieza is an internationally recognized leader in the rapidly emerging field of biodesign.

About TED Institute

Every year, TED works with a group of select companies and foundations to identify internal ideators, inventors, connectors, and creators. Drawing on the same rigorous regimen that has prepared speakers for the TED main stage, TED Institute works closely with each partner, overseeing curation and providing intensive one-on-one talk development to sharpen and fine tune ideas. The culmination is an event produced, recorded, and hosted by TED, generating a growing library of valuable TED Talks that can spur innovation and transform organizations.

Read more about the TED Institute

Learn more about Faber Futures, a creative R&D studio that conceptualizes, prototypes and evaluates the resilience of biomaterials.

Follow Natsai Audrey Chieza on Twitter.