Story of interest
The Mills Fabrica’s Vision: Fostering Innovation and Sustainability in the TechStyle and Agrifood Industries
The Mills Fabrica, the innovation arm of The Mills, performs the role of a venture investor, an open platform collaborator, and an ecosystem builder to support sustainable innovation and promote the development of cutting-edge technology in the techstyle and agrifood industries. They have adopted a Life Cycle Thinking approach to invest across the value chain with the goal of contributing to a sustainable and circular economy.
With a focus on social and environmental impacts, The Mills Fabrica’s investments must align with their desired impact objectives, featured in Figure 1. Each of their portfolio company is generating at least one type of positive impact intrinsic to their business model, including for example, mitigation of climate change and reducing resource use and waste of products.
Figure 1. Measurable impact themes of The Mills Fabrica’s investment portfolio.1
Figure 2. Colorifix LCA Result: Environmental impact per stage.2
One concrete way to understand the positive impacts of a potential investment is to have companies utilize Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) when highlighting the impacts of their technology. For example, The Mills Fabrica has made investments in start-ups like Colorifix, who conducted a comparative LCA to determine how its innovative processes yield more benefits to the environment across multiple environmental impact categories compared to conventional textile-processing methods. Figure 2 shows part of Colorifix’s LCA report: Colorifix's dyeing process demonstrated significant reduction in water, chemical, natural gas, and energy consumptions, successfully reducing the environmental impacts linked to acidification, abiotic depletion, eutrophication, and global warming potential. As a keen investor in more sustainable technologies, The Mills Fabrica was informed by the tangible data provided to evidence the impact of the sustainable technology and could therefore confidently support Colorifix’s research and business development efforts.
Mr. Philippe Li, who leads the sustainability efforts at The Mills Fabrica
Mr. Philippe Li, who leads the sustainability efforts at The Mills Fabrica, notes the value of LCA in helping The Mills Fabrica make truly sustainable investment decisions and hopes to see more companies present relevant data to strengthen their case. He also observes how companies can use consequential LCA results – calculations which showcase how the environmental impacts will change based on different production scenarios - to improve their processes and refine their business approach towards more sustainable outcomes. Through their impact-driven investments, The Mills Fabrica strives to pave the way for a future where social and environmental considerations are at the forefront of technological advancements.