How lab-grown materials like spidersilk may be key to eco fashion

Sep 21

What do we know about how the chemicals and dyes used to treat our clothing impact our health? How can we pick apart brands that may be greenwashing from the brands that are actually trying to do what they can to improve?

Jamie Bainbridge, VP of Product Development at Bolt Threads shares her wisdom with you. Let's dive in.

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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer Podcast with Kaméa Chayne, a show exploring environmental and intersectional sustainability from ideas to life. Subscribe to Green Dreamer on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or any podcast app and let’s learn what it takes to thrive in every sense of the word!

Highlights

[2:19] What first inspired Jamie's passion for the environment.

[4:23] How Jamie went from working at Nike to working with Bolt Threads.

[5:23] Kaméa: "Can you walk us through what Bolt Threads' scientists and engineers do for fashion?"

[6:50] How Bolt Threads got started by solving a problem with spider silk.

[7:29] What is spider silk and how is it made?

[9:09] Kaméa: "What's been Bolt Threads' biggest challenge so far?"

[13:20] Kaméa: "What are some of the health impacts of the chemicals used in clothing manufacturing?"

[14:57] Jamie: "Very little is known about the chemicals we use in our daily lives. Only a few of them have been studied."

[15:27] Jamie on what we can do as consumers to buy clothes without harmful chemicals.

[16:24] Kaméa: "What's been one of your personal biggest challenges in helping support the sustainable fashion movement?"

[9:23] How we can identify brands that are greenwashing versus brands that are actually doing the work.

[21:19] Kaméa: "What do you think we need most—beyond fashion—to accelerate toward a thriving planet?"

[22:21] Jamie: "I think people need to bite off small chunks at a time and not get overwhelmed. Sustainability is a very confusing subject to most consumers, so bite off some piece of it that you're interested in and investigate it and figure out what you can personally do."