Carmen Hijosa - Turning leaves into a sustainable alternative to leather — Transcript

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1. 0:03This fruit not only tastes good,
2. 0:05its leaves can make the fashion industry more sustainable and eco-friendly.
3. 0:13Pineapple as an alternative to leather.
4. 0:16Fashion designers are already using the material.
5. 0:20This strikes a chord with big city trendsetters
6. 0:23as well as environmentalists
7. 0:25who want to stop leather tanning.
8. 0:32Barcelona.
9. 0:33The alternative material to leather is produced just a few hours' drive from the city.
10. 0:39It was Carmen Hijosa from Spain who invented the eco-material
11. 0:43called Piñatex.
12. 0:48If we compare Piñatex with leather,
13. 0:50Piñatex has much better environmental credentials.
14. 0:54It doesn't use any water, any land, any fertilizers.
15. 0:59So it's really clean,
16. 1:00and socially, it has got very strong ethical responsibility.
17. 1:06At an intermediate stage of its production,
18. 1:09the product resembles a felt-like fabric.
19. 1:15By the end, however, Piñatex becomes an alternative to leather.
20. 1:21Piñatex has very similar characteristics to leather.
21. 1:25For example, it's water resistant.
22. 1:28It's breathable.
23. 1:29It's very light.
24. 1:31In fact, it's much lighter than leather. And it's got very good tensile strength.
25. 1:36And this is really important because our clients
26. 1:39need these technical characteristics.
27. 1:42The Piñatex story began thirty years ago.
28. 1:45At that time, Hijosa was working as a consultant
29. 1:48for the leather fashion accessories industry.
30. 1:52In the mid-1990s, she visited the Philippines
31. 1:56at the invitation of the Product Development and Design Center.
32. 2:00There, she was confronted with the appalling conditions
33. 2:03in leather tanneries,
34. 2:05and was shocked.
35. 2:08I realized that leather is so unsustainable. It's toxic. It's a toxic production.
36. 2:14It is toxic for people and the environment.
37. 2:16And I saw it so clearly there at that time.
38. 2:20So I decided absolutely there and then
39. 2:23that I wouldn't work with leather anymore.
40. 2:26From one day to the next,
41. 2:28Hijosa gave up her business in the leather fashion accessories industry.
42. 2:33But she didn't dwell on the end of her former career for long.
43. 2:36While still in the Philippines, Hijosa developed an idea for a new business.
44. 2:42I found this beautiful source of natural fibres,
45. 2:46the pineapple leaf fibre, which they used traditionally
46. 2:51to make these very light and very beautiful hand-woven garments
47. 2:55like the Barong Tagalog, which is like a ceremonial shirt.
48. 3:01So that gave me an inspiration: What if I can use them
49. 3:05as an alternative to leather? And it opened the door for a new invention.
50. 3:12The Philippines.
51. 3:13This is where the raw material for Hijosa's invention comes from.
52. 3:18The pineapple plant, apart from delicious fruit,
53. 3:21has very long fibrous leaves which are the raw material for production.
54. 3:29And that was what Hijosa wanted.
55. 3:31She had the leaf waste collected, which would otherwise mostly rot or be burned,
56. 3:36had its fibres extracted, washed,
57. 3:39dried in the sun, and mechanically bonded together.
58. 3:42Little by little, a felt-like fabric was created.
59. 3:46From the beginning, Hijosa knew that despite the challenges,
60. 3:50it would become an alternative to leather.
61. 3:53Nevertheless, in the early stages of the invention,
62. 3:55she struggled to convince others of the idea.
63. 4:00I had this very strong vision
64. 4:03that these fibres could be a solution to something
65. 4:06that I was convinced wasn't good for the environment.
66. 4:09So you continue.
67. 4:11You've got to be determined
68. 4:14and think "I am going to do it, and nothing will stop me."
69. 4:18That's how it is when you want to develop something new.
70. 4:22Carmen Hijosa had a plan.
71. 4:24A lacquer-like coating could give the felt material the necessary properties
72. 4:29to comply with market requirements,
73. 4:31and at the same time give the end product its colour.
74. 4:36Initial tests were promising.
75. 4:38The material was quite similar to real leather in terms of water resistance,
76. 4:42robustness and durability.
77. 4:44But there was a fundamental problem.
78. 4:46The coating initially consisted of 40 percent petroleum-based resins,
79. 4:51something Hijosa wanted to avoid at all costs for ecological reasons.
80. 4:57The first coating wasn't 100 percent, but I launched the product.
81. 5:02If you don't launch the product and test the market,
82. 5:06you cannot go anywhere. I'm not just in a laboratory trying things.
83. 5:10You know, I'm a maker. I want to put things out into the market.
84. 5:15After several years of development work,
85. 5:17Hijosa succeeds in reducing the proportion of petroleum-based resins to 5 percent
86. 5:22without the material losing its leather-like qualities.
87. 5:26A big step forward in terms of sustainability.
88. 5:31Equally important:
89. 5:32There's no shortage of raw materials.
90. 5:34According to Carmen Hijosa,
91. 5:36over 27 million tonnes of residual biomass is discarded every year
92. 5:41from the pineapple harvest.
93. 5:43That could cover all current annual shoe leather production
94. 5:48worldwide,
95. 5:49without using up additional land and other resources, says Carmen Hijosa.
96. 5:57In 2011, Hijosa applies for a patent for Piñatex.
97. 6:01A key step on the way to the product's success.
98. 6:07When you have an idea,
99. 6:09a patent is really important, because anybody can copy your idea.
100. 6:13This is the protection of an inventor.
101. 6:15And second, when you build a business, you need money.
102. 6:18To get money, you need something to give to the investors,
103. 6:22that intellectual property,
104. 6:23and the patent is the main intellectual property of the business.
105. 6:29Nearly 3000 brands in 80 countries already use Piñatex,
106. 6:34many of them from the fashion world.
107. 6:37But numerous other industries are beginning to discover the new material as well.
108. 6:46Hijosa's alternative leather:
109. 6:48a combination of economic success
110. 6:51and an ecologically and ethically sound product.