Event overview
Green Tech South West welcomes 3 brilliant speakers based in the South West to talk about tech and the fashion industry – Tim Kindberg from Sust and Jen Wagner & Gary Lake from LAYBL.
Why a clothing themed event?
Fashion’s carbon emissions are estimated at over two billion tonnes annually (McKinsey, 2020); that’s not to mention its massive water consumption, the poor pay and conditions of its workers creating them.
At the other end of the lifecycle, the equivalent of a rubbish truck of clothes is burnt or buried every second. The $1.7 trillion fashion industry creates a staggering volumes of waste. It’s time for change.
Talk 1: Getting Sust about Fashion
Sust is a digital platform designed to empower consumers to make more sustainable fashion choices, and motivate brands to make more sustainable items.
In this talk, Tim will introduce the Sust platform and describe how we address the challenges of creating a community of sustainably-minded shoppers who crowd-source the information they need, and act upon it.
About Tim
Tim Kindberg is a Bristol-based writer and digital creative (matter2media.com), who worked as a senior researcher in academia and Silicon Valley before becoming an independent. He creates digital platforms that foster new and inclusive forms of creativity, and help us make sustainable choices.
Tim was also a speaker at our first ever Green Tech South West event – we’re excited to have him back to see how his work has progressed in the last few years.
Talk 2: Sustainable clothing and garment tracing with digital IDs
At LAYBL, we provide traceability, intelligence and circularity for products – from store to end of life – using unique Digital IDs.
In this talk, we’ll cover how:
- Our Digital IDs track from store to end of life, revealing a garment’s lifetime and analysis into what happens to our clothes after we get rid of them
- We help clothing brands take a first step towards a Digital Passport for their products (an EU requirement by 2030)
- We make the process of being sustainable and responsible with your clothes frictionless
About Jen
Jen is co-founder and CEO of LAYBL. She’s spent most of her working life in the tech world, specifically working within ecommerce for fashion and household brands. Launching a tech product that reimagines a more sustainable and circular economy was never going to be easy, but she loves the challenge and the opportunity it brings to work with brands, companies and consumers that champion a more sustainable future.
About Gary
Gary is co-founder and CTO of LAYBL. He works exclusively in ‘tech for good’ after realising that his career had begun to be defined by a culture of consumption without accountability. For Gary, LAYBL is a way to combine his expertise in UI/UX, ecommerce, data and platform integrations, with something that could help all of us be more accountable for the things we buy.
Jen & Gary’s slides
LAYBL-green-tech-talkWatch the event video
Timings in the video
📢 06:50 – Our famous 60 second intros – a chance for in-person and online attendees to introduce themselves, ask for help and tell us about something the group might find interesting
💚 16:16 -Tim’s talk
💚 43:51 – Jen’s talk
💚 49:20 – Gary’s talk
❓ 01:11:16 – Questions
Resources and links
One of the perks of holding events online as well, and having such a wonderful and engaging community, is we share a huge amount of useful resources and information throughout the event. Here’s a summary of what we unearthed.
Links and resources
Community 60 second intros
Chris Pointon – Co-organises the Working in Sustainable Technology Meetup in Cambridge. They run a (roughly) monthly online meetup where they pick a topic of sustainable tech and bring in some hugely interesting companies to talk about the tech and what it’s like working for them. Keep an eye on their upcoming events via their Meetup page here.
Jess Potter – Co-founder of Used and Loved, a search engine that brings together all the results from a total of 25 reuse websites such as Ebay, Oxfam, Etsy, Pintrest and more. They’re currently pivoting the business to curated 2nd hand fashion and are working with online content creators who share 2nd hand style outfit inspiration by making the pieces shown in the content shop-able so you can recreate their looks with 2nd hand items. They launched their pilot 3 months ago and are eager to hear from anyone with front-end, design or app experience to provide consultation advice as they gear up for their 2nd round of fundraising! You can get in touch with Jess via her LinkedIn.
Lizzie Archer – From Bristol based, global water charity Frank Water. Apple are funding one of their most recent projects, Beyond the Boundary, to look at their water usage around their factory sites in India. Through this work Frank Water have devised a model to look at the water that is being used around the watershed around their factory sites and are hoping to now apply this model to clothing companies to reduce their water usage. Lizzie is keen to hear from anyone who has any ideas, thoughts or connections, particularly from those who are responsible for the supply chain for a clothing company and would like to work with them on this model going forward. You can get in touch with Lizzie via her LinkedIn.
Kate Bolin – Marketing Manager at one of our fantastic sponsors, Krystal Hosting. Get in touch with Kate about anything web hosting! You can get in touch via her LinkedIn.
Sam Dunne – Associate at TLT specialising in tech contracts with a Green Tech focus. If you have any thoughts about how TLT would be able to help you, or just want to chat about Green Tech, you can add Sam on LinkedIn.
Ed Garrett – Managing Director and Founder at another one of our fantastic sponsors, The Discourse. They’re a design agency on a mission to enable change makers to have a positive impact on society and the planet. To achieve this they partner with businesses and charities by helping them to define their purpose and communicate in a clear and meaningful way through brand, the web and content. You can connect with Ed via LinkedIn here.