Trace Planet

We would use the prize funding to implement the first accelerator program in the world supporting fashion farmers in their transition to regenerative agriculture. At the moment we are at the last stages of developing this program together with a team of agronomists and regenerative practitioners, and are struggling to find the right funders for it.

We would also use part of the funding to cover part of a research piece that analyses the connections between farming and fashion across the world: exploring the impacts of fashion farmers in Europe on soil degradation and greenhouse emissions and the pathways to a regenerative fashion industry. 

Finally, I would use part of the prize funding (roughly $40,000) to support my work for 2 years. As the founder of Trace Planet, I’m still unable to take a steady salary from the organisation and have to work other jobs to support myself (teaching and consulting), which brings my working hours close to 60 hours per week and makes it very difficult to balance my wellbeing. Being able to focus fully on the mission Trace Planet and allocate all my time to it would make me much more effective in accomplishing our goals.

I have always been really passionate about environmental conservation and finding effective solutions to halt climate change. At the age of 20 I fell in love with social entrepreneurship and the power of innovation to solve social problems at scale. I started working at Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs, where learned how to scale solutions to create systemic impact. I worked there for 6 years, and my work focused on helping large corporations embed social impact at the heart of their operations.

This made me realise how markets shape the world. Despite brilliant climate innovations and a general will to tackle climate change, progress remains minimal because markets continue to operate against environmental targets. It was then that I discovered nature-based solutions to climate change and regenerative agriculture. 

I started developing a model to turn the fashion industry (which produces +emissions than shipping and aviation combined) into an engine of environmental regeneration, by working with farmers in fashion’s supply chains to transition to agricultural practices that build back soil fertility, agrobiodiversity and sequester carbon from the atmosphere, effectively helping reverse climate change. That work has now grown into two organisations working globally to make fashion regenerative. 

Our way of living is degrading our natural environment beyond recognition. Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians have declined on average by 68% since 1970. 1/3 of our planet’s land is severely degraded. We are losing the equivalent of 30 soccer fields of soil every minute, mostly due to intensive farming, which means that the world could run out of topsoil (where 95% of our food grows) in 60 years.

Traditional approaches to environmental preservation focus on reducing negative impacts, but we are past the point where that could be enough. Today, sustainable can only mean regenerative. To set in motion environmental regeneration processes at the scale and speed that’s needed, we must push whole industries to embed environmental regeneration at the heart of their operations. That’s what Trace Planet is doing, starting with fashion.

Trace uses the global breath of the fashion industry to drive environmental regeneration. We research the forgotten connections between farms and fashion, run free interactive workshops to help communities transition from an extractive to a regenerative mindset and understand their power as consumers, and work with brands to secure demand for regenerative agriculture, creating incentives for farmers to make this transition. 

We are the only organisation worldwide working holistically with all stakeholders in fashion (farmers, consumers and brands) to transition farmland to regenerative agricultural practices. The potential is immense: +300 million farmers are plugged to fashion’s supply chains globally. Fashion is subject to fewer lobbying pressures than the food industry, offering the perfect opportunity to start creating a change in farming practices that will then ripple to other industries.

Nature-based solutions to climate change are the only existing viable strategy to reach a stable climate. Even if we all stopped producing emissions today, we’d still need to remove 500GT or CO2 from the atmosphere to prevent our planet from continuing to heat up. Despite the extensive science underscoring the importance and potential of nature-based solutions and regenerative strategies, these continue to receive less than 3% of all climate funding globally.

Funders tend to be captivated by technological innovations and critical work in environmental regeneration is very underfunded. We hope this will change as awareness raises, but there is no time to waste. So we have set up a model that leverages one of the world’s largest consumer industries (fashion) and pairs consumer demand for new products to environmental regeneration processes. 

Our vision is to make fashion regenerative – to have every single piece of new clothing in the world coming from regenerative agriculture and directly supporting farmers who are effectively helping us reverse climate change. Our strategy to do that is based in 3 pillars: research, education and alliances. Together, these enable us to work holistically with all the key stakeholders.

Our research projects throw light on the connections between farms and fashion, helping us understand the scope of the problem, the potential of the solution, the barriers to change and the incentives to advance regenerative agriculture. This data is crucial to engage other stakeholders effectively (brands, consumers, farmers) and guide our organisational strategy.

Our educational events and workshops work with consumers to introduce them to nature-based solutions and reflect on their power to create change through their purchasing habits. 76% of workshop attendees report learning about the impact of their purchases on the planet, and 70% report an increased understanding of how to create change.

Our alliances work identifies barriers to scale regenerative agriculture in fashion’s supply chains and brings together stakeholders to find solutions. That’s how our collaboration to launch the regenerative accelerator for fashion farmers was born.