Crypto News: Surfing towards circularity

At the Bloomberg Green Festival, taking place July 10-13 in Seattle, we'll be showcasing sustainable food, fashion and home goods. In today's newsletter, we look at one emblematic approach: Patagonia is cracking the code on endlessly recyclable wetsuits.

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By Todd Woody

At Patagonia's "Wetsuit Forge" repair and design center, located a few blocks from the beach in Ventura, California, a first-of-its-kind wetsuit is draped over a table. The suit looks and feels like any other, but this one is the result of years of effort. It's made in part from used Patagonia wetsuits deconstructed at a molecular level — and it, too, will be melted down at the end of its life and reborn into a new, lower-carbon wetsuit.

The prototype is part of Patagonia's plan to eliminate much of the waste that accumulates when a surfer buys a new wetsuit. While the outdoor apparel retailer guarantees a lifetime of repairs for wear and tear, eventually the day comes when the racks of old wetsuits awaiting mending in Ventura can no longer be stitched back together. Some are recycled into yoga mats or tote bags, but inevitably, they all end up buried in landfills.

Just how many old Patagonia wetsuits end up as part of $500 reincarnated versions depends on the volume of discarded wetsuits the company collects from surfers. But the strategy is ushering in a potentially repeating cycle that would yield the ultimate, immortal wetsuit.

"Essentially, a wetsuit becomes endlessly reusable," says Mackenzie Warner, a Patagonia materials developer.

A Yulex Regulator wetsuit reborn from old wetsuits on a rack at Patagonia headquarters in California. Photographer: Alex Welsh

Despite surfing's one-with-nature vibe, most wetsuits are the sartorial equivalent of an oil spill: They're made from neoprene, a petroleum-based synthetic rubber. Patagonia is collecting end-of-life wetsuits for a partner that vaporizes them to reclaim what's known as carbon black, a key ingredient in neoprene and in the natural rubber Patagonia uses. It's the petroleum-derived element that gives wetsuits their strength and color.

Whether carbon black can be infinitely recovered remains to be scientifically validated, but reusing it does keep old wetsuits out of landfills. The reclaimed material also avoids carbon dioxide emissions from the production of virgin carbon black, a ubiquitous ingredient in tires, plastics, inks and electronics. The material's $19.3 billion market, which is expected to grow 66% by 2032, emits as much as 79 million metric tons of CO2 annually from the combustion of tar oil and other petroleum feedstocks, according to a recently published paper.

"If you can reclaim that carbon black, you reduce the amount of resources that you need in the first place," says Fabian Rosner, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Gilberto Bello, a senior wetsuit engineer, repairs damaged wetsuits. Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg

About a decade ago, Patagonia began to replace neoprene with Yulex, the brand name for a natural rubber produced by drought-resistant Hevea trees and Guayule plants grown on non-arable land. The company's latest wetsuit line, released in September, is 85% Yulex.

But even Yulex wetsuits are made with carbon black. That led an entrepreneur named Tony Wibbeler to show up at Patagonia's door in 2017 with a pitch for a sustainable solution. His startup, Boulder, Colorado-based Bolder Industries, developed an industrial process to reclaim carbon black from old tires, which it sells under the brand name BolderBlack. Wibbeler told Patagonia executives he could create a proprietary formula to do the same for their wetsuits, using a method he described as 85% more sustainable than traditional carbon black production.

"It was kind of a no-brainer for us to switch to BolderBlack," Warner says.

Bolder isn't the only company producing reclaimed carbon black for wetsuits, but Patagonia is the first to source the reclaimed material from used wetsuits. The company will collect end-of-life wetsuits, remove the zippers and ship them to Bolder to extract the carbon black. The reclaimed material will then be sent to Patagonia's manufacturer. Bolder will mix old wetsuits with tires so enough BolderBlack is produced for each reincarnated wetsuit, the first of which are set to go on sale in 2025.

Patagonia wetsuit engineer Buddy Pendergast Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg

The rise of fast fashion has made it so that people often find it "cheaper and easier to buy a new item than to repair an existing item," says Veronica Bates Kassatly, a London-based fashion industry analyst focused on sustainability. Patagonia has already flipped that calculation: Wetsuit engineer Buddy Pendergast says the company has a 90% repair rate. But the success of the BolderBlack initiative will depend on getting surfers to send their beyond-repair wetsuits back to Patagonia a final time — at least in their current life — rather than letting them molder in the garage.

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Startups are making cooler clothes for a warmer future. From fabric that reflects sunlight to apparel that comes with its own thermostat, companies are creating outfit options fit for heat waves.
There's a Lululemon backlash. Thousands of yoga instructors and students, including former brand ambassadors, signed a petition to get the apparel giant to convert its supply chain to renewable energy.
Renewcell had a plan to fix fashion waste. The startup turned old clothes into pulp for new textiles. But supply chain snags and lack of reliable customers sent it into a bankruptcy — a warning for the industry.

Old denim ready for pulping at the Renewcell factory. Photographer: Alexander Donka/Renewcell

As the Green Festival draws closer, we're announcing new speakers, events and installations every day. Here are some of the folks joining us in July:

Anna Jane Joyner (founder and CEO, Good Energy)
Adrian Grenier (actor, filmmaker, environmentalist)
Joshua Amponsem (strategy director, Youth Climate Justice Fund)
Mayor Bruce Harrell (mayor, City of Seattle)
Kara Hurst (vice president of worldwide sustainability, Amazon)
Gina McCarthy (first White House national climate advisor)
Scott Z. Burns (screenwriter, director, producer)

You can check out the full roster of speakers here, and stay tuned for more announcements to come. Don't forget to secure your tickets.

That's the share of carbon emissions the UN estimates is generated by textile production, which is dominated by apparel. Textiles' carbon footprint exceeds the impact of maritime shipping and international flights combined.

"Statistically, new surfers are significantly more concerned about sustainability than people who have been surfing for a longer period of time."

Jess Ponting

Founder and director of the Center for Surf Research at San Diego State University

Between 2020 and 2022, 1.4 million people began surfing in the US. Joining lineups that had long been mostly white and male were many more women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

With the energy transition falling behind, cities are scrambling to bridge the gap. One alternative energy option being explored: wastewater. Globally, 380 billion cubic meters of municipal sewage is generated each year, a figure expected to increase 51% by 2050. According to the US Department of Energy, a year's worth of American wastewater alone contains 350 terawatt-hours of energy, enough to heat 30 million homes.

In pipes and sewers, wastewater can maintain a temperature of between 50℉ and 68℉ even in the coldest months. Photographer: Gary Hershorn/Corbis News

Xi's new envoy says climate fight needs China. Efforts by the US and Europe to stem China's dominance in green technologies risk stalling the fight against global warming, according to the veteran diplomat tasked by Xi Jinping to represent the top polluter on climate issues.

Extreme weather is driving more power outages. The US experienced twice as many weather-related power outages from 2014 to 2023 as in the previous decade.

The Sun may be the solution for South Africa's blackouts. GoSolr, a company backed by billionaire Patrice Motsepe and the continent's biggest bank, plans to spend 10 billion rand $537 million to roll out a model of renting solar panels and batteries to homes.

Namibia prepares to produce green hydrogen. The country's first green hydrogen plant is expected to begin operations in the fourth quarter. The project could see $3.5 billion in investment over the next five years.

By Siobhan Wagner

Climate-tech funding on public markets fell 46% in the first three months of 2024, compared with a rolling four-quarter-average, driven by low company valuations and manufacturing overcapacity, according to BloombergNEF.

BNEF's latest quarterly report on climate-tech investment found companies raised only $3 billion through public market deals from the start of the year to the end of March.

"If you look at the indices of clean energy and clean transport, which are the two major sectors that raise lots and lots of big rounds, they're performing worse than the broader overall market," said Mark Daly, head of technology and innovation at BNEF. Clean-tech companies will be less likely to want to IPO with these conditions, he said.

Another reason for the public market funding decline, Daly said, is manufacturing overcapacity – especially for solar equipment – in China. This price pressure is discouraging some solar manufacturers from IPOs, he said.

Still, Daly said the clean-tech funding landscape is not all bad news. "You can actually see VC/PE is still pretty resilient," he said.

Venture capital and private equity investors injected more money into the market last quarter. Climate-tech VC/PE funding totaled $8.3 billion, which was 6% more than the rolling four-quarter-average.

The biggest VC/PE deal of the quarter was IM Motors Technology's Series B raise of $1.1 billion. The Chinese company produces high-end electric SUVs and commercial cars, as well as parts.

Carbon and nature companies – which include areas such as carbon management and biodiversity tech – also got a boost last quarter. VC/PE investment totaled $621 million – 16% higher than the rolling four-quarter average. The biggest deal was emissions-tracking software company Watershed Technology Inc.'s $100 million Series C raise.

This week on Zero, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina talks about making climate investments more attractive globally, and unpacks the projects the bank is already funding – from solar panels in the Sahel to a hydroelectric dam in Mozambique. "The perceived risk is much higher than the real risk of investing in Africa," Adesina says. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple or Spotify to get new episodes every week.

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