ESG Outlook is Sourcing Journal's discussion series with industry executives to get their take on their company's latest environmental, social and governance initiatives and their own personal efforts toward sustainability. Here, Vicki von Holzhausen, founder and designer of materials company von Holzhausen, discusses bringing plant-based vegan leathers to scale.
What do you consider to be your company's best ESG-related achievement over the past five years?
Since 2015, we have been on a mission to design low-carbon materials from plants to replace all leather and plastics with plants for good, through von Holzhausen. With our state-of-the-art technology, innovation lab, and world-class factories, our innovations are the first of their kind to exist at scale. Through our two-pronged business model, we can experiment with our brand of vegan accessories while providing viable material solutions for enterprise companies at scale.
We've researched and perfected our plant-based materials while continuing to build upon them. These materials range form plant-based alternatives to leather, vegan leathers, and 100 percent plant-based topcoat technology, which can be used on anything from paper to fabric, paint, wood and beyond, disrupting traditional materials. Our innovations can be used for fashion, furniture, automotive, marine and aviation, creating new standards of sustainable design using materials of the future. By harnessing the power of plants, we've achieved a massive opportunity for the future of various industries with our breakthrough innovations introduced this year.
