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Patagonia is investing in ways to make outdoor gear using environmentally friendly chemicals.
Patagonia is investing in ways to make outdoor gear using environmentally friendly chemicals. (Photo: Isaac Lane Koval/iStock)

Waterproof, Breathable, and Toxin-Free

Patagonia is upping its own environmental ante with a $1 million investment in Beyond Surface Technologies, a Swiss company that鈥檚 pushing petrochemicals out of the gear closet

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Patagonia is investing in ways to make outdoor gear using environmentally friendly chemicals.
(Photo: Isaac Lane Koval/iStock)

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Your ski jacket is full of petrochemicals. Ditto聽a fair amount of the other clothing in your closet that attains that magical, paradoxical state of being both waterproof and breathable when you鈥檙e hiking or biking up a steep ridge in a fierce storm.

Through decades of tweaks and improvements, material scientists and chemists have produced these miracle fabrics through a combination of membranes and finishes. High performance comes at an environmental cost, however, since these substances rely on petrochemical feed stocks. Plus, the use of perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in finishes used to create durable water-repellent (DWR) exteriors鈥攁 key part of that waterproof-breathable magic that outerwear can attain鈥攈as聽an especially dark side: The chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is a by-product of PFC production, and studies have shown it to cause developmental problems in lab animals. The toxin, which plays聽a role in many industrial applications, has made its way into the environment, and small amounts are found everywhere, from the blood of polar bears to the blood of most humans.

Today, nearly every major outdoor apparel brand uses PFC-based finishes for waterproof-breathable jackets and pants. The EPA has been working with chemical companies for years to phase out the DWR finish, known as C8,聽that produces the most PFOA. Most companies are moving to a different DWR, known as C6, but here鈥檚 the rub: This alternative falls short in terms of performance, and it still generates trace amounts of PFOA. Plus, it鈥檚 still reliant on petrochemical feedstocks.

鈥淚f it鈥檚 approved to rub into your skin or to eat, it should be okay to functionalize your textile with.鈥

As part of its larger mission to reduce the environmental impacts of its products and supply chain, Patagonia announced earlier this month聽that its venture arm, , has 聽(BST), a Swiss startup that鈥檚 developing plant-based chemicals it believes can replace conventional PFC-based finishes.

BST was formed in 2008 by a group of textile industry veterans with a strong background in chemistry who wanted to produce waterproof-breathable textile finishes differently. 鈥淚t dawned on me that it is a bit crazy what we were doing,鈥澛爏ays BST director Mathias Foessel, referring to mainstream companies seeking alternative petro-based finishes. 鈥淲e were developing products with inherent hazards, and then trying to find the best way to mitigate those risks or control those hazards.鈥

So BST started developing alternatives to the alternatives. 鈥淲hat if we eliminated the risks to begin with? Why not come up with [textile] finishes with lower hazards or no hazards? And then we can use crude oil for something more important.鈥

Five years in, BST has brought three different bio-based finishes to market that聽are already being used by a number of major brands, including Patagonia, Levi鈥檚, Adidas, and Puma.

These finishes include the , which is designed for use on base layers; , a natural acid-based finish for denim (replacing a conventional finish that contains formaldehyde, Foessel says); and , which is the holy grail of textile finishes because it is designed for waterproof-breathable shell fabrics.聽

BST is using a range of agricultural and algal products as feedstocks, with a focus on raw materials that have been approved to use in personal care products or food additives. 鈥淚f it鈥檚 approved to rub into your skin or to eat, it should be okay to functionalize your textile with,鈥澛燜oessel reasons. BST also avoids GMOs and plants that would compete with food crops. It is also using some waste products from the production of other bio-based chemicals, such as biodiesel.聽

BST鈥檚 work聽is far from complete. Foessel says he鈥檚 confident that the Midori Biosoft and Biolink products are on par with the performance of their crude-based counterparts, but the current formulation for Evopel is a work in progress. For one, Evopel relies on a mix of crude- and bio-based feedstocks at this stage (Biosoft and Biolink are both 100 percent bio-based). For another, it鈥檚 not ready to go neck-and-neck with conventional waterproofing finishes.

鈥淭here is research needed to put it up a notch and increase performance,鈥澛爃e says of Evopel. 鈥淲ith PFCs used in sportswear and apparel, you have different classes of performance and expectations. We believe [Evopel] is not good enough yet.鈥

This is why that $1 million from Patagonia is well timed.聽

Natural fibers have drawbacks not only in terms of performance but also the amount of water needed to produce them compared to synthetics.
Natural fibers have drawbacks not only in terms of performance but also the amount of water needed to produce them compared to synthetics. (Courtesy of Patagonia)

The financial support from $20 Million and聽Change is also the first outside funding BST has accepted;聽until now, the founders have bootstrapped the firm. 鈥淲e have turned down other investors who wanted to take a larger role [in BST], and we declined because we felt it was important to keep the freedom of being able to work and test what we want to, and even fail and come back and restart. That鈥檚 part of the fun,鈥澛燜oessel says. 鈥淲e have to be independent in our decision聽making. We have a high rate of failure, and if there was someone in the back room trying to veto ideas, we鈥檇 not have gotten here.鈥

Of course, even if BST succeeds in disrupting the crude-based textile finishes sector, most of the fabric its products will be used on will continue to be derived from crude (although聽many polyesters are made from recycled PET bottles).聽

All consumer products have environmental impacts, and those impacts have to be viewed across the product鈥檚聽entire lifecycle鈥攏atural fibers have drawbacks not only in terms of performance but also the amount of water needed to produce them聽compared to synthetics. Still, Foessel believes it may be possible to use the Biolink finish on base layers made from natural fibers and match the wicking performance of synthetics, though that would require innovations from other parts of the textile world. 鈥淲e started at zero. We came with a strong passion. I think we need experts in other fields who can do the same [to put the performance of natural fibers on par with synthetics].鈥

Lead Photo: Isaac Lane Koval/iStock

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