Storytelling on Sustainable

product development

Challenge & Selection    Storytelling is a great tool that I use all the time. I work with customers in apparels sector. With the  increasing demand for fast fashion, leading brands recognize that they must act immediately to  reduce their footprint on the environment. Our responsibility does not simply end once our  products have been purchased, but instead continues till the same products reach their inevitable  end of life. Ordinary polyester takes many hundreds of years to naturally biodegrade, which has  contributed in making the textile industry the second largest polluting industry in the world.  Millions of tons of textile waste are dumped into landfills across the world every single year.  While recycling is the ideal solution, less than 10% of waste is recyclable. Sustainability is already  at Peak as Customers looking towards more environmentally friendly products and looking for  replacement of conventional Polyester. With my customers I share stories of my product in order to  help them visualize a end product, I use their feedback against the context of my story to ascertain their  goals, and sometimes we use stories to better understand their interests and thought processes. I use this  information to develop different strategies to try and find a way that works for them to achieve  sustainable environment.    Application     In discussing sustainable product developments with apparels customers, I was trying to explain to them  the benefits of taking a biodegradable polyester, compare to conventional polyester. Biodegradable  polyester fiber is shaking up the market and proven fiber to accelerate degradation in an oxygen- deficient environment. Biodegradable Polyester based garments will be identical to regular  garments through their life cycle and can even be recycled like any other polyester garments.  They will never exhibit any amount of biodegradation during use. Once they are exposed to  naturally occurring microbes found in specific environments, such as landfills or large bodies of  water, they begin to exhibit accelerated biodegradation. The only by-products left behind are  CO2, water and two clean energy fuels – Methane and Biomass    Insight & Approach    I presented benefits of biodegradable polyester to my customer and that was an eye-opener for  brands. As big brands and private labels address a growing need to be more sustainable from a  recycled and bio-degradable perspective, we have developed the right product with the right  properties that will positively impact the landfill option. Product accelerates the biodegradation  in microbe-rich environments. Fabric made from bio degradable polyester  reacts microbes and  become quorum sensing and colonize on its surface. This results highly nutritional soil creates an  improved environment for the microbes and enhances the final stage of decomposition.    So I told this story to customer, and I think it had a big impact on them. The joint developments  are being planned and the product developments are being under final discussion. Sometimes a  little story can do a lot of good.    This course made me see this as a tool in a new way. I can prepare ahead and think of stories  that will assist me in presenting my ideas and best illuminate them.    I have a textile background, but I ended up as an quality controller in textile manufacturing

business. This would ever be considered an great asset for me and I am so very grateful that it is!

