Walmart Partners With Biotech Firm on Carbon-Capture Apparel

With the help of a biotech startup, Walmart has figured out a way to convert the carbon emissions of its vast supply chain into the next pair of pants you buy in the store.

Well, maybe not the next pair, but coming soon to a Walmart near you will be apparel made from carbon fibers that have been culled from carbon emissions captured in the retail giant’s supply chain.

Walmart has set up a pilot program with San Francisco-based biotech firm Rubi Laboratories to introduce carbon capture and conversion technology across Walmart’s supply chain, the retailer announced last week.

Rubi will be converting CO2 captured at Walmart supply chain facilities into cellulose using enzymes. Cellulose pulp extracted from atmospheric CO2 will be woven into carbon fibers suitable for making affordable, biodegradable garments.

The pilot program will test Rubi’s carbon capture technology at a select group of Walmart facilities. The partners will jointly test the performance of apparel that is made from fibers produced by Rubi from carbon emissions.

According to Walmart’s release, if the prototype garment is deemed a success, the retailer may make a full clothing collection using the fiber and sell it in its stores. The goal of the program will be to create “affordable, sustainable” clothing that can be produced at scale, Walmart said.

However, Walmart made it clear it envisions much broader applications for Rubi’s carbon-to-cellulose fiber, including in the production of building materials and packaging.

“We see great potential beyond apparel as these pilots could have implications across so many products and industries: packaging, building materials, food and even the creation of new raw material,” Andrea Albright, executive vice president of sourcing at Walmart, wrote in a company blog post.

“The possibilities are staggering, and we’re excited to see where this journey takes us as we work toward a more sustainable and equitable future,” Albright added.

Walmart has set a goal of reaching zero emissions across its operations by 2040. In June, the company said in an investor letter that its suppliers have reduced their greenhouse emissions by more than 750M metric tons since 2017.

Rubi Labs, which brands itself a “symbiotic manufacturing company,” says on its website that it creates “natural textiles” made 100% from carbon emissions, “removing their weight in CO2 from the atmosphere, with virtually zero water and zero land used in the process.”

Rubi says it is “diverting” CO2 emissions “destined for the atmosphere” into its system, which deploys natural enzymes to capture CO2 and convert it to cellulose through a “fully traceable” process.

“No extraction is needed, and we let plants just be plants,” the company said on its website, adding that the cellulose pulp it yields from carbon emissions can be spun into fibers, yarn and textiles.