Stretchline UK (part of the Stretchline Holdings Group) are working in partnership with an East Midlands based consortium made up of Laser Optical Engineering, Loughborough University and Cresco Innovation on a project funded by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Energy Entrepreneurs Fund.

The consortium has received grant funding to develop a brand-new fabric dyeing technology which results in substantial savings in energy, water and dye usage compared with traditional dyeing methods.

Traditionally, textile dyeing and garment production is carried out in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam using high amounts of energy, water and dyes resulting in high levels of pollution.

In recent years many UK brands have begun to take ownership and accountability for the environmental impact caused within their supply chains and have expressed the clear need for a more environmentally sustainable and less energy intensive textile dyeing process.

The game-changing fabric dyeing technology has the potential to enable UK brands to relocate fabric dyeing to the UK to lower their total carbon footprint and create new jobs.

‍