Xeros Technology Group: Making Fashion More Sustainable

When it comes to sustainability, the fashion industry has often been accused of being one of the worst offenders: not just in terms of the volume of fast fashion that is purchased and discarded across the world, but also in its manufacturing processes.

A life-cycle analysis of its jeans carried out by Levi Strauss found that producing the fabric accounted for 27 percent of energy consumption and 6 percent of water consumption. Growing the cotton to make the fabric uses a whopping 68 percent of the water total, even when you include people washing their jeans at home.

It is also estimated that 70 percent of Asia's rivers and lakes are contaminated by the 2.5 billion gallons of wastewater produced by Asia’s textile industry, according to an article in Ecowatch.

Xeros Technology Group was set up with the primary purpose of helping industries protect and conserve water, as well reduce carbon emissions and tackle plastic pollution.

About the company

Xeros Technology Group emerged from the world-renowned School of Textiles at the University of Leeds in the UK. The company develops and licenses technology that helps the garment manufacturing and cleaning industries to reduce water consumption and energy use in processes such as dyeing or washing. Its business model is therefore entirely built on its intellectual property (IP).

Xeros technologies include:

• XOrbs™ – spheroidal-shaped polymers which only need low levels of water and chemicals to remove dirt and stray dyes when washing textiles. They also make dye penetration and fixation in clothing processes more efficient, dramatically cutting down on the time, water and energy required.
• XDrum™ – a system to enable existing conventional washing machines to use XOrbs™, thereby avoiding the need to purchase new machines.
• XFiltra™ – captures over 99 percent of the microfibres generated in a load of laundry. These microfibres are too small to be captured by most wastewater treatment plants. The XFiltra™ system ensures that they do not end up in our rivers and oceans.

Uptake of Xeros’ technologies

Xeros’ technologies improve sustainability and cut costs through reduced consumption of water and energy because they do not need hot water to operate. This makes them extremely attractive to manufacturers, especially in countries now enacting much tougher environmental regulations around waste water discharge. As a result, the company has recently signed development agreements with companies in China, Hong Kong (SAR) and India. These include a joint development agreement for Xeros’ microplastics filtration technology with a leading provider of commercial laundry services, and a licensing agreement with Ramsons Garment Finishing Equipments (Private) Limited, one of the largest garment finishing equipment suppliers in South Asia.

Xeros and intellectual property

Xeros technologies are covered by more than 40 patent families, filed in countries representing more than 90 percent of global GDP. They have filed all their patents through the WIPO-administered Patent Cooperation Treaty.