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OUR CONTRIBUTION TO THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY OF TOMORROW.

For more than 45 years we have been pioneers in promoting sustainability in the textile industry. Every day we prove that there is another way: fair, ecological and fashionable!

We are all the more pleased that our own sustainability prize, the Innovations for Tomorrow Award by hessnatur, will be held for the second time this year and will be dedicated to a particularly important topic: Female Founders * .

OUR PURPOSE.

We too started out as a start-up. To this day we create clothes from natural materials. We are constantly developing new standards for sustainability and thus inspire the entire fashion industry. We take responsibility - not only for nature and our planet, but also for the people who make the fashion. We set new standards and prove every day anew: Fashion can and must be sustainable.
Our award for innovation, sustainability and future Our award for innovation, sustainability and future

Your ideas for more tomorrow.

Already knew? Only every fifth start-up is founded by women*. With our Innovations for Tomorrow Award by hessnatur we would like to support young companies and start-ups that were founded by women and that provide sustainable, innovative and visionary solutions for the challenges of the textile industry of today and tomorrow.

Because we are convinced: together we can achieve even more. With our award we honor your ideas FOR MORE TOMORROW.

That's why we are looking for you: Female (co-)founded green & social start-ups for a sustainable fashion industry with a positive impact.

People and creative minds who dare to try something new and go bold.

  • Which ensure more innovations and further thinking in the value chain.
  • Who are not satisfied with the status quo.
  • Who want to change the fashion industry in the long term.
  • Who work meaningfully and with purpose.
  • Who have a positive impact and want to expand it.
Apply now

Who should apply?

You are (co-)founders and stand for more tomorrow? Do you want to change something? Contribute your big ideas for a better future? You stand for more fairness and responsibility in the fashion industry, for more sensitivity in dealing with resources, for more transparency, data and green technology, for more circular economy, for more biodiversity, for new impact measurements & methods and more positive impact? Then you are exactly right here!

Are you in the ideation or market entry phase? Great. We support you in all phases of your company development.

Our selection criteria:

  • innovation potential
  • economics
  • market potential
  • Your impact on topics such as circular economy, water, environment, biodiversity, human rights, working conditions, land use, climate, etc.

Apply now
What to expect What to expect

What to expect

  • With our award you can document your top position in the areas of sustainability and female founders and place yourself as a pioneer
  • The big stage of the Greentech Festival - the largest event for green and innovative technologies worldwide. Here, five pre-selected start-ups present themselves and their ideas to our jury and the public.
  • Our three winners receive individual coaching from DigitalValley®, the digital innovation ecosystem for Europe
  • Prize money for the three winners.
  • Access to an excellent network of experts.
  • The chance to implement your innovative ideas together with hessnatur and our partners.

GREENTECH FESTIVAL

DIGITAL VALLEY®

Timeline and award ceremony.

  • The application phase runs until April 23, 2023.
  • The review is then carried out by hessnatur, DigitalValley® and our jury.
  • We will contact and announce the five finalists in May 2023 .
  • On June 16, 2023, the big stage of the Greentech Festival in Berlin is waiting for you! The five finalists pitch their ideas here and our jurors select the three winners of the Innovations for Tomorrow Award by hessnatur - Female Founders Edition.

We need these documents from you.

Do you have any questions? Then feel free to contact our Innovations for Tomorrow Award team at ifta@hess-natur.de

Privacy Policy

for the Innovation for Tomorrow Award

Our data protection officer is: Sascha Hesse, AGOR AG. You can address data protection inquires to: datenschutz@hessnatur.de

The purpose of the data processing is the implementation of the competition. Therefore, the following (personal) data which is provided by the participating persons will be used:

  • Application video (max. 30 sec., max. 100Mb, .mp4 file)
  • Application presentation (max. 10 pages, max. 10Mb, .pdf file)
  • Answer to the question: Why do you deserve the award?
  • Name of the company
  • Firstname
  • Lastname
  • Street address
  • Postal code
  • City
  • Country
  • Phone number
  • Email address
  • Instagram profile
  • LinkedIn profile
  • Facebook profile

The legal basis for the data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b GDPR.

The above-mentioned personal data will be deleted after expiry of the statutory retention period.

We would like to emphasize that the above-mentioned (personal) data will be passed on to the jury or the respective jury members. The data will only be passed on for a strictly specific purpose. The data will not be processed for any other purpose than the implementation of the competition.

The five finalists will be announced on our Website and all used Social-Media channels. The three winners will also be the subject of various publications, announcements and public reports

The data subject has the right to gain access to personal data concerning him or her from the controller, as well as the right to rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, the right to object to processing and the right to data portability. Notwithstanding the above mentioned rights, the data subject also has the possibility to contact the respective competent supervisory authority if he or she is of the opinion that the processing of the data concerning him or her violates the GDPR.

Conditions.

The services are provided to the award winners free of charge.

The award is at the sole discretion of hessnatur. There is no legal right to receive the prize at any time. If no application meets hessnatur's criteria, no prize will be awarded.

Note on the confidentiality of the information submitted: hessnatur will treat the information for its own evaluation purposes with care and implement all technical and organizational measures to protect the information. A formal non-disclosure agreement (NDA) cannot be granted upon submission. Therefore, please only pass on information that does not require such a declaration of confidentiality.

German law applies.

* For better readability, the generic feminine is used here. The personal designations used refer to all FLINTA (women, lesbians, inter, non-binary, trans and agender).

REVIEW – INNOVATIONS FOR TOMORROW AWARD 2022.

The nominees The nominees

The winners.

It was an exciting and extremely close final. All five Impact Startups were great! But our jury made its decision and the three winners have been determined. We are very happy with:

The three start-ups receive prize money and a start-up grant from the Impact Factory. They also have the chance to implement their innovative ideas with us

Thank you - we look forward to next year.

We would like to thank everyone who supported our project and made it possible.

  • THANK YOU to our three amazing partners: GREENTECH FESTIVAL , Impact Factory , DigitalValley ®
  • our wonderful jury
  • our great moderator Nina Eichinger
  • the numerous start-ups that have applied
  • all hessnatur employees. It wouldn't have been possible without you!

The nominees The nominees

The finalists.

Five impact start-ups completely convinced our jury. They are coming with us to Berlin to pitch their innovative ideas on the big stage of the Greentech Festival on June 24, 2022.

Also nominated were:
Bearwear
BEAWEAR is a fashion tech solution that eliminates the misfit problem and drastically reduces online returns, costs and waste. We make precise clothing size recommendations and create digital twins with virtual try-on.
Bearwear
EEDEN
EEDEN develops the most efficient chemical upcycling process for used textiles. With us, old clothes can be turned into new, high-quality textiles. In this way, the limited resources of our planet are protected.
EEDEN
LOVR
LOVR is a 100% plant-based alternative to leather, made from hemp residues. We work with partners from the textile, furniture and automotive industries to ensure that LOVR is used as widely as possible.
Made with lovr
Repair Rebels
Repair Rebels is a platform where technology meets traditional craftsmanship - we offer fashion lovers an easy solution to repair their clothes and shoes. Our goal is to use a digital concept to draw particular attention to local solutions and thus to digitize the analogue market for fashion repairs, which is still highly fragmented today.
Repair Rebels
retraced
retraced is a sustainability management platform that connects fashion and textile companies with all those involved in their supply chains on a single digital platform, thus ensuring efficient data exchange and transparency right down to the raw material. This is driving the sustainable change in the fashion industry.
retraced
The award ceremony on June 24, 2022 in Berlin.
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