Mycotech

Mushroom leather that is better for the planet
2019 SEED Low Carbon Awards; IKI BMU
Waste Management
Bandung
Indonesia

Mylea is vegan leather made from mushroom, produced by Mycotech. Mycotech collaborates with designers to develop Mylea into end products using co-creative profit sharing schemes. Beyond producing this innovative material; they aim to create more eco-consciousness in the fashion industry.

Vegan leather has a market potential as a substitution of animal-based leather. Mylea's target is to serve 0.04% of Indonesia's leather footwear market.

Eco-Inclusive Impacts
Aiming to move fashion industry towards sustainability, Mylea contributes to the circular economy in its manufacturing process. Mylea also includes local farmers in its value chain as agriculture waste suppliers and mushroom growers. This means more jobs and more income to them.
  • Enhancing skills and provide decent jobs to mushroom farmers, currently 270 farmers (64% are women), with a potential to reach 53,000 mushroom farmers across the archipelago
  • Providing extra income to farmers as agri-waste suppliers
  • Reducing 10.6 billion kg of CO2 per annum per production of 1 million sqft. of Mylea
  • Lowering resource consumption through reduced leather harvest time compared to cow leather (5 days vs 2 years and  45L vs 80,000L of water used)
  • Creating new economy within the synthetic leather market and sustainable fashion (total market worth USD1.3T)
  • Contributing to trend shifting in fashion industry toward green economy as Mylea attracts many big fashion brands

Partners

Mycotech produces Mylea, eco-friendly leather made from mushroom mycelium grown in agricultural waste like sawdust, sugarcane, and palm oil. Mylea aims to disrupt the animal and petroleum-based leather market and has a zero chemical treatment process which is better for the environment.

DBS Foundation is DBS Bank’s CSR arm to nurture social enterprise. Mycotech has received their capacity building supports since 2015