Life cycle assessment of MycoWorks’ Reishi™: the first low-carbon and biodegradable alternative leather

Abstract

Background: Over the past few years, several alternative leather technologies have emerged and promise advantages over incumbent leathers with respect to sustainability despite most containing enough plastic to prevent safe and effective biodegradation. Of the alternative leathers in production or advanced development, few fit the dual criteria of low-carbon and near-zero plastic. Reishi™ is a leather alternative, grown using MycoWorks’ Fine Mycelium™ technology, with less than 1% polymer content and satisfies the same performance, quality, and hand feel as animal leather. We present here the first Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Reishi™, detailing its “cradle-to-gate” carbon footprint and broader environmental profile. The pilot- and full-scale production of 1 m2 of post-processed, finished, and packaged Reishi™ both before and after production improvement implementations is modeled, and the environmental footprint impact assessment method is performed. Results: It was found that Reishi’s™ carbon footprint is as low as 2.76 kg CO2-eq per m2, or 8% of the value of the bovine leather benchmark modeled. Furthermore, it was found that Reishi™ has a lower impact compared to bovine leather modeled across a number of impact categories, including eutrophication, ecotoxicity, human health effects, and others. Reishi’s™ impact “hotspots” were determined, with the largest opportunity for further reduction being improved energy efficiency in the growth of mycelium, in particular, the process’s sterilization of raw material inputs via autoclave tools. It is also shown that MycoWorks’ passive process for growing mycelium has a carbon footprint two orders of magnitude lower than incumbent mycelium growth processes that actively consume carbon dioxide gas, which MycoWorks’ process does not require. Conclusions: Reishi™ is shown to be a promising sustainable material through its unique combination of natural quality, low-carbon footprint as determined by this LCA, and biodegradability due to its lack of plastic or crosslinked content. Its manufacturing process is low impact even when produced at a scale of tens of thousands of square meters per year—a miniscule fraction of the billions of square meters of bovine leather already sold per year. With further use of this leather alternative, additional efficiency gains are likely to be realized.