Signals

The Netherlands ­– Would you wear clothes made with human hair? While the idea may initially repulse you, Human Material Loop wants to flip the narrative and normalise the use of abundant human hair waste to craft better-for-the-planet and surprisingly compelling textiles.

Dutch company Human Material Loop has found its niche in turning hair into new materials that require minimal land and water use after collecting hair cuttings from participating hair salons. Thorough research and development led the company to create yarns with similar properties to that made from sheep’s wool, but significantly slashing carbon emissions from greenhouse gases.

‘Throughout history, we’ve utilised a variety of animal fibres in textiles, yet our own hair, composed of the same keratin protein as wool, often goes overlooked,’ explains the company’s founder and CEO Zsofia Kollar. ‘Why not treat human hair as we would any other valuable textile fibre?’

Human Material Loop will launch a commercial pilot in 2024, starting by targeting the architecture and interior design markets. Find out more about designers rewriting the negative tropes around materials in Material Matters 2023: Designing Tomorrow’s Narratives.

US – A ground-breaking US report released in October 2023 by hybrid work management start-up Scoop, in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, challenges the narrative about remote working policies and revenue growth. Analysing data from 554 public companies, the study reveals that those offering employees flexibility in choosing their work environment outperformed their counterparts by 16 percentage points in revenue growth between 2020 and 2022.

Scoop CEO Rob Sadow expressed surprise at the substantial gap in a press release: ‘That gap was really surprising to us – and larger than expected.’ The report counters the prevailing scepticism about remote working, shedding light on its potential to drive higher revenue.

The report distinguishes between companies with ‘fully flexible’ policies, boasting a 21% industry-adjusted revenue growth rate, and those with more restrictive policies, with only a 5% growth rate. While the report doesn’t claim causation, it highlights a correlation between flexible policies and forward-thinking, purposeful, and engaging work environments.

Sadow believes the data debunks the notion that flexibility hinders performance. He said: ‘The data suggests that not only is that not true in terms of underperformance, but you might actually outperform.’

As explored in our Work States Futures macrotrend, flexibility and wellbeing are now crucial to retain talent – especially Gen Z workers who might not have experienced the reality of a full-time job in an office before.