The Bezos Earth Fund has earmarked $34 million for a new slate of US-based research projects aimed at reshaping the raw materials that underpin fashion and textiles. The grants are designed to accelerate alternatives to widely used fibres such as rayon, silk and cotton materials whose cultivation and processing can carry heavy environmental costs by funding early-stage science that could eventually translate into scalable commercial solutions.
The fund said the programmes it is backing target the biggest pressure points in clothing’s impact profile, including emissions, water demand and waste tied to fibre sourcing and manufacturing. Collectively, those stages are estimated to account for roughly 80% of fashion’s environmental footprint. By directing money into new fibre pathways and improved cotton genetics, the Bezos Earth Fund fashion materials push is intended to reduce these upstream burdens before garments ever reach consumers.
The $34 million package is split across four main initiatives:
Bacteria-grown fibre from agricultural waste
Columbia University, working with the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), will receive $11.5 million to develop a textile fibre grown by bacteria that feed on agricultural waste. The material is being engineered to be strong and flexible while remaining biodegradable, with the aim of reducing land use and helping limit microplastic pollution associated with synthetic fibres.
Plastic-free silk alternative inspired by spider silk
The University of California, Berkeley will receive $10 million to develop a biodegradable fibre inspired by spider silk that avoids reliance on animals and plastics. The project brings together researchers from Stanford University and the California Institute of Technology, with the goal of creating a next-generation silk-like material that can deliver performance without conventional environmental trade-offs.
New cotton through gene editing and synthetic biology
Clemson University has been awarded $11 million for a programme to develop new cotton varieties using gene editing and synthetic biology, in collaboration with the University of Georgia. The research aims to deliver cotton with built-in colour and improved resilience, while reducing environmental impacts compared with some existing synthetic options used in apparel.
Rebuilding access to non-GMO cotton genetics
A further $1.5 million will go to the Cotton Foundation to restore and expand a publicly accessible, non-GMO cotton seed bank. The goal is to preserve genetic diversity and provide a resource for farmers and researchers seeking to improve cotton performance and adaptability over time.
Tom Taylor, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, framed the grants as part of a wider mission to back solutions that connect climate action with practical benefits for communities. “At the Bezos Earth Fund we’re constantly looking for groundbreaking new solutions at the intersection of climate, nature, people, and communities to ensure we’re protecting and restoring the world we love. We believe sustainable fashion is part of that mission by making sustainable clothing choices easy, widely available, and ultimately better for the planet and for people.”
The Bezos Earth Fund was created in 2020 after Amazon founder and executive chair Jeff Bezos pledged $10 billion to support climate and nature initiatives over the decade. Fashion has been one area of growing focus. In 2025, the fund and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Foundation launched The Next Thread Initiative, a $6.25 million partnership intended to accelerate sustainable innovation and education across the US fashion sector.
The Earth Fund said insights generated through that initiative will help shape future investments, including in materials science, manufacturing improvements and supply-chain transformation. Taken together, the new grants signal a strategic bet that the next wave of lower-impact apparel will be enabled by breakthroughs in fibre chemistry and biology—placing Bezos Earth Fund fashion materials research at the centre of the long-term effort to decouple fashion growth from environmental harm.
