By Chavie Lieber
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are doubling down on their commitment to fashion.
The Bezos Earth Fund awarded $34 million in grants to institutions studying and developing materials that might someday replace polyester and cotton -- the world's most popular textiles and among the most reliant on natural resources. Researchers are creating biodegradable textile fiber and plastic-free synthetic silk, among other alternatives, that are costly to produce but could reduce the climate impact of the clothing industry.
"When you start asking questions about what clothes could be made of, the answers are incredible," Sánchez Bezos, the foundation's vice chair, told The Wall Street Journal in a statement. "We're investing in the scientists changing what fabric is actually made from. The future of fashion is being invented right now. We're just supporting the people doing it."
The Bezos Earth Fund was created in 2020 with a $10 billion pledge to back climate change projects. Its founding, while Bezos was still Amazon's chief executive, followed employee criticism of the company's environmental impact.
Though the fund has largely focused on conservation, president and CEO Tom Taylor said fashion is another target for the billionaire founder and his wife, a TV journalist turned helicopter pilot. In addition to funding these grants through their foundation, the couple is the lead sponsor of this year's Met Gala, a glitzy fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute. Their donation supports both the event and a new fashion exhibit opening to the public in May.
The Bezos Earth Fund grants aim to address longstanding concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and pollution from clothing companies.
"The use of fossil fuels in the fashion industry is a big issue," Taylor said.
Synthetic materials such as polyester and viscose are common across fast-fashion and luxury, since they're cheaper to buy and can be easier to work with than natural fibers. But the fabrics, made with oil and coal, have a high carbon footprint and aren't biodegradable. Research has shown that materials such as polyester also shed microplastics and "forever chemicals" that can make their way into drinking and seawater, sparking widespread health concerns.
Materials are just one part of a global fashion supply chain that contributes to environmental issues. Activists have long criticized shipping giants including Amazon, the world's largest clothing retailer, for carbon emissions. Last year, the e-commerce giant said it delivered over 13 billion items through its same-day or next day delivery globally.
Taylor said the Bezos Earth Fund is separate from Amazon. He said Amazon "has a climate pledge and is working on that," referring to the company's efforts to become net-zero carbon by 2040. An Amazon spokesman said that by the end of 2024, the company's efforts had reduced carbon emissions per shipment by one-third from their 2019 levels.
Researchers have been developing sustainable materials, from mushroom leather to shellfish fabrics, for over a decade. Companies such as H&M, Lululemon and luxury group Kering have invested in the space.
But there have been roadblocks to the widespread adoption of these fabrics. The cost to make greener materials at scale is high and some startups have run out of cash. The endeavor has also failed to widely capture the interest of shoppers and designers, especially when polyester and other materials fetch much lower prices.
"It's small, underfunded and lacks those industry relationships that could push it further and deeper," Steven Kolb, president and CEO of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, said of the efforts to make new sustainable materials.
Taylor said the Bezos foundation hopes to accelerate the development of the materials it's funding, with the goal of getting some to shoppers within three to five years.
The Bezos Earth Fund said its grant recipients include Columbia University, in partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology; the University of California, Berkeley; Clemson University; and the Cotton Foundation, a nonprofit.
Helen H. Lu, a professor of biomedical engineering at the Columbia University Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, said the Bezos grant will allow the team she's coleading to study and produce a biodegradable textile fiber grown from bacteria that feeds on agricultural waste.
The grant money, Lu said, will be used to hire more researchers and overcome technical problems in the material development. She said the timing is critical given "uncertainty in federal funding." Last year the Trump administration canceled over 1,600 grants from the National Science Foundation, a federal agency.
Some sustainable fashion experts advocate for the reduction of clothing production, and recommend that consumers buy less or secondhand. Taylor said the foundation is investing in material science because the team doesn't believe shoppers should feel like they are sacrificing.
"Different people have different values, and that's fine," he said. "Segments of [sustainable fashion] may have different approaches. This is ours."
Write to Chavie Lieber at Chavie.Lieber@WSJ.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 24, 2026 05:00 ET (09:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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