In Tennessee, Stony Creek Colors is the first company in the United States to grow the indigo plant at a scale usable by the commercial denim industry. Most indigo used for denim and jeans and other products today is derived from non-renewable fossil fuels, but SCC is changing that.
Founder Sarah Bellos told Green Biz, “For a truly sustainable solution, the source material must be renewable. By shifting the textile dye source from petrochemical to plant-based, “we can actually sequester carbon in both soil and product.” SCC only harvests the leaves of the indigo plant so that they can put stem back into the Earth. Based on SCC’s typical harvest scenario per season and two-leaf regrowth cycle, the estimated carbon captured per acre from their indigo is about 3,500 pounds.
Bellos received critical support in the early development of commercializing the U.S. production of the indigo plant. The United States Department of Agriculture provided two phases of SBIR grants, and the National Science Foundation recently has granted SCC an STTR award. Seed and Series A round investors include Jumpfund (an investor network investing in female-led startups in the Southeastern U.S.), Serious Change, Propel Capital and Village Capital.