Holly Edwards Of Lost Woods: What Our Company is Doing to Become More Sustainable

An Interview With Martita Mestey

It’s very difficult to find ethical suppliers — and most manufacturers with ethical certifications are big companies that won’t work with you because your ordering ability is too low.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Holly Edwards.

Lost Woods is a luxury vegan fashion brand based in Australia. The brand uses an innovative, plastic-free, circular material in their sophisticated designs. Lost Woods products are made ethically. With the Lost Woods vegan fashion brand, sustainability, compassion, and luxury go hand in hand.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

My pleasure! Growing up I was really unsure about what I wanted to do for a career. I was good at writing in school, so I was set on studying journalism for a long time. But I didn’t love writing. I was decent at maths too, but I didn’t love maths. I loved creating, specifically drawing and painting, but I didn’t think art was a ‘practical’ career, and couldn’t see myself creating for the sake of creating. I wanted something that I was passionate about, and that I felt really mattered in the world.

Lost, I decided to throw my net wide and study business at university. What kind of business did I want to start or work in? I had no idea. Some kind of not-for-profit doing something good.

I chose marketing as my major, and quickly realised that design was a big part of marketing. My university offered a double degree in Business and Design, so I jumped at the chance. I had no experience with digital design, but I quickly fell in love with graphics — it’s like painting but with an undo button, lol. Web design was also great fun — I loved the combination of coding and art, logic and aesthetic. I realised this was something I could enjoy for a long time.

For my final design project, I had to create and market a product that I wanted to exist in the world. I’d been a big animal lover my whole life, and a vegetarian since I was 14 years old. I didn’t like buying animal leather, but it always bothered me that the only alternative was a low-quality, plastic based material. I searched the internet for a better option, and discovered a material used for hundreds of years in Portugal and Spain — cork. Yes, the same cork as champagne bottles, but pressed into a fabric and backed with cotton or polyester. Cork comes from renewable tree bark that is stripped from a cork oak tree every decade. I’m no seamstress, but I cut patterns on the university laser cutter and sewed together some very rough, very rustic clutch purses.

After university I worked in a marketing agency, but always held on to the idea of a more sustainable, high-quality option to pleather. I went through a few iterations of the business, prototyping bags with fabrics such as cork, cactus, and grape based leathers. This all led to today — the launch of my brand Lost Woods.

What is the mission of your company? What problems are you aiming to solve?

The main reason that I started the business is because there wasn’t a viable high-quality, sustainable alternative to animal leather.

Whilst animal leather is a quality and long-lasting product, the cattle industry is an environmental disaster. It’s responsible for 80% of the deforestation in the Amazon. Our brand name pays homage to all of the forests and wildlife lost to the leather industry.

The cattle industry is also responsible for about 14.5% of all human-induced emissions, overuse of antibiotics on animals increasing resistance, massive waterway pollution (from both animal waste runoff and tanning chemicals), and water waste — it takes an estimated 17,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of leather. This is all before you consider animal exploitation.

I think it’s devastating that humans have taken one of the greatest joys of our planet, animals, and turned them into products. Did you know that humans kill more than 200 million land animals for food per day? World War II, the deadliest conflict in human history, killed 60 to 85 million people — less animals than we kill in a day. That’s not counting sea creatures, animals killed indirectly by habitat destruction, or animals killed specifically for other industries — like animals killed for their exotic skins in the fashion industry.

As I’m sure you’re aware, the alternative to animal leather in the past has been low quality plastic-based vegan leather. Even new ‘plant-based’ based options, like cactus, grape or pineapple leather, still contain a decent percentage of plastic, and rely on it for their durability.

The material that we are using, MIRUM®, is the first in the world to be completely natural and plastic-free. It’s made from tree rubber, minerals, plant fibres, oils and waxes at a factory in Illinois that is powered by renewable energy. It’s up to 10x less greenhouse gas emitting to produce than conventional animal or plastic leather. It’s beautiful and high-quality. It’s durable enough to be approved by the automotive industry and is already being used by brands like BMW for car interiors.

Can you tell our readers about the initiatives that you or your company are taking to address climate change or sustainability? Can you give an example for each?

Lost Woods addresses climate change and sustainability by promoting a next generation material that is far better for the environment than any other leather accessory on the market today. We hope to strip the misperception of animal leather as a natural luxury product by providing a beautiful, quality, eco-friendly alternative.

Most leather comes from the beef industry, which is commonly thought of as a good thing — recycled waste, right? The global leather goods market was worth an estimated USD 420 billion in 2022. Leather is hardly waste. Instead, it’s an important co-product, produced by an industry that is steadily ruining the environment.

As I mentioned previously, cattle ranching is one of the biggest drivers of deforestation in the world, and is responsible for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The second biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon is soy production. All those annoying vegans and their tofu, right? Actually, 80% of soy production is used as feed for livestock.

Deforestation contributes to climate change mainly by releasing stored carbon and reducing the capacity of forests to absorb carbon dioxide, altering the albedo (amount of light reflected back into the atmosphere) and the water cycle, releasing other greenhouse gases, degrading soils, and reducing plant and animal biodiversity.

Additionally, cattle produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas, during digestion. The industry also consumes large amounts of water and necessitates the use of fertilisers and pesticides for feed production, contributing to water pollution and nitrous oxide emissions. The pollution from agricultural runoff hurts the health and biodiversity of rivers and oceans. Overall, the beef industry’s resource-intensive nature and emissions make it one of the more substantial contributors to climate change.

Interestingly, despite all of the environmental destruction that the industry causes, and while similar materials like fur have been globally condemned, leather has maintained its image as a coveted luxury product. Apart from greenwashing by the leather industry — I blame the lack of a high quality, eco-friendly alternative.

Traditional faux leather has been rebranded as ‘vegan leather’ in recent years. This is technically correct — it’s not made from animals — but brands have been using the eco connotations associated with veganism to greenwash a plastic based product.

Pleather is made from PVC or polyurethane — plastic derived from petroleum fossil fuels. Although faux leather lacks the animal abuse component, production of pleather involves significant water, energy and chemicals, and plastic waste is steadily polluting our world. Pleather is also typically of a lower quality than animal leather and will flake with age.

There have been some developments of polyurethane made from vegetable oil instead of petrol, but ultimately, PU is still plastic and will never break down. A range of ‘plant-based’ faux leathers have hit the market in recent years, but unfortunately, they still rely on a percentage of plastic to achieve their durability.

Until now! As mentioned, MIRUM® is produced in a renewable energy powered factory. It requires no water use during production, and emits no wastewater. It’s made from 47% natural rubber, 26% natural fibres and fillers, 27% plant oils and waxes and backed with natural cotton. Specific ingredients include rubber, leaves, soybean oil, clay, quartz, cork shavings, coconut husks, etc.

Did you know that natural rubber comes from tree sap? Sustainably managed rubber farms can actually result in net negative carbon emissions, because of the carbon that the trees absorb from the atmosphere.

How would you articulate how a business can become more profitable by being more sustainable and more environmentally conscious? Can you share a story or example?

I only just launched and invested a lot in research, development, and production — so talk to me about profitability in the future, lol.

On an industrial level, consumers are becoming increasingly conscious, and looking for sustainable and cruelty free alternatives. You would barely have heard the phrase ‘vegan fashion’ ten years ago, but recent projections estimate the vegan fashion market to reach US$ 835.7 billion by 2030.

These industries are starting to boom, and making the extra effort as a brand can really help you to connect with your audience on a deeper level. It becomes less transactional, because your customers know you have a purpose, a heart, and a story. It has to be genuine though — customers can see right through greenwashing or token sustainable initiatives with little impact.

Not only does being environmentally conscious increase your connection with your customer base, it can give you an edge working with other businesses — whether you’re looking to be stocked in retail or featured in the press. It gives you more to talk about. You can see retailers around the world implementing sustainable collections and edits — because everyone is concerned about climate change and pollution, and the demand for solutions is growing rapidly.

The youth led climate strikes of September 2019 showed an impressive degree of activism and initiative by young people on behalf of climate change. This was great, and there is still plenty that needs to be done. In your opinion what are a few things parents should do to inspire the next generation to become engaged in sustainability and the environmental movement?

I think being honest with young people about the world and our impact on it is important. Through our daily choices, including our diet and purchases, we have a big environmental footprint.

Things like recycling were the most often plugged to me growing up. Recycling is great, when it’s done properly, but a lot of what we put in the recycling bin never gets recycled. If anything is dirty or contaminated, it goes to landfill. It also depends on the market demand and profitability of recycled materials. The percentage of what is recycled varies dramatically between countries. A study by the group Beyond Plastics estimates that the 2021 USA plastic recycling rate was between 5% and 6%…

We really need to inspire the younger generation to avoid buying plastic when they can — and to lobby companies to change from plastic packaging to more sustainable alternatives. Even clothes are made from plastic — the bulk of what you see on shelves today is polyester, or a similar cheap petroleum-based fabric. We can inspire young people to buy less, and buy better. Maybe that means spending more on items that have been made with purpose, thrifting and repeating outfits more often. Try to lead by example.

Other issues like saving the whales or avoiding straws were really pushed to me growing up. These are both great initiatives, but focusing on saving a particular species and on a token plastic waste item glosses over the bigger issues at play.

Fishing is actually the biggest cause of plastic waste in the sea. A study published in 2019 in the scientific journal ‘Marine Policy’ estimated that fishing gear makes up approximately 46% to 70% of the macro-plastics by weight in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is a large accumulation of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean.

The bulk of the population feels enraged with the concept of ‘pushing’ ideas like veganism on children. But whatever you are teaching your children to eat is a value set that you’re pushing. Meat and dairy production is devastating for the environment. Ironically, most children are born loving animals, and are horrified when they find out what they are actually eating, until they are conditioned not to care. Perhaps, if we instead nurtured the love of animals in our young people, the environment would be in better shape, and animals wouldn’t have to live such terrible, unnatural lives on factory farms.

Watching documentaries can be really powerful — and studies have shown that documentaries can sometimes succeed in changing a person’s long-term views better than a conversation. This is because people tend to let their guard down and open their mind to new perspectives when they are relaxed watching TV — more so than a conversation with another person, because they switch out of the defensive ‘winning the debate’ mindset.

Spending time in nature is important. This could be as simple as taking your kids for a walk at your local beach or forest, or feeding the local birds. A lot of families can’t afford to travel abroad — but if you can, it was one of the biggest things that inspired me growing up. We went to places close to Australia like Fiji, and the time that I spent snorkelling and watching sea animals in their beautiful underwater world inspired in me a real love and respect for the ocean. Obviously, the transit involved with travel creates emissions, and I am all for supporting new technologies, carbon offsetting, and taking travel slow if possible. But at the same time — I think seeing what the world has to offer is one of the biggest motivators in protecting it.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1 . It’s very difficult to find ethical suppliers — and most manufacturers with ethical certifications are big companies that won’t work with you because your ordering ability is too low.

My first attempt at a business out of university was a black cork tote bag I got made in China. But I wanted to move my bag manufacturing away from my Chinese factory, because I was concerned about the intense work culture and tendency for workers to live at the factory.

From the point that I sold out of my tote bags, it took another 3 years of searching to find another manufacturer that I was happy with.

I tried to find a formally certified manufacturer — I scoured ISO excel documents of thousands and thousands of records and sent emails to any relevant certified factories around the world. However, it was very hard to get an email back, and virtually impossible to find anyone that would work with me on low order quantities, especially with vegan materials.

I did get a prototype made with one fair trade factory in India, but unfortunately the quality wasn’t good enough to move ahead. I also got prototypes made with a certified Mexican factory, but they moved to a larger facility and upped their MOQs too high just before I was going to produce.

I ended up choosing a small family run workshop near Porto in Portugal. It was started in 1975, by the founder when he was a young man, sewing bags from his house. Nowadays it is run by his two daughters. I’ve visited the factory, and it’s a lovely little workshop of about 20 experienced craftspeople. I chose them because they were transparent, always video calling me and sharing their process on social media, and they were really excited about my sustainable concept. I’ve developed a close relationship with them over the years — especially with my project manager, who regularly sends me photos, videos and life updates. They don’t have an official certification, but we have a mutual agreement on fair working conditions based on the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If my business is a success, it’s on the cards for us to co-fund and an official certification in the future, which will also help them to promote themselves and grow their business.

2 . There are an insane amount of expenses associated with running an e-commerce business — don’t sell yourself short — make sure you price your products accordingly.

On my first business attempt, I only charged double the cost of goods for my products — feeling that it would be greedy to ask for more. In the end, I ended up way in the negative.

Make sure you factor in costs to produce your products, freight, customs duties and taxes, storage costs, packaging, shipping to the customer, hosting fees, online subscriptions, payment processing fees, accounting, performance marketing, influencer collaborations, PR, SEO, photographers, models, videographers — the list goes on. If you want to be stocked by other retailers, you will need to factor in a 30–50% hit to your margins. This is all before you even consider paying yourself.

This time around, I have a spreadsheet with about a million columns, calculating everything I can foresee.

3 . It will take a long time to be profitable. Even if you factor in all of the above, you will likely only produce small quantities to begin with, and sales of those quantities won’t be enough to cover all of the fixed expenses and to pay yourself. You will likely need another income for a while.

4 . As much as you try to perfect your product, things will go wrong.

On my first cork tote bags that I produced in China, I had issues with the material flaking over time — even though my old university clutches never flaked. This time, my chain straps came the wrong length, and I had to send them to my mum’s house and try to get her to fix them with pliers. I realised my factory used polyester thread on the handbags — a plastic-based thread, instead of organic cotton thread.

You’re not perfect, all you can do is roll with the punches, implement your best damage control, and work to fix the issues next time. Make sure you keep some money inside in case you have a faulty product and need to complete some returns.

5 . A lot of marketing is very hit and miss. E.g. you might spend thousands of dollars on a popular influencer, who seems like the perfect fit for your brand and audience, and get zero sales from the promotion. Try not to stress, just keep putting in the hours across different areas to grow your website, campaigns and overall online presence. Overthinking and over-strategizing can be overrated — sometimes you just need to throw a bunch of different ideas at the wall and see what sticks.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My factory in Portugal. They are a traditional Portuguese leather making workshop and have worked with animal leather all of their lives — but they were so supportive of my concept. A lot of leather experts that I approached about producing with vegan materials wouldn’t hear of it. One even rudely schooled me that “VEGAN LEATHER is not a thing, IT’S NOT LEATHER”.

By contrast, my workshop has worked with me through this whole project. They allowed me to produce a variety of styles in small numbers — so that I have a great range to launch, even with a small budget. They patiently worked with me as I changed every material in production. They had to work with this new vegan leather, I changed the lining to organic cotton, I changed the hardware. Did you know that inside a structured handbag there is a third layer to create the shape? This is often leatherboard or plastic. We searched for months for an animal-free, plastic free structural material — settling on a plant-cellulose board from a footwear supplies company in Italy.

They even found a vegan cafe near their industrial area near Porto to take me for lunch when I visited — and everyone had the vegan curry. I know as vegans, we can often demonise people such as leather makers — but ultimately they are just people using skills for a job, and it’s awesome to show them that they can transition their amazing skills to this next generation industry and be a part of the change.

I also would like to thank my partner — for supporting me all the way, both in spirit and in committing a large chunk of our savings to my business! He’s been my champion, believing in me and cheering me on over the years through the highs and lows of trying to get a new business off the ground.

You are a person of great influence and doing some great things for the world! If you could inspire a movement that would bring the greatest amount of good to the greatest amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Aw thank you so much! You will anticipate me saying this — but of course it’s for the world to go vegan. Albert Einstein once said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Veganism isn’t just beneficial for animals — it would also help humanity. Firstly, it could improve global food security. Feeding kilos and kilos of grain to a cow over its lifespan, in return for a comparatively small amount of beef calories is really inefficient. If everyone went vegan, the grains and legumes currently used as animal feed could be eaten directly by humans. This would allow for more equitable food distribution and could help to alleviate hunger, especially in regions where food is scarce. Secondly, a well-planned vegan diet can be healthier, leading to lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, and certain cancers. Also, considering factory farming packs animals together so tightly in poor conditions, they are constantly sick. Reducing the reliance on livestock farming could decrease the risk of zoonotic diseases and slow antibiotics resistance.

For the environment, a global shift towards veganism would lead to a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane and nitrous oxide, which are predominantly associated with animal agriculture. Additionally, it would lessen the strain on natural resources such as water and land, as plant-based diets generally require fewer resources compared to animal-based diets. This could also lead to a decrease in deforestation. Furthermore, with reduced pollution from agricultural runoff, ecosystems like rivers and oceans would likely see improvements in health and biodiversity.

Sometimes people forget that we aren’t saving the earth for the sake of saving the earth — the earth is objective, it will exist anyhow, any way, in any form. We are trying to keep the earth habitable and in an optimal condition for ourselves.

Do you have a favorite life lesson quote? Can you tell us how that was relevant to you in your own life?

I don’t know who said it, but there is a quote along the lines of ‘you don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the next step.’ I think it’s a great sentiment that’s really helpful. Especially if you’re the kind of person who, like me, sometimes feels paralysed by the existential question of — what am I doing with my life? It can feel really baffling, especially when you feel like you’re just going through the motions with a job that you aren’t passionate about.

You don’t always have to align your career with your deepest passions — you can always earn an income, and use your weekends to work in a charity, or pursue an interest. If you want to do it for a career, be patient and kind with yourself. Don’t stress that you’re not there just yet. Just take steps. Keep doing little by little. It sounds super cliche, but life is all about the journey. Put in the work and one day you might wake up realising that you really love your work.

What is the best way for our readers to continue to follow your work online?

Website: https://lostwoodsvegan.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostwoodsvegan/

This was so inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!