The Clothing That Will Reduce Your Personal Carbon Emissions
In a world where C02 levels are hazardous, Stomata leverages our personal impact through wearables. It is the only organization using anionic resin materials to lower carbon emissions in a more personal way. This empowers individuals that invest in this long lasting clothing because they can get a sense of their own impact on the world’s greenhouse gases.
In 2027, due to the increasing number of deaths from carbon dioxide, an extremist environmental group has a majority in both the house and senate. Cities like San Francisco are finding ways to lower their carbon emissions by 200%. To accomplish this, companies that are developing alternatives to trees receive incentives like tax reductions. As the founder of Stomata, I was inspired by my research in 2017 of environmental, social, and technological trends that have taken place in the past ten years.
Environmental trends, like the rise of C02 in our air have affected our way of life in 2027. Carbon dioxide levels increased over the past 20 years due to human induced impacts. The number one contributor to greenhouse gas emissions came from electricity and heat production taking up about 25% of the overall emissions in 2010. This was a byproduct of coal powered energy and heating, whereas nuclear energy released less greenhouse gases. The second most damaging sector in 2010 accounting for 24% of the overall emissions was the agricultural industry and deforestation. Over the years, the climate continued to deteriorate, and in 2026 world wide disease spread from poor air quality.
As the world got warmer, vegetarianism and veganism was on the rise. This life style change was often caused by a combination of environmental concerns with meat industries, concern for animal cruelty, and the benefits of non-meat diets on a person’s overall health. In 2025, almost 30% of the United States population had become vegetarian and 15% had switched to vegan diets. This often coincided with people wanting to reduce their waste produced overall.
The Zero Waste Movement was brought up by a few, trailblazing women that wanted to take control of what they put in their body, what they surround themselves with, and how they affect the environment. The focus of this movement was creating the least amount of waste as possible by using only reusable or compostable items. This includes bamboo toothbrushes, shampoo bars, and lots of mason jars. Due to social media platforms like Youtube, this movement has made waves since it first started. Similar to Stomata, it’s getting people to think about the environment on a personal level. This movement deeply inspired me back in 2018, and I made small changes that reduced my waste by around 60% by 2019.
Another trend that helped lead to the creation of Stomata was the science of carbon sequestration and the use of an anionic resin to take in C02 by Klaus Lackner of Arizona State University and the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions. They mainly used the anionic resin for large machines that were in more open areas rather than cities. In 2025, I was able to collaborate with Lackner. I used my interdisciplinary design skills and my personal commitment to bettering the environment along side Klaus Lacker, to create a more personal product with this material that can benefit those living in cities all over the world.
Stomata merges the need for less greenhouse gas emissions with current technology to create carbon emission reducing clothing. This clothing empowers those who wear it to take charge of their environmental impact. When the clothing is worn, it absorbs C02. After a few wears, the carbon can be taken out by a reasonably wind turbine-sized machine that submerges the clothing under a liquid that is able to capture and hold the carbon. The owner of the clothing can then take the liquid to their neighborhood Carbon Sequestration Collection Site or a Carbon Up-Cycling Site and have it transformed into building materials.
My inspiration for Stomata came from my walk to school. I lived in San Francisco’s SOMA (South of Market) District, and it was and still is an area filled with problems. One of it’s issues was having some of the worst air in the city. It was close to the freeway, and there wasn’t a lot of plant life. This led me to research the impact of city plants and even alternatives to trees. I thought it would be cool if people could become walking trees, cleaning the city as they go through their everyday tasks.
