Next-Generation Mycelium Materials Meet Traditional Leather Craft
As industries look for ways to work in better harmony with the planet, there are exciting opportunities to bridge traditional craft with the cutting edge of materials. Some of the areas where the biggest positive environmental potential exists are in fashion. That’s why we are proud to partner with ECCO Leather. Ecovative’s Forager division is focused […]
Mushroom® Packaging is Back, and Growing
Did you know that over 36 million packages are delivered every day in the United States alone? That’s a lot of boxes, and a lot of packaging — unfortunately, most of it is plastic. In fact, about 40 percent of the single-use plastics that gets produced around the world is for packaging, most of it destined […]
Building the World’s First Mycelium Biomaterial Research Platform
Do Mycelium Materials Spread Spores?
AirMycelium produces 100% pure slabs of mycelium — 📷: Ecovative Ecovative’s mycelium materials are unique, and always invite plenty of curious questions. One of the most common is about whether our materials will sprout mushrooms, or spread spores that people might inhale or start growing in unexpected places. The short answer is no. But it offers a good […]
Meet the Luthier Growing Guitars with Mycelium
This gives ‘picking mushrooms’ a whole new meaning The Mycocaster would look right at home alongside the artfully made instruments found in a high end music shop. Slim and handsome, its sleek silhouette is instantly recognizable as a modern guitar. But it doesn’t take long to realize that something is very unique about this instrument […]
Imagining a Future Beyond Plastics
––––––––––––––––––––Part 4 of 4 in our Plastic Free July series–––––––––––––––––––– Closeup of mycelium. 📷: Christian Scheckhuber, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons When plastics first emerged, they promised to usher in a new era of abundance and convenience. The look and feel of plastics was so new and unusual that it became emblematic of human scientific achievement, and […]
Celebrating a New Landmark
It’s not every day you get to unveil a new landmark. But that’s just what we did with our sister company MyForest Foods, and the brand new Swersey Silos. These big, beautiful green towers will provide feedstock for the vast new vertical AirMycelium farm right next door, the largest of its kind. Every year, Swersey […]
Plastics: the Mycelium Solution
––––––––––––––––––––Part 3 of 4 in our Plastic Free July series–––––––––––––––––––– 📷: Ecovative Babies weren’t the only thing that proliferated after the second World War. Plastics provided a booming post-war middle class with reliable, durable materials. They would come to represent technological wonder, economic abundance and, of course, convenience. Sleek new TVs and toasters symbolized a dawning future of plenty. With the […]
Plastics: the Good and the Bad, and the Ugly
––––––––––––––––––––Part 2 of 4 in our Plastic Free July series–––––––––––––––––––– 📷: CaptainDarwin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Plastics have had quite a century. A vast class of materials never before seen on Earth until around the first World War, now can be found in every corner of the planet. On land, in the deepest ocean, and […]
A (Very) Brief History of Plastics
––––––––––––––––––––Part 1 of 4 in our Plastic Free July series–––––––––––––––––––– 📷: Deeneris, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons In the beginning, there wasn’t plastic. In fact, mass production of plastic has been around for less than a hundred years. In that time it has come to touch nearly every aspect of our lives, whether we want it to or not. There […]
Ecovative and Mycelium — 15 Years Growing
Reflecting on a transformative 15 years, looking forward to the next. This week, Ecovative marks our 15th birthday 🎉 We’re spending nearly all of our waking hours these days scaling up production of mycelium materials, but this is a great chance to celebrate and reflect on the journey so far. 15 years is an achievement, […]
Preserving the Pale Blue Dot
— a letter from Ecovative on Earth Day Earth Day is a reminder to prioritize our planet every day. That’s what we’re doing at Ecovative. By making the products people need in harmony with nature, we are rising to our responsibility as good stewards of Spaceship Earth. We’re not just growing Earth-friendly materials and nutrition, […]
Smithsonian x Ecovative: Welcome to the future— building with mushrooms
We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Panel: Future of Food featured Elliot Grant, Danielle Nierenberg, Eben Bayer, Taeryn Kim, and Ashley Mincey at Smithsonian Arts + Industries Building. If you attend or livestream the Smithsonian’s weekly FUTURES events, you’ll see the speakers sitting on a stage that we built with mycelium. The Smithsonian is an historically […]
Learning to Create with Fungi
Designer Isabel Correa’s experiments ask what interspecies collaboration looks like Turning a corner in the basement of Columbia University’s Teachers College, the heat suddenly rose by several degrees. “This is where it gets very hot,” said designer and PhD candidate Isabel Correa, leading the way down the winding corridors. “It’s good for the mushrooms.” Down a […]
How to Grow a Mycelium Company
To tackle the problem of scaling up sustainable materials, we started working like a mushroom By Eben Bayer- Co-founder and CEO of Ecovative Being first is great, but it can come at a cost. When we introduced mycelium materials to the world, our focus was on one technology: a composite of mycelium and agricultural byproducts […]
The Case for Rewiring Modern Manufacturing with Mycelium
Reducing consumption is the ultimate solution to a sustainably stewarded Spaceship Earth. But let’s be real: consumption is showing no signs of slowing. So, just as important as changing hearts and minds is changing the way we make things. By reimagining material goods as part of living cycles, we can expand and reimagine existing manufacturing […]
