In this episode, we step into very different territory. We leave the factory floor and the chemistry lab behind, pull on our wellies, and head into the wetlands. Our guest is Julian Ellis-Brown, CEO and Co-founder of Ponda — the biomaterials company turning wetland restoration into one of fashion's most exciting new fibres. We explore why wetlands are one of the most carbon-rich and biodiverse ecosystems on earth, why centuries of drainage have turned them from the planet's greatest carbon store into a significant carbon emitter, and how a farming practice called paludiculture is now allowing farmers across the UK and Europe to bring degraded wetlands back to life — while still earning a living from the land.

At the heart of Ponda's work is BioPuff — a plant-based insulation made from the seed fibres of the bulrush, designed to replace the goose down and synthetic polyester fills found in the puffer jackets and winter coats hanging in most of our wardrobes. Down raises animal welfare and traceability concerns, while synthetic fills are fossil-fuel derived — and BioPuff offers a genuinely carbon-negative alternative, traceable from plant to puffer, and landing in jackets on the market this autumn winter. Julian also shares details of Ponda's newly opened crowdfunding round — a rare opportunity to invest directly in a company regenerating real wetlands and reshaping one of fashion's most overlooked material categories.

What We Cover

• Why wetlands matter - Wetlands store 550 gigatons of carbon
• Paludiculture — the farming model you've never heard of, and why governments across Europe are now backing it with billions
• BioPuff — the plant-based insulation made from bulrush, grown on regenerated wetlands, that is set to land in jackets on the market this autumn
• The carbon story — how BioPuff achieves a carbon footprint of -42.76 kg of CO2e per kilogram of product, making it genuinely carbon negative
• From pilot plant to fashion runways — how Ponda went from a university challenge competition to collaborations with Stella McCartney, Berghaus and Parley for the Oceans
• The crowdfunding round — why Ponda is inviting the public to invest in their mission, and how you can get involved
• Julian's personal story — the moment curiosity about nature became a company, and what keeps him going

About our guest:

Julian Ellis-Brown is the CEO and Co-founder of Ponda, formerly known as Saltyco. Julian studied Innovation Design Engineering at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, where he and his three co-founders began developing what would become BioPuff. Ponda closed a $2.4 million seed round in 2025 and is now commercialising BioPuff for the global fashion market.

Ponda: Website I Insta I BioPuff sample

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Recommended listening: Ep 29. Cotton, Soil & Solar: Re-imagining the “Quiet King” of Textiles

Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash

Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman

We’re used to thinking about sustainability at the point of purchase: what fibres a garment is made from, whether it’s certified or recycled. But the truth is, what we do with a garment after we buy it – how we wash it, whether we repair it, and what happens when it’s finally worn out – is just as important as what it’s made of.

In this final episode of Clean Run, host Mili Tharakan takes our now‑familiar running jacket into the rest of its life. We’ve already rebuilt its fibres and detoxed its chemistry. Now we follow it into washing machines, repair studios and recycling plants to see what it really takes for a jacket to have not just one life, but many.

Guests:

• Charlotte Krist, Strategic Business Development, United Repair Centre: building industrial‑scale, brand‑integrated repair services that extend the physical and emotional life of garments, and make “repair is the new cool” a real consumer option, not just a slogan.
• Shay Sethi, CEO and Founder, Ambercycle: developing molecular recycling technologies that separate complex fibre blends at the base‑molecule level and regenerate polyester into new, high‑quality yarns – creating a genuine end‑of‑life pathway for garments that are currently landfilled or burned.
• Wajahat Hussain, CEO and Fuunder, BIORESTORE: turning a single laundry cycle into a way to resurface worn fabrics, remove pilling and restore colour and hand‑feel, so garments look and feel almost new.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• How BIORESTORE’s enzyme‑based treatment can “exfoliate” damaged fibres, remove pilling and revive colour and softness in a single wash, effectively resetting certain signs of wear.
• How high‑quality repair, delivered at scale by United Repair Centre, can extend both the physical life and the emotional value of garments, turning damage into part of a garment’s story rather than its end.
• How Ambercycle’s molecular regeneration process separates and depolymerises polyester from mixed‑fibre garments to create new, high‑quality feedstock that can replace virgin polyester.
• What a realistic circular journey for a running jacket could look like when better care, repair and recycling infrastructures work together – and why design and collection systems are just as critical as breakthrough technology.

Across all three episodes, Clean Run turns an ordinary running jacket into a closed looped narrative – from the moment its fibres are imagined to the moment they are reborn – and invites us to see that, with the right choices, every garment we wear can be part of a story that never really ends.

The Clean Run series is inspired by the Performance Without Toxicity exhibition, curated by The Mills Fabrica in partnership with Goldwin, open until 26th June 2026 at Fabrica X in London. Entry is free.

Clean Run is a three-part series. Part 1 explores fibres and fabric and Part 2 dives into the dyes, coatings, and construction of the running jacket.

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Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash

Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestraman

We tend to think a running jacket performs because of its fabric. In reality, much of what we experience – the colour, the way water beads on the surface, how quickly it dries – comes from an invisible layer of chemistry added after the fabric is made. Those dyes, coatings and finishes are where some of the most persistent and problematic substances in performance wear quietly sit.

In this second episode of Clean Run, host Mili Tharakan takes the same high street running jacket from Episode 1 and goes one layer deeper – beyond fibres into finishing and construction. She asks: can we rebuild this jacket without toxic chemistry, and design it so that its end of life is already built in?

To answer that, Mili is joined by three guests who are each tackling a different “invisible” part of the jacket

Guests:

• Jean François Benoit, Development Engineer, Resortecs – inventing Smart Stitch (heat‑dissolvable sewing threads) and Smart Disassembly (industrial ovens that unpick garments at end of life), so complex multi‑material products can be taken apart automatically and sent to the right recyclers.
• Jun Kamei, Founder & CEO, Amphico – developing Amphicolour, a near‑waterless colouration system that embeds pigment at the yarn stage, and Amphitex, a PFAS‑free waterproof, breathable membrane based on polyolefins, designed to be recyclable.
• Matthias Foessel, Founder & CEO, Beyond Surface Technologies – creating high‑performance textile finishes under the miDori brand, using bio‑based oils and waxes such as microalgae instead of petrochemicals, and replacing PFAS‑based DWR with palm‑oil‑free green chemistry that runs on existing mill equipment.

In this episode:

• The hidden environmental cost of conventional textile dyeing and why it drives emissions and water pollution. How dope‑dyed yarns and colour‑mixing at weave stage can cut water, energy and CO₂ dramatically
• What PFAS “forever chemicals” are, why they’re used in outdoor fabrics, and why they’re a problem.
• Emerging PFAS‑free waterproof membranes and the challenges of scaling
• The role of textile finishes in performance – and their reliance on petrochemical chemistry
• How bio‑based finishes from sources like microalgae can match conventional performance
• Why sewing thread blocks garment recycling and what smart disassembly can change
• How Smart Stitch enables clean separation of complex garments into recyclable material streams
• The cost, procurement and policy barriers slowing adoption of these innovative solutions

The Clean Run series is inspired by the Performance Without Toxicity exhibition, curated by The Mills Fabrica in partnership with Goldwin, open until 26th June 2026 at Fabrica X in London. Entry is free.

Clean Run is a three-part series. Part 2 explores the hidden chemistry and construction of the jacket, Part 3 will explore innovations in care, repair and end of life of the jacket. Hit subscribe to be notified of next episode

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Cover art: Photo by Siora, Photography on Unsplash. Music: Inspired Ambient, Orchestrama