STAND Up! project has selected a cluster of four circular fashion and textile start-ups in Egypt. These sustainable initiatives have been selected by Sekem Development Foundation, the Egyptian partner of STAND Up!, with the aim of entering the early-stage incubation phase of the project, which includes seven months of mentoring and technical consultancy in the financial, marketing and product development fields.

The four winning green ventures were identified through a call that joined 13 finalist projects, with a jury of experts with a strong focus on sustainable consumption and production in the textile and clothing industry. In this sense, this task of evaluating the proposals was entrusted to three high-level academics professionals in the field of business administration, economics, sustainable development and marketing. The members of the jury were:

• Dr Karim Badr El-Din Attia Hassanien, Associate Professor of Economics, promoted by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Universities and full-time Teaching Economics Module Leader and Research.
• Dr Mohamed Farouk Hafez Abdel Gawwad Khamis, Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Management, Information Technology and Computers, Egyptian Russian University (ERU)
• Prof. Omar A. Ramzy, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Heliopolis University and Associate Professor of Marketing, Acting Head of Marketing Department & Director of the Center of Education for Sustainable Development at Heliopolis University.

Meet the 4 circular start-ups selected

The four Egyptian selected projects have just completed the group of 20 sustainable start-ups in the five partner countries of the STAND Up! project, embarking on the incubation journey and supported by professional mentors to provide fair employment opportunities and reduce the environmental footprint in the Mediterranean region.

• Green Fashion, a start-up that collects cuttings and leftover fabric from factories and upcycles them into fashionable products like bags, jackets and uses them in revamping jeans. The startup also uses post-consumer waste to produce products with higher value creating their own biodegradable clothes dyes that are sold to factories. Green Fashion also empowers single mothers and female workers in Bel Misht village by providing work opportunities and giving them a fair wage to enhance their lifestyle.
• Littless aims to produce uniforms for schools and universities in Egypt, creating skin-friendly pieces made out of organic cotton. Recyclothes will implement a system that allows customers to return the clothes once the children have outgrown them receiving a discount for the next purchase when the returned garments are in good condition. They also organize fundraising campaigns and sell clothes to families with low income.
• Sukoon offers women an alternative menstrual product on the market: menstrual pads made of organic cotton cloth, which are washable and reusable eliminating the use of toxic chemicals in the form of pesticides and fabric processing.
• Whyte gold is an online brand and fashion platform that bridges the gap between sustainable, creative minds and Egyptian cotton as a material used in textile. The business is built around a culture of co-creation where the brand features different emerging fashion designers, empowering new creative talent with every new collection.