Morphing the Mushroom into a Leather Alternative: Adi Nugroho of MYCL

Indo Tekno guest Adi Nugroho's technological experimentation with mushrooms began nearly 15 years ago. His first major breakthroughs in exploiting "mycelium" as a sustainable alternative came in the construction industry, where it proved itself to be lightweight, less pollutive, fire-resistant and have good insulation properties. Adi's current venture, MYCL, has gained impressive traction in major industries such as automobiles, fashion and furniture, all of which seek natural and sustainable alternatives to the highly pollutive animal leather fabrication process. In harvesting a targeted 250,000 sq ft of mushrooms next year, MYCL can displace leather production which would otherwise create 430 tons of CO2 emissions, result in the slaughter of 7,000 cows and turn up to 1. 5 million liters of fresh water into tanning effluent.