Dhana Inc. People's Platform: D/Sphere

“Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned. An estimated USD 500 billion value is lost every year due to clothing that is barely worn and rarely recycled. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget.” – Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Dhana Inc. is a fashion tech company with an innovative platform, D/Sphere,  to create new garments with existing clothing and materials to tackle global textile waste. Dhana’s tech platform will transform customer experience from zero waste designs to social and environmental impact, to empower the customer to be the solution to climate change, launch a new fashion social network to celebrate customer creations while honoring their memories and connect customers to garment workers.

D/Sphere will democratize the creation of fashion and provide tools to global communities to impact people and planet through fashion.

The global textile waste in the world is valued at $500 Billion annually in the $3 Trillion Fashion and Apparel industry.  Over 70% of the clothing created ends up in the landfill which primarily driven by fast fashion. This also includes clothing that is donated and shipped to third world countries. This is a take-make-dispose linear business model.  We need to move from a linear and wasteful business model to a circular and regenerative.  

To date, brands and companies control and create fashion.  Today, Gen Z and next generation leaders are looking to make a difference as conscious shoppers through voting with their wallet (money), commitment to more circular solutions rent, resale and repair their clothing (action). The resale industry is worth $24B moving to over $60B by 2025. The ability to use our creativity to make new clothing from old clothing through upcycling is the next step.

The solution that complements the resale business model is repurposing clothing using digitization of fashion.  D/Sphere is an on-demand creative platform that gives people the ability to inject their creativity using second life materials and to celebrate their creations through fashion stories. D/Sphere envisions one design with one million possibilities. 

Dhana’s technology platform D/Sphere empowers the customer to create their own unique 100% customizable garments with
1. Zero-waste designs; 2. Choice of their wardrobe, reclaimed fabric and innovative fibers; 3. Scorecard of environmental impact on carbon emissions, water, and toxic chemicals for every garment created. 4. Program to take back, repurpose, resale, and recycle clothing; 5. Storytelling and influencer, avatar 3D generation, virtual wardrobe, fashion show and virtual community, connection with workers and stakeholders for greater transparency.

Dhana’s customer centric closed loop platform D/Sphere enables fashion brands and companies to
*Leverage the platform to offload their overstock fabric and inventory as a new channel
*Utilize the platform, white labeling opportunity to offer customization to their own customers
*Collaborate with fashion designers, artists and apparel studios as a marketplace and new customer base.

The D/Sphere is a patent pending platform driven by AI-3D-Machine Learning to provide the ability to Design-Drag-Drop and uses circularity principles to create clothing without waste and pollution.

Dhana Inc. is a fashion technology company, established in 2008, headquartered in Sausalito, California and is a certified B Corp and a certified Fairtrade brand. Dhana’s new fashion technology platform, D/Sphere  will empower customers to co-create fashion and value people and planet every step of the way.

Dhana is empowering customers to value people (social) and planet (environment) every step of the way through the creation of fashion.  The SDG goals align with Dhana’s vision and ability to not only report but to manage how we use business to “unite humanity through fashion”.  We can showcase our supply chain partners and teams as we believe giving them a platform to honor their work is important to our customers and provides a deep connection to the hearts and hands behind each piece of garment created.  Our employees are proud and more than ever empowered to be part of the solution to climate change and social justice.

We believe that fashion brands and consumers need to be accountable for the waste and pollution created at the point of creation. There is immense need to fight corruption and inequalities created by what we are seeing as default payments by brands and its impact on the lives of people.  We plan to use our platform to provide an avenue where we take industry-leaders to task, where customers can use their voices to ensure brands take responsibility for furthering conversations around climate injustice, labor violations, and gender inequality.

The fashion industry is a top contributor of carbon emissions, waste, and exploitation of people.  Every second a truck filled of clothing ends up in the garbage and over seventy percentage of clothing in the almost $3 trillion fashion industry ends up in the landfill. This is the linear business model that needs to move towards circular fashion and regenerative business model.  The generation Zs are clearly requiring solutions to the current state of waste and pollution created by fashion as they are driving the resale of clothing industry ($24 Billion market today) and so fashion companies and brands need to adhere to the call of this growing customer base if they plan to be in business in the near future. This is demonstration of not only support for sustainability but also being transparent and accountable of the treatment of employees and workers in the supply chain their rely on.  The brand’s identity is an extension of the social and environmental footprint they are impacting on a day-to-day basis. This is the real deal. 

SDG 3: GOOD HEALTH AND WELL BEING

“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all times.”

Dhana responded to fight the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic back by producing masks that were CDC standard cloth face mask to protect people and workers from being exposed to the virus. Our commitment is to offer the best quality product, to promote health and well-being of people as well as saving lives during this time.  Dhana was one of the first companies contacted to donate and supply masks to support our first responders which we gladly did back in April 2020.

SDG 5: GENDER EQUALITY

“Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”

Dhana is a woman owned and women led company. Our company employs women from diverse groups and backgrounds. We do not discriminate by gender, we encourage women to be in leadership positions, have a voice at the table, contribute to the overall growth of the company, taken on opportunities to make impact and receive equal pay. Dhana is committed to closing the gap between men and women no only in the workplace but in the fashion industry as a whole.

SDG 8 and 10: DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH AND REDUCED INEQUALITIES

“Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.”

“Reduce inequality within and among countries.”

In many industries, but especially in fashion, the wealth disparity between the women making clothing and the corporations selling said clothing is shocking. Companies must bridge the gap and provide garment workers a fair wage.

Dhana's circular fashion collection are custom made in Columbus, Ohio. We work with a small local apparel studio that creates each garment from start to finish. This way we can ensure they meet high standards for the quality of their work conditions. All our sewers can be comfortable working in a safe environment, with regular hours, and fair pay. We love to support talented small local businesses.

SDG 9: INDUSTRY, INNOVATION, AND INFRASTRUCTURE

“Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.”

As Dhana Inc. pivoted to a fashion technology company, we have used the power of technology to uplift women to enter the digitization of fashion.  We are investing in new tools, training, and solutions so that our teams and customers can create fashion using exponential technology on our new technology platform.  Dhana is also creating opportunities for women in research and development to enhance the experience of fashion.

SDG 12: REPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

"Ensure sustainable consumption and product sample”.

All Dhana products are made with zero waste and circular fashion in mind. Our Circular Fashion Collection are created with second life materials while the lining is up cycled from the customer's clothing and existing fabric. All our products are built to be recycled at the end of its life. For Dhana’s accessories we use fashion scraps, such as unsold clothes, fabric waste from our factories as the main materials of our products. Since we do not produce new materials, we eliminate the resource heavy process of growing, processing, dyeing, and finishing. We aim for circularity in our products by up-cycling existing materials and designing for recyclability.

SDG 13: CLIMATE ACTION

“Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.”

Dhana realizes that the fashion industry can contribute a lot in the rising of greenhouse gas emission and we have to take action. We make every effort in reducing our carbon emissions by sourcing and producing locally. We also are sure to up-cycle and purchase existing material instead of creating new. By thinking about the environmental impact from the design phase we can strategically lower our food print at each step of the process.

Dhana conducts Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) on all our products so we can better communicate how customers have a choice to impact with actions by being part of the solution to climate change. Here is the case study with LCA report https://www.cleanmetrics.com/blog/2021/04/02/case-study-lcas-of-circular-apparel-products/

Dhana also signed the NetZero 2030 commitment https://www.bcorpclimatecollective.org/net-zero-2030

SDG 17: PARTNERSHIPS FOR THE GOALS

“Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.”

Dhana partnerships is integral to the ethos of the brand and we value the solutions provided by companies like CleanMetrics, B Lab, RepurposeGlobal, Common Object, and B Lab for our overall success to empower customers to affect change in the fashion industry, impact the lives of people and planet as well as transform the way we create fashion.

The global textile waste is a human challenge. We all wear clothes and have the ability to make a difference.  The problem in the fashion industry is the inability for consumers and people to take action and be the solution to climate change as it is controlled by fashion brands and companies. D/Sphere fashion tech platform will shift the power from brands to people using digital fashion to provide innovative solutions, on-demand tools and a creative platform to address this global challenge.  D/Sphere provides access to the digital economy as a marketplace to create, buy, sell, impact and celebrate fashion

Dhana Inc. has unleased the Beta version of D/Sphere on May 27th 2021 to provide an opportunity to test the platform with 2000 users in the next three months. This is the "proof of concept" stage for Direct To Consumer engagement.  As this is the first of its kind fashion tech platform in the world, D/Sphere is a new mindset for people to experience their power of creativity. With funding, Dhana will be able to take this platform to mobile ready by end of 2021 as well as look at brand partnership and collaboration to provide more access to people to create their own fashion.

The creative platform D/Sphere is an innovative approach to create fashion using existing clothing and fabric.  It uses AI, 3D and Machine Learning as a Design-Drag-Drop platform for consumers to crop their existing clothing or source from a material library into the creation of new clothing.  Through this repurposing of the clothing and upcycling, the creative possibilities are infinite and the value is immense.  Digitization of fashion allows for 100% personalize clothing, the emotional bond and value to creating a new piece of clothing and also to be the solution to climate change and social inclusion.  When creating a piece of clothing on D/Sphere, the customer is connected to the garment worker who ends up making the clothing while understanding the environmental footprint.  As this platform is the first of its kind in the world and the platform is patent pending, we are likely to see a surge of demand in the future towards personalization and customization of clothing.  This is the new frontier of fashion where co-creation is truly the new currency of fashion and where the democratization of fashion will uplift many of the other inequalities in the world including the digital divide in fashion, garment workers in their world countries and also the ability for individuals to be come influences and brands.