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Ponda, a UK-based biomaterials company with roots at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½, has partnered with the university to make branded clothing from wetland-grown plants.

The first products in this collaboration – a Mallard gilet and a Fern cap – are insulated with BioPuff®, a material made from bulrush grown on restored wetlands rather than oil or animal products. The clothing will be on sale exclusively at the Imperial College Union campus shop and online store this autumn.

founders will share their journey at the launch of the Sustainable Imperial Strategy (2026-31) this Tuesday 30 June on South Kensington Campus. Register to attend the launch event.

Full circle collaboration

The world produces around 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year. That is the equivalent of a bin lorry of clothing burned or landfilled every second. Branded merchandise sits at a difficult intersection of this problem: it often relies on conventional materials with significant environmental impacts, yet is discarded long before the end of its useful life. BioPuff® offers an alternative approach, using plant-based insulation designed to connect product manufacturing with wetland restoration, and lower-impact material systems. Importantly, it also outperforms premium synthetics on warmth.

Ponda's story is a powerful example of how Imperial aims to maximise its positive impact on people and planet by giving our ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and innovators the tools they need to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges. Professor Anna Korre Associate Provost (Sustainability)

The collaboration between Ponda and Imperial is part of Sustainable Imperial, the university’s commitment to lead on climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution through research, education, operations and community action. But the ambition runs wider than one campus.

Ponda co-founder, CEO and Imperial alumnus, Julian Ellis-Brown (pictured below, speaking at a recent sustainable fashion event on White City Campus), said the partnership is a test of a simple idea: that the branded clothing items organisations produce by the thousand can regenerate ecosystems rather than deplete them.

He said: “Most organisations don’t think of merchandise as a supply chain decision. But every order creates demand for a particular set of materials and a particular way of producing them. This collaboration helps demonstrate a different model, one where the products we choose can create demand for ecosystem restoration rather than depletion. Opening our funding round to the public is about accelerating that transition and helping us scale the material, the supply chain and the restoration model behind it. If it works here, it works for any brand buying at scale.”

Julian and team will share Ponda’s story, and the positive impact their innovations are having on the world, at the launch of the Sustainable Imperial Strategy (2026-31) this Tuesday 30 June. 

Professor Anna Korre, Imperial’s Associate Provost (Sustainability), said: "This partnership will give Imperial's community the chance to directly back climate friendly fashion innovation. We're proud to celebrate this collaboration as part of our strategy launch. Ponda's story is a powerful example of how Imperial aims to maximise its positive impact on people and planet by giving our ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and innovators the tools they need to find solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges."

From Imperial to the world

Ponda’s founders met while studying for the Innovation Design Engineering double Master’s programme run jointly between Imperial’s Dyson School of Design Engineering and the Royal College of Art.

The team participated the Imperial's in 2020, and has since continued to be supported by the university, with mentorship through and , pro bono legal support through the and participating in a to New York that brought connections to other entrepreneurial alumni and a chance to link up with the fashion industry in the east coast of the US.

In 2025, Ponda successfully closed a $2.4 million seed investment round to commercialise BioPuff® and total funding to date. Is $6.6m including grants and awards. The Bristol-based company’s , giving the public a chance to invest in BioPuff® and the regenerative wetland supply chain behind it.

In April, the Ponda team returned to Imperial to share their work at a special sustainable fashion showcase on White City Campus.

About the innovative insulation

Ponda’s BioPuff® has already been used by fashion companies Stella McCartney, Berghaus, Ahluwalia and Sheep Inc. The team exhibited at the Sustainable Markets Initiative CEO Summit at Hampton Court Palace, where they met King Charles III and were recognised by the King’s Terra Carta Design Lab.

The first-of-its-kind insulation, which outperforms premium synthetics on warmth, is made from Typha (bulrush) and grown through paludiculture, the farming of wetland crops on rewetted peatlands.

Each BioPuff®-insulated gilet has the equivalent impact of restoring four square metres of healthy wetland. That represents approximately:

• 9kg of CO2e in avoided emissions each year
• 800 litres of water stored
• three times the bird density of drained land

Wetlands hold more than twice the carbon of all the world’s trees combined. The millions of hectares of drained peatlands emit approximately 1.9 gigatonnes of CO2 a year, roughly twice the total emissions of the global fashion industry.

Read about the collaboration announcement on and .