Quorum

Most microbial fermentation today relies on feedstocks originating from soil-depleting monocultures of virgin sugars—cane, beet, corn—shipped from halfway around the world to their point of need. Although technically bio-based, these inputs come at a high environmental cost, from greenhouse gas emissions associated with farming and transportation to marine ecotoxicity, biodiversity loss and land degradation. As these ecological stressors increase the vulnerability of harvests, the supply chains grow risky and exposed to price volatility. With feedstocks accounting for up to 50% of biomanufacturing costs, this remains a major barrier to competing with entrenched petrochemical industries.

What if fermentation could be powered by waste instead: transforming byproducts into feedstocks, and building circular systems for biodesign that begin and end in soil?

At Faber Futures, we use our R&D platform to develop and test regenerative ways of working for and with nature, investigating material applications and systemic solutions. A key strand of this work is the development of microbial dye systems: a radically new alternative to petroleum-based pigments, with the potential to decarbonise textiles and eliminate toxic inputs. Yet realising this potential requires rethinking not just how we grow microbes, but what we feed them.

Regenerative Feedstocks, Living Systems

Quorum is a UKRI-funded collaborative R&D project between Faber Futures and Evolutor Ltd, a Sheffield-based biotechnology company harnessing the power of evolution for microbe optimisation. The project developed mixed microbial populations capable of converting industrial sidestreams into bio-based products. Expanding our creative R&D on biochromatic dyes via our partnership with Evolutor, we explored by-products such as oat milk residues and restaurant food waste as sustainable, nutrient-rich feedstocks for pigment production. We evolved microbial consortia of Streptomyces—populations of microbes that collaborate—to digest these complex sugars and convert them into vibrant, high-performance dyes. In parallel, we cultivated the right growth conditions to support them while generating aesthetic finishes unique to these conditions.

We built a value chain for feedstocks that doesn’t treat waste producers as mere suppliers, engaging them instead as collaborators in a network of regenerative practice. We sourced sidestreams from sustainable producers in the London area, including Glebe Farm and Minor Figures, where microbial processing adds unique value—avoiding feedstocks that could compete with higher-priority uses like food redistribution. By working in dialogue with pioneers such as Silo, a zero-waste restaurant redefining circularity in food systems, and GROW Farm, an agroecological charity fostering regenerative agriculture, we situated microbial dye production within a broader landscape of circular, ecologically aligned practices.

Adaptive Protocols, Place-based Biomanufacturing

Our microbial consortia has demonstrated the ability to consistently produce pigment across starch-rich waste streams, paving the way to convert different types of waste into high-performance textile dyes—while reducing the carbon footprint by up to 70% compared to earlier protocols. Unlike virgin sugar feedstocks, these waste inputs are already available, require no additional land or cultivation, and can be sourced closer to production facilities—making them a lower impact alternative.

By aligning process design with evolutionary models, we have developed an alternative vision for biomanufacturing that is adaptable to local conditions and resources, supporting biodesign systems that are inherently rooted in place, yet applicable across geographies and industries. Ultimately, we posit that the only way to replace the fossil-based economy with low-carbon alternatives is to learn nature’s own relational strategies—microbes that fix nitrogen from the air, cyanobacteria that capture sunlight while binding carbon, fungi that shuttle nutrients through underground networks, and microbial consortia that co-operate within the intricate ecologies of soil—as blueprints for regeneration.

Project Credits

Grant Support
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Project Partners
Faber Futures
Evolutor

Waste Stream Suppliers
Glebe Farm
Minor Figures

Waste Innovation Collaborators
Silo
GROW Farm

Photography
Thomas Adank