Asia’s Materials Revolution: Building Circular Textiles Through Partnerships

Cintia Nunes is the General Manager and Head of Asia of The Mills Fabrica. As the innovation engine to sustainability and impact of Hong Kong conglomerate Nan Fung Group, Cintia leads the team to connect innovators in the techstyle and agrifood tech space with capital, connections, and expertise — to bring sustainability tech innovations from concept to market.

Drawing inspiration from social business principles that prioritize both profitability and purpose, she is committed to facilitating collaboration among stakeholders across the ecosystem to advance positive environmental and social impact at scale.

Before joining The Mills Fabrica, Cintia served as Chief of Strategy and Growth at Hong Kong’s largest network of social enterprises and impact ventures. She also held leadership roles at a multinational FMCG company where she formalized business strategies for over 10 brands.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

• More industry level cross-sectors collaborations
• Open dialogues across stakeholder groups on what works/what doesn’t
• Accessibility/transparency to capital across asset classes for impact

Clement Chan is General Manager of DETERMINANT APAC, the Hong Kong performance shirting brand. He owns the full profit and loss across Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.

DETERMINANT works closely with our partner, so every material advance it sells has to be built with sustainability in mind. Its 360BETTER strategy commits the brand to textile waste innovation, garment life extension and water stewardship, and its Cotton Waterless Dye saves 40 litres of water per shirt. Clement’s job is to make those choices pay for themselves.

Two decades deep in China’s garment manufacturing industry, Hoiki leads Nicetones and Skyrex with the kind of operational fluency that only comes from living every stage of production. That frontline experience — especially the cost of overproduction — pushed her to found Anthora Collection, a sustainable label built on deadstock and circular principles, and to host The Conscious Cut, a podcast digging into real solutions for more realistic circular systems.

In 2026 she completed a University of Hong Kong sustainability course taught by Harvard Business School faculty. Drawing on years of hands-on experience, she teaches and coaches on sustainable fashion and purposeful design across Hong Kong schools and university master’s programmes.

As sustainability and manufacturing lead at Exposed Layers, she helps turn garments into living digital objects through AR, NFC and digital product passports — including an experimental live phygital T-shirt project. She also led the crossover with HKCCPA on their inter-school cheongsam competition and fashion show.

As Director of Development at HKCCPA, she project-managed the three-part “A Thousand Threads, A Thousand Journeys” fashion show at Hong Kong Fashion Week / Centre Stage (September 2026), bringing the 12 winning Changshan designs to life and overseeing show direction for the Silver Stage. Nice Tones manufactured the Classics Anew collection.

My Sustainability Goals for 2026:

• With EU’s lead in banning overproduction from being destroyed, we need policies to ensure the overproduction ordered there, doesn’t end up here, we need to be careful about the movement of this excess waste.
• Enforce the reduction of waste, mandate recycling in schools.
• Implement forest school programs, environmental studies, R&D into all levels of education.

Ma Qiao is the Brand Manager at PEELSPHERE®, a bio-based materials innovation brand dedicated to developing sustainable material solutions by transforming agricultural and food waste into high-performance alternatives for fashion, lifestyle, and consumer industries.

At PEELSPHERE®, Ma Qiao leads brand development, strategic communication, and market positioning, working across design, research, and business teams to bridge material innovation with real-world applications. He focuses on translating advanced biomaterial technologies into compelling brand narratives and meaningful solutions for global partners across footwear, fashion, accessories, and consumer products.

With a strong interest in sustainable innovation and brand marketing, Ma Qiao contributes to building PEELSPHERE® as a next-generation materials platform, demonstrating how waste-derived resources can be transformed into desirable, scalable, and responsible materials for future industries.

Through his work, he supports PEELSPHERE®’s mission of redefining the relationship between materials, design, and sustainability, and advancing the transition toward a more circular material ecosystem.

Audrey Yip is the Deputy Head of Business Development at The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), where she focuses initiatives in textile recycling, sustainability, and industrial innovation. With over 10 years of experience in textiles and apparel sales and merchandising, she worked extensively with international retailers and manufacturers.  She is currently dedicated in driving the development of scalable recycling technologies and strengthening international collaboration to accelerate the textile industry’s transition toward a circular economy.