Lenzing Group, Austria-based manufacturer of textile and nonwovens cellulose fibres such as modal and lyocell has been rated No. 1 globally with respect to its procurement of wood – the key raw material in cellulose fibre production – by Canopy Planet Society, the Canadian environmental organization.
The non-profit organization cooperates with 68 leading retail brands in the textile industry and is a driver in evaluating sustainable sourcing processes. In its report, Canopy assessed the performance on forest conservation and wood sourcing practices of the major players of the cellulose fibre industry, in addition to commending Lenzing for its new ‘Tencel fibre’, which uses cotton fabric waste as an alternative source of raw material.
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Robert van de Kerkhof, CCO, Lenzing Group averred, “We are proud of this ranking, and see it as further evidence of the leadership role played by the Lenzing Group in the field of sustainability. The origin of the wood – the most important material – is the decisive factor for us at the beginning of the production process. Lenzing is continually striving to improve all its processes as well as its procurement guidelines. The Group will also continue to intensively provide support to the roadmap specified by Canopy as a means of preserving and protecting global forests. This is because sustainability is a core element of our business model.”
Another criterion serving as the basis for Lenzing’s No. 1 global ranking was its performance in the field of alternative raw material sources. Lenzing demonstrated its leadership in sustainable fibre industry innovations by developing the new Tencel fibre on the basis of cotton fabric waste. This innovation links pioneering work in textile recycling with the environmental award-winning closed loop fibre technology of Tencel. With this innovation, the company underpins its core value sustainability as a key business driver, and aims to pave the way to solutions for the textile industry’s pressing issue of more than 150 billion garments produced and partly disposed of every year.
