From the Sector

Increasing energy and resource efficiency in the construction sector will be key to the EU’s ambition of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. By enabling the manufacture of strong, durable and lightweight products, composite materials can help the construction sector improve its environmental sustainability, as well as reduce total lifecycle costs. The latest EPTA industry briefing, Pultruded composites contribute to a more sustainable future for construction, discusses how pultruded composites answer the need for materials offering high performance, faster installation, corrosion resistance and low maintenance.

The report is available to download from the EPTA website.

The future of construction
As one of the largest global users of energy and raw materials, the construction industry is under immense pressure to improve its sustainability. At the same time, it must respond to demands for improved performance and reduced total cost of ownership. New materials will be needed to minimise the use of natural resources, enable a reduction of carbon footprint and facilitate circular economy practices. Choosing the optimum materials required for durability throughout the lifecycle will be increasingly important. A shift to off-site production is also forecast, where factory-controlled environments and automated processes can improve quality control, lower waste, and reduce work on site.

Lightweight pultruded parts can be pre-assembled into modules or complete structures in the factory for faster installation on site. Lightweight profiles lower energy use during transportation and installation, and a longer service life combined with minimal maintenance can deliver a reduced through-life carbon footprint. Pultruded parts such as profiles, gratings, beams, tubes and planks are increasingly found in a range of building, construction and infrastructure applications. Examples include bridge decks, fencing, stairs and handrails, train platforms, cladding, utility poles, modular building concepts, and window frames.

One application offering large growth potential for composites is bridges. Composite bridges are being designed to provide a service life of 100 years and unlike steel bridges do not require regular repainting to protect them from corrosion. Over recent years, pultruded glass fibre composite has become a highly popular choice for pedestrian and cycle bridges. Pre-fabricated ‘easy fit’ bridge decking planks, pre-assembled bridge modules and complete bridge ‘kits’ are now available. Corrosion-resistant composite bridges are ideal for use near water or on the coast, and in remote locations where regular maintenance operations would be difficult. A composite bridge can deliver the same performance as a steel structure with a weight saving of up to 50% or more. This enables more streamlined bridge designs which require less substantial supporting structures and foundations, greatly reducing consumption of materials and energy. Lightweight also results in easier logistics and simplified installation. Pultruded are more easily transported to the construction site, with lower fuel consumption, and easier to move on site, often reducing labour requirements and the capacity of lifting equipment.

A lifecycle approach
As the construction industry looks to the future, the environmental and economic benefits of composite materials linked to easier logistics and installation, durability and low maintenance are becoming increasingly valued. More projects are demonstrating the benefits of composite materials and standards covering the design, fabrication and installation of pultruded profiles are making it easier for the construction industry to use them. With ongoing development and collaboration, pultrusion has the potential to contribute to a more sustainable future for construction and many other industries. EPTA will continue to promote the advancement of pultrusion technology and its applications and foster sustainable practices within the industry.

How does a future-proof, circular and sustainable plastics economy look like? The answer is a balance ranging from plastics reduction to a sustainable use of recyclable plastics. After all, the increasing demand for plastics in high-value applications such as food packaging, car parts or synthetic textiles requires a holistic change. With four strategic approaches, researchers from the German institute Fraunhofer UMSICHT and the Dutch institute TNO now provide insights into how this future scenario could look like in their recently published white paper "From #plasticfree to future-proof plastics". Both organizations also start a hands-on platform for plastics in a circular economy: European Circular Plastics Platform – CPP aimed at removing existing barriers and sharing of promising solutions.

Versatile and inexpensive materials with low weight and very good barrier properties: That's what plastics are. In addition to their practical benefits, however, the materials are also associated with a significant share of mankind's greenhouse gas emissions. The production and use of plastics cause environmental pollution and microplastics, deplete fossil resources and lead to import dependencies. At the same time, alternatives - such as glass packaging - could cause even more environmental burden or have poorer product properties.

Researchers from TNO and Fraunhofer UMSICHT have elaborated a white paper that provides a basis for the transformation of plastics production and use. They consider the integration of the perspectives of all stakeholders and their values and the potential of current and future technologies. In addition, the functional properties of the target product, the comparison with alternative products without plastics, and their impact in a variety of environmental, social and economic categories over the entire life cycle are crucial. In this way, a systematic assessment and ultimately a systematic decision as to where we can use, reject or replace plastics can be realized.

Strategies for the Circular Economy
As a result, the researchers describe four strategic approaches for transforming today's largely linear plastics economy into a fully circular future: Narrowing the Loop, Operating the Loop, Slowing the Loop, and Closing the Loop. By Narrowing the Loop, the researchers recommend, as a first step, to reduce the amount of materials mobilized in a circular economy. Operating the Loop refers to using renewable energy, minimizing material losses, and sourcing raw materials sustainably. For Slowing the Loop, measures are needed to extend the useful lifetime of materials and products. Finally, for Closing the Loop, plastics must be collected, sorted and recycled to high standards.

Individual strategies fall under each of the four approaches. While the ones under Operating the Loop (O strategies) should be applied in parallel and as completely as possible. According to the researchers, the decision for the strategies in the other fields (R strategies) requires a complex process: “Usually, more than one R-strategy can be considered for a given product or service. These must be carefully compared in terms of their feasibility and impact in the context of the status quo and expected changes”, explains Jürgen Bertling from Fraunhofer UMSICHT. The project partners have therefore developed a guiding principle for prioritization based on the idea of the waste hierarchy.

A holistic change, as we envision it, can only succeed if science, industry, politics and citizens work together across sectors. “This implies several, partly quite drastic changes at 4 levels: legislation and policy, circular chain collaboration, design and development, and education and information. For instance, innovations in design and development include redesign of polymers to more oxygen rich ones based on biomass and CO2 utilisation. Current recycling technologies have to be improved for high quantity and quality recycling,” explains Jan Harm Urbanus from TNO.

Hands-on platform for cross-sector collaboration
“Therefore, in a next step, TNO and Fraunhofer UMSICHT are building a hands-on platform for plastics in a circular economy: European Circular Plastics Platform – CPP," explains Esther van den Beuken, Principal Consultant from TNO. It will give companies, associations and non-governmental organizations the opportunity to work together on existing barriers and promising solutions for a Circular Plastics Economy. The platform will also offer its members regular hands-on workshops on plastics topics, roundtable discussions on current issues, and participation in multi-client studies on pressing technical challenges. Regular meetings will be held in the cross-border region of Germany and the Netherlands as well as online. The goal is to bring change to the public and industry.

“Grow Your Couture” by Piero D'angelo, the winning project of the IMAGINING SUSTAINABLE FASHION (ISFA) competition was announced during a webinar broadcast on 18 May attended by Giusy Bettoni CEO of C.L.A.S.S. Eco Hub, Anna Detheridge President of Connecting Cultures and ISFA ambassadors Valentina Suarez, co-founder and CEO of Universo Mola and Vishal Tolambia winner of the 2022 edition.
 
Piero D'angelo's project was the best among the 110 proposals received after the international call for proposals launched on 27 October 2022.
 
Piero D'Angelo, 36, a graduate in Fashion Womenswear from the Royal College of Art in London and in Textile Design from Central Saint Martins, is a Fashion and Textile Designer with a research focus on biotechnology in the fashion industry. In 2022 he founded his Fashion & Textile Design studio experimenting with a multidisciplinary approach on the importance of natural materials and Biodesign. From 2018 to 2022 Piero D'Angelo was a resident and then Product Researcher & Developer at Open Cell (Biotech Research Park), a biotech start-up community in London. He was awarded the Dorothy Waxman Textile Design Prize in 2015 and semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize in 2020.
 
In his communication project, 'Grow Your Own Couture' D'Angelo imagines a future scenario where it will be possible to grow one's own clothes through living organisms such as lichens that are able to absorb pollution. But the project also wants to communicate a return to nature and above all care and protection towards it. In fact, the user is not simply a user of fashion, but through a kit is part of the process of growth, care and creation of the garment, thus abandoning the traditional paradigms of fashion. The project wants to completely re-imagine the way fashion could be designed, produced and used, proposing not only a product, but also a system that wants to collaborate with nature instead of polluting or exploiting it.

Renewcell is the recepient of the Fast Company 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards for the Sustainability/Energy category with the development of recycling unused textiles into pulp, branded as CIRCULOSE®, used for man-made cellulosic fiber production of viscose, modal, lyocell, acetate and other fibers. Additionally Renewcell is recognized as a finalist in the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa category, as well as a finalist in the climate category for the 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards.

World Changing Ideas Awards honor sustainable designs, innovative products, bold social initiatives, and other creative projects that are changing the way we work, live, and interact with the world.

This year’s World Changing Ideas Awards showcase 45 winners, 216 finalists, and more than 300 honorable mentions—with health, climate, energy, and AI among the most popular categories. A panel of Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists from a pool of more than 2,200 entries across urban design, education, nature, politics, technology, corporate social responsibility, and more. Several new categories were added this year including rapid response, crypto and blockchain, agriculture, and workplace. The 2023 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Italy to Singapore to New Zealand. Fast Company’s Spring 2023 issue (on newsstands May 9, 2023) will showcase some of the world’s most inventive entrepreneurs and forward-thinking companies that are actively tackling global challenges.

The international association that will manage the Single-Entry-Point (SEP) of the BIONANOPOLYS project has been formally constituted and will be able to support companies across the European Union in the market introduction of bionanomaterials through technical, legal, regulatory, safety, economic and financial support services.

The SEP was established as an AISBL (non-profit entity) on 17 February 2023 in the framework of the European project BIONANOPOLYS, funded by the Horizon 2020 programme. The technical director of ITENE and coordinator of this project, Carmen Sánchez, is the president of this association in which representatives of other project partners also act as directors. Specifically, the CTP (Centre Technique du Papier) from France; CIDAUT (Fundación para la Investigación y Desarrollo en Transporte y Energía), from Spain; CENTI (Centre for Nanotechnology and Smart Materials), from Portugal, and the law firm Gil & Robles - San Bartolome & Associés, from Luxembourg.

The BIONANOPOLYS SEP will reduce the risks and barriers to the commercial exploitation of bio-based materials and polymeric bionanocomposites with nanotechnology and accelerate market penetration and innovation processes. SMEs, large companies, and potential customers who are users of the BIONANOPOLYS OITB (Open Innovation Test Bed) will be able to access the services offered by the project partners through this entity, which will act as a one-stop shop, at affordable costs and conditions.

The test bed consists of 14 enhanced pilot plants and complementary services to support technological and commercial breakthroughs. Collaboration between all the partners that make up BIONANOPOLYS and access through the SEP allows joint access to all the services offered by the partners and helps to drive collaborative open innovation.

Call for access to the BIONANOPOLYS OITB
The SEP and the project partners will be in charge of evaluating the projects submitted to the BIONANOPOLYS platform once the open call launched last February to select five projects from different European countries that will be able to access its services free of charge to develop, test or scale-up bionanomaterials in the BIONANOPOLYS OITB closes.

Companies wishing to access the services to develop or test nanomaterials can submit their applications until 30 April.

The BIONANOPOLYS test bed could benefit companies involved in the production of biopolymers, cellulose paper, nonwovens, foams, or coatings, as well as the packaging, agriculture, food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, hygiene, textiles and 3D printing sectors.

Major developments FY 2022

• Currency-neutral revenues up 1% reflecting growth in all markets except Greater China
• Double-digit increases in North America and Latin America, EMEA up high single digits
• Gross margin declines to 47.3% due to strong increase in supply chain costs and discounting  
• Operating profit at € 669 million, including one-off costs of € 312 million
• Operating margin decreases to 3.0%  
• Net income (continuing operations) of € 254 million includes € 350 million one-off costs
• Executive and Supervisory Boards propose dividend of € 0.70 per share

Major developments Q4 2022

• Currency-neutral revenues decline 1% impacted by termination of Yeezy partnership
• Gross margin at 39.1% reflecting increased supply chain costs and higher discounting
• Operating loss of € 724 million
• Net loss from continuing operations of € 482 million

Outlook for 2023
Underlying operating profit expected to be around break-even level
In 2023, adidas expects currency-neutral revenues to decline at a high-single-digit rate as macroeconomic challenges and geopolitical tensions persist. Elevated recession risks in Europe and North America as well as uncertainty around the recovery in Greater China continue to exist. The company’s revenue development will also be impacted by the initiatives to significantly reduce high inventory levels. In addition, while the company continues to review future options for the utilization of its Yeezy inventory, the guidance already reflects the revenue loss of around € 1.2 billion from potentially not selling the existing stock. Accounting for the corresponding negative operating profit impact of around € 500 million, the company’s underlying operating profit is projected to be around the break-even level in 2023.

Reported operating loss of € 700 million projected
Should the company irrevocably decide not to repurpose any of the existing Yeezy product going forward, this would result in the potential write-off of the existing Yeezy inventory and would lower the company’s operating profit by an additional € 500 million this year. In addition, adidas expects one-off costs of up to € 200 million in 2023. These costs are part of a strategic review the company is currently conducting aimed at reigniting profitable growth as of 2024. If all these effects were to materialize, the company expects to report an operating loss of € 700 million in 2023.

Indorama Ventures Public Company Limited (IVL) reported a record FY22 financial performance from the company’s global manufacturing footprint serving end-consumers’ resilient need for daily necessities. The unusually high level of customer destocking that weighed on the fourth quarter result is expected to have leveled out and business should return to normal operating conditions, with China’s reopening to further spur demand.

Full-year Core EBITDA climbed 31% YoY to $2.3 billion as revenue rose 28% to a record $18.8 billion. The company recorded strong cash flows of $2.2 billion, up 111% YoY. Indorama Ventures’ geographically diversified, integrated platform, backed by management’s agility, withstood unprecedented global events to generate earnings through the business cycle. During the year, the company continued to focus on its growth plan, successfully integrating its strategic surfactants business in Latin America and Vietnamese packaging acquisition. A dedicated senior team is working tirelessly and is committed to the company’s ‘Vision 2030’ sustainability goals including recycling technologies and introducing biomass feedstock to the company’s product portfolio. The ongoing ‘Project Olympus’ cost transformation program delivered an annual run rate of $449 million in efficiencies.

The annual result was impacted by an unusually challenging final quarter as fears of a recession and reduced transit times led to widespread destocking by customers. 4Q22 Core EBITDA declined 43% YoY to $264 million on a 1% drop in revenue to $3.9 billion. The pandemic lockdown in China also continued into the final quarter, reducing factory demand across Indorama Ventures’ portfolio and resulting in narrower margins from lower prices and higher costs. Higher energy and utility costs impacted European operations as the war in Ukraine continued into the winter.

To improve competitiveness and build resilience, Indorama Ventures rationalized underperforming assets in the Fibers business in Europe and a PTA site in Asia, resulting in a $7 million cash impairment in 4Q22 and a $253 million non-cash impact. As a result, the company looks forward to a $38 million uplift in EBITDA in 2023, reaching up to $65 million by 2025.

Kelheim Fibres, a leading manufacturer of viscose speciality fibres, has joined Recycling Atelier Augsburg. Recycling Atelier Augsburg is a unique centre for research and development in the field of textile recycling. It is located at the Institut für Textiltechnik Augsburg an affiliated institute of Augsburg University of Applied Sciences. The two institutions founded the Recycling Atelier in June 2022 together with twelve partners from the German textile industry.

In the Recycling Atelier, the focus is on the triad of technical and ecological sense as well as economic benefit. In this way, the partners of the Recycling Atelier are standing up against fast fashion, outsourced corporate responsibility and a general decline in raw material quality, which often fuels downcycling - the low-quality reuse - of materials.

As a model factory, the Recycling Atelier Augsburg combines the most important processes of textile recycling and offers holistic and comprehensive research along the value chain," explains Georg Stegschuster, head of the Recycling Atelier Augsburg. The scientists research on all process steps of textile recycling: from material analysis to sorting, preparation and textile processing to sustainable product design. Comprehensive data collection and the use of artificial intelligence as well as innovative materials play a central role.

Kelheim Fibres is a producer of high-quality viscose fibres, which consist of cellulose, the main component of the renewable raw material wood, and are used worldwide for products in areas such as hygiene, textiles, and technical applications.

"In New Business Development as well as Fibre and Application Development, we follow the Open Innovation concept - the cooperation with the Recycling Atelier offers us an ideal platform for this. Here we work with partners to advance sustainability and performance," explains Maik Thiel, project manager at Kelheim Fibres.

Recycled cotton fibres are often very short or of uneven length, which makes further processing of 100 % recycled material a challenge. Adding speciality fibres from Kelheim Fibres should enable the production of high-quality new products, such as nonwovens. In the future, the fibres provided by Kelheim Fibres will also be made from recycled pulp.

The EU's plans to ban PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals will have an immense impact on companies globally. Perhaps even more than expected, as many manufacturers are unaware that they may have PFAS chemicals in their product line. A new online tool, launched today by NGO ChemSec, will help to solve this problem.

Just a couple of weeks after the big PFAS restriction proposal in the EU was published, ChemSec launches the PFAS Guide, which helps companies investigate the use of persistent chemicals within their businesses. The main feature of the PFAS Guide is the searchable database uncovering different PFAS uses and functions. The online tool also provides guidance on different aspects of the phase-out process from regulation and investigation all the way to testing and supply chain communication.

“We’ve been working to support companies in chemical substitution for a long time, and the last few years we’ve gathered a group of companies working specifically on the PFAS issue. The discussions with them made it clear to us that a main challenge is understanding if and where in your business you may have PFAS”, says Dr. Anna Lennquist, Project Leader for the PFAS Guide.

PFAS are a source of growing concern
It has been estimated that 95 percent of all manufactured goods rely on some form of industrial chemical process. A large share of the chemicals used in these processes have been linked to adverse impacts on human health and the environment. PFAS are a clear example of this problem. PFAS have been manufactured and used in products such as make-up, non-stick pans, water- and greaseproof textiles, food-packaging materials, and firefighting foam since the 1950s and are still used in a wide variety of products around the world today.

But they are also substances of growing concern due to their problematic properties. Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of several thousand man-made chemicals that accumulate in the environment and cause health impacts for generations. They are, for example, linked to cancer, lung disease, diabetes, reproductive abnormalities and learning difficulties. Since PFAS do not degrade, these “forever chemicals” are now so widespread that is safe to say that every single human being on the planet have detectable levels of these toxic chemicals in their blood.

A couple of weeks ago, a big proposal to restrict PFAS in the EU was published. The five EU Member States behind the proposal submitted a broad restriction proposal that clearly shows the need for the industry to put all resources into phasing out all PFAS substances.

Archroma, a manufacturer of sustainable specialty chemicals and solutions for industries such as textiles, packaging & paper, paints and coatings, announced that it has secured all regulatory approvals required to complete the acquisition of the Textile Effects business from Huntsman Corporation (“Huntsman Textile Effects”).

Both parties expect the transaction, which was first announced on 09 August 2022, to close on 28 February 2023.

Archroma is a portfolio company of US-based private investment firm SK Capital Partners. Since its formation in 2013, Archroma acquired and successfully integrated the global textile chemicals businesses of BASF as well as BASF’s stilbene-based OBA business for paper applications, and M. Dohmen, a specialist in coloration for automotive textiles.

Heike van de Kerkhof, Archroma Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO), commented: “We are very excited to see this acquisition nearing completion. I am deeply grateful to the project teams of Archroma and Huntsman who are preparing for a smooth transition for our employees and partners. After closing, we will be able to bring together our expert teams and highly complementary product portfolios to offer our customers and brand partners the high performance they expect, whilst respecting natural resources and the planet.”