From the Sector

• Lenzing has been awarded the highest CSR rating from EcoVadis for the second consecutive time
• Global rating standard evaluates 90,000 companies: Lenzing among top 1 percent of its industry
• enzing joins the UN Global Compact sustainability initiative

Lenzing Group has been awarded platinum status in the CSR rating from EcoVadis. This comprehensive assessment covers the four key practices of corporate social responsibility: the environment, fair working conditions and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

This is the second time that EcoVadis, a leading international provider of sustainability ratings for businesses, has awarded platinum status to Lenzing for its sustainability performance. As a result, Lenzing ranks among the world’s top 1 percent of companies in its sector that are rated by EcoVadis.

In line with its “Naturally positive” sustainability strategy, the Lenzing Group has set ambitious targets in each of its core strategic areas, aimed at bolstering its capacity to move from a linear to a circular model. Lenzing reports the corresponding implementation measures and the progress it has made in its annual sustainability report. This high level of accountability and transparency was particularly praised in the assessment by EcoVadis. The rating provider also highlighted Lenzing’s comprehensive measures to reduce air pollution, wastewater and greenhouse gases, in addition to its provision of skills development training and health care programs for staff members.

Partnerships for systemic change
Lenzing forges strategic partnerships with various stakeholders to meet its ambitious climate and sustainability targets and drive forward systemic change in the textile and nonwoven industries. This is why Lenzing, as one of 15,000 companies worldwide, joined the United Nations Global Compact. As a member, Lenzing is committed to upholding human rights, respecting the rights of employees and their representatives, protecting the environment, enabling fair competition and combating corruption.

This year’s JEC forum DACH, taking place from November 29 to 30, 2022, is strategically located in a composites « golden triangle », between Munich, Augsburg and Ingelstadt. This dynamic area, at the heart of the Bavarian region is known to be hosting major companies such as Airbus, Faurecia, Kuka, Siemens, Voith Composites, KraussMaffei Technologies, Cevotec, Munich Composites, or Premium Aerotec, thus promising a two-days opportunity to meet with key decision makers.

The digital platform available to all participants prior to the event enables to schedule one to one business meetings between buyers and suppliers from the whole value chain of composites, as well as informal networking during breaks, lunches and evening event.

In total, 500 attendees, suppliers and buyers, from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, are expected to participate to JEC Forum DACH 2022.

Business meetings event*
DAY 1 – November 29, 2022:

• 10.15 – 11.45 am – “Keynote and Plenary Conference Session : Market Developments
• Moderator: Dr. Michael Effing, AVK
• 4.0 – 5.30 pm – “Keynote and Plenary Conference Session: Recycling of Composites

DAY 2 – November 30, 2022:

• 9.00– 10.30 am – “Keynote and Plenary Conference Session: Sustainability of Composites
• 3.15 – 4.45 pm – “Keynote and Plenary Conference Session: Innovations: Raw Materials, Processes and Applications

Celebrating composites innovation through awards and startup competition

• The AVK Innovation Awards: Goal is to promote and give prominence to new products/components and applications made from fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP) and promote new processes and methods for manufacturing FRP products.
• Startup Booster competition: The contest is open to entrepreneurs, SMEs, startups and academic spinoffs building innovative composite and advanced materials projects that are based in Germany, Austria or Switzerland (the DACH region).

*You can view the full program here.

SHIMA SEIKI announces a sales promotion package for the apparel industry together with KDDI, Linking 3D fashion design with cross-reality― realizing digital catalogs, VR showrooms and new customer experience allowing 360-degree viewing without actual samples

Leading fashion technologist SHIMA SEIKI MFG., LTD. of Wakayama, Japan together with telecommunications company KDDI Corporation of Tokyo, Japan launched "XR Mannequin for APEXFiz," a sales promotion package that links SHIMA SEIKI's APEXFiz design software for the apparel industry with KDDI's XR (cross-reality) technology.

XR Mannequin for APEXFiz will be offered to the apparel industry. Using an XR Mannequin that enables viewers to check product images from any angle in 360 degrees on various devices, XR Mannequin for APEXFiz enables digital catalogues with 3D virtual sample image data of garments designed on APEXFiz design software, 360-degree VR showrooms, as well as digitally extended stores. It also realizes virtual proposals at exhibitions, showroom-style stores with no inventory, and user-friendly purchase experience on e-commerce sites, and more. It also allows users to reduce excess stock at stores and create new sales opportunities.

Eventually, by adding movement to models wearing Virtual Samples and rendering them on a cloud server, customers will be able to view high-resolution virtual fashion shows on their smartphones and other devices.

 Until now, the apparel industry has been making actual product samples in each of the planning and design stages of production. This process not only takes an enormous amount of time and cost, but generates waste of raw materials including fabric that require disposal. At the retail stage, stores also needed to have various sizes and colors in stock to address a wide range of customer preferences, resulting in excess inventory.

With SHIMA SEIKI's APEXFiz, designs can be evaluated without making actual samples, minimizing resources spent on sample production as well as lead time, enabling environmentally-friendly manufacturing.

In May 2022, KDDI developed a high-resolution XR mannequin for apparel sales, with support from Google Cloud. It enables various devices such as store signages and smartphones to check products from any angle in 360 degrees, enabling stores to sell products without maintaining inventory.

SHIMA SEIKI and KDDI combines APEXFiz and XR Mannequin to start providing XR Mannequin for APEXFiz. This brings DX solutions to all stages in the supply chain for the apparel industry, from planning and design to sample making, production, distribution, and retail sales. SHIMA SEIKI and KDDI will continue to create services together that link each other's products, to bring about a sustainable society by reducing excess stock, and providing a customer experience that gives peace of mind when purchasing products.

A huge logistics hub which is set to become AkzoNobel’s largest warehousing base in China is on course to be completed by the middle of 2023.

Located at the company’s decorative paints site in Songjiang, Shanghai, the new €10.3 million facility – a nerve center for production, storage and transport – will use intelligent digital technologies and advanced security management to customize storage and operation modes for different product categories.

“Eastern China is a strategically important region for us and the new facility will ensure that we’re well placed to meet the steady growth in demand which is expected over the next ten years,” says Mark Kwok, AkzoNobel’s President of China/North Asia and Business Director for Decorative Paints China/North Asia.

Equipped with a heat-insulating and light-permeable roof – along with nearly 5,000 solar panels that will generate 1.6 million kWh of electricity – the new facility will collect clean energy and use it for warehouse and office lighting, as well as charging forklifts.

The use of clean energy, logistics optimization and the automation of warehouse operations will make an important contribution to the company’s ambition of cutting carbon emissions by 50% and moving to 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

Earlier this year, AkzoNobel also announced that it was investing in a new production line for water-based texture paints in Songjiang. The new 2,500 square meter plant will boost capacity for producing Dulux products for various markets.

The new warehousing facility is scheduled for completion in May 2023.

Rieter is moving its Kahramanmaraş service station to a larger location covering 2 000 m² in a bid to broaden its offering and strengthen its market position in Turkey. The station will house one of the region’s largest test-spinning facilities and provide know-how in sustainable yarn manufacturing.

The comprehensive portfolio covers both mechanical and electronic services, including the revision of gear units, servomotor adjustments, and suction drums. The station will also offer preventive maintenance and mill optimization. The service offering spans the entire Rieter product portfolio.

Highlights of the Kahramanmaraş Service Station include the setup of a fully automatic rotor spinning machine R 70 and the winding machine Autoconer X6. Three-quarters of the 2 000 m² service space is reserved for functional activities, which will feature one of the region’s largest test-spinning facilities. Customers can run yarn comparison tests and analyze the impact of different technology parts so they can optimize machine setups. In-depth yarn trials and access to Rieter textile technology expertise will allow customers to cater more effectively to the dynamic demands of textile brands regarding performance, quality and sustainability, such as recycling applications.

The Kahramanmaraş service station is strategically located at the heart of the region’s textile industry, with a large proportion of Rieter’s installed base located within a radius of around 200 kilometers. Turkey is a textile powerhouse, currently ranking fifth in global exports and poised for additional growth. The country’s industry is also implementing a green action plan to help it meet the growing demand for sustainable textiles, especially from Europe.

The new service station starts operations in September 2022 and will accelerate the growth of the company’s three stations in Turkey. Rieter has been operating service stations in Turkey since 2005 with a presence in the country dating back to the 1990s.

• First product development centre in Germany

ISKO has opened its second product development centre, based in Stade, Lower Saxony, following the success of the Creative Room London in the UK which had its opening earlier this year.

Creative Room Germany is a innovative space and the first of its kind in Germany. It is the latest initiative of Creative Room Services (CRS), a division of ISKO devoted to offering streamlined and simplified solutions for all denim requirements – from fabric to finished garment.

With a focus on sustainable washing and finishing techniques, customers of Creative Room Germany will be able to work in parallel with ISKO’s experts to achieve their desired denim looks. Together with machine technology partner Jeanologia, they have been able to develop innovative washing and finishing techniques that meet the highest quality and sustainability standards with a significantly lower environmental impact. Creative Room Germany will also be the central point for its customers full product development, ensuring the whole process is agile and more efficient.

By utilising ISKO’s patented recycling technology, they are now able to develop brand new garments by using fibres from post-consumer denim, finally closing the loop and giving a new and cutting-edge circular supply solution for their customers. As well as a hub for its customers, Creative Room Germany will also act as a platform for the wider denim community to share knowledge, create new and innovative ideas and to bring them to life.

“Building on from the success of our London facility, our goal will be to offer tailor made garment supply solutions for customers in the DACH, Benelux and Nordic markets and this facility will be the focal point of that offering. With a collaborative approach, we will fulfil our vision of bringing a new circular supply solution to the market.”
Pau Bruguera, Executive Director @ ISKO

More than 350 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide every year, and vast amounts of plastic waste simply end up in the environment. The circular economy offers enormous potential for keeping plastics in the loop and thus conserving resources and the environment. Since 2018, six Fraunhofer institutes in the Fraunhofer CCPE cluster have been researching how to make the plastics value chain circular, and Prof. Manfred Renner has been the new head of the cluster since August 2022. Research results, implementation projects and strategies to accelerate the transformation to a circular plastics economy will be presented by Fraunhofer CCPE at the first international Fraunhofer CCPE Summit on February 8 and 9, 2023 in Munich.

In a circular plastics economy, resources can be saved, products can be intelligently designed for long service life, and end-of-life losses can be reduced. Systemic, technical and social innovations are needed to make the transition from a linear to a circular economy a success. This is what the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence Circular Plastics Economy CCPE is researching in the three divisions “Materials”, “Systems” and “Business”. The cooperation of the six Fraunhofer institutes IAP, ICT, IML, IVV, LBF and UMSICHT enables a multi-stakeholder approach in which the appropriate R&D competencies are bundled.

Fraunhofer CCPE would like to present and discuss successful projects and research approaches on an international scale at the Fraunhofer CCPE Summit on February 8 and 9, 2023 in Munich. The summit is to become an international forum for exchanging ideas for solutions and innovations for a circular plastics economy.

Cross-industry collaboration - local, regional and international
Since August 2022, Prof. Manfred Renner, Institute Director of Fraunhofer UMSICHT, is the new head of Fraunhofer CCPE. He succeeds Prof. Eckhard Weidner, who has retired. “Cross-industry cooperation - very local, but also regional and international - is the elementary prerequisite for a functioning circular plastics economy. At the summit, players from all points of the compass will meet and network in order to rethink the plastics value chain together," explains Prof. Manfred Renner, adding, “We want to provide answers to the following questions:  How can we make all Circular Economy principles, i.e. the ten R-strategies, known? How can industry, science and society best cooperate in a transformation to a circular plastics economy for the greatest possible impact?”

Results of the Fraunhofer CCPE cluster so far are innovative approaches for circular business models, intelligent collection, sorting, and recycling technologies, but also new formulations for circular polymers and compounds to enable multiple recycling cycles. With the newly developed assessment tool CRL® , companies can, for example, self-assess the maturity of products or product systems with regard to the circular economy. The tool checks the extent to which a product already takes into account circular economy principles in the areas of product design, product service system, end-of-life management and circular economy, and where there is still potential for improvement.

Sustainable fashion brands YesAnd & Kornit Digital are teaming up with the global platform fostering innovation in the fashion industry, Fashinnovation. This month, the three like-minded companies will be unveiling a direct-to-garment printing collaboration.
 
YesAnd & Kornit Digital are (e)co-creating digital, on-demand printed certified organic blank merchandise, with graphic designs by artists, celebrities, influencers, musicians, fashion VIPs, NGO’s and more. Sharing core values of fashion & innovation & non-toxic, zero-waste production, and the fusion of technology to accelerate impact, this launch represents a cutting-edge and sustainable solution that’s accessible, traceable, customizable, and scalable. By joining forces, this collaboration will educate, engage, and activate both consumers and industry alike.
 
"We at Fashinnovation have a strong belief that the fashion industry must walk side-by-side with innovation, in order to ensure a sustainable future. We are thrilled for this collaboration with YesAnd and Kornit, as we hope to set an example when it comes to the power of unity. In our minds, it's not about a person's wins, but rather it's about our collective progress," said Jordana & Marcelo Guimaraes, Founders of Fashinnovation.
 
Debuting the first of their brand collaborations with farm-to-print organic merchandise, this collaboration will together minimize waste, water, chemical use, and energy, while celebrating climate action, manufacturing efficiencies, and sustainable innovation—representing a true and timely fashion statement. The brands will be debuting their select blank styles of digitally-printed designs from the initial capsule collection—including the YesAnd Frida Hoodie, Gloria Hoodie Tee, Dominique Tee, and the Samata Dress, with a graphic option aligning the missions of YesAnd, Fashinnovation and Kornit Digital, “Don’t Wear Clothes, Wear Change.”

The Lenzing Group, a leading provider of wood-based specialty fibers, is expanding its global clean electricity portfolio by gradually transitioning to green energy at its production site in Nanjing. This will enable its Chinese subsidiary Lenzing Nanjing Fibers to use electricity derived solely from renewable sources from 2023 onwards and reduce the site’s carbon emissions by 100,000 tonnes annually. Lenzing only recently announced the transition to green electricity at its Indonesian production facility.

In 2019, Lenzing became the first fiber producer to set a target of halving its carbon emissions by 2030 and becoming climate neutral by 2050. This carbon reduction target has been recognized by the Science Based Targets Initiative. In Nanjing, Lenzing is currently investing in cutting its carbon emissions and converting a standard viscose production line to 35,000 tonnes of TENCEL™ branded modal fibers. Thanks to this move, the Chinese site will exclusively produce eco-friendly specialty fibers.

The company aims to generate more than 75 percent of its fiber revenue from the wood-based, biodegradable specialty fibers business under the TENCEL™, LENZING™, ECOVERO™ and VEOCEL™ brands by 2024. With the launch of the lyocell plant in Thailand in March 2022 and the investments in existing production sites in China and Indonesia, the share of specialty fibers in Lenzing’s fiber revenue is set to exceed the 75 percent target by a significant margin as early as 2023.

Shorter product life cycles and rapid technological progress are changing the product landscape at an ever-faster pace. The ability to anticipate future changes and to proactively shape the change is therefore an increasingly decisive competitive factor for modern companies. Trends are considered to be important indicators of impending

Kelheim Fibres, a leading manufacturer of viscose speciality fibres, stands out in the industry not least for its innovative strength, as evidenced by numerous awards such as the Techtextil Innovation Award 2022 in the “New Concept” category. At this year’s Global Fiber Congress Dornbirn, Innovation Manager Ilka Kaczmarek will give an insight into the innovation management of the Bavarian fibre experts in her presentation “Trend Management meets Open Innovation: Best Practice Examples from Kelheim”. Ilka Kaczmarek will show how successful product solutions were developed in a short time by focusing on customer needs and working closely with partners along the value chain.

Natalie Wunder, Project Manager at Kelheim Fibres, will explain one of these examples in detail in her presentation “Development of Menstruation Pants using Speciality Viscose Fibres”. Based on the current trend and the desire of end customers for reusable products, Kelheim Fibres was able to develop a washable and thus reusable, yet bio-based solution for feminine hygiene products.