From the Sector

Shanghai - Sateri has signed the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, becoming the first viscose producer in China to support this global fashion agenda. An initiative convened by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), this charter calls on the fashion industry to support the goals of the Paris Agreement in limiting global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, by achieving 30 per cent aggregate reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030, including the supply chain.

Niclas Svenningsen, Manager of Global Climate Action, UNFCCC, said, “UNFCCC is excited to have Sateri joining the Fashion Industry Charter on Climate Action and committing towards global climate action as the first Chinese viscose producer to do so. We hope that it will inspire more textile companies from China to join and take action.”

As a signatory of the Charter, Sateri looks forward to participating in relevant Working Groups which bring together stakeholders and experts in the fashion and textile sectors. In recent months, Sateri has joined several other leading industry multi-stakeholder associations. These include the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC), China Association of Circular Economy (CACE), and the European Disposables and Nonwovens Association (EDANA).

Allen Zhang, President of Sateri, said, “Sateri is committed to growing our business as sustainably as we can. Our adoption of the Fashion Charter goals is a bold leap but we believe that pushing the boundaries is necessary. We are also stepping up on our engagement with industry partners to be part of the collective action to accelerate efforts against climate change.  As we formulate Sateri Vision 2030 for a sustainable business, carbon reduction will be one of our key focus areas”.

In addition to stepping up greenhouse gas emission reductions in its own operations, the company will continue to support decarbonisation efforts of the downstream textile value chain. Late last year, in collaboration with the China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), a Climate Leadership Whitepaper was published. The paper analysed how innovation in Sateri’s EcoCosy® fibre products help reduce carbon emission during yarn and fabric manufacturing stages, and also proposed next steps in achieving industry-wide emission reduction goals.   

Sateri attained an ‘A-‘ score in CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) for Climate Change in 2019;  a score which is higher than the ‘C’ average globally, in Asia, as well as in the Textiles and Fabric Goods sector. 

• Esprit selects EarthColors® by Archroma for its newest ‘I AM SUSTAINABLE’ capsule collection

Archroma, a global leader in color and specialty chemicals towards sustainable solutions, today announced a new collaboration with Esprit, the global fashion clothing brand, who selected the EarthColors® range for its ‘I AM SUSTAINABLE’ capsule collection.

Esprit creates laid-back, high-quality essentials that reflect its core values of sustainability, equality and freedom of choice. The brand developed its first eco-conscious collection made of 100% organic cotton, back in the early 90’s.

Archroma’s EarthColors® range came to public attention for being the Gold Winner of the OutDoor Industry Award 2017, Sustainable Innovations category.

The range is regularly featured by brands such as Kathmandu, G-Star and Ternua, who are willing to explore truly innovative and authentic color options for more eco-conscious casual wear collections.
Archroma’s EarthColors® is a line of patented plant-based dyes, sourced from up to 100 percent renewable resources.

Archroma developed EarthColors® using non-edible waste products, from agriculture and herbal industries, to replace petroleum derived raw materials; which are the conventional raw materials used to synthesize dyes currently. This gives brands an alternative when looking for more natural ways of dyeing garments.
The collection is available online: www.esprit.eu/earthcolors.

• Launched by SCOTT Sports Racing Team with Sitip, Rosti and ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei

The collection was designed starting from the needs of the athletes with the aim to offer them the best solution in terms of style and ergonomics, high performance, easy maintenance and perfect fit being also sustainable.

Ispo 2020 saw the celebration of the partnership started last year between Scott Racing Team, Rosti, Sitip and ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei for the supply of the team riders’ uniforms. Rosti worked on style and packaging, Sitip on technical fabrics ‘BE-HOT - Heat Generating fabrics’, while ROICA™ provided its premium stretch ingredient. The collaboration carries an interesting news: uniforms are not just highly performing but also, and above all, sustainable.

Sitip created the Native fabric entirely made with recycled yarns and featuring the premium high performing  ROICA™ EF elastomer. The yarn is certified GRS - Global Recycled Standard certification (and also provides special dyeability) with Rosti’s design and high care garment manufacturing.

The main rider of Scott Racing Team Italy, the young and award-winning champion Juri Ragnoli, the “end user” of the uniforms, explaines the requirements that garments should possess in order to meet the sporting challenges that await athletes: breathability, comfort on the skin, performance, durability of the shape and maintenance of the characteristics throughout the course of use of the garment. When asked about the arrival of a new sustainable uniform, the champion said that “it’s right and important to take this direction, which perfectly meets the team’s values, as love for nature and respect for the environment. It will be nice to wear something that follows exactly what you believe in”.

• Diana, Giusy, Simona and Marina. The call to action of the fashion world was born from four women engaged in the field of sustainability. On the occasion of Fashion Revolution Week, we tell you their story and the results achieved

A task force of Italian textile companies active in our area supported the first call to action launched at the fashion world by four women who have always been involved in the field of sustainability. The appeal launched on March 19th by the green journalist Diana de Marsanich, Giusy Bettoni, founder and CEO of C.L.A.S.S. (Creativity Lifestyle and Sustainable Synergy)the eco multi-platform hub specialized in integrating a new generation of eco values into fashion, products and companies, Simona Roveda, Editorial Director and Director of Institutional Communication of LifeGate and Marina Spadafora, Italian Country Coordinator of Fashion Revolution and currently collaborating with Luxury Fashion Brands to implement responsible strategies in their companies have luaunched a call-to-action project which has brought together textile companies to manufacture PPE garments for the medical staff working in San Gerardo Hospital in Monza, near Milan.

The companies that answered the call-to-action are: Filo d’Oro, Mantero, ROICA™ by Asahi Kasei, C.L.A.S.S. (Creativity Lifestyle and Sustainable Synergy) e Zerobarracento, Iluna Group, Lg Electronics, Jimmy Lion, Personal Genomics, Isamar Holyday Village, Marcolin Eyewear, Maglificio Ripa.

During the last weeks the 4 women collected about 1,800 non-drip cotton and non-woven TNT gowns for sanitary use, about 400 protective masks for multipurpose washable, bacteriostatic, breathable and water-repellent prevention, 1,000 washable cotton surgical caps, 150 complete protective googles eye masks, two microwave ovens for hospital departments to offer support to medical and healthcare personnel by helping them in the few breaks during the grueling shifts of this period, a supply of samples of cotton socks, 300 cotton masks + polyester outer layer, water-repellent and antibacterial, and free weekly stays made available to doctors, nurses, civil protection personnel and families with related children involved in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Forging Ahead with Circular Bioeconomy

Sateri, the world ’ s largest producer of viscose, has successfully produced on commercial scale viscose fiber regenerated from textile waste. The high-quality new fiber uses a mix of dissolving pulp made from recycled post-consumer textile waste by Swedish company Södra, and other PEFC - certified wood pulp.

Trialed at Sateri ’ s Linz Nanjng yarn spinning mill using two advanced technologies, Siro compact and Vortex, the new fiber has proven compatibility with existing spinning technologies, ensuring stable yarn production without the need to adjust existing processes or parameters. The fiber also has excellent spinning efficiency and delivers yarn evenness and tenacity.

Sateri ’ s breakthrough comes on the back of RGE’s announcement in October last year of a USD200 million investment towards next-generation cellulosic fiber innovation. Sateri is working with several dissolving pulp producers using various innovative technologies to aid the push towards a circular bio-economy. Sateri will be partnering yarn customers, garment manufacturer s and fashion brands to market and officially launch this new recycled viscose fiber product in the coming months, with the eventual goal of making recycled fiber available to the mass market.

Non-contact precision spray technology enhances productivity, sustainability and process control

Baldwin Technology Company Inc. has announced that it will showcase the TexCoat G4 non-contact precision spray fabric finishing system at the Techtextil North America tradeshow, held from May 12 to 14, 2020, in Atlanta (booth #3048).

With extensive sustainability benefits, unprecedented tracking and process control, and industry 4.0 integration, the TexCoat G4 provides consistently high-quality fabric finishing, with no chemistry waste, as well as minimal water and energy consumption. 

Baldwin’s innovative non-contact spray technology eliminates chemistry dilution in wet-on-wet processes. The TexCoat G4 consistently and uniformly sprays chemistry across the fabric surface and applies it only where needed, on one or both sides of the fabric. Customers can expect no bath contamination during the finishing process, as well as minimal downtime during changeovers, which are made easy with recipe management that includes automated chemistry and coverage selection.

The TexCoat G4 also enhances sustainability by wasting no chemistry during color, fabric or chemistry changeovers, and because only the required chemistry volume is applied to the fabric, wet pick-up levels can be reduced by up to 50 percent—leading to 50 percent less water and energy consumption. Furthermore, in single-side applications, drying steps can be eliminated for various textiles, including those that are back-coated and laminated, thereby streamlining and simplifying the production process.

Focus on Sustainability and Climate Change

Passion for Cotton: The 35th International Cotton Conference Bremen starts on 25 March in the Hanseatic city’s historic Town Hall. But before subject-specific questions are discussed in depth in the individual sessions, the concise and inspiring keynotes by leading business experts from science and industry will draw attention to the current trends and challenges in the industry at the start of the conference. A large part of the presentations is shaped by the current discussion on environmental and sustainability issues and the resulting consequences for the global economy.

Climate Change and Sustainability

“Climate change - a storm in a teacup?” asks Kai Hughes, Executive Director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee, Washington D.C., USA, in a provocative speech. The aim of his presentation is to work out the challenges of climate change especially for agriculture and cotton production. This should form the basis for later discussion on concrete approaches and solutions within the cotton community.

With his lecture “The HUGO BOSS sustainability programme ... and what our customer has to do with it” Andreas Streubig, Director of Global Sustainability at Hugo Boss AG, Metzingen, Germany, rolls up the textile value chain from a different angle, starting at the consumer level. As a representative of a premium brand for women's and men's clothing, Streubig discusses sustainability as a strategic element of the corporate strategy and provides information on how elements of the strategy are being implemented at Hugo Boss.

Rüdiger Senft, Head of Sustainability at Commerzbank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, looks at the changing role of banks in financing the cotton market. In addition to a general introduction to the topic of sustainability and banking regulation, Senft's presentation deals with the financing of the cotton trade from a social and ecological point of view.
The opening session on 25 March is hosted by Bill Ballenden, founder and owner of Dragontree, Swindon, UK, an online auction platform for the cotton trade. As a former cotton manager for Louis Dreyfus in Europe and Asia, Bill Ballenden has many years of experience in the industry.

Cross-Cutting Issues: Digitalisation, Gender, Value Chains

The subsequent session in the conference programme with the headline “A Wider View” is devoted to currently defining trends and important cross-cutting issues in the industry. This goes far beyond classic cotton themes.

A lecture by Mark Messura, Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain Marketing for Cotton Incorporated, Cary, North Carolina, deals with the role of cotton in an increasingly digitally controlled supply chain. Significant keywords here are faster delivery times, vertical integration, transparency and traceability.

The presentation by Roger Gilmartin, Managing Director of Tri-Blend Consulting, Charlotte, USA, entitled “The secret recipe for timely, cost-optimised and high-quality cotton clothing” promises exciting and enlightening insights. Tri-Blend Consulting conducts studies on the performance of different cotton varieties during the entire consumption process to the finished yarn and evaluates them from an economic point of view.

Amy Jackson, from the Better Cotton Initiative, London, UK, presents ICA Liverpool's “Women in Cotton” initiative. With this commitment, the initiative aims to increase the influence of women in the cotton industry and give them a stronger voice, for example by building networks in cooperation.

Navdeep Singh Sodhi, International Strategic Management Consultant at the Gherzi Textile Organisation, Switzerland, gives an insight into the current development of the value chain for cotton, textiles and clothing in Africa. Looking ahead to the coming decades, also in view of population growth, Africa is seen as having a high potential for building economic structures to improve income and prosperity.

Thomas Schneider, Professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin and active in the field of production planning and control, textile materials and materials testing will host the session. A leading light in his field, Thomas Schneider has more than 30 years of experience in scientific and application-oriented research in the textile and fibre sector, including at the Fibre Institute Bremen e.V.

Fashion giant H&M Group and Danish retailer Coop are joining chemical expert NGO ChemSec’s call to action to end the use of harmful PFAS chemicals in products and supply chains.
This commitment comes on the same day as award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo and director Todd Haynes address the EU Parliament to speak about the true story that inspired the duo’s latest film Dark Waters, in which an environmental attorney takes on chemical giant DuPont and exposes decades of PFAS pollution.
ChemSec’s corporate PFAS initiative includes:

• A call on policy makers to regulate PFAS efficiently, without the possibility for manufacturers to simply swap one PFAS chemical for an unregulated “cousin”.
• A call on the chemical industry to put money into innovation and develop safer alternatives to PFAS for all kinds of products.
• A recognition that PFAS are a major health and environmental problem.
• A serious commitment to end all non-essential PFAS uses in products and supply chains.
• A call on all other brands to join this commitment and work towards a phase-out of PFAS in all kinds of consumer products.

The single biggest problem with PFAS is that, with very few exceptions, they are perfectly legal to use. This means that the brands and retailers who want to stop it from being used as ingredients in their products have very limited ways of communicating this in the global supply chain. As long as there is not a restriction in place, suppliers will continue to use these very effective chemicals in manufacturing.  

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is a chemical family consisting of almost 5,000 industrially produced chemicals. In manufacturing, PFAS are favoured for their durability and well-functioning properties; they provide properties such as non-stick, water repellence and anti-grease to many types of products, including cosmetics, food packaging, frying pans, outdoor gear and firefighting foam.
The industrial use of PFAS has been so prevalent in the last decades that today 99% of every human, including foetuses, have measurable levels of PFAS in their bloodstreams.   
What is worrying is that human epidemiological studies have found associations between PFAS exposure and a number of health disorders, including various cancers, lowered birth weights and negative effects on the immune system.

Bemberg™ gears up for Première Vision - February 11th-13th, Paris, France; with a great deal of novelties and a key statement on sustainability: Let’s Make it Circular! That’s why the Japanese brand of regenerated cellulose fibers joins the fair with two booths, one in the yarn-focused sector – Hall 6 C52 6D53 – the other one in the Smart Creation area, the curated district showcasing cutting-edge sustainable innovation for the textile and fashion business. Hall3 S14.

“We simply could not miss out on the Smart Creation Area as sustainability is the founding pillar of our company,” says SHUNSUKE SATO, sales manager of Bemberg™ by Asahi Kasei. “Indeed, the smart fiber is made from a cotton linter which is pre-consumer material, a natural derived source, that doesn’t deplete forestry resources. The strategy beyond our double presence is to highlight our deep commitment to responsible innovation to a larger target of professionals.”

Let’s take it circular! is the motto at the Smart Creation booth. The lifespan of Bemberg™’s regenerated cellulose fiber derived from cotton is fully circular: from the source to manufacturing. The whole sustainable closed-loop process is supported by the LCA study, signed by ICEA and validated by Paolo Masoni. Recyclability is granted by the Global Recycle Standard - GRS certification by the renown Textile Exchange. An influential guarantee that involves the whole production process and supply chain behind the company’s smart yarns. Bemberg™ yarns are entirely biodegradable and ecotoxicity-free – meaning that at the end of their life circle they break down into the environment leaving no trace in terms of toxic substances as attested by the Innovhub-SSI report.

On show at Première Vision some of the most recent collaborations with GRS-certified partners such as FIVEOL, SMI TESSUTI, TESSITURA UBOLDI, INFINITY, SIDONIOS, MATIAS & ARAUJO, TINTEX, IPEKER, EKOTEN, for fashion fabrics as well as PEZZETTI and BRUNELLO & G.CRESPI from lining partners.

The first Bemberg™ partner to present a commercial collection enriched by Velutine™ Evo is the Portuguese Matias & Araújo. With an innovative spirit, dynamism and a determined entrepreneurial spirit, the company is a leading knitwear producer for the textile industry.

In the Hall 6 Bemberg™ displays key commercial items developed by premium brands such as CAALO that is making its mark in the outerwear market with its Sustainably produced Functional-Luxury proposal. For SS20, CAALO utilized Bemberg™ lining because of the sustainability properties and it's unique colour.

CAALO looks to utilize as much eco-friendly and sustainable materials as possible without compromising on design or quality. This Bemberg™ lining was a perfect fit.

To Accelerate Public-Private Cooperation in Supply Chain Transparency

Asia Pacific Rayon (APR) has joined the first neutral and public traceability platform capable of visualising blockchain-based supply chain data from multiple companies and sources. It aims to help businesses across industries respond to consumer demands for ethical and environmentally friendly products.
The neutral and safe space for collaboration is provided by the World Economic Forum and created in collaboration with Everledger, Lenzing Group, TextileGenesis™, and the International Trade Centre. APR will contribute to Phase 2 of the initiative which seeks to incorporate more data sources.

“APR has started harnessing the potential of enterprise blockchain technology to enable customers to trace finished products back to the plantation forest origins on a smartphone app. To be able now to connect our data to other similar industry initiatives is a natural next step for APR, as is extending the benefits of our upstream traceability to the rest of the textile value chain.

Enhancing Follow Our Fibre with New Mill Sustainability Dashboard

Launched in mid-2019, APR’s blockchain-based Follow Our Fibre allows customers and stakeholders to scan its viscose product with a user-friendly app to access data that traces the product’s journey from plant nursery to viscose manufacturing and on to seaports. In October 2019, APR announced a collaboration with TrusTrace to integrate Follow Our Fibre with the latter’s T-Trace module. This helps connect APR’s upstream data to downstream textile value chain actors such as yarn and fabric customers and fashion brands.

More recently, a sustainability dashboard tracking key mill environmental performance indicators has been added to Follow Our Fibre. The dashboard presents APR’s performance in its first year of operations where a baseline has been established for quarterly tracking, reporting and continuous improvement.
The performance indicators follow key industry standards being set by ZDHC for Man-Made Cellulosic Fibres (MMCF), as well as the European Union Best Available Technologies (EU BAT).