Lenzing Tops Canopy’s Hot Button Rankings
Wood and wood pulp are Lenzing’s most important raw materials, and as such the company focuses on responsible sourcing of both these raw materials. This is accomplished through certifications, responsible consumption and highly efficient use of these valuable resources.
Canopy is a Canadian nonprofit organization focusing on the conservation and protection of ancient and endangered forests. Each year since 2016, Canopy has assessed viscose manufacturers’ environmental performance—with each different performance criteria earning points, or buttons.
In the 2022 “Hot Button” Report, Lenzing once again leads Canopy’s rankings with 32 buttons.
“We’re proud of the work we’re doing to reduce the impact of our fiber manufacturing on forests,” said Michael Kininmonth, project manager for the Denim Team at Lenzing. “We have managed to improve year-on-year, through continuous leadership. In 2017, we achieved ‘green shirt’ ranking registering 20.5 buttons, then in 2018, Lenzing achieved the best score of all assessed viscose manufacturers with 23 buttons. In 2019, we continued our leading position, obtaining the first-ever ‘partial dark green’ shirt with a top ranking of 26.5 buttons. An improvement of 4 points in 2020 realized a score of 30.5 points, being the first time a manufacturer had reached a ‘dark green’ shirt status, and in 2021, we improved once more by 0.5 points reaching 31 points, maintaining a ‘dark green’ shirt. There is still room to grow, and we will continue to seek out opportunities to lessen our impact.”
Each year, third-party audits are carried out and are based on a robust set of criteria created by Canopy with approval of the CanopyStyle Leaders for Forest Conservation, comprised of Inditex, H&M, Eileen Fisher, Stella McCartney and Marks & Spencer. Canopy’s analysis of the audits has determined that there is a low risk of Lenzing sourcing from ancient or endangered forests.
Lenzing has also been a vocal advocate for ancient and endangered forests, including using our influence to move supply chain partners in the right direction.
As part of our conservation efforts, Lenzing established a reforestation initiative in Albania that planted fruit and forest trees on 20 hectares of land. Without enough vegetation, the local land was experiencing erosion, which harmed crops and livelihoods. This project therefore has both an environmental and social impact.
We are also working with Canopy to ensure the plantations in our Brazilian production facility meet sustainability standards. Lenzing took responsibility for 13,000 hectares of land in Brazil in 2020, and it will expand conservation efforts to 15,000 hectares by 2030.
For our downstream partners, we have traceability that enables buyers to see which forest their cellulosic fibers came from. By 2021, 500 of our value chain partners had blockchain technology in place for better visibility. We also publicly report on our wood pulp suppliers, being transparent about our sourcing.
Canopy also takes into account fiber innovations that reduce the need for wood inputs. Our TENCEL™ fibers with REFIBRA™ technology were the first commercial-scale circular lyocell fibers with 30 percent recycled content. We aim to use 50 percent post-consumer content in these fibers by 2024.
Click here to read the full Hot Buttons Report.
For more on Lenzing’s sustainability efforts, check out our latest Sustainability Report.