Lenzing’s Annual and Sustainability Report Highlights ESG-Focused Investment and Innovation
Like the rest of the textile business, Lenzing Group was put to the test in 2025. Softened downstream demand lowered fiber prices, tariffs created turbulence in markets and uncertainty was in the air. Yet, as the group’s 2025 Annual and Sustainability Report notes, its efforts throughout the year to protect and improve conditions for people, planet and profit yielded results.
Within the report, titled “Lead Transformation – Generate Impact,” Lenzing reported that compared to a 2021 baseline, it had reduced its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent and its Scope 3 emissions by 23 percent. Among the investments that contributed to this was lower-impact energy. Seven of our nine production sites run solely on renewable energy from the grid, and our Austrian headquarters has commissioned a new solar energy plant. We are also working with key suppliers on areas like green chemistry and raw materials to reduce our Scope 3 emissions. The company is continuing to make investments in energy efficiency as it works toward the target of net-zero emissions by 2050.
A key pillar of Lenzing’s sustainability actions is innovation, as it develops new fiber technology to reduce the impact of its own production and allow the industry to swap more applications to lower footprint wood-based fibers.
For the denim industry, the big headline was the introduction of TENCEL™ Lyocell – HV100, which mimics the look of cultivated natural materials by cutting fibers to varying lengths. While standard, uniform length TENCEL™ has a shiny, drapey texture, the Variocut manufacturing solution gives the fibers more body and a matte look. This allows them to be used on the warp or exterior side of denim, since the aesthetic achieved comes closer to that of cotton.
Lenzing has also teamed up to drive circularity forward. We continue to work with Södra on textile recycling, and in 2025, a partnership with Circ saw the launch of lyocell with 30 percent recycled content. A pilot project with Adidas and Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences took lyocell textile waste, turned it into pulp and then chemically recycled it into new lyocell, showing that more than just cotton can be reused through this process. In addition to recycled feedstocks, we are exploring alternative ingredients such as hemp, banana fiber and aquatic plants.
Circularity also extends to products’ end of life, and our fibers have been proven by TÜV Austria to biodegrade rather than persisting in the environment. Gathering more data, a 2025 study by Hydra Institute compared the biodegradation of cellulosic materials—including grown fibers like cotton and regenerated fibers like viscose and lyocell—in 122 different environments and scenarios. The results showed that biodegradation was comparable between native and regenerated cellulosic fibers.
Wood is a key raw material for Lenzing, and in 2025 100 percent of its pulp came from controlled plantations or from sources certified under Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). We are also committed to protecting forest ecosystems through efforts such as afforestation and biodiversity restoration.
“2025 was a challenging year in which we, as the Lenzing Group, demonstrated the strength and unity embedded in our company,” said the Lenzing Group management board, Mathias Breuer, chief financial officer; Christian Skilich, chief pulp officer and chief technology officer; and Georg Kasperkovitz, chief operations officer. “Under the guiding principle ‘Lead Transformation – Generate Impact,’ we improved our performance, sharpened our profile and consistently aligned Lenzing with the future. Our ambition remains clear: to achieve economic success while taking responsibility for the environment and society.”
Read the full report here.