Specialty Fabrics Review February 2023 - 41

Choose a " North Star "
I recommend that companies decide
on a " North Star, " a term that invokes
an unmoving and guiding principle
or idea. For Levi's, its sustainability
North Star was always going to be
reducing water use, since jeans use so
much water-2600 gallons for one pair.
Architecture cares most about energy,
particularly of the building in use. For
packaging it is materials, such as using
less plastic, and end-of-life planning
for recyclability or compostability.
Decide on what is most important
to you, your customers and also what
has the potential to have the most
impact-not necessarily that which
is easiest, though that can sometimes
allow you a quick win to energize the
process. Choose one of the six as your
primary approach, and if you can solve
it, move on to the rest.
You can always use sustainability
certification as a guide, but this process
has its pros and cons. It is a good
reference point to work toward, but
which to adopt? There are a number
of viable choices:
* There are process certifications
(ISO 14001)
* Those for products (Cradle
to Cradle Certified)
* Chemistry (UL GREENGUARD,
Eco Institut)
* Raw materials (Bre Group,
UL Global Recycle Standard,
USDA BioPreferred); and
* More general certifications, such as Fair
Trade, 1% for the Planet and Certified
B Corp, all of which are worthy.
Again, in making a certification
decision one must first ask, " Is it
recognized and demanded by your
customers, and does the adherence to
a specific set of parameters affect your
North Star goal? "
Increasingly, some industries are
moving beyond " checking certification
boxes " and working toward a more
holistic and company-focused (or
industry-focused) set of goals that
allows for a more practical and
nuanced approach to reducing
environmental impact. Certification
provides a third-party seal of approval,
but having one does not convey
complete sustainability, nor does
the absence mean that you are not
a sustainable enterprise.
Material considerations
Materials choice can be a great
way to make demonstrable change
in your sustainability goals; however,
for an industry that is focused on
functionality and performance,
there are clear challenges. A word
of warning-a straight change
from an existing material to a more
" sustainable " one rarely works. There
needs to be a fuller consideration of
many aspects of the product including
design, production and marketing to
ensure that the new material can offer
a viable new solution.
Recycled material options are
expanding, with a lot of polyester on
the market (Unifi and others), and
some nylons, mostly in the advanced
or chemically recycled versions
(Econyl®). Recycled content in
polyolefins is more-or-less nonexistent,
and for glass, apart from Lanxess using
fibers derived from pre-consumer
recyclate glass for its nylon composites,
there has been virtually no industrial
recycled glass either.
In the area of bio-based or
renewable fibers and yarns, there have
been significant increases in the use of
flax as a replacement for glass fibers
in composites and more recently,
although not widely commercially
available, the use of cellulose yarns
to create fully cellulose, renewable
performance composites.
SpecialtyFabricsReview.com 41
 ECONYL®
Regenerated Nylon yarns
are used in manufacturing carpet.
Photo: Material ConneXion
http://www.SpecialtyFabricsReview.com
Specialty Fabrics Review February 2023

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