Looking for a Sustainable Fabric Supplier? FashionCapital Talks to the Head of Global Business Development at Lenzing for some Top Tips

‘Sustainability’ is a word that has been bandied about rather a lot of late, and we are now at the stage where sustainable policies have become fundamental to each and every business. Fashion, in particular, has many areas throughout its supply chain where it can implement sustainable practices. For those at the beginning of their brand journey sourcing a fabric supplier with transparent ethics and eco-credentials is no easy task. Here we talk to Ebru Bayramoglu – Head of Global Business Development at Textile business of Lenzing for advice and tips on sustainable fabric sourcing.

FC: FashionCapital advises and supports new fashion brands and with sustainability now becoming the requirement as opposed to a choice, what would your advice be to an up-and-coming clothing brand? 

EB: As an industry operating as a value chain, addressing the issue of textile waste falls on every one of us, from those of us on the ingredient-end to the consumers, brands, and retailers in between. A 2021 report put together by a fashion non-profit found that smaller brands were more forward-thinking in their sustainability solutions than larger enterprises. Up-and-coming brands have potential to drive real systemic change within the fashion industry, but it is also up to us as fiber producers to be agents of this change. At TENCEL™, we continue to support and empower brands in their sustainability journey – whether that’s an up-and-coming designer building a sustainable clothing label or a smaller brand. As for setting sustainability in motion, my suggestion would be for brands to look at embedding it into every step of their businesses, from product design, material sourcing to marketing. 

FC: For many designers, short of time, contacts and reach, the key question is ‘Where to source sustainable fabric?’ and addressing the challenge of minimum order quantities. 

EB: As fiber producers, we are well-aware of the impact sourcing the right kind of fabric has – not only on a brand’s end design or environmental footprint but business bottom line too. Fortunately, the textile industry is moving in pace with digitalisation and technology, which has made access to resources a far less tenuous task. Knowing that the challenges of sourcing fabrics are often ones brands find themselves needing to address early on, we’ve added a directory on where to source the most fitting TENCEL™ branded fibers on our TENCEL™ for business website, enabling designers and smaller brand owners, or fashion students even, to connect with mill partners that best fit their fabric or garment needs. 

FC: Please explain why TENCEL™ provides a better option than other producers of wood-based textile fibers?

EB: TENCEL™ Lyocell and Modal fibers differ from most fibers – even similarly cellulosic ones – in that we’ve taken great care to ensure our fibers have minimal environmental impact while still remaining uncompromised on style, comfort and function. The wood and pulp used to produce TENCEL™ branded fibers are sourced from sustainably managed forests, while innovations in our production processes have made it possible for our fibers to be manufactured responsibly. TENCEL™ Lyocell, in particular, has garnered a reputation for employing a closed-loop solvent spinning process, transforming wood pulp into fibers with high resource efficiency and low ecological impact. 

In 2017, Lenzing unveiled their REFIBRA™ technology breakthrough, which features the industry’s first successful scaled production of virgin TENCEL™ Lyocell fibers using post-consumer cotton waste. With the launch, Lenzing achieved an unprecedented milestone for circular economy in textiles. In 2020, we took another step forward by launching carbon-zero TENCEL™ Lyocell and Modal fibers that are certified as carbon neutral*. 

And last but not least, through the introduction of Fiber Identification technology and a partnership with TextileGenesis™, a blockchain-enabled traceability platform, we’ve enabled the full traceability of our fibers across the supply chain. That way, consumers have complete visibility of how the fibers in the garment have been made.

FC: Another concern for new designers is cost, can sustainable be affordable? Or is it a matter of having to pay more? 

EB: In any business or design, there’s always cost consideration, but that doesn’t mean that we need to give up on sustainability easily, especially when consumers are demanding it. In fact, there are different ways to make sustainable affordable, for instance, upcycling. By transforming waste into a new design of higher quality, it not only maximises resources, and showcases the designer’s unique vision, but is also a step towards creating a circular economy. By keeping raw materials in a closed loop, the need for new ones is reduced, waste is avoided, and the life cycle of products is increased.

At Lenzing, we fully embrace a circular economy through our own REFIBRA™ technology, an innovation that adds upcycled cotton pulp to TENCEL™ Lyocell for the production of new fibers.

FC: Finally, please tell us about your full traceability and sustainable practices as a company. 

EB: To us at Lenzing, sustainability isn’t just a consideration but a core part of our business strategy, embedded at all levels. We have set ourselves an ambitious science-based target to reduce carbon emissions by 50% per ton of product percent by 2030. By 2050, we aim to become climate-neutral with the achievement of net-zero.

To find out more visit the TENCEL™ website.

*Details of the certification are available on the TENCEL™ website. Find out more: www.tencel.com/true-carbon-zero