VANCOUVER – Aditya Birla and Lenzing have been ranked as the world’s top two viscose suppliers on issues such as conservation, transparency, and new production techniques. The rankings were created by environmental non-profit, NGO Canopy, which claims 52 per cent of the global viscose supply has been deemed ‘green shirts’ in its 2020 Hot Button report. A ‘green shirt’ rating indicates that a producer has been audited and assessed as being at low risk, or has taken action to eliminate known risk of sourcing rayon and viscose from Ancient and Endangered Forests.
The report also shows more than half of the global viscose supply has attained that milestone and more than 90 per cent of the entire viscose supply chain now has a publicly available CanopyStyle policy in place.
Canopy says that while eliminating Ancient and Endangered Forests from the man-made cellulosic fibre (MMCF) supply is a crucial first step, it is actually the “minimum bar of brands and producers’ CanopyStyle commitments.”
Canopy’s partners have also committed to investigating, trialling, and scaling up potentially game-changing new viscose solutions. These include using recycled, post-consumer textiles, agricultural residues and/or microbial cellulose to make the pulp that forms the basis of MMCF fabrics like rayon and viscose.
A third component of the ranking criteria is the translation of supply chain shifts into lasting conservation in critical forests around the globe. This year’s Hot Button documents progress by many producers in all three of these key impact/performance areas.
“It’s incredible to see how quickly the majority of viscose production has moved, and now we need the rest of the industry to keep pace,” said Nicole Rycroft, Canopy’s executive director. “In addition to many of the leaders reducing risk, we’re buoyed by the substantive advancements of Next Generation Solutions, as well as conservation gains in key landscapes. This year’s Hot Button Ranking is good news for all sustainability conscious brands, as well as for the world’s forests and climate.”
See full report here: https://hotbutton.canopyplanet.org/