Resource use and circular economy stakeholder engagement
[GRI 3-3f]
Lenzing’s most important stakeholders in circularity are described below.
Policy Hub
In 2019, Lenzing became a member of the Policy Hub in the circular economy for the apparel and footwear industry, and has been a member of the Steering Committee since June 2023. In 2024, the company actively contributed to enhancing policymakers’ and industry stakeholders’ understanding of the barriers and challenges facing the circular economy, particularly in areas such as textile waste, recycling technologies and transparency. It submitted recommendations via all relevant public consultations in the EU and other channels to advance the shift toward a more circular economy and product designs that effectively address climate and environmental challenges Lenzing has also actively engaged with the public and EU policy makers in exchanging information on barriers and possible solutions for advancing circularity.
European Recycling Industries’ Confederation (EuRIC)
In 2024, Lenzing became a partner of EuRIC, the foremost advocate for a competitive European sorting and recycling industry that fosters the circular economy and preserves resources for future generations. Lenzing actively contributes to EuRIC Textiles, a branch of EuRIC, providing expertise and insights on EU strategies related to textile waste and advancing a circular textile industry.
Circular and Sustainable Textile Clothing (CISUTAC)
Since October 2022, Lenzing has been a partner in the CISUTAC project that is co-funded by the EU. The consortium was established to support the transition to a circular and sustainable textile sector. Besides Lenzing, the 24 partners of the consortium include the industry association EURATEX, Södra, Decathlon and the NGO Oxfam. The aim of this initiative is to prevent, identify and eliminate barriers to the circularity of the clothing chain. For its part, Lenzing is focusing on the development of recycling processes for cellulose fibers in line with its own corporate strategy.
European Apparel and Textile Confederation (EURATEX)
EURATEX is the European Apparel and Textile Confederation, representing the interests of the European textile and clothing industry at the EU institutional level. Lenzing has contributed to EURATEX, and its latest project ReHubs to further promote circularity in the textile industry.
The goal of ReHubs is to set up an integrated system based on recycling hubs in Europe to recycle textile waste and industrially scale up the collection, sorting, processing and recycling of pre- and post-consumer materials. Lenzing played an active role in the “Transform textile waste into feedstock” project within the EURATEX ReHubs initiative led by Texaid. Lenzing completed its involvement in the mechanical recycling project in 2024
By the end of 2024, Europe will have faced the challenge of organizing a separate collection of textile waste and ensuring proper disposal options for the collected waste. At present, there is no large-scale plan across Europe to reuse and recycle the current 7.5 million tons of textile waste.
Accelerating Circularity Project (ACP)
ACP’s mission is to turn used textiles into new raw materials so that they are no longer incinerated or sent to landfill. With this model, materials will be constantly reused or recycled, and textile waste will itself become a valuable resource. With collaborative work along the entire supply chain, the organization managed to run trials that have been successful in creating fabrics with recycled content. Lenzing has contributed to the trials with its REFIBRA™ technology. The collected information is designed to help the entire industry to learn from this approach and identifies the potential for commercial products based on a cost-effective circular textile supply chain. Lenzing welcomed the opportunity to be a Steering Committee representative of this organization, which envisions a textile world that is restorative and regenerative by design. As well as being a founding partner of the project in the US in 2019, Lenzing became a project partner in Europe in 2021. It was still a project partner in 2024.
Textiles 2030
In August 2021, Lenzing was one of the pioneering signatories of the voluntary Textiles 2030 agreement. Textiles 2030 is the expert-led initiative of a Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP)’s in the UK, which is designed to limit the impact of clothes and home textiles on climate change. It represents a voluntary agreement that is funded by its signatories and the government. Signatories will collaborate on carbon, water and circular textile targets, as well as contribute to national policy discussions. With its manufacturing facilities in Grimsby in the United Kingdom, Lenzing is honored to take part in this initiative for proactively fostering circularity and systemic change in the textiles industry.
Though Lenzing maintains a strong belief in the initiatives and their values, due to recent organizational changes and the challenging environment in the fiber market, Lenzing has temporarily terminated this voluntary agreement, as of April 2024. Despite this, Lenzing remained committed to supporting the initiative as a non-member throughout 2024 and plans to re-evaluate the termination decision in early 2025, with the hope of rejoining Textiles 2030 in 2026.
Södra
To further speed up the technological development of textile recycling followed by an expansion of capacity for generating pulp from post-consumer waste, Lenzing began collaborating with Södra, another leading global pulp producer, in 2021. The goal is to recycle and process 50,000 tons of textile waste per year at Södra’s Mörrum site by 2029. This project, named “Textile Recycling in Europe AT Scale”1 (LIFE TREATS), is supported by an EU subsidy of EUR 10 million as part of the LIFE 2022 program2 to further develop the innovative OnceMore® recycling process.
TreeToTextile
Lenzing acquired a minority share in the Swedish cellulose fiber company TreeToTextile AB in 2024, forming a strategic partnership to develop next-generation cellulose fibers. TreeToTextile’s award-winning technology and production process, which significantly reduce environmental impact, align with Lenzing’s commitment to sustainability. The execution of the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and expected by the first half of 2025.
Forum for the Future
Lenzing is a participating member in the Enabling Systemic Circularity in Fashion (ESCF) project led by Forum for the Future. It is an action inquiry that investigates the enabling conditions for innovations to achieve their potential in supporting the vision of a circular, regenerative, responsible and resilient fashion value chain, as well as the systemic barriers that are currently preventing this. The project’s approach is to take a systemic lens to the enabling conditions and barriers encountered. This is explored through the participation of a mix of unique suppliers and brands that cover different perspectives, helping to learn best practices from each other and understand the current status of the industry to envision a circular future for the industry. Several working groups have been established, such as business models, innovative materials and waste processing. In 2023 and 2024, Lenzing was involved in the project and participated in workshops to contribute its know-how, while advancing progress towards its circularity strategy and ambitions.
The Austrian Bioeconomy Strategy
The Austrian Bioeconomy Strategy was published in 20193 and the Austrian Circular Economy Strategy Strategy was published in 2022. Lenzing contributed to both strategies by actively participating in the stakeholder processes and providing input for the strategies and the corresponding action plans. For the Bioeconomy Strategy, Lenzing was also represented in the bioeconomy platform, which closely accompanied the process. Both strategies (and action plans) are mutually interacting and are of high relevance to Lenzing as they cover two main points of the sustainability strategy. Thus, Lenzing is constantly contributing to the execution of the two strategies and is in exchange with the relevant stakeholders.
In 2024, textiles were the focus of the Austrian Circular Economy Strategy, was textiles with several events and consultation taking place. Lenzing participated in most of these activities (including the Textile Dialog hosted by ClimateLab), providing input on topics such as textile recycling or regulations. In the context of the Bioeconomy Strategy, Bioeconomy Austria is an important network for Lenzing as it has a strong focus on wood usage (in various areas) and links existing activities.
Environmental Sustainability & Circularity Assessment Methodologies for Industrial Biobased Systems (ESCIB)
Lenzing is a participant in the EU-funded project ESCIB (grant agreement no. 101135071) – Environmental Sustainability & Circularity Assessment Methodologies for Industrial Biobased Systems – which was launched in the beginning of early 2024. This project aims to develop crucial assessment methodologies that will help the European bio-based economy to perform faster and more accurate assessments of their value chains. Crafting standardized, life-cycle methodologies for sustainable assessments of bio-based systems at various technology-readiness levels (TRLs) is central to ESCIB’s mission. This will help to further improve the sustainability of biobased products, reduce potential negative impacts and highlight the benefits of biobased products in comparison to fossil-based products. Lenzing is one of the industrial participants in the project, which provides use cases and plays a central role in testing and evaluating the developed methods. As the main use case from Lenzing is Lyocell™ filament, this project is closely linked to another EU-funded project.
CELLulose lyocell FILaments (CELLFIL)
Lenzing is a participant and the technical coordinator in CELLFIL (grant agreement no.101135042) – CELLulose lyocell FILaments as a scalable solution for circular textile production – which was launched in mid-2024. The starting point and main topic of this project is the lyocell filament TENCEL™ Luxe, which was developed by Lenzing over the last decade. CELLFIL now spans the whole value chain, starting from raw materials across various production steps and finally ending with the investigation of several selected applications. During the project, nine prototype products will be developed across three categories: performance wear, automotive textiles, and technical textiles and reinforcements. This process will involve designing, developing, and validating end-use textile applications that utilize optimized lyocell filament yarns and fabrics with enhanced recyclability. By covering the whole value chain, this project aims to develop solutions, that demonstrate that cellulose filaments can replace their fossil counterparts, which are dominating today’s textile industry. Therefore, CELLFIL ultimately aims to transform the European textile value chain by developing sustainable, bio-based lyocell filaments. The project will drive innovation across the value chain by defining business models and strategies for market adoption by 2030, ultimately contributing to the development of a circular textile economy in Europe.
1 Disclaimer LIFE22-ENV-SE-TREATS – 101113614 is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or CINEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
3 https://www.bmk.gv.at/themen/klima_umwelt/klimaschutz/biooekonomie/strategie.html