WAKEFIELD – In a filmed interview from the Planet Textiles Pod, Tricia Carey, Lenzing’s director of business development, discusses the threat of deforestation posed by unsustainable sourcing practices, and how the Austrian fibre producer works to combat this.

This is the latest in a series of interviews with key industry figures that will be released in the lead up to Planet Textiles 2019, which will be held on 22nd June in Barcelona.

Speaking to host Mike Schragger, Carey explained that while deforestation occurs in “pockets throughout the entire world,” Lenzing does a lot of its sourcing “near our headquarters in Lenzing, Austria."

“We really have to look at the overall pie and what is being used,” she continued, contextualising the split of the overall fibre market, “and so if you look at all the fibres in the world there’s about 100 million tonnes of fibres, 60 per cent of that is synthetic, about 25 per cent is cotton, and man-made cellulosics is about 6 per cent.”

Citing industry collaborations with organisations including Canopy, FSC, Changing Markets, and ZDHC, Carey states that, “sustainability is core to everything that we do at Lenzing, and even though we only manufacture fibres, we realise that that’s not enough. We have to work together with the entire supply chain and stakeholders to make sure our product is the best that it can be in the market with the lowest impact.”

Highlighting the additional traceability benefits of manmade cellulosic fibres, Carey noted: “the beauty of having a man-made cellulosic fibre is that when we’re in the pulp stage we add the solvent; when it’s in this liquid stage it's kind of a consistency like honey. We can add fibre identification at that point. And so then when the fibre in extruded…we can verify and trace that.

“So we have a whole branding and certification programme that the fabrics are tested with, so the mills submit their fabrics, they receive a quality number specific to that fabric, which then goes into our database.”

Planet Textiles 2019 will take place at ITMA, which occurs every four years and brings together representatives for the global textile industry. ITMA 2019 is expected to attract up to 120,000 visitors from 147 countries.

Registration is now open for the 10th edition of Planet Textiles, with delegates receiving special discounted access to ITMA, along with a limited number of curated tours of the exhibition space exclusively for Planet Textiles attendees.

2019 Speakers will once again be invited to partake in filmed interviews in the Planet Textiles Pod. Interested to speak? Final call for speakers here, and for more detailed information about the event, please visit: www.planet-textiles.com