Textile Insight

T O T A L E M IS S I O N S BY S C O PE Call to Action on Climate Change Is Front & Center at 2021 Show. h e r a l l y i n g c r y a r o u n d c l i m a t e c h a n g e t h a t kicked off the Outdoor Retailer Winter Online show outlines an industry-wide appr oach of goal setting, partnerships and game- changing innovation. This includes a strong role played by the textile community in order to meet OIA's goal to be climate positive by 2050. A Climate Action themed program that opened Day 1 of the January 2021 virtual event will extend over a 10 week period into March with a series of climate related sessions reinforcing climate not only as the key talking point of OR Winter market, but as a defining feature of outdoor brands. "Positive impact for people and planet is the new business as usual," said Amy Horton, senior director, Sustainable Business Innovation, Outdoor Industry Association (OIA). "We need to remove more carbon than we emit." Horton introduced OIA's Climate Action Corps, an organization launched a year ago that currently consists of 185 individuals and 8 5 c o m p a n i e s t h a t t o g e t h e r represent about $20B in revenue, during a program titled, Ambition, Collaboration & Practical Steps to Guide our Industries Path to Climate Positive. Lenzing, Gore-Tex and PrimaLoft are listed as Corps members. "Basically If we don't solve the climate problem, then everything else is moot," stated Andrew Winston who gave the keynote address. "Businesses can apply solutions via operations, materials and manufacturing, as well as lifestyle influences. By the time we recognize exponential growth trends, and we are knee deep in a problem, it is often too late, whether that is spread of COVID or rise in climate change. Now we need to move with scale and speed." Winston is a recognized strategy expert and sustainability guru, whose talk, "The Big Pivot – Sustainability and Climate Action in Volatile Times," highlighted how consumer expectations of companies are shifting fast with individuals increasingly focused on corporate transparency and authenticity, particularly when it comes to concerns around sustainability. He noted that 95 percent of the world's largest companies have sustainable goals in place and an estimated 1100 firms have science based goals, with the aim to be carbon negative by 2050. "These businesses are setting ambitious goals for their suppliers, too," Winston added. Materials & Manufacturing The OIA presentation included flash points and mini case studies o n c o r p o r a t e s u s t a i n a b i l i t y i n i t i a t i v e s c u r r e n t l y m a k i n g progress on how to remove and reduce carbon emissions. Michael Sadowski, independent advisor to OIA's Climate Action Corps, emphasized learning specific product measurements as integral to the process of tackling major sources of emissions. For example, the vast majority of emissions, over 70 percent in a shoe, come from raw materials e x t r a c t i o n , p r o c e s s i n g a n d manufacturing, while another 20 percent come from final assembly. In other words, material choice m a t t e r s i n t h e p r o d u c t - l e v e l GreenHouse Gas (GHG) footprint. That is pretty much the case whether measuring a boot, or a board or a bottle. Sadowski suggests opportunities for GHG reductions in Tiers 1 - 3 of product development, that include increased energy efficiency in machinery, shifts from coal to lower carbon fuels, deploying low carbon technology such as waterless dyeing and scaling the use of renewable electricity. Timberland's use of regenerative l e a t h e r w a s c a l l e d o u t a s a successful partnership approach to removing carbon. The brand has been working with Savory Institute to implement less carbon-intensive materials in footwear products. Timberland's lead footwear exec M i k e G a s s s a i d t h a t b y 2 0 3 0 Timberland will design net positive products for a greener future. "The regenerative trend is on the rise," commented Gass. "Leather is the largest category of material used in Timberland footwear so that's where we started with our regen program." The company now has pilot regenerative programs in different areas of the world. Specific locations are: leather in Australia; natural rubber in Thailand; regenerative sugar cane in Brazil; and regenerative cotton in India and Haiti. Gass explained that regenerative agriculture works by methods of planned rotational grazing, no-till minimal disturbance of soil structure, cover crops and no/ reduced chemicals. PrimaLoft's P.U.R.E. product served as another example of climate positive innovation. The A new standard in manufacturing technology, P.U.R.E. relies on air, instead of heat from an oven, to produce PrimaLoft Insulation. The result is significant reduction in carbon emissions. According to Winston, the days of companies not being involved in sustainable solutions are over. "Business can't be a bystander; organizations have to move forward on climate change." l T IN THE MARKET | OR WINTER ONLINE Material Choices Matter SCOPE 3 93.9% SCOPE 1 2.95% SCOPE 2 3.15% 10 • Textile Insight ~ January/February 2021 textileinsight.com TOP SCOPE 3 CATEGORIES CATEGORY % OF SCOPE Purchased goods and services................. 78.5 Upstream transport & distribution .............. 5.1 End of life ................................................. 1.9 Downstream transport & distribution ......... 1.6 Capital Goods ............................................ 1.3 Employee commuting ................................ 1.2 Investments .............................................. 1.2 All other scope categories are less than 1%. Averages based on 20 apparel companies with approved SBTs. "We need to remove more carbon than we emit."

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