Thursday, 28 March 2024
News

Gore Tex publishes sustainability roadmap for its fabrics business

Fabrics giant Gore Tex has published a new “Responsibility Update”, charting the road ahead for the firm in terms of carbon reduction, Bluesign accreditation, recycled material use and a range of other pledges to bring about more sustainable practices.

It is widely acknowledged that the fabrics industry has some work to do on sustainability, a message that appears to have been acknowledged by many brands specifically serving the outdoor markets.

Ross MacLaine, the new Sustainability Leader of Gore´s Fabrics Division, said: “I am pleased to see that in 2020, despite all of the challenges, we kept making substantial progress in many areas of our sustainability journey. I am particularly proud of our carbon goals and our new sustainability framework. And I promise that we will continue to work hard on all the commitments we made within our evolved sustainability strategy; protecting people and planet whilst prolonging product lifetime and the well-being of users”

The material supplier has now published its 2020 Responsibility Update for the Fabrics Division, the key takeaways from which are listed as:

  • Setting of new absolute carbon-reduction goals established to support achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and help contribute to the global effort toward mitigating climate change.
  • The achievement of goals set three years ago to have 85% of consumer garments laminates approved by Bluesign and 100% of consumer garments laminates certified under OEKO-TEX Standard 100.
  • The culmination of a three-year effort to triple the number of GORE-TEX laminates (to more than 150) that use textiles with recycled content and solution dyed-yarn.
  • Sharing of environmental footprint data of the GORE-TEX consumer garments laminates through the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (MSI), helping our customers to make informed decisions.
  • Use of the Higg Facility Tools, implemented to increase transparency around environmental and social impacts at Gore Fabrics manufacturing sites.
  • The signing of the Manifesto of the international initiative “S.O.S. SOIL – Save Organics in Soil” by the Solid Waste Treatment Team of the TOF business, with a goal to encourage climate-proof soil management practices.
  • Updated the progress towards the elimination of PFCs of Environmental Concern (PFCEC) from Gore Fabrics Division consumer products.