Canopy and ZDHC Partner Up

Canopy and ZDHC Partner to Safeguard Forests, Water, Human Health, Biodiversity and Climate in Fashion Sector Work

10/07/2019

Today, CanopyStyle and the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme are announcing a partnership to scale up their collaborative work toward tackling the negative impacts of chemical processing, wastewater discharge, and raw material sourcing in viscose production.

“With these two strong organisations aligning and collaborating, contributors and partners of both ZDHC and CanopyStyle can now rest assured that a compelling vision for the future of viscose, and the detailed tools and standards required to get us there, are well in hand,” said Madelene Ericsson, Environmental Sustainability Business Expert at H&M.

The partnership mixes the two organisations deep expertise on very different sustainability issues in the fashion industry. The combination of ZDHC’s expansive knowledge on toxics pollution, alongside Canopy’s 20 years of forest expertise and wildly successful CanopyStyle initiative will lead to integrated solutions for brands and producers addressing the issues related to viscose production.

Over the past six years, the CanopyStyle initiative has worked to eliminate the use of the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests in the production of viscose. The initiative represents 198 clothing brands, retailers and designers currently collaborating on reaching this goal, and more than 65% of the global supply of viscose production is now undergoing CanopyStyle Audits. CanopyStyle is bringing together actions and strategies to realise the long-term goal of lasting conservation for the world’s forests, as well as working to kickstart new industries which make viscose and fabrics from next generation sources, like recycled clothing and leftover straw.

Since 2011 ZDHC has been working to drive the global implementation of safer chemical management practices in the global textile, apparel, leather and footwear value chain. Over the past years, the collaborative efforts of the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme have largely focused on driving chemical management best practices and related innovations in the dyeing and finishing of textile, apparel, leather and footwear. In 2018, ZDHC expanded its content scope to include the production of Man-Made Cellulosic Fibres (MMCF), the first fibre production area to be included in the Programme. The work is centred in a collaborative approach to develop guidelines for wastewater, sludge, waste and air emissions specific to MMCF production as well as expectations for process by-product recovery rates.

“ZDHC has incredible expertise in chemical processing and wastewater. We share a collaborative and solution-focused approach on how we can improve the ecological footprint of the fashion sector on our forests, species, waterways,” said Nicole Rycroft, Founder and Executive Director, Canopy.

“Our partnership with Canopy is a natural progression of ZDHC’s work. Since we began our work on viscose, Canopy has provided key insights into the industry and supply chain players. The CanopyStyle initiative’s collaborative model has built awareness and action within the sector, and we are excited to be working together on the key impacts of viscose on our planet,” says Frank Michel, Executive Director at ZDHC.

“We’re so happy to have worked with Canopy on transforming the impacts of viscose for the past six years. We’ve seen a scale of change in this supply chain we would not have thought possible,” said Phil Townsend, Sustainable Raw Materials Specialist at M&S. “ZDHC is a strong, critical partner for all this work to succeed, and to ensure we see a comprehensive shift across the major impact issues associated with viscose fabrics. I’m very excited they are formally announcing a partnership today.”

Over the coming 18 months, the fashion sector can expect to see tools and publications to support and report on the dovetailed and complementary progress made by CanopyStyle and ZDHC.

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