#Sustainability

2019-02-21

Innovation through sustainability

At this year’s Lineapelle (February 20-22, Milan), Sympatex (hall 22P, booths M11-M19 / N12-N20) will premier a new line of functional materials for footwear in which PU foams commonly used in the lining of the laminate are completely replaced by a fleece-like compound made from recycled clothing fibers.

This innovation dovetails with several of the ecological goals set down in the Sympatex “Agenda 2020” sustainability strategy: avoiding waste while reusing valuable and scarce raw materials, replacing controversial chemicals with more sustainable alternatives, reducing CO2 emissions and significantly reducing water consumption during the production of the laminate. With the new footwear line, Sympatex is not only feeding valuable raw materials back into the textile loop while curbing CO2 emissions. The material also boasts impressive performance. Replacing the PU foam with recycled textiles has a decidedly positive impact on the breathability of the laminated material.

The recycled textiles are collected by a Sympatex partner in Italy, where they are also integrated into the Sympatex laminate. According to data from the SAC (Sustainable Apparel Coalition) HIGG Index, omitting the PU foam leads to significant improvements in the ecobalance. Using conventional manufacturing technologies, 800 kg of CO2 are released for every 1,000 linear meters of PU foam, which roughly equates to the amount of CO2 that can be absorbed by 65 beech trees each year, or the production of 49 pairs of running shoes.

When measured by the manufacture of one linear meter of Sympatex laminate, replacing the foam reduces CO2 emissions by around 15 percent, and water consumption by roughly one-third.

“It is our conviction that our firm commitment to sustainability is serving as an impetus for innovation, becomes again evident in this new footwear line of materials in a highly-convincing fashion,” explains Dr. Rüdiger Fox, CEO at Sympatex Technologies. “While many market partners view sustainability as a stranglehold on creativity, maintaining a clear focus with our innovation processes helps us to concentrate our energy, and thus produce new solutions for our customers at a much faster pace. We encourage the market to resort to these solutions in order to prepare for an unavoidable future in which there will be clear limits placed on the current overexploitation of our resources,” adds Fox.

Cascale Forum: Colombo convenes 500+ manufacturers brands, and stakeholders to advance capacity building and collaboration across the consumer goods industry

Cascale today announced program details for Cascale Forum: Colombo, taking place March 30–April 1, 2026 in Sri Lanka. Building on the success of the 2025 Forum in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, this gathering will convene manufacturers, brands, retailers, NGOs, policymakers, and solution providers under the theme “Action by Design: Accelerating a Fairer, More Resilient Value Chain.”

Canopy introduces a first-of-its-kind $2 billion USD investment blueprint to decarbonize global materials supply chains

Today, the global, solutions-driven not-for-profit Canopy joined partners at Davos to introduce a new finance model designed to accelerate the growth of low-carbon materials and transform the paper, packaging, and textile supply chains. The event was anchored by a keynote speech from Sri A Revanth Reddy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Telangana, with India set to host the first iteration of the new investment blueprint.

Storm Creek achieves bluesign® PRODUCT status

Storm Creek (ASI#/PPAI#) is proud to announce a meaningful sustainability milestone: the company has achieved bluesign® PRODUCT status: becoming the first US-based supplier in the promotional products industry to earn this globally respected certification. While this marks an industry first, for Storm Creek, it represents something far more important: a continuation of doing what they believe is right.

MUNICH FABRIC START: Between Attitude and Sensuality

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organIQ seek: smart alternative to potassium permanganate

CHT Group announces new technical findings within its organIQ seek platform that significantly advance the transition toward permanganate-free denim bleaching. Through extensive industrial testing and application research, CHT confirms that organIQ seek can now be used with remarkable effectiveness as a substitute for potassium permanganate in spray bleach, while remaining aligned with sustainability expectations and cost realities in the European market. At the COLOMBIATEX in Medellín as well as at the Exintex in Puebla and the Kingpins Show in Amsterdam the CHT Group will present organIQ seek as an alternative to potassium permanganate.

PERFORMANCE DAYS: Focus topic shifts to the beginning of the value chain

Following the last Focus Topic in October 2025, which placed Textile-to-Textile Recycling at its core, PERFORMANCE DAYS continues to drive the conversation around circularity – this time with an expanded and more upstream perspective. The upcoming Focus Topic, “Textile to Textile: The Role of Collectors and Sorters,” presented during the spring edition on March 18–19, will spotlight one of the most essential yet often overlooked components of a functioning circular textile system: the efficient collection and sorting of post-consumer textiles.

Proven performance, optimised costs – the new RE 6 EL

Nowadays textile companies increasingly need to produce small production runs and respond to market changes with instantaneous pattern changes in order to operate profitably – meaning they require machines that offer maximum flexibility, reliability and cost efficiency. KARL MAYER understands the challenges of the market and is launching its new RE 6 EL. The Raschel machine offers the core strengths of the classic RSE 6 EL and essentially the same performance parameters, but has been further cost-optimised largely due to local production advantages. This makes the newcomer an efficiency champion in production, especially when it comes to frequent pattern changes.