Lenzing

Lenzing AG

Lenzing, Austria

23/35

Completion of CanopyStyle Third Party Verification Audits

Undertaking Annual Audits

Audits Public and Results Acted On

Audit risk results

Contribution to Conservation Legacies

A&E promotion

Public Collaborative Leadership

Influences Decision Makers

Legislated protection

n/a

Innovation via New Alternative Fibers

Partnerships

R&D Investments

Scaling to commercial products

Targets & timelines

Aggressively increasing commercial scale

n/a

Adoption of Robust Forest Sourcing Policy

Policy adoption

Policy meets all CanopyStyle criteria

Traceability & Transparency

COC & supplier list completed

Track & trace system in place

Public sharing of supplier list

n/a

Forest of origin is public and mapped

n/a

Leaders in Supply Chain Shifts & Sustainable Sourcing

Producer Is Proactive

FSC preference

Forest Mapper support

Associated with High Risk of Sourcing from Ancient & Endangered Forests and other Controversial Sources

Risk is known and no action is taken

n/a

Initial action taken to adress risk

Sourcing risk has been resolved

Total:

Buttons 23

Risk of sourcing from Ancient & Endangered forests

Lenzing is one of the first viscose producers to complete and publicly release the results of its CanopyStyle audit in 2017, which confirmed that the risk of sourcing wood from ancient and endangered forests or other controversial sources is currently low.

Building on this achievement and recognizing that the audits create opportunities for ongoing improvements and only capture a snapshot in time, Lenzing is expected to complete their 2nd annual audit in early 2019. For low risk results to be maintained, these 2nd audit results will need to confirm that sourcing conditions have not changed (the list of suppliers and sourcing regions is still assessed at low risk) and surprise (short-notice) site visits will be conducted.

Of note, a report released in July 2018 by UK based NGO Earthsight implicates Lenzing’s Czech Republic dissolving pulp mill in receiving wood associated with illegal timber brokering from the Ukraine. Canopy received confirmation that Lenzing has now put in place extra due diligence in addition to requiring FSC certified fibre, when sourcing originates from jurisdictions that have a reputation of corruption and illegality.

Key Improvements Required

The expectation is that Lenzing will continue to progress in the areas identified for improvement within the CanopyStyle Audit. This includes improvement in Lenzing’s sustainability practices such as the transparent disclosure of:

  1. Their list of suppliers for dissolving pulp, and
  2. Identification of the forest of origin for all the raw materials used in their products, to allow the tracking and mapping of the fiber flow from the forest, to pulp and viscose mills, and all the way through the supply chain to clothing brands.

Lenzing has contributed to next generation solutions in textiles by being the first viscose producer to bring to market a product, REFIBRA™, made from 20% pre-consumer recycled cotton to make viscose. Since the marketplace will be implementing a preference for products made from a minimum of 50% of innovative fibre sources, such as post-consumer recycled fabric sources and agricultural residues by 2020, Lenzing should continue to grow its production of REFIBRA™, increase the percentage of recycle fiber in REFIBRA, and develop additional next generation products.

Given growth projections, Lenzing should continue to work closely with Canopy to proactively screen all future ventures and detailed sourcing locations against the ForestMapper and aggressively building next generation solutions into their fiber projections for the coming years.

Areas where the company is showing leadership

In recent months, Lenzing has for the first time used its influence to help advance a conservation legacy in one of Canopy’s Landscape of Hope. Lenzing communicated its support and encouragement for formal protection of the Broadback Forest to government and First Nation decision makers, and promoted this issue in their July industry newsletter. This action helps support increased protection in the heart of Canada’s Boreal forest.

Lenzing has been inspiring its peers by being one of the first producers to join the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme as a contributor, to set and implement new standards for chemistry and processing that responsibly addresses wastewater, sludge/solid waste and air emissions from the man-made cellulosic fiber industry.

Lastly, Lenzing is engaged with Canopy in a process to address risk as they look to expand their business operations. In upcoming months, Canopy will assess the sourcing risk of Lenzing’s new potential mill partnership in Brazil, to ensure it is consistent with Lenzing’s CanopyStyle commitment. Canopy expects that the company will put equivalent effort to prioritize new production that uses innovative raw materials that do no come from forests.

Number of viscose, lyocell and dissolving pulp mills + location and production volumes

The company owns 9 mills in total. 3 viscose mills, 4 lyocell mills and 2 dissolving pulp mills.  In June 2018, Lenzing also announced it is investigating an expansion project to build a new dissolving pulp plant in Brazil, jointly with Duratex.                                                                                                    

• Purwakarta  PT. South Pacific Viscose, Indonesia. Capacity of 323 000 tonnes of viscose fiber.

(The largest viscose fiber plant operated by the Lenzing Group.)

• Lenzing Nanjing (100% ownership), China. Capacity of 178 000 tonnes of viscose fiber.

• Lenzing, Austria. Capacity of 276 000 tonnes of viscose and modal.

• Lenzing, Austria. Capacity of 71 000 tonnes of Lyocell (TENCEL™, VEOCEL™).

• Heiligenkreuz, Austria. Capacity 65 000 tons of Lyocell (TENCEL™, VEOCEL™).

• Grimsby, UK. Capacity of 45 000 tons of Lyocell (TENCEL™, VEOCEL™).

• Mobile, Alabama, USA. Capacity of 51 000 tonnes of Lyocell (TENCEL™, VEOCEL™).

• Paskov, Czech republic. Capacity of 270 000 tonnes of dissolving pulp.    

• Lenzing Austria. Capacity of 300 000 tonnes of dissolving pulp.

• A joint venture with Duratex, Brazil will investigate the construction of a dissolving pulp mill.  Projected capacity of 450 000 tonnes.

Lenzing produces man-made cellulosic fiber (MMCF), dissolving pulp, standard viscose fibers (rayon)and specialty cellulose fibers such as lyocell and modal.

TENCELTM, VEOCELTM, LENZINGTM, REFIBRATM, ECOVEROTM, LENZING MODALTM, LENZING VISCOSETM, MICROMODALTM and PROMODALTM are trademarks of Lenzing AG.

Lenzing uses a variety of tree species including beech, spruce, eucalyptus, fir, acacia, maple, alder, birch, ash, pine and poplar.

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