Feedback Here

fbook  tweeter  linkin YouTube
Global contents also translated in Chinese

Canopy develops viscose mapping with help from top brands

More than 150 million trees are cleared every year, shipped around the world, then pulped and processed into viscose. The viscose industry relies on wood from around the world including from some areas that have been designated as ecologically sensitive.

For the growing number of apparel companies promising an ecologically sounder manufacturing process, this presents a problem. So several brands, like H&M and Marks & Spencer spent the last year helping Canadian nonprofit Canopy build a web site that uses satellite imagery and conservation research to identify the forests that need to be left alone.

The images cover threatened species habitats and carbon locked away in trees and soil. Almost 50 fashion, paper, and publishing companies have endorsed the tool as a way to improve their analysis of where supply chains wind through ecosystems that are rare, nearly destroyed by people, or important for maintaining biodiversity.

The viscose supply chain was largely opaque until the last few years, when companies started asking questions and Canopy began auditing pulp facilities and mills. On-the-ground research, complemented by the mapping tool, is just now giving consumer companies and non-governmental organizations enough information to either prune undesirable supplies from the business or challenge suppliers to reform their practices.

 

 
LATEST TOP NEWS
 


 
MOST POPULAR NEWS
VF Logo