A New Standard

The purposeful clearing of forested land for human purpose – such as making space for agriculture and using the wood for fuel, manufacturing, and construction – can cause wide scale damage. Since 1990, the world has lost more than 420 million hectares or about a billion acres of forest, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations—mainly in Africa and South America. Of course, cutting trees is inevitable for the continuation of production, however, the important part is to replace the trees that are cut down. It is also crucial to apply due diligence and assure sustainable wood sourcing.

If you have yet to read the first part of our ‘Ask me anything’ series with Kudos, let’s get you up to speed. We chatted with Moira Finicane, Head of Marketing at Kudos, to learn more about their mission to create a plastic-free future through their sustainable baby diapers and wipes made with 100% VEOCEL™ branded lyocell fibers.

For the second part of our series, we will continue our insightful chat with Moira and delve deeper into their reasons for advocating clean baby care.

Introducing our fourth guest, Kudos! They are a leading provider of sustainable baby products and created the first ever disposable and plant-based baby diapers lined with 100% cotton. And they’re taking it even further by using 100% VEOCEL™ branded lyocell fibers that are compostable, biodegradable, and made from sustainably harvested trees, in their wipes.

We sat down with Moira Finicane, Head of Marketing at Kudos, to learn more about their mission to create a plastic-free future.

If you have yet to read the first part of our ‘Ask me anything’ series with Krishna Manda, Vice President Sustainability at Lenzing, let’s get you up to speed. Krishna shared some of his personal sustainability ideas and insights as well as some key tips for taking care of the planet in our daily lives.

For the second part of our series, we will continue our insightful chat with Krishna on the importance of sustainability, how future generations should address climate change and how Lenzing is working towards a more sustainable future.

This time, we spoke with our very own Krishna Manda, Vice President Sustainability at Lenzing. Krishna has been working in sustainability for over 15 years across many different industries and stakeholders. He is passionate about embedding sustainability in the core business and decision-making of Lenzing. In our interview, he shared more of his own personal sustainability ideas and insights as well as some key tips for taking care of the planet in our daily lives.

Striving towards a greener future cannot be achieved without a collaborative effort from all walks of life and it is especially important to educate and inspire the next generation to help support a sustainable future. That’s why we at VEOCEL™ have rolled out a scientific school project under the “It’s in our hands” initiative, partnering with educators at Science Pool, a non-profit company based in Austria specializing in pre-science education on climate protection and sustainability. Our goal is to enhance understanding in young people around the world about biodegradability and sustainability.

If you have yet to read the first part of our ‘Ask me anything’ series with ClimatePartner, let’s get you up to speed. We chatted with Melanie Hofer, Customer Management at ClimatePartner, to learn more about their organization and mission to enable customers to take climate action into their own hands.

For the second part of our series, we will continue our insightful chat with Melanie on the importance of sustainability and how future generations should address climate change.

Introducing our second guest, ClimatePartner! They are a leading solution provider for corporate climate action – in other words, they offer companies climate action solutions with an opportunity to measure, reduce and offset their climate impact. Our partnership with ClimatePartner has allowed us to validate our carbon reduction activities through their carbon neutral certification, helping us to build trust with our consumers and prioritize our goal of reducing carbon emissions to mitigate climate impact.

We sat down with Melanie Hofer, Customer Management at ClimatePartner, to learn more about their mission to enable customers to take climate action into their own hands.

What do you care for most in your life? For us, we care for our forests, oceans and water, and the environment. We care for the people around us, especially our family, our children and future generations. “CARE” is at the heart of our brand’s mission and touches everything we do. Here are a few key steps that we have taken to strive towards a better future, as well as a sneak peak of our new VEOCEL™ global campaign which aims to encourage our communities to care too.

Science Pool is a non-profit company based in Austria specializing in pre-science education and working with local children and young people to educate them about climate protection and sustainability. Our work with Science Pool is one of the many collaborations we do with education programs internationally in hopes to sustain our brand’s mission to care for our future generation by building a greener tomorrow.

For the first part of our series, we sat down with Gerlinde Heil, CEO of Science Pool, to talk about the Science Pool program and its collaboration with #ItsInOurHands initiative.

To give you a quick recap on the first part of our series, we chatted with Gerlinde Heil, CEO of Science Pool, to learn more on the Science Pool program and their partnership with #ItsInOurHands initiative.

For the second part of our series, we will continue our chat with Gerlinde, to discuss on the importance of educating the youth on what it means to be sustainable, as well as some very helpful tips on sustainability!

For all of us sustainability has become an important concept in our everyday lives – yet behind the knowledge that spurns us on to implement sustainability every day, there lies intensive scientific research conducted by ecological Institutes around the globe. We are turning the spotlight on these Institutions of Science and offering you some insight into the work they perform – today we are continuing our series on Research Institutes across the globe and are presenting the Berlin Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change.

Sustainability is an important term in our everyday lives, for all of us – however, the insights which drive us to practice sustainability every day, are the fruit of in-depth scientific research in ecological Institutes around the world. It is this research which enables us to find out more about ecological processes and sustainable alternatives for our everyday life. This gives us one more reason to turn the spotlight on scientific institutions such as these and gain insight into the valuable work that they do. This triggers the start of our series on Research Institutes around the World. We will kick off with a portrait of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna

From negative changes in our ecosystems to plastic pollution of the oceans – the SCRIPPS Institution of Oceanography of the University of San Diego deals with the greatest ecological challenges of our times. We examined the kind of work that SCRIPPS does to improve the planet – and in so doing we also shed light on comprehensive research conducted by SCRIPPS that examined the biodegradability in the ocean of both fossil-based synthetic fibers on the one hand and wood-based VEOCEL™-fibers on the other hand.

Every year 12 million tons of fossil-based plastic end up in the sea. This has a massive impact on marine fauna and flora and on the health of mankind. Since this cannot continue, scientists at the SCRIPPS Institute for Oceanography (SIO) at the University of California are searching for concrete solutions to this global problem. In an extensive series of tests, SCRIPPS has now analyzed what the situation is with regard to the degradability of fossil-based plastics in the sea, on the one hand, and wood-based VEOCEL™-fibers on the other. The results are both exciting and scientific.

Even if people worldwide have become more aware of the problem in the last few years, the sheer amounts of fossil-based plastic are still ginormous: plastic, so widely used, pollutes our oceans and represents a health risk. The good news: scientists and companies are working on eco-friendly and sustainable alternatives – just as Lenzing AG did with its wood-based and biodegradable VEOCEL™ cellulose fibers. Some solutions are already tried and tested and others are still in their infancy– we would like to present four of them.

3,087 initiatives in 23 countries: that was the European Sustainability Week (ESDW) in numbers. This Europe-wide initiative aims to promote projects, activities and events, which foster the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to create a platform. It took place at the end of September for the sixth time. Around 2,100 projects have been launched since 2015 – a success story which has made the ESDW a lighthouse project for sustainable development in Europe in the last years.

VEOCEL™ Lyocell and VEOCEL™ special viscose are fibers of botanic origin and are, as a rule, extracted from the renewable raw material, wood. They are integrated in the natural cycle and as such they have a positive impact on our environment. But where does the wood come from which is used for the VEOCEL™ fibers?

Conventional wet wipes frequently include fibers containing fossil based plastic and are therefore responsible for the greater share of the waste littering our beaches and coasts. That is not the case for VEOCEL™ cellulosic fibers: Their composition and structure make VEOCEL™ cellulosic fibers ideal for the production of wet wipes, ensuring a safe, gentle and pleasant usage experience. And very importantly: the fibers are completely biodegradable and contribute greatly to a cleaner environment for us and the generations to come.

Anyone who appreciates skin friendliness and easy application above everything else can still treat the environment with care: cellulose fibers combine performance with sustainability and are thus a good choice twice over.

With personal care products made of bio-degradable VEOCEL™ fibers, consumers can rest assured that they have found a solution which is equally good for the environment.

A complex management system for wood procurement guarantees that all of the wood used for the production of VEOCEL™ fibres stems from sustainably managed sources.

Sustainable raw materials, sustainable production: that is the strategy that is applied when it comes to the production of wood-based VEOCEL™ fibers in order to achieve a high product quality by means of a sustainable value chain.

Almost 50 percent of Austria is covered by forest and every year around 3,400 hectares is added to this, which corresponds to an area of around 4,700 football pitches!

Within the Lenzing group, sustainability is highly valued both on land and on water: Diligent water management as well as dealing with this precious commodity in a responsible manner play an essential role in the production of VEOCEL™ branded fibers.

TÜV Austria confirms the biodegradability of LENZING™ fibers

The UN is currently working on the greatest Environmental Protection Agreement of all times. The aim is to protect the oceans from waste and chemicals and put a stop to overfishing.

Wipes made of VEOCEL™ branded fibers are free of fossil-based materials and can completely biodegrade within only a few weeks. Such specialty fibers are able to contribute to the reduction of plastic use in our everyday care products and to the conservation of our environment and oceans.

At the moment, the European Commission is defining and delimiting the term “plastic”. It is not yet completely clear for the EU what should actually be defined as plastic and what should not be. It is, however, not enough just to highlight the problem – there is a need for alternatives to give consumers a choice!

In a test of 33 common baby wet wipes a high share of fossile oil-based substances, such as polyester and polypropylene, was found in 28 wipes.

#ItsInOurHands talks to the expert, Dr. Bettina Liebmann, from the Environment Agency Austria, about the effects of environmental pollution through plastic and about political countermeasures.

Many consumers want to make the right choice. VEOCEL™ fibers are the sustainable solution for a new generation of wet wipes.

The European Union has recognized the problem with plastic waste and now aims to replace single-use plastic products with eco-friendly alternatives.