Materials and Climate Change
Our recent progress
39% of raw materials are more sustainable
We aim to increase our uptake of more sustainable raw materials. Currently, our more sustainable raw materials on offer are: Better Cotton, Organic Cotton, FairTrade Cotton, and Recycled Polyester. In the calendar year, our uptake of more sustainable raw materials amounted to 39% of total kilos sold.
55% of textiles with BeirTex® technology
Our innovative BeirTex® performance technology increases textile durability and enables laundries to increase their output at similar or lower energy consumption levels. Consequently, our laundry partners can greatly reduce their CO2e emissions. In the calendar year 2022, 55% of the textiles sold were with BeirTex® technology.
Why
We need to become climate neutral by 2050. These are not our words, but the words of the EU - albeit phrased differently. This goal might seem far out in the future. However, change needs to happen now for us to be able to reach that goal. Recently, for instance, the German Federal Constitutional Court decided that the German Climate Protection Act lacks clear emission reduction targets from 2031 onwards and therefore violates basic rights. In other words, the current climate legislation lacks ambition and specific reduction targets. Consequently, it gambles with future generations' basic rights.
At Beirholm, we work proactively to reduce our own emissions as well as the emissions of our supply chain. Since 2011, for instance, we have purchased power from renewable energy sources. While this initiative had a major emission reduction impact for our company, we need to go beyond our own company's borders and look at how to reduce CO2-equivalent emissions across our entire supply chain.
How
Based on our lifecycle analyses (LCAs) and our annual CO2 reporting, only 1% of total emissions occur from Beirholm's owned and controlled assets (e.g. scope 1 and 2 emissions arising from heating and powering our office building, operating our company car fleet etc.). 99% of emissions occur in the manufacturing of our textiles and the use phase (scope 3 emissions). Hence, we believe that a global climate challenge calls for collaboration across company- and national borders. Therefore, we now tackle climate change by:
- shifting towards more sustainable and climate friendly raw materials,
- collaborating to install more renewable energy to power the manufacturing processes of our partners, and
- by collaborating and advising our customers on durable and operational-fit textile technologies like BeirTex® as well as how to implement a climate-friendly sourcing strategy
We coined our climate change strategy Together to Zero. You can read more about it below.
