Fashion is an important part of our lifestyles: we use it to express who we are, for work, sport and leisure. The fashion industry is an important economic sector, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs in highly globalised value chains.

Fashion is also one of the most linear, fossil-based sectors, producing large negative environmental and social impacts. Almost two thirds of all textiles are based on fossil plastics, recycling is almost inexistent and most of our clothes end up in a landfill after very few uses. If we continue like this, and with global demand for fashion soaring, the fashion industry will be responsible for 25% of all carbon emissions and 20 million tons of microplastics ending up in the oceans.

The good news is that forest resources can help! A new generation of cellulose-based textiles can replace fossil counterparts. As a bio-based product they reduce carbon emissions, can be more easily recycled, and are totally biodegradable, avoiding the emission of micro-plastics. This includes sustainable produced viscose, and an emerging new generation of cellulose textiles. What’s more, as demand for printing paper plummets in a digital world, the cellulose used for textiles may not increase the demand on wood.