Outdoor apparel company Patagonia has joined Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative with the intent to mitigate deforestation by sourcing its packaging fibres elsewhere – e.g. from agricultural waste.
In a pre-existing partnership, the companies have worked together to reduce the impact of viscose textile production on Ancient and Endangered Forests. Canopy’s annual Hot Button Report has named Patagonia among the first brand leaders to source exclusively from producers rated as “green shirt”
Now, with 3.1 billion trees reportedly logged to produce delivery boxes, hang tags, shoe boxes, and other forms of paper packaging every year, Patagonia intends to make sure none of its packaging originates from the forests considered critical to the earth’s biodiversity and climate.
Instead, it plans to utilize non-forest alternative fibres and agricultural waste, among other solutions, to develop and scale up ‘Next Gen’ packaging solutions. These are hoped to avoid trees altogether and alleviate pressure on global forests.
Patagonia already claims to make use of 100% recycled content for all its packaging and catalogues.
“Patagonia is excited to announce its partnership with Canopy’s Pack4Good initiative,” said Jennifer Patrick, Packaging and Branding director at Patagonia. “As part of our goal to build the best product and constantly improve everything we do, we are taking steps to review and develop new, more-responsible packaging materials in partnership with Canopy.”
“We are so pleased to be welcoming Patagonia to the Pack4Good family,” added Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy. “This commitment comes at a crucial time when the need for low-carbon alternatives to forest-based packaging is more pressing than ever.
“By supporting the scale-up of Next Gen materials, Patagonia is not only contributing to the preservation of Ancient and Endangered Forests, it is leading the outdoor apparel sector towards a more sustainable future.”
Other members of Pack4Good include John Lewis, with the department store chain joining the initiative in April to mark Earth Day 2024. It believes that preserving forests is the “quickest, cheapest, and most effective” way to stabilize the Earth’s climate.
Packaging Europe also spoke to Georgia Parker, innovation director at Fashion for Good, to learn more about how the fashion and textiles industry is coming together to make sustainability-minded progress with its packaging.
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