Making apparel sustainable with woodfibre

Nearly every part of Sappi’s business touches the fashion industry–from our high-quality paper for magazines, catalogues and print advertising, our packaging offerings for shopping bags and boxes, our dissolving pulp used to create sustainable fabrics, to our release textures for handbags, apparel and footwear.

That’s why in 2019, Sappi became a proud member of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition whose mission is to improve supply chain sustainability in the apparel, footwear and textile industry. The coalition includes more than 240 global brands, retailers, and manufacturers, as well as government, non-profit environmental organisations and academic institutions. 

Our dissolving pulp has many exciting applications in the textiles industry. Sappi Verve, our first brand range in the textiles market, illustrates our commitment to providing a natural fibre responsibly produced, sourced from sustainably managed forests. By joining the coalition, we believe we can ensure our textile products deliver on our sustainability promise for people, planet and our shared prosperity. 

As part of the Coalition, Sappi will contribute both data and resources to support the Higg Index, which measures sustainability performance and drives supply chain transparency and decision-making to improve efficiency and sustainability impact. The Higg Index is an indicator-based suite of tools that enables suppliers, manufacturers, brands, and retailers to evaluate materials, products, facilities, and processes based on environmental performance, social labour practices and product design choices.

"We welcome the addition of Sappi to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and look forward to their participation in this industry-wide effort in sustainability”, SAC Interim Executive Director Amina Razvi said. “Having Sappi as part of the Coalition widens the scope of our impact within the industry and accelerates the change we’re making towards responsible industry action.”