EDANA, the international association serving the nonwovens and related industries, launched its 4th edition of the Sustainability Report.
 
The 4th edition builds on EDANA’s 2011 Report, which already expanded beyond hygiene products to encompass all application areas, and the entire value chain for nonwovens and related products. The new report also shows the conscious effort by durable applications to balance communication and reporting. It highlights the efforts and success of manufacturers of nonwovens and related products to pursue sustainability through production efficiencies, significantly reducing energy demand and production waste by optimizing their production processes.
 
While the report highlights the advances made by the industry in reducing the use of natural resources, and improving the information shared both within the production value chain, and to the consumer, EDANA says challenges remain for our industry. These challenges include those global factors impacting all industries which include significant and growing constraints both from outside and within the nonwovens value chain, a lack of consistency of needs and expectations from one region to the next, and the lack of harmonization of definitions, standards and regulations.
 
The report also shows that the nonwovens and related industries see sustainability as a driver of benefits for companies in itself – thanks to efficiencies along the value chain, and also delivers indirect benefits such as new market opportunities, increased innovation, better perception of the company and more engagement with partners in the value chain.
 
The launch demonstrated the added value of nonwovens and related products in everyday life and illustrated the depth of the value chain behind products. EDANA member companies Ahlstrom, Beaulieu, Corman, Cosmotec, Lenzing, NatureWorks, Rieter Perfojet and SCA provided a display of products, to highlight the range of applications nonwovens support, and their importance in our everyday lives for convenience, safety and comfort.
 
In representing a growing industry, and companies producing a diverse range of products that are essential to our modern everyday lives, EDANA remains committed to the three pillars of sustainability, with an equal consideration to social, economic and environmental elements, evidenced by its ongoing efforts such as a Symposium on raw materials and the creation of a certification system for abaca fibers, guidelines on environmental claims, and support to better understand and manage the challenges associated with waste management.
 
Patricia Featherstone, chair of the EDANA Board of Governors says, “EDANA sees sustainability as a continuous process, a responsibility for every consumer and every company, every day. The nonwovens and related industries bring many benefits to our society as a whole, and in doing so, our industry continues to enjoy a healthy growth.”
 
The report was also the focus of a webinar in partnership with Nonwovens Industry magazine on February 25, which attracted participants from Europe, Asia and the Americas. Pierre Conrath and Abby Bailey of EDANA presented the key findings of the report, and a focus on how the nonwovens and related industries continue to innovate across the three pillars of sustainability.
 
The report can be found at http://www.edana.org/docs/default-source/default-document-library/edana-sustainability-report_2014-2015.pdf?sfvrsn=0.