Stora Enso partners with H&M group and Inter IKEA group to industrialize TreeToTextile
17 January 2019
TreeToTextile AB is a joint venture between H&M group, Inter IKEA group and innovator Lars Stigsson since 2014, with the aim of developing new textile fibers in a sustainable way at attractive cost levels. Today TreeToTextile announces that Stora Enso will join this partnership, and also support the industrialisation of TreeToTextile’s production process by setting up a demonstration plant at one of its Nordic facilities.
“We are excited to welcome our new partner, Stora Enso, and to share more of the innovative work that we are doing at TreeToTextile. With the help of our new partner, we will be entering an industrialisation phase. The newfiber that we have developed is both sustainable and produced at a lower cost,” says Annica Karlsson, chairman of the TreeToTextile AB board.
The four partners have an equally big stake in TreeToTextile and share the belief of a strong market for afiber with good sustainability performance at attractive cost levels. TreeToTextile’s process takes renewable forest raw material and regenerates the cellulose into a textilefiber. This production process uses less energy and chemicals, allowing for a much more sustainable and cost-efficient process, compared to conventional technologies and fibers.
The technology has been tested in a pilot line in Sweden and is now to be scaled up with the construction of a demonstration plant at one of Stora Enso’s Nordic facilities. Inter IKEA group and H&M group plan to use thefiber in their products, but the aim is that the entire industry should benefit from this sustainable fiber since it can be used in conventional supply chains.
