Producing specialty fibers for the textiles industry is Lenzing’s expertise but for the everyday consumer, it may not be easy understanding how wood can transform into material for clothing. In a new film, Gert Kroner, Vice President of Research and Development at Lenzing takes us behind-the-scenes for a fresh and perspective look at how clothes are made from this regenerative source.

Presented by The Global Fashion Agenda, Lenzing’s film ‘Returning to Nature’ is part of the larger ‘Fashion Redressed’ series, with a film produced for us by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions to spotlight different fashion and textile organizations and the planet-focused solutions that promote a better fashion industry. The heart of the series asks – how can we keep expressing all we do through fashion, but without hurting the planet?

Gert Kroner, Vice President of Research and Development at Lenzing and the rest of the team at Lenzing illuminate how the company seeks to be a driver of positive change by developing innovative wood-based TENCEL™ fibers that reduce fashion’s heavily reliance on synthetic fibers, helping to reduce its environmental impact. To do so, wood from certified and controlled sources are dissolved into wood pulp and transformed into fibers for textiles through a closed-loop production process to maximize resource efficiency and minimize environmental impact at every stage.

“The problem we are really trying to solve is to transform the textile industry,” Kroner said in the film, now available on the BBC StoryWorks microsite. “Progress brought us here but innovation can help solve the problem.”

True to its word, as a company, Lenzing is greatly committed to innovation. The company pioneered the production of TENCEL™ Lyocell and Modal fibers, which have been certified with the EU Ecolabel* for environmental excellence. Since then, it has invested a significant amount into R&D for its products and processes, continuously improving and refining them to reduce their environmental impact.

“[Return to Nature] demonstrates our mission at Lenzing to provide innovations and solutions to the industry with the goal to create a circular textile economy,” Kroner said. “A special thanks to the entire team at Lenzing for the effort and collaboration that went into the making of this film. We’re honored to be able to share the important work we are doing at Lenzing in driving positive change for the world of textiles.”

* EU Ecolabel for textile products (license no. AT/016/001)

Watch full film:

(@//player.vimeo.com/video/883135820@)