UPM Biochemicals is part of a Finnish company that produces environmentally friendly materials from wood. Last year, the company pledged to spend €750 million to build the world’s first industrial-scale biorefinery in Germany. The factory aims to make chemicals from wood instead of oil, replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources and sustainable materials. These chemicals are used to make products like glue for shoes.
Dongsung Chemical is a South Korean company that also manufactures chemicals. As a strategic partner of UPM Biochemicals, the company finds innovative ways to produce materials like eco-friendly shoe glue that are better for the planet.
Michael Duetsch, Vice President of UPM Biochemicals, and Man Woo Lee, CEO of Dongsung Chemical, answer six questions on the future of biochemistry in the footwear industry and share their thoughts on sustainability in their sector.
What are the most important trends in the shoe market at the moment? Do you see a trend towards renewable materials in the footwear market?
Man Woo LEE (MWL): Renewable, recyclable, eco-friendly and even biodegradable are buzzwords that are widely used in the footwear industry. Nowadays, the younger generations consider several factors when making a purchase. This includes the functionality and design of the product, the brand, the environmental impact of the production process and the life cycle of the materials. Among these considerations, “environmentally friendly” is a new megatrend that we are increasingly observing.
Why is it important for global brands, such as apparel and footwear companies, to make their products more sustainable?
Michael Duetsch (MD): We need to move quickly to a new way of doing business to protect our climate and the planet we live on. Big companies demand sustainable solutions and if you look at the value chain from raw material to product, we are taking an important step. We take the sustainable raw material – in our case wood – and convert it into chemicals. This process is critical to transforming the economy into something new that we call a sustainable bioeconomy. The textile and packaging industries, for example, have a very large impact on sustainability, as most of the materials used are based on fossil raw materials. It is obvious that we must find a sustainable solution. We want to do our part to change this and create more sustainable industries.
What opportunities do global brands have in the current market?
MD: Global brands embrace the circular economy and recognize the importance of reusing and recycling materials. In the future there will be only three sources of carbon beyond fossils – biomass, recycled materials and CO2. By finding a way to turn biomass into these materials, we complement the circular economy.
What is the role of suppliers in the apparel and footwear value chain in driving this change?
MD: The circular economy isn’t that easy to achieve with textiles, as they’re typically made from composite materials, which makes recycling difficult. At UPM, we help suppliers become more sustainable by providing them with sustainable raw materials.
How important is it that customers and consumers understand how and why the raw material forest is procured?
MD: Wood biomass derived from sustainably managed forests is the license for UPM as a whole, but biochemicals in particular. We can prove that the wood we source comes not only from legal but also from sustainably managed forests and this is the starting point of the long value chain from biomass to end users.
Do you think that consumers of products like sports shoes are looking for renewable products?
MD: We have to fight against climate change, and unfortunately nothing will change in the next few years or decades. Therefore, products that contribute to climate protection have a great future.
The focus of sustainable solutions is on the circular economy. This is supplemented by sustainable raw materials, i.e. new raw materials that come from sustainable sources. Both together form the sustainable circular economy with renewable carbon that our end consumers, the brand owners who serve these consumers and the raw material suppliers like UPM are focused on.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.uk. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.