Svensson is a member of STEPS for a more sustainable textiles industry

For us, it goes without saying that we should be working towards a more sustainable textiles industry. That’s why we’re thrilled to be a part of the research programme STEPS, Sustainable Plastics and Transmission Pathways, which is now entering Phase 2.

- “Our ambition with our work on STEPS is to provide an opportunity to transition from oil-based fibres, such as polyester and polyamides, to fibres made from renewable raw materials,” says Elin Lätti Sander who works on R&D in Svensson’s Design Department.

STEPS is a collaboration between MISTRA (the Swedish Foundation for Eco-Strategic Research), RI.SE (Sweden’s Research Institute), Lund University, IVL (the Swedish Environmental Research Institute) and many more major players from all sorts of industries, including Svensson. The long-term goal is a society where plastic is produced, used and recycled sustainably. Phase 1 of the project focused on developing eco-friendly processes based on biotech or green chemistry in order to manufacture polymer building blocks from renewable raw materials. These are now being used in the other sub-project to create new plastics with the desired properties for materials and recyclability or biodegradability.

- “For our part in the project, we are hugely invested in finding a new sustainable textile fibre. Phase 1 was promising and we now have the foundations for more concrete results over the next few years,” says Elin.

STEPS feel it is important to emphasise that they believe in close collaboration between research and industry in order to create solutions that are both sustainable and profitable long-term, based on the right requirements and the right questions.

- “Our goal is in future to have a collection with a significantly greater proportion of sustainable materials than our current range. We have high and clear ambitions for a more circular material flow and being involved in a research project like this just seems obvious to us in terms of our sustainability work,” says Elin.