Elevate Joins Textile Exchange to Grow Preferred Fiber Usage

By Rivet

Elevate Textiles, parent company of Cone Denim, American & Efird, Burlington, Gütermann, and Safety Components, said Wednesday it had established a membership with the Textile Exchange organization, a global non-profit driving positive impact on climate change across the textile and fashion industries.

Elevate and its brands will utilize this membership to accelerate and further expand upon their adoption of preferred fibers. Elevate said it supports Textile Exchange’s belief that for real change to happen, everyone in the industry must come together as a community to establish clear paths to positive impact.

Textile Exchange guides brands, manufacturers and farmers toward more purposeful production starting at the source–raw materials and fibers. Its goal is to help the industry achieve a 45 percent reduction in the emissions that come from producing fibers and raw materials by 2030, speeding up the adoption of practices that improve positive impact in water, soil health, and biodiversity.

Elevate Textiles currently participates in Textile Exchange’s 2025 Recycled Polyester Challenge. The Challenge was launched by Textile Exchange and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action to help initiate a shift in the market toward the uptake of recycled polyester and the associated reduction in greenhouse gases. The joint initiative challenges the industry to bring the percentage of recycled polyester up from 14 percent to 45 percent by 2025.

“We are thrilled to further our involvement in the key initiatives that the experts at Textile Exchange are driving forward to reduce our impact and improve sustainability practices even more,” said Jimmy Summers, chief sustainability officer for Elevate Textiles. “This membership gives our company and brands additional tools needed to achieve preferred fiber goals and holistically reduce our impact from the start of the supply chain.”

Summers said the company is currently using Textile Exchange standards at many of its facilities, specifically Organic Content Standard, Recycled Content Standard and Global Recycled Standard.

“We look forward to continuing our work with the organization to provide our customers and stakeholders with the most responsibly and sustainably sourced materials possible,” he said. With a global array of premium fabric and thread solutions focused on innovation, sustainability and quality craftsmanship, Elevate and its portfolio brands provide products across industries including fashion and functional apparel, footwear, military, fire, medical, athletic, automotive, aerospace, outdoor and other specialty sectors.

This article was published in Rivet July 14, 2022. Elevate Textiles is the parent company of SPESA member American & Efird.

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