To celebrate the Lunar New Year, three leading Chinese fashion companies representing eight brands have partnered with Canopy to keep climate and biodiversity-critical forests out of their viscose and paper packaging supply chains.

They are also now prioritising circular, lower-impact next-gen alternatives. The announcement marks the first cluster of China-head-quartered brands to join the supply chain transformation initiatives of solutions-driven environmental non-profit Canopy.

The three brands are Ellassay Group, a multi-brand fashion company, sports apparel manufacturer Engine Bird and sock company Happywool. They join over 500 global fashion brands including Stella McCartney, Uniqlo, LVMH, and Ralph Lauren collaborating on the CanopyStyle and Pack4Good initiatives

The sourcing of man-made cellulosic fibre-based fabrics and paper packaging is responsible for over 3.4 billion trees being logged every year, many from the world’s most important ecosystems. As one of the largest global clothing retail markets and the country where most of the world’s clothing is manufactured, the commitment of these brands to forest protection sends a strong signal to the global supply chain that forest degradation is not in style.

“We are so pleased to welcome these forward-thinking Chinese fashion companies to the CanopyStyle family,” said Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy. “We applaud their leadership as we welcome in the new year.”

“We are thrilled to be among the first Chinese fashion brands to partner with Canopy and its initiatives,” added Alan Xia, founder and chairman of Ellassay Group. “This new collaboration is perfectly aligned with protecting biodiversity and generally reducing our impact of nature. We recognise that there is still a long way to go and aim to continue to be a pioneer among leading fashion groups in China with regards to sustainability.”

The three brands are also working with Canopy to scale new packaging and textiles made from recycled clothing, agricultural residues and other alternatives. 

China is poised to lead the global shift to next generation viscose and packaging production. Government priorities are already mobilising the supply chain and fashion industry to accelerate the adoption of circular feedstocks for viscose textile production with strong regulatory supply and market access incentives already established in the country.

The addition of these companies brings the CanopyStyle initiative to 555 brand partners representing $1.05 trillion in annual collective revenues and Pack4Good to 427 brands with collective annual revenues of over $236 billion.

www.canopyplanet.org