Data from the World Economic Forum shows that the style industry and its supply chain are chargeable for ten percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions every yr – representing a major call to motion for manufacturers and types to seek out solutions for higher practices.

With its iconic LYCRA^® brand franchise, strong business network and global production footprint, The LYCRA Company saw a fantastic opportunity to collaborate with Qore^® – a three way partnership between Cargill and HELM – to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of LYCRA^® fiber. The LYCRA Company is making great strides toward enabling the world’s first large-scale business production of bio-derived spandex made with QIRA^®.

What makes QIRA^® so special is its sustainability profit, driven by its feedstock: Iowa field corn. While currently spandex is made primarily from petroleum products which are a finite resource, adopting QIRA^® will enable The LYCRA Company to make bio-derived LYCRA^® fiber at scale. With 70 percent of the brand new LYCRA^® fiber content derived from field or industrial dent corn from Iowa, QIRA^® will reduce reliance on fossil-based resources. Importantly, the brand new, renewable LYCRA^® fiber made with QIRA^® has the potential to scale back CO₂ emissions as much as 44 percent* versus spandex made with traditional raw materials. The brand new fiber shall be used across many garment types from leggings to intimates to jeans and more. 

“Since the most important impact category for our fiber is raw materials, we knew we needed to give attention to our ingredients to assist reduce our footprint and meet our sustainability goals,” said Julien Born, chief executive officer of The LYCRA Company.

Taking a collaborative approach to tackling industry issues and necessary topics of significant interest to customers and their consumers will not be recent for The LYCRA Company, and in keeping with Born, partnering with Qore^® was a natural decision.

“By adopting QIRA®, we’re making a major commitment that can even enable our customers, including mills, brands, retailers and manufacturers of non-public care products, to assist reduce their product footprints,” said Born. “As we at the moment are committed to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), this collaboration with Qore^® is a testament to how we’re prioritizing our company’s give attention to lowering our carbon emissions and environmental impact.”

Jon Veldhouse, chief executive officer of Qore^®, agreed, saying that “as sustainability is a collective effort, and innovation is vital to achieving our common goals, we’re very enthusiastic about this alliance and the potential to play a task within the textile industry’s journey toward decarbonization.”

By way of decarbonization, Born shared that it’s a key component of The LYCRA Company’s vision. “The time to act has never been more urgent, and thru collaborations akin to this one with Qore^®, we are able to scale up recent technologies to scale back our footprint  faster and more efficiently.”

Operations on the Qore^® facility at Cargill’s biotechnology campus and corn refining operation in Eddyville, Iowa will begin in mid-2024. The ability will source field corn inside a 100-mile radius, which takes advantage of the positive growing conditions in the realm and provides local farmers with a reliable marketplace for their crops. Renewable LYCRA^® fiber made with QIRA^® is anticipated to be available within the fourth quarter of next yr.

*Estimate from Cradle-to-Gate Screening LCA for a representative LYCRA® fiber manufacturing facility, June 2022, prepared by Ramboll US Consulting, Inc.