Throughout every Lidl non-food collection, clothing, accessories and home textiles are a core element. Understanding the environmental impacts associated with the different stages in our textile production, can help towards improving overall product sustainability.
Below we have outlined a selection of collaborative sustainability projects from within our non-food supply chain.
Lidl have designed and launched the Project for Environmental and Resource Efficiency, or ‘PURE’, a training program in collaboration with GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation), a specialist organisation in sustainability; working alongside factories in Bangladesh and China that manufacture clothing and textile products.
This training program aims to educate and share practical solutions to everyday health, safety and environmental challenges in these facilities. The companies engaging in this scheme can use this training to help continually develop and enforce their own standards. By bettering the working conditions and environmental capabilities inside the factories, this can also create a greater impact on the local communities and surrounding areas.
‘PURE’ has three main goals:
1. Promote safe storage and handling of chemicals
2. Implement measures to reduce water and energy consumption
3. Improvement of waste and waste-water management
Lidl GB openly share all 650 company names and addresses of the facilities that manufacture our textile and footwear products on our website. This list is updated every six months and expresses our continued commitment and accountability to working alongside these facilities.This list can be reviewed here.
Textile companies
Trained factory employees
Employees benefit from the training in the long term
Many of us do not consider how clothes and shoes are manufactured or what resources are needed to make our favourite basic essentials or high-fashion indulgences.
Through the clothing production process there are various stages where chemicals are added to improve product quality, as well as making the item unique and desirable. Though textile supply chains it can be difficult to monitor overall chemical usage and therefore understanding effects this chemical-use can have on the environment or human health.
We recognise the urgent need to eliminate the industrial release of all hazardous chemicals. In response to this, since 2014 we have pledged to meet the goals of Greenpeace’s Detox Commitment, to eliminate the discharge of all hazardous chemicals (including PFCs and APEOs) from the whole lifecycle and all production procedures of apparel and footwear products no later than 2020. For us, this commitment provides the framework for a long-term vision.
Read more about the Greenpeace Detox Campaign here.
In 2019 Lidl launched a textile collection as a pilot project for the first time, which has been awarded the Cradle to Cradle Certified ™ (C2C) product standard in gold and silver. Together with the CHT Group, EPEA GmbH and the Beneficial Design Institute, Lidl has implemented completely biodegradable printing pastes for textiles.
The 'Cradle to Cradle’ concept describes the vision of a ‘waste-free economy’ in which raw materials are reused in closed cycles. Cradle to Cradle aims to drive intelligent product design that takes into account the full recycling of the product and its components, and selects chemicals and ingredients that are good for human health and the environment.
To be certified to C2C five considerations have to be implemented throughout production including:
When manufacturing our Cradle to Cradle Certified ™ textile collections, all aspects are checked by independent experts for resource effectiveness and recyclability - from the effective use of raw materials to the use of chemicals to keeping water clean and the use of renewable energy.
Due to the risks associated with illegal deforestation and high-chemical usage for the production of generic viscose, Lidl have made the commitment to switching all own-brand textile products that contain viscose to LENZING™ ECOVERO™. This ensures our products are made from a more eco-friendly form of viscose, which has improved environmental standards in comparison to generic viscose and traditional manufacturing methods. For example, 50% less water is used during the production of LENZING™ ECOVERO™, chemicals are recycled back into the fibre production and the raw material comes from sustainably-managed forests and plantations.
Lidl has been working with LENZING™ since 2013 as a supplier of TENCEL™ modal and TENCEL™ lyocell. These more sustainable fabrics are used across various ranges including underwear, outer garments, sportswear and home textiles.
To find out more about this commitment, please visit our Timber & Wood page.
