WeAr global magazine’s Editorial Director asks Binita Bhuta, Vice President Marketing & Sustainability at CovationBio about its product Sorona®, the group’s future and their sustainability efforts.
What are Sorona®’s plans going forward after the acquisition?
Let me give you a brief intro of CovationBio and how Sorona® is part of newly launched CovationBio. Sorona® is part of CovationBio, a newly launched biomaterials company focused on making high-performance sustainable biomaterials accessible to all. CovationBio builds on Sorona®’s 20-years of experience delivering a successful, commercial business at a global scale.
As CovationBio continues to expand and diversify our business to displace fossil-based materials, we are finding ways to improve our environmental benefits while offering quality, value, and performance to our customers.
In addition to Sorona®, CovationBio has other biobased solutions to offer into the fashion industry such as Susterra®, and we continue to evaluate other scalable solutions to bring to market.
Scalability is fundamental to bringing a sustainable business model to our customers making a significant impact on the world. We are already operating at scale. Our success in scaling up the production of Sorona® is due to our close collaboration throughout the value chain.
Traceability and transparency are also fundamental to the work we do. We are working closely with our value chain partners to drive traceability through both our Common Thread Fabric Certification program and our Preferred Mill Network for Sorona®.
We recognize that moving the materials industry toward a more sustainable or circular production model is going to require a combination of bio-sourced and post-consumer recycled feedstocks as raw materials. Therefore, we do not limit ourselves to working in the bio-derived space only. For example, we are evaluating the state of technology and partners for recycled/ biobased and lower footprint options for our conventional raw materials.
Most recently, our focus has been on establishing our Common Thread certified fabrics—Sorona® Agile, Aura, Luxe, Profile, and Revive—and the global Preferred Mill Network. The Sorona® Common Thread Fabric Certification program enhances the transparency and traceability in the textile value chain and ensures quality products that customers deserve. The Preferred Mill Network is a global catalog of mills certified to offer the full collection of sustainable Sorona® subbranded fabrics.
In just our first year, we saw more than 43 million garments with Sorona® hangtags worldwide and more than 500 mills participated with Sorona® certified fabric to date. There is still more work to do and our team is expanding its reach into more regions and having conversations with apparel brands every day. We are excited for what is next as more brands integrate bio-based materials like Sorona® into their collections.
You mentioned lessening the impact on the environment. How is sustainability a core part of Sorona®? How does Sorona® in the future treat the topic of Sustainability?
As a biomaterials company, sustainability and product stewardship are core to who we are. Our Global Sustainability Leader Lauren Johnson ensures our program is science-based and focuses on the most relevant opportunities that will “move the needle” in advancing the materials industry toward a more sustainable state. CovationBio’s priorities are driven by data from life cycle assessments (LCAs) for our products, and our commitments naturally align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the following four: Decent Work and Economic Growth, Climate Action, Circular Economy, and Life on Land.
Sorona® is 37% bio-based, derived from annually renewable crops. Using renewable bio-based feedstocks is important because bio-based products contribute to the defossilization of the global supply chain—decoupling materials production from fossil fuel extraction and reducing global reliance on fossil resources.
I am excited to share about our recent membership in an agriculture program called Truterra designed to provide visibility into the environmental impact data on 100% of the acres supplying this corn. The participating farms use cutting-edge technology to improve soil health, protect biodiversity, and potentially sequester carbon. Through this program, farmers receive insights into their crop yields and resource consumption and output including greenhouse gas emissions, soil health indicators, wind and water erosion rates, and more.
Our participation in Truterra actively promotes transparency about our supply chain and educates farmers using a science-based and data-driven approach to improving farming practices. Improvements in farming will lead to reduced footprints for the farm, our raw materials, and ultimately the apparel that is made using bio-based resources.
Are there any new product groups that will become relevant for Sorona®?
We have a rich pipeline of products that we are hoping to commercialize in the next couple of years. Our strength is providing a quality, sustainable alternative to traditional materials and we will continue to find creative ways to do this in apparel.
One segment where we are seeing success and growth is with footwear. The launch with Puma for a football (soccer) shoe made with a Sorona® upper along with Susterra® was our first entry into athletic footwear. Other brands like EcoAlf use Sorona® in footwear as well as apparel.
Because Sorona® offers many exciting performance attributes, we see it used across many different applications.
Within apparel, we have a broad range of growth opportunities. Brands like Stella McCartney and Maison Atia value the bio-based faux fur Sorona® made with Ecopel. Blauer USA uses Sorona for insulation, Lilly Pulitzer has incorporated Sorona® into tops for the soft handfeel and shape retention, and LIVE! in Brazil launched a capsule collection called LiveBIO! that’s entirely made with Sorona® Agile fabric. We look forward to strengthening these relationships, establishing new ones, and developing in areas where we can make an impact at scale.
We are focused on and committed to delivering on our promise for a sustainable alternative to traditional fibers like spandex and nylon. As you may know, Sorona® is proven to keep garments looking new for longer and can be used for spandex replacement. It offers outstanding comfort stretch, an ultra-soft hand feel, and dimensional stability. These qualities are meaningful for designers as they look to strengthen the sustainability standards of their collections, and we look forward to supporting them in their journey.
How will Sorona® continue to help educate the industry about general trends and also its own products?
It all starts with our team. We are transparent, honest communicators who understand what drives profits for our customers and genuinely care about our impact in the industry and on the world. This knowledge and openness allow us to be nimble and bold when we are innovating or addressing a challenge.
It is in our CovationBio culture to ask ourselves and others tough questions. We recognize that the topic of sustainability is a complex area and advances in one impact could have unintended consequences elsewhere. We make the time to be engaged and have exchanges with leaders and drivers in the textile and fashion industry via organizations such as Textile Exchange and Renewable Carbon Initiative (RCI).
We believe education is central to driving innovation and creativity. With that in mind, we are continuing our support of the Central Saint Martins’ first year students. We donate two types of fabrics made with Sorona® to create original pieces for their annual White Show. The results are breathtaking. It is the perfect place to start a conversation about source materials, quality, sustainability, and performance.
It is also so refreshing to meet up in-person again! We have enjoyed reuniting with our friends and colleagues at shows around the world this year. We will continue to have a presence both virtually and in-person at events including trade shows and speaking engagements.
We are committed to working through the value chain and offering our team as a resource for questions. We welcome questions about performance, sustainability, and distribution to better support your goals.
I believe with the momentum we are building for biobased materials through CovationBio brands— Sorona®, Susterra®, and Zemea® and our pipeline products —will be a catalyst for global change.
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