Denim mill Candiani SpA won the ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award, held in conjunction with the ITMA 2019 textile machinery trade show.
The company received the acknowledgement for its innovative product, Candiani Re-Gen, a “circular denim” fabric created from regenerated and recycled raw materials. Fifty percent of the Re-Gen fabric comprises Tencel x Refibra Lyocell, made of pulp from cotton scraps and wood pulp using Lenzing’s efficient closed-loop process. The other 50 percent consists of post-industrial recycled Candiani fibers.
Candiani’s fabrics are also dyed using green technologies, resulting in substantial reduction in the use of water and chemicals in the material production and jeans washing process. Alberto Candiani, president of Candiani SpA, noted that the fabric was created to commemorate Candiani’s 80th anniversary.
“We are a strong believer in sustainability,” he said. “In creating the Re-Gen fabric, we leveraged Lenzing’s Tencel Lyocell fibers with Refibra technology and combined it with our in-house expertise to create an innovative product that is fashionable and environmentally friendly at the same time.”
The two other finalists of the ITMA Industry Excellence Award–Levi Strauss & Co. and Lee–were also praised for their efforts to introduce green innovations into their products and processes.
Winner of the first ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award in 2015, Levi Strauss launched FLX Customization Studio, which revolutionizes in-store customization by allowing customers to pick their denim finish and create a personalized pair of jeans in less than two hours. The mobile studio uses sustainable garment finishing technologies and operates on 100 percent recycled water. It leverages ITMA exhibitor Jeanologia’s water recycling system H2Zero.
Lee leverages Tonello’s innovative garment finishing system for its denim jeans. The All-in-One System combines four technologies that substantially reduces the water needed in the finishing stages of jeans manufacturing, reducing processing time and total production cost.
The ITMA Sustainable Innovation Award is one of the components of ITMA Innovation Lab that brands a series of activities promoting research and innovation.
