Our journey to carbon neutrality has started

According to the World Economic Forum, more than half the world’s total GDP is dependent on nature. Biodiversity, which is a prerequisite for many essential elements of life—clean air, fresh water, and food security is declining faster than at any time in human history. If we keep on exploiting resources as today, by 2050 we would need the resources of three Earths.

There is a growing demand for moving circular, environmentally sustainable, and carbon-neutral operations. We are determined to do our share by offering the most environmentally friendly alternative for business textiles in the market.

Resource-efficiency paves the way

During the past decades, we have taken strategic steps towards efficient use of resources so that textiles are designed and maintained with minimal burden to the environment. For example, during the past 30 years we have managed to halve the consumption of water and energy in our laundries per washed textile kilo.

In the past few years, we have eliminated buffers in stocks through our own on-demand workwear manufacturing facilities Prodems. By investing in digital solutions, we can optimise the number of textiles needed by our customers. With these measures, we have managed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% per washed textile kilo since 2004. During the next fifteen years we have decided to take an even bigger leap and reach net-zero carbon emissions on all the scopes.

Carbon-free textile services by 2035

Our goal is to offer carbon-free textile services to our customers by 2035. Thanks to a scenario simulation of workwear, our biggest service line, carried out in our largest market, Finland, we have identified three areas with the largest impact on our emissions. Thus, we will concentrate on finding carbon-free energy sources for our laundries, identifying green options in customer deliveries as well as increasing recycled recycled and biobased fibres in our textiles.

To verify that our target is in line with the latest climate research and to meet the goals of the Paris agreement, we joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). We are committed to SBITi’s Business Ambition of 1.5°C aiming to limit global warming to 1.5°C. If the temperature increase holds to that level, it is estimated that some of the worst climate impacts and damage to the natural world can be avoided.

Taking the first steps

The Lindströmers in our local markets play a crucial role in finding carbon-free options for our services. In 2021, our Finnish and Latvian units switched to green electricity. This will have a significant impact on our emissions. According to calculations, the yearly reductions amount to more than 3.5 million kilos of CO2 emissions.

In 2022, we will continue building the plan for carbon-neutrality by calculating our emissions according to SBTi’s guidelines and setting midterm targets for reductions. To show our customers the positive environmental effects of our services, we are planning to calculate the carbon handprint of our services.

On a more local level, we will continue looking for local solutions for green electricity and carbon-free energy sources. We will proactively adapt to possible changes in local legislation and search for new, low-carbon vehicle alternatives. We expect that the transition to “green” vehicles is accelerating in European Union countries and major Asian cities.