Birla Cellulose, the pulp and fibre business of the Aditya Birla Group, has again emerged number 1 globally in Canopy’s Hot Button Report 2020 for its continuous effort on the conservation of ancient and endangered forests. The top ranking in the environmental report reflects the company’s relentless attempt to improve sustainable wood sourcing practices, conservation of forests, innovations in development of next generation fibre solutions and transparency across its value chain.
“For Birla Cellulose, protection of ancient and endangered forests is extremely important. We believe rich biodiversity, sustainable forestry practices, and advancing conservation solutions can help fight climate change. Our collaboration with Canopy has motivated us to continually better our own benchmarks year on year in each of the focussed areas,” said Dilip Gaur, business director, pulp and fibre (Birla Cellulose) Aditya Birla Group & MD, Grasim Industries.
Along with the top ranking, Birla Cellulose has been accorded a ‘dark green shirt’ ranking, a first in the Hot Button Report 2020. A deeper shade of green ranking affirms better performance of the company in its implementation of its CanopyStyle commitments, with progress on next generation fibre solutions and the advancement of conservation in a critical landscape.
Canopy’s Hot Button Ranking and Report, a flagship annual publication by Canopy, is the primary fibre sourcing analysis tool for the fashion sector. The report evaluates global man- made cellulosic fibre (MMCF) producers and ranks them based on their commitment to eliminate the use of ancient and endangered forests in viscose and other cellulosic fibres, giving preference to textiles made from innovative fibres.
Aditya Birla Group has invested substantially in conservation solutions at the threshold of 70% at identified forests, while maintaining socio economic values in the sourcing area. The report recognizes that Aditya Birla is a key stakeholder poised to use their significant influence to create socioeconomic and ecological certainty. The recently published CanopyStyle Audit has confirmed that the risk of sourcing wood from ancient and endangered forests or other controversial sources for Birla Cellulose remains low.
Birla Cellulose has a stringent wood sourcing policy:100% of its wood comes from controlled sources complying to FSC®, SFI® or PEFC™ Standards. All its sites are FSC® CoC (Chain of Custody) certified. Providing forest to fashion transparency for sustainability-focussed brands in their value chain, Birla Cellulose’s traceability platform GreenTrackTM is one of the most widely used platform in the industry.