Lindström announces the goal to reach carbon neutrality globally by 2035. The announcement continues its ambition to become the most sustainable company in its industry. To ensure this commitment, Lindström has joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which will verify that the targets are in line with the latest climate science to meet the goals of the Paris agreement.
To avoid some of the worst climate impacts and damage to the natural world, it has been estimated that the temperature increase must hold to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Lindström will aim for a business ambition of 1.5°C, which is the most ambitious of SBTi’s commitments aiming to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
“This new goal is in line with our ambition of helping our customers become more sustainable. All companies are looking for ways to reduce their environmental burden. Our goal is to offer carbon-free textile service to our customers by 2035,” explains Anna-Kaisa Huttunen, Senior Vice President of Ecosystems and Sustainability.
Company-wide ambitious goal sets the bar high
The new pursuit continues the company’s long ambition to make its operations more sustainable. Lindström started optimising the water and energy consumption in its laundries in the early 1990s, after which the level of consumption per washed textile kilo has halved. Last year, it announced the goal of recycling 100% of its textile waste, their biggest side and waste stream, and it will be halved by 2022. After starting to measure its Greenhouse Gas emissions in 2004, the company has managed to reduce them by 30% per washed textile kilo.
Today, Lindström washes more than 170.000 tons of textiles yearly, has over 230.000 customers in 24 countries and almost 15 million pieces of textiles in circulation every month. Its business model is based on circular economy, and it operates according to the same environmental principles in all the countries of operation in Europe and in Asia.
“We want to lead the sustainable development in our industry and offer our customers the most sustainable option for their textile services. With our 100% recycling target and the company-wide net-zero target that is in line with the most ambitious SBTi commitment, we have safely set the bar high enough,” says Huttunen.
The journey toward carbon neutrality has already begun
To reach the goal, three focus areas with largest impact were identified. The company will concentrate on reducing emissions in two focus areas in its own service operations (scope 1 and 2), aiming for carbon-free energy solutions and green customer deliveries. The third focus area will be increasing recycled and bio-based fibres in their products (scope 3) as the raw material of fabrics has an impact on the emissions that the company creates.
“We have already taken several steps toward the goal. A few years back, we started building our own production facilities, Prodems, where we can quickly produce additional orders on-demand close to our customers. This development has eliminated the obsolete risk in our stocks, and has also reduced the amount of textile waste we generate,” explains Huttunen. “In Finland, we shifted to green electricity this year, which will bring about a 7% reduction of the Group’s emissions. We are also actively testing new recycled materials together with our partners and suppliers. This is not something we can do by ourselves. We need innovative partners and suppliers that can help us reach this goal.”
More information:
Anna-Kaisa Huttunen
Senior Vice President, Ecosystems & Sustainability
+ 358 40 748 1015