Mr Barker, Face2Face welcomes you. Let us begin the discourse with one of the important industry issues; renewable and environmentally sustainable biomass offerings as need of hour, and how company like Naturally Advanced Technologies Inc (NAT) comes to picture?
Naturally Advanced Technologies, Inc and CRAiLAR® Fiber Technologies Inc is striving to make it easier and more cost effective for manufacturers and consumers to operate on the Triple Bottomline Philosophy(3BL-people, planet, profit) philosophy. With expected improvements in, including but not limited to, time and environmental footprint of manufacturing, agricultural practices and feedstock sourcing, and product quality and lifecycle, CRAiLAR® solutions have the potential to deliver value across the 3BL. CRAILAR® products are expected to have applications to many industries including such environmental heavyweights as traditional and performance apparel, and composite materials.
You are at helm of managerial chores as CEO and board member for company like NAT – engaged in sorting out environment issues. Is such kind of company to be managed differently than a commercial figure?
Yes. Fundamentally the company is managed from a deep set of guiding principles that form our 'North Star': i.e. that determine how we manage resources, people, planet and profit in what we refer to as a 'Brutally Transparent’ business model. Including profit in our guiding principles ensures that we respect our returns to our shareholders, which further implies that operationally we still remain diligent, strategic, and commercially viable across a very broad range of industrial applications. Being a sustainable company is worthless if we cannot remain profitable and thrive, bringing our technology to an ever increasing audience.
Recently, you have come up with CRAILAR Organic fiber solution. Please tell us what is it all about.
CRAiLAR® Organic Fibers are the foundation of the first truly sustainable yarn in the apparel industry, and are poised to become the revolutionary next step in sustainable fibers, providing an economically sustainable complement to cotton.
Our technology was developed to work on all bast fiber crops. Hemp was the initial focus as it is an emerging industry in Canada. Flax is a bast fiber crop so the CRAiLAR® process works very well without any modification. CRAiLAR® is a versatile technology and also performs well on jute, kenaf, and other similar crops. At the end of April of this year, we announced that we had successfully spun not only a hemp-cotton combination but we'd also successfully spun a flax-cotton combination. We found the CRAiLAR® flax to be of very high quality and ideally suited for fine knit items such as T-shirts. While hemp is also well suited for knit garments, the legal issues surrounding the crop in the USA combined with the farming learning curve that will be necessary to begin the agricultural supply chain, make commercialization of this fiber more difficult than flax.
Our recent spinning trials with CRAiLAR® flax have been highly successful, which further validates the feasibility of flax as a practical, economically viable complement to cotton. Therefore a strategic shift of focus from hemp to flax was announced earlier this year.
Hanesbrand - the biggest consumer of cotton in US, is heard to have entered into a short-term CRAiLAR Flax Fiber Supply Agreement with NAT. Can you provide the gist of this agreement?
The companies recently completed spinning trials using the CRAiLAR flax fibers, and the supply agreement allows for Hanesbrands to pre-purchase CRAiLAR Flax fiber from Naturally Advanced Technologies for additional product testing. The agreement calls for Hanesbrands to purchase up to $375,000 of CRAiLAR Flax fiber between December 1, 2010 and early 2011.
Hanesbrand is into 100% cotton garments. Can you help us understand why would it choose hemp to cotton? How cost effective this subsitute could be?
CRAiLAR, such a unique and timely fiber being that it's sustainable, cheaper and with performance benefits will make an impact not only on the consumer but any bottom line.
Biotechnology has evolved as wonder working technology. In the context of textile sector, how evolved it is?
Our strategy is to develop CRAiLAR® technology divisions that integrate proprietary biotechnology with current industry practice, and to commercialize those divisions with industry leading, strategic partners. Produced from bast fibers including hemp and flax, CRAiLAR® technologies are based on abundant, environmentally sustainable renewable resources. CRAiLAR® technologies provide economically attractive and performance oriented solutions to water and pesticide intensive feedstocks as well as petrochemical-based feedstocks, for industries such as textiles, pulp & paper, bioplastics, biofuels, medical and composite materials.
Biodiversity is next environmental issue, industry leaders believe. Is it so?
NAT is committed to unlocking the potential of renewable and environmentally responsible biomass resources. As vital resources, such as water, are quickly disappearing the global economy is demanding solutions. We remain committed to being a part of the answer.
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DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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