Century Rayon publishes its first CanopyStyle Audit

26 Feb '21

3 min read

Pic: Century Rayon

Century Rayon has released its first CanopyStyle audit report, with environmental not-for-profit organisation, Canopy, and third-party auditor, Preferred by Nature (NEPCon). Century Rayon is a leader in the business of viscose filament yarn. Canopy is an environmental non-profit organisation, dedicated to protecting the world’s forests, species, and climate.

The audit found that while the majority of Century Rayon’s suppliers are low risk of sourcing from priority ancient and endangered forests and other controversial sources, additional verification is required to determine risk levels for one remaining supplier. The supplier verification will be conducted in the first half of 2021, pending the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. While the Century Rayon facility that produces viscose filament yarn (VFY) is managed by Aditya Birla, it is independently owned by Century Textiles & Industries, with a dedicated ranking for Century now appearing in the 2020 Hot Button Ranking, according to Canopy.

The audit shows the company has adopted a wood sourcing policy, has communicated it to suppliers, and has created internal capacity responsible for policy implementation. Century Rayon has started to implement an action plan to increase the use of cellulosic fibre made from alternative fibre sources, and is working to bring products containing these fibres to commercial scale in 2021, Canopy said.

Century Rayon’s fibre supply chain cannot yet be fully confirmed at low risk of sourcing from ancient and endangered forests and other controversial sources, due to an additional audit being required of one supplier that is located near an important area for biodiversity, Canopy said.

Moving forward, Canopy recommends that Century Rayon work with Preferred by Nature to determine risk for the remaining supplier where risk levels have not yet been confirmed. It also recommends that Canopy should adopt ambitious public targets and timelines for increasing the use of next generation alternative fibres in a commercially competitive way. Century Rayon should establish internal systems to monitor policy implementation in addition to FSC-certification and other certification systems and work with Canopy to support conservation solutions for key ancient and endangered forests, Canopy said in a media statement.

“The audit results show that Century Rayon is doing important work with Next Generation Fibre solutions, which is critical if we are to meet scientifically supported targets of protecting 30-50 per cent of forests by 2030. We look forward to seeing additional results from the supplier site visit and are encouraged that Century Rayon will be proactively addressing this information gap in its supply chain,” Nicole Rycroft, executive director at Canopy said in a press release.

“Century Rayon is excited to be part of the CanopyStyle Initiative, and working collaboratively to reduce the impact of our operations on forests. We look forward to continuing this important work with Canopy,” Omprakash Chitlange, CEO of the VFY (fashion yarn) business, Century Rayon said.

“Preferred by Nature is pleased to be an independent auditing body for the CanopyStyle initiative and in particular making it possible to meet the growing demand for CanopyStyle Audits throughout Asia. Century Rayon is committed to this third-party assessment of their raw material sourcing and we look forward to the final site visit in 2021,” Jon Jickling, director of solutions at Preferred by Nature said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (GK)

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