Finnish forestry co-op takes "big step forward" in climate-friendly textiles

Calling it a “big step forward,” Metsä Group, a Finnish forestry cooperative with presence in around thirty international markets, has laid out the next steps in the development of Kuura, its textile fibre. The focus is on the first Kuura mill, which Metsä is beginning to develop, with a view to eventually employing around 250 people and producing 100,000 tonnes of textile fibres per year. It comes after the group completed a pre-study looking into the viability of Kuura textile production for clothing and other textile applications. The results, based on testing and development work done at a demo biproduct mill in Äänekoski in central Finland, were very encouraging, says Niklas von Weymarn, CEO of Metsä Group’s innovation company Metsä Spring.

A greener way to make clothing

The selling point of the textile, made from softwood pulp sourced from Metsä’s members’ forests, is of course a lower carbon footprint. The textile and garment industry is a well-known carbon culprit, responsible for six to eight percent of global emissions, according to the US National Institutes of Health. The Kuura textile, made from wood pulp, is made without fossil fuels, and therefore purports to be considerably more climate friendly, according to the pre-study commissioned by Metsä. "As the production process differs from anything commercial, our Kuura mill would be a first-of-its-kind," CEO von Weymarn tells Impact Loop. "The uniqueness stems from the new production process, the different staple fibre product, and the very low environmental impacts.

He added that the climate-friendliness of the process comes from their integration of fibre production into a cutting-edge pulping process.

A long way to go

There are still a few years before Kuura will, if all goes well, properly enter into commercial production. These steps include the building of the commercial mill, further development of the production process as well as marketing and financing. The path is smoothed a little by environmental permitting applications already being under the pre-engineering process. The idea of making textiles out of wood pulp has been around for well over a century, but historically has been limited in its development by high production costs and a product that is far less durable than cotton or polyester textiles. With greatly reduced water and chemicals use, however, a pulp-based textile holds high promise for reducing the footprint of the sector, if it proves commercially viable.

Metsä's Niklas von Weymarn says that what sets Kuura apart from the pack is a high presence of hemicellulose which, he says, "gives the fibre properties that are closer to cotton fibre than typical man-made cellulosic fibres." Metsä Group’s main competitor in this space is Spinnova, which is also making textile fibres from woodpulp in Finland. The well-established public company Lenzing in Austria is another rival, as well as the much smaller AlgiKnit, which is developing textiles with algae-based biomaterials.