Wooltex's Progress towards Resource-Efficiency and Circular Systems

Wooltex, the manufacturer responsible for most of our wool textiles, our co-owned mill in England where we produce 79% of our woollen textiles continues to reduce the environmental impact of our products. In 2022, the Wooltex reduced water consumption by an additional 13% through further optimisation of its existing cooling process, saving 11.000 m3 water compared to 2021 and succeeded in recycling 79% of all process water. In addition, by improving the insulation of the steam and condensate pipes in the dyehouse, they achieved an annual energy saving of over 860,000 kWh.

Furthermore, Wooltex initiated the recycling of 25 tons of textile waste generated in the yarn spinning process and repurposed it for manufacturing our textiles Re-Wool and Sabi. The creation of the recycled yarn was a result of a collaboration between Wooltex and Kvadrat's product development team, while the product design was developed by designer Margrethe Odgaard.

To push the boundaries of ethical and sustainable textile manufacturing, Wooltex has driven vertical integration – while collaborating closely with our designers and product managers (Kvadrat owns 46% of the company). As a result, together we are in a stronger position than ever to optimise and improve production processes, resource-efficiency and continue to deliver to our high quality standards.

Wooltex is on a journey towards insourcing most production. In 2022, the company opened its own spinning facility, which opened new possibilities to further reduce the environmental footprint of our textiles. Finishing and weaving were already carried out in-house.

The case of Wooltex illustrates the practical effectiveness of Kvadrat's emphasis on collaboration and transparency. This approach plays a critical role in accelerating the shift towards increasingly circular systems and products to reach our ambitious sustainability goals.