Transformation is a part of growth, and, over the course of its more than 65 years on the market, LYCRA® fiber has continually advanced and improved.

This Earth Month, we’re thrilled to share the latest milestone on our journey of growth and change: We’ve earned the prestigious Cradle to Cradle Certified® Material Health Gold certificate, V4.0.

This C2C certification is a rigorous, globally recognized material health assessment methodology of the Cradle to Cradle® Certified Product Standard, which applies to more than 70% of LYCRA® brand apparel fibers. It verifies that the chemicals and materials used in our products across our supply chain are free from harmful substances.

“This certification is important because it’s a third-party, independent validation of our products’ material health, which is aligned with leading chemical regulations,” said Dr. Francis Mason, The LYCRA Company’s C2C project lead and technical manager at our site in Maydown, Northern Ireland. “It’s not us trying to say, ‘Our product is great. Buy it.’ This is a very high-level standard — the Gold level — and it’s granted to us by an independent organization that sets the global standard for products that are safe, circular, and responsibly made. This gives our commercial partners confidence to buy our product, and consumers confidence to wear it.”

WHAT IT TOOK TO REACH THIS GOAL
 

Earning this certification was a truly global effort, with individuals and teams from across The LYCRA Company collaborating to make it happen. We also had support from Sustenuto, an experienced assessment body for Cradle to Cradle Certified® certification that helped us navigate the certification process.

• Francis engaged internal teams at our manufacturing sites to gather material recipes for the products we wanted to certify
• George Jiang, our Shanghai-based sourcing manager for direct materials and packaging, worked with his team to gather declarations and information from our suppliers on materials used
• Dr. Ingo Ganz, The LYCRA Company’s global product stewardship manager, liaised with engineers at our Benger Lab in Waynesboro, Virginia, to gather analytical evidence that our products are devoid of banned chemicals

Over 70% of our LYCRA® brand apparel fibers previously held V3.1 of this standard, but reaching V4.0 was a big undertaking; the two standards vary in significant ways, including more stringent reporting requirements, an on-site audit, and approval of a plan for continuous improvement to achieve V4.0.

OUR JOURNEY TO A MORE SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
 

Obtaining this certification is just the latest step on our journey to a more sustainable product offering. Over the years, many of our products have achieved third-party sustainability certifications, including Global Recycled Standard (GRS) and Recycled Content Standard (RCS) certifications for our recycled products and STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX® for all LYCRA® fibers.

We’ll reach our next big milestone later this year when we launch our bio-derived LYCRA® EcoMade fiber made with QIRA®. This version of our core LYCRA® fiber features 70% renewable content derived from field corn grown mostly in Iowa. It has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of LYCRA® fiber by up to 44%* while delivering the performance you expect from our brand.

"Our product vision is to create resilient fibers that deliver on our brand promises, use fewer finite resources, extend garment wear life, and ultimately can be recycled or composted at end of life,” said Steve Stewart, The LYCRA Company’s chief brand and innovation officer.

We’re well on our way to reaching those goals and the future is bright.

*Estimate from Cradle-to-Gate Screening LCA for a representative LYCRA® fiber manufacturing facility, June 2022, prepared by Ramboll US Consulting, Inc.

QIRA® is a trademark of Qore®.