Month: May 2024

Eastman

KINGSPORT, Tenn., May 16, 2024 /3BL/ – Eastman, a specialty materials company and producer of Naia™ cellulosic fibers, has formed a strategic collaboration with Debrand, a prominent, next-life logistics company specializing in finding sustainable solutions to apparel waste for some of the world’s top apparel and footwear brands.

Teaming up with Debrand for collection of the waste, Eastman is using its cutting-edge molecular recycling technology to recycle 5,000 pounds of pre- and post-consumer apparel waste. The process breaks down apparel waste to its molecular building blocks and uses the certified recycled material to create Naia™ Renew fibers — circular fibers made from 60% sustainably sourced wood pulp and 40% recycled waste material via Global Recycled Standard-certified mass balance.

“We are committed to advancing sustainable solutions for the fashion industry,” said Claudia de Witte, Eastman’s textiles sustainability leader. “Partnering with Debrand allows us to drive progress on our Naia™ sustainability goals, particularly to mainstream circularity by creating sustainable solutions for textiles that have reached end of life and turning them into valuable resources for new Naia™ Renew fibers. This collaboration underscores our commitment to work closely with key collectors and sorters to drive the necessary infrastructure changes for advancing sustainability in the fashion industry.”

Eastman and Debrand are showcasing the transformative potential of molecular recycling technology to address the textile waste crisis. By providing more circular solutions for apparel waste, this partnership sets a new standard for sustainable practices in the fashion industry. Prior to its collaboration with Eastman, Debrand secured a strategic investment from Waste Management, the leading provider of comprehensive waste management in North America, to deliver circular solutions across the U.S. and Canada.

“We are excited to collaborate with Eastman on this innovative pilot project and create building blocks toward valuable systems of sustainability,” said Lina G. Londono, vice president of sustainability at Debrand. “We took on this project with an intentional and iterative approach that would reach meaningful milestones. This project was designed to offer scalability and accessibility for other brands that would want to participate in the future.”

Eastman continues to partner with strategic brands and organizations to drive innovation and enhance the infrastructure for a circular economy in the textiles industry. Recently, Eastman teamed up with Patagonia to recycle 8,000 pounds of its unusable apparel, demonstrating Eastman’s commitment to close the loop on textiles.

About Eastman

Founded in 1920, Eastman is a global specialty materials company that produces a broad range of products found in items people use every day. With the purpose of enhancing the quality of life in a material way, Eastman works with customers to deliver innovative products and solutions while maintaining a commitment to safety and sustainability. The company’s innovation-driven growth model takes advantage of world-class technology platforms, deep customer engagement, and differentiated application development to grow its leading positions in attractive end markets such as transportation, building and construction, and consumables. As a globally inclusive and diverse company, Eastman employs approximately 14,000 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries. The company had 2023 revenue of approximately $9.2 billion and is headquartered in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA. For more information, visit www.eastman.com.

About Debrand

Debrand is the leading textile sustainability solutions provider partnering directly with the world’s top apparel brands like Everlane, lululemon, Aritzia, and Canada Goose. Founded in 2008, Debrand helps clients build systems of sustainability into their next-life operations by providing tech-enabled sortation services that send excess inventory to the highest-value channels through our vetted network of textile resale, donation, repair, recycling, and responsible disposal partners. Based in Canada with facilities across the United States, Debrand is on a mission to propel the textile industry’s sustainable future, finding ways to optimize the planet’s finite resources by unlocking the potential in untapped products. To learn more about our work and impact, visit debrand.ca.

Menabò Group contact (for Eastman)

Guilio Ferro 
Content and PR media manager 
giulio.ferro@menabo.com

Debrand contact

Melanie Mok 
Director of marketing 
melanie@debrand.ca

Violeta Pacheco’s clothing company, Tejidos Peruanos, is based in the Lima neighborhood of Villa El Salvador, home to some of Lima’s poorest residents.

Despite the area’s poverty, Villa El Salvador is known for being a place where women have built the support structures to collectively care for each other and their neighbors: small businesses, soup kitchens, and schools.

Walking among the hillside concrete houses of the neighborhood, visitors can’t help but take note of the people’s brightly colored, fine clothing and blankets — the traditional textiles of Peru, world-renowned with iconic Indigenous patterns.

Violeta’s story of building her own textile business here is interwoven with the history of this place, where women help women succeed, and what seems impossible can be accomplished as a community.

The first sewing machine — and the first loan

Eighteen years ago, Violeta’s business started with one, solitary Singer sewing machine.

In Peru, it’s common for banks to require men as co-signers on loans, even loans for women-owned businesses. Fortunately, Violeta’s husband, Pedro, trusted her vision and took out not only the first loan, but each subsequent loan.

“From the first moment we bought the first machine, he said, ‘Have this, love, here you go, I trust you,’” Violeta says.

She calls him her strategic partner and her “angel.”

Adding new machines one at a time, while training women to operate them, Violeta’s vision grew from reselling pre-made garments to making her own. Throughout the growth of her business, she needed Pedro to believe in her enough to take out new loans and continue to invest in the growth of her business, a situation that many women in Peru do not have.

Without a banking history, as a woman entrepreneur, it would have been impossible for Violeta to get the loans that made her business possible.

This is exactly what CARE’s programming has set out to change. If policymakers prioritized investments in women’s economic power, the global economy could grow by an additional 7 percent, or $10 trillion, by 2030.

Which is why, over the past five years, CARE’s partnership with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth has supported more than 150,000 entrepreneurs worldwide with loans, critical support services, and training.

The Ignite program specifically has already unlocked $154.9 million in loans from an initial grant of $5.26 million. The results have been astonishing. 79 percent of female program participants increased their sales, and 89 percent reported an increased confidence in running the business.

As Violeta’s business grew, she and Pedro expanded to new floors of their house, until they outgrew it entirely.

Violeta chose to expand her business because she wanted to help other women who shared her vision to succeed and knew she could offer them critical jobs.

But once again, she needed Pedro to sign the mortgage for the building she chose.

“Now we have three floors,” she says. “With separate areas [for each stage of garment making]. We are 14 people, 12 of us are women, who assemble, weave, finish, check, and iron each sweater.”

“Tejidos Peruanos is the dream of 14 women”

Financial access isn’t the only barrier Violeta has faced.

“I entered this world that was predominantly led by men: all weavers, workshops, led by men,” she says.

“They said, when I knocked on the door, they said, ‘Where is your teacher? Where is your husband?’ That was frustrating, because I was the one leading the team. When I bought material they would say, ‘Are you going to be able to carry that?’ Maybe I couldn’t carry it but I could direct someone to do it, and make the decisions.”

Partnerships and programs that offer training, skills, and networks to women entrepreneurs are opportunities for women like Violeta to gain the financial knowledge and confidence to access credit to grow their enterprises.

In the past two years, Violeta’s dream has grown even more, and she has established her own brand: Maywa, which is the Quechua word for “Violet.”

Through Ignite, Violeta and others received entrepreneurial and business training, and with her new skills, she was able to tell a richer story about the sustainable practices of her company.

“I would tell all women not to be afraid. That sixth sense that women have never fails us.”

Violeta Pachecho

Peruvian small business owner

Now, thanks to the training she’s received, Violeta and her team were able to refine their pitches to international clients, photograph their products, use digital tools, and build a catalog, bringing her closer to her dream of a successful international brand.

“We didn’t know that what we were doing could be interesting and would add to our proposal,” she said.

And just this year, she hit a major milestone: she was able to take out the first loan in her own name.

“Today it is me, Violeta Pacheco, who can access a loan in the bank… that’s important because it allows us to make decisions without fear of making mistakes, because we felt supported as a family.”

Asked what advice she would give other women starting out in business, Violeta says:

“I would tell all women not to be afraid.

“That sixth sense that women have never fails us. Women on their own face many obstacles. However, if we build a community of the people who inspire us and support us, we can achieve so much. We can become vessels of knowledge and can pour that experience into other women who are just beginning. We can do things together that we could never accomplish alone.”

The CARE Women’s Economic Justice team recently launched Strive Women together with Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, to build on the success of the Ignite programming. Strive Women supports women entrepreneurs to feel confident, resilient, in control, and equipped to grow their businesses, so they gain economic power in their households, communities, and economies.