Canopy shared the three Chinese fashion companies, representing eight brands, have joined its CanopyStyle and Pack4Good programmes to keep climate- and biodiversity-critical forests out of their viscose and paper packaging supply chains.

These brands are reportedly also prioritising circular, lower-impact next-gen alternatives.

Canopy explained that the sourcing of Man-Made Cellulosic Fibre (MMCF)-based fabrics and paper packaging is responsible for more than 3.4 billion trees being logged every year, many from the world’s most important ecosystems.

Additionally, its signatories are not only collaboratively working to ensure their textiles like viscose/rayon/lyocell and paper packaging do not come from the world’s ancient and endangered forests, but are also working with Canopy to scale next-gen packaging and textiles made from recycled clothing, agricultural residues and other innovative alternatives rather than materials sourced from climate-critical forests.

The brands pledging to protect ancient and endangered forests as part of Canopy's programme are multi-brand fashion company Ellassay Group; sports apparel brand Engine Bird; and sock company Happywool.

Canopy highlighted that the three companies will be the latest to join more than 500 global fashion brands, including Stella McCartney, Uniqlo, LVMH and Ralph Lauren, collaborating on the CanopyStyle and Pack4Good initiatives.

Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy, said: "We are so pleased to welcome these forward-thinking Chinese fashion companies to the CanopyStyle family in this Lunar Year of the Wood Dragon. The Wood Dragon represents vitality and creativity, success, energy and drive – all key attributes needed to help save forests, species, and our climate. We applaud their leadership as we welcome in the new year."

Alan Xia, founder and chairman of Ellassay Group, added: "This new collaboration is perfectly aligned with one of our pillars of protecting biodiversity and generally reducing our impact of nature. We recognised that there is still a long way to go and aim to continue to be a precursor among leading fashion groups in China with regards to their sustainability journey."

Canopy believes China is poised to lead the global shift to NextGen viscose and packaging production. It noted that government priorities are already mobilising the MMCF supply chain and fashion industry to accelerate the adoption of circular feedstocks for viscose textile production with strong regulatory, supply, and market access incentives already in China.

This week (21 February), German sports brand Adidas also partnered with Canopy to ensure its textiles, paper and paper packaging are free of fibre sourced from climate-critical forests.