At LanzaTech, we’re working to advance our vision of a circular carbon economy by recycling carbon with biology. But we can’t transform our global supply chains alone. We work closely with both carbon generators and carbon users to help reduce their carbon footprints and make their industries more sustainable.
Our visionary partners’ commitment to reimagining their own operations as a circular model inspires us, and we’re excited to spotlight them in a new series called In The Loop.
Our first feature is about Craghoppers, a UK-based outdoor clothing brand owned by Regatta Group that uses ethanol made from LanzaTech’s recycled carbon in its CO2Renu collection of high-quality fleeces. Our Chief Sustainability Officer Freya Burton sat down with Joanne Black, Director of Product at Craghoppers and Managing Director of Group Retail at Regatta, to learn more about CO2Renu and how the company is embracing sustainability across the business.
Freya Burton: Tell us a bit about your work at Craghoppers and Regatta.
Joanne Black: Regatta is a family business founded by my father, Lionel Black, in 1981. The company has always been rooted in strong values, and my father often said “it’s not what you do, but how you do it that matters.”
In 1995, we acquired Craghoppers, an outdoor clothing brand. My brother and I now run the business together, and that founding commitment to our values is woven throughout the company. For example, we don’t have a standalone Corporate Social Responsibility department because we believe CSR should be part of everyone’s job.
“We don’t have a standalone Corporate Social Responsibility department because we believe CSR should be part of everyone’s job.”
FB: What inspired Craghoppers to partner with LanzaTech on developing the CO2 Renu fleece line?
JB: We have always viewed our manufacturing process through a sustainability lens, and we consider the entire supply chain from making yarn all the way through to the products we sell in stores. When we first started the brand, the most sustainable thing we could do is have each product guaranteed for life; every button, zipper and stitch has to last a lifetime. We love to hear from customers who still use a pair of trousers or a fleece 15 years after the first purchase.
When we began exploring new ways to make our products more sustainable, we had to kiss a lot of frogs before we found our prince in LanzaTech. The possibility of using captured carbon emissions to create more sustainable polyester was incredibly exciting to our team.
We were glad to learn LanzaTech was also committed to making this innovation work at commercial scale. It’s easy to make something sustainable if you only make three pieces, but we were focused on producing these products en masse. We decided to focus on bringing this technology to market with one of our most popular products: fleece jackets. They can be worn by both men and women and are adaptable to many different scenarios. LanzaTech was the right partner to help us make this vision a reality.
“It’s easy to make something sustainable if you only make three pieces, but we were focused on producing these products en masse.”
FB: How is Craghoppers thinking about material circularity in its products? Why is it important to the business?
JB: We’ve all seen the horrendous pictures of fast fashion ending up in landfills, so considering the end of the life of your products is critical. We work hard to ensure our clothing never goes to a landfill. We’d like to say that we never get product returns, but we do, and zippers can break. When customers return merchandise, we have a partnership with Newlife where they take the product, repair it, and sell it in their stores at a discount. Their profits go to help disabled children. If they can’t repair or sell something, it goes to making material for tarmac in roads.
Addressing the full lifecycle of our products has always been top of mind for us. We are members of Cascale, formerly called the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, working alongside other like-minded businesses to find solutions to these industry-wide challenges. Cotton clothing can be easy to recycle, but anything made with other materials is much harder. We haven’t found a commercial solution yet but are doing lots of trials and testing of textile-to-textile circularity.
FB: How did you craft the story of the materials through both the design of the products and the marketing materials for the CO2 Renu collection?
JB: Bringing a new product to market is always really exciting, and you need to think through all the different stages. We start with the retail price and the feasibility of production. We know a new product will be a success if we have a good price and work backwards to design it. We developed a great set of new designs and created a blended product made of both LanzaTech polyester and recycled polyester from plastic water bottles to get the price point right. Our designers worked closely with our quality control team to make sure the yarn was strong enough to perform, at a price that worked for the manufacturers.
As we were developing our products, our marketing and commercial teams were collaborating on the vision for the public launch, including the CO2Renu branding. We worked with LanzaTech to shape the marketing copy to explain a complicated process in simple terms. Customers were excited about our effort to bring something new into the market in a crowded space, pointing to the importance of brand storytelling. People want to know that they’ve bought something really special.
FB: What advice would you give to other consumer goods companies considering ways to reduce their carbon footprints?
JB: Take small steps. Lots of small actions will make a big difference in the end. Anything in the sustainability world feels daunting, so we try to improve things bit by bit and year by year.
Try to get people’s hearts and minds to understand what your brand is doing. All our manufacturer partners are like-minded people on this journey with us, and we do what we can to advocate for more sustainable practices that can reduce costs across the supply chain.
FB: What’s next for the Craghoppers partnership with LanzaTech?
JB: We’re working on several new products for the CO2Renu collection over the next 1-2 years, including a waterproof jacket, another fleece, parkas, jackets and T-shirts for both men and women. This line will be a big part of our collection moving forward, and we’re all very proud of it.
FB: What does your dream of a circular carbon economy look like?
JB: I would love for there to be textile-to-textile circularity that is easy and effective. It would be amazing if all consumers understood the value of buying products that last for a lifetime instead of just for the weekend. I am hopeful that more consumers will seek out and support brands that are making sustainability a priority.
“It would be amazing if all consumers understood the value of buying products that last for a lifetime instead of just for the weekend.”
FB: How are you embracing sustainability in your life outside of work?
JB: My daughter Georgia went to university in the U.S. and did a Master’s program in sustainability. Now she’s a management consultant advising private equity companies on sustainable investments. She keeps me up-to-date on what’s happening in the space and helped us write the framework for our sustainability report. She’s my biggest influence, and I’m really proud of what she’s doing.
