Is sustainability capable of future-proofing the nonwovens industry? A risk-assessment approach to the value chain

This article was originally published in the Sustainable Nonwovens Magazine (SNW), Issue December/January, 2025. Republished with permission. All rights reserved.

EDANA’s Sustainability Director, Rawaa Ammar, highlights the importance of reframing sustainability not just as compliance, but as a crucial risk-management tool and competitive advantage that future-proofs the nonwovens value chain against a volatile global landscape.

Why sustainability is risk management?

The imperative for sustainability has accelerated from a niche corporate social responsibility to the central organizing principle for industrial strategy, profoundly influencing capital expenditure, supply chain resilience, and market access.

This transition is driven by a confluence of global forces: the escalating reality of climate change, the unified framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the extensive regulatory ambition of the EU Green Deal. These factors create a mandatory focus on Responsible Production and Consumption, pushing the nonwovens sector, an industry characterized by versatile, engineered materials, toward rapid systemic shifts.

EDANA’s Sustainability Director, Rawaa Ammar, highlights the importance of reframing sustainability not just as compliance, but as a crucial risk-management tool and competitive advantage that future-proofs the nonwovens value chain against a volatile global landscape.

While regulation often drives the initial conformity, the most successful companies move past compliance. They recognize that sustainability is the path to better risk-management. Geopolitical instability, trade issues, and resource scarcity—all exacerbated by climate change—present immediate threats to supply chain security. Sustainability is the opportunity to build resilience and innovation into the core business model. It shifts the mindset from simply reacting to mandates to proactively securing the future.

A large portion of EDANA members (69%) currently maintain quantitative sustainability goals, and 76% actively engage with stakeholders on these matters. This demonstrates that Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) integration is already a matured function within the sector.

Market and regulatory pressures reshaping nonwovens

The strategic challenge for nonwovens lies in reconciling the high societal demand for sustainability with persistent consumer sensitivity to cost. While global awareness of the climate emergency is high, consumer belief does not always translate into purchasing action. Cost and perceived quality remain the top decision factors. High living costs often do not allow consumers to always choose the more sustainable option.

However, relying purely on current cost sensitivity is a risk. The market is undergoing a demographic shift. As highlighted by McKinsey¹, Gen Z are changing the consumption trends. Younger consumers are increasingly prioritizing sustainability and ethics over price alone, suggesting that companies failing to adapt now risk losing relevance with the dominant buyers of the next decade.

The avoidance of action on sustainability, however, is not a cost saving; it is an increasing financial liability. Ignoring ESG parameters translates directly into elevated business risks, including increased borrowing costs, limited access to critical capital, and the threat of supply chain exclusion from major Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) and retailers. For B2B nonwovens producers, robust, certified sustainability performance is a non-negotiable insurance policy guaranteeing market access.

Regulations such as the EU Green Deal and its associated directives (e.g., the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive - CSRD, or the Single-Use Plastics Directive - SUPD) pose significant new challenges. Through these regulations, sustainability becomes the avenue for a proactive, resilient response—a fundamental shift to embrace.

New mandates will increasingly address post-consumer situations and the end-of-life challenge. This means the industry must consider every stage, from material sourcing to final disposal, and transform waste into resources. EDANA’s commitment to this agenda has a long history, dating back to its first Sustainability Report in 2005. This proactive engagement (covering Sustainable Supply Chain, Eco-Efficiency, Building Trust, and Responsible End-of-Life) provides a robust foundation for navigating new regulatory challenges. 

Tools for action (LCA, circular models, and due diligence)

The industry’s decisive strategic tool for navigating regulation and driving genuine change is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is a strong, adopted tool that goes beyond simply justifying "business as usual." Its true value is in understanding the environmental impact of the market and dissecting the supply chain to pinpoint hotspots.

• It identifies the problem: It reveals where the true environmental impact lies (e.g., high content in volume, transport, specific raw materials).
• It drives innovation: By dissecting the supply chain, LCA becomes a source of innovation, showing the industry how it can change. It tells us that our products, while good for society (hygiene, medical), are not good enough in their current form.
• It supports policy: Through transparent, science-backed assessment, LCA supports policymakers in shaping effective, proportionate regulation grounded in actual environmental outcomes rather than assumptions or perceptions.

LCA’s primary function is to serve as a science-based reporting tool for assessing a product’s environmental footprint. It helps identify hotspots and areas for improvement, enabling companies to further reduce their impact in alignment with their overall sustainability strategy.

Strategic security, competitiveness, and the path ahead

The global pursuit of sustainability is fundamentally reshaping international trade and raw material sourcing, making geopolitical risk inseparable from environmental strategy.

The EU Green Deal, while aiming for climate neutrality, promoted resource independency for Critical Raw Materials (CRM) and autonomy. This geopolitical tension mandates that nonwovens manufacturers view raw material security as paramount. Investment in domestic circularity—transforming European waste streams into reliable recycled feedstock—becomes a national security imperative. This strategy insulates the sector from global resource scarcity and trade volatility.

The need to mitigate risks like climate change, geopolitical issues, and trade disruption reinforces the need for deep value chain auditing. EDANA members must extend due diligence beyond direct suppliers to Tier 2 and Tier 3 raw material providers to ensure compliance with emerging standards and protect the organisation’s reputation by verifying ethical sourcing globally.

Can we learn from other industries? Yes, by observing how sectors like textiles have had to rapidly redesign products and secure new raw material sources due to regulation and resource constraints. The nonwovens sector must similarly engineer comprehensive, cost-effective end-of-life recovery pathways that secure a long-term, price-stable feedstock supply.

The sustainability transition is, therefore, a non-negotiable strategic disruption. Success hinges on transforming external pressures—from geopolitical risk to dynamic regulatory mandates—into drivers for internal innovation and efficiency.

The industry needs to rethink nonwoven production. Sustainability moves beyond being a cost centre; it is a powerful value driver and the only reliable path to future-proof the business. We must embrace a proactive strategy where investment in European-based recycling and deep supply chain auditing are treated as essential capital expenditure for strategic security. The coming decade will reward companies that turn sustainability into strategic capability rather than a compliance exercise.

[1] State of Grocery Europe 2025 | McKinsey