Gabriel_175th Anniversary_Web_Spreads - Flipbook - Page 61
THE GUARDIANS
Flipping the
perspective
You hear their mindset most clearly when the conversation turns to
“treatments.” Flame retardants are used only when necessary. Anti-mould triggers near-physical resistance, because such chemicals
can end up in bodies and water environments. When a customer asks
for a specific treatment, they respond with a question: is it truly needed? Often, after talking it through, the textile already meets the expectation without extra chemistry.
Circularity is where their zoom lens flips direction. They point to a simple insight: Gabriel already has a line running from its own production
to its customers. Circularity can begin by reversing a known line.
The reasons are practical. It is difficult to track where textiles end up,
and collection adds transport, water and energy burdens - plus the
risk of additional chemicals being applied by others before anything
returns. So, they start where impact is tangible: cut off from the customers’ production. It carries almost the same environmental burden
as a finished textile - except it was never used. By rescuing this material before it becomes waste, Gabriel is breaking the linear process
before it ends in disposal and burning.
Then comes next level: collecting materials from the end users. Cura
LOOP is an answer to this. Using postconsumer materials to produce
new fabrics.
Sometimes the big leaps have already happened, and the next gains
are in the decimals. Electricity and water consumption per textile has
dropped over time, and now the task is to push further: more renewable energy, further reductions, further optimisation in Gabriel’s own
set-up and across the broader supply chain.
Ambition, in their telling, is measured by what can actually move in the
market. They underline that a solution must become something that
can be communicated and sold, otherwise it never scales. They even
turn the argument around: a “banana peel” material is not sustainable if nobody buys it - then production becomes an added environmental impact without a place in the world.
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