Unifi announces Repreve Champions of Sustainability Award winners

Unifi Inc., Greensboro, North Carolina, has announced its seventh annual Repreve Champions of Sustainability Award recipients. The annual awards are meant to celebrate the company’s global brand, textile and retail partners who have recycled over 40 billion plastic bottles into new products through its Repreve brand of recycled performance fiber.

Since 1971, Unifi says it has spearheaded textile industry innovation, and since launching Repreve in 2007 has recycled over 40 billion plastic bottles into recycled fiber for new apparel, footwear, home goods and other consumer products. The company says by giving discarded resources fresh purpose as recycled high-performance materials, it empowers brands to be better and encourages people to want better.

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This year’s Champions of Sustainability awards will be presented to 37 brand and retail partners that have transformed 10 million or more recycled plastic bottles and 64 textile partners that have transformed 50 million or more recycled plastic bottles through the use of Repreve.

Unifi CEO Eddie Ingle tells Recycling Today the awards prove that when brands make a sustainability commitment, they are translating it into action, and when brand partners are making their supply chain more sustainable by using Repreve, Unifi wants to celebrate that.

“Everybody loves an award,” Ingle says. “But everybody, when they accept an award, what we find is they’re accepting it on behalf of their company because they know, like we know, that it’s not easy to [move from a virgin product and supply chain to a recycled one]. I think it’s a feel-good thing for us because it gets us closer to our brands but, more importantly, it’s saying thank you to somebody and giving gratitude for somebody’s efforts.”

Ingle adds that the awards also can inspire a company to try and do more. “When we give a 50 million [recycled] bottle award it might make that company want to come back in a couple of years and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a 100 million bottles award,’ and it allows them to track their progress.

“A lot of these brands get an unfair rap for making claims, making promises and not doing it,” he says. “What this does is allow them to publicly celebrate not just for themselves internally, but to celebrate externally. It shows that they’re doing it; [recycling] is the real deal.”

Unifi partners earning awards this year include:

• Nike and Rothy’s, which have earned the Milestone Award for transforming more than 3 billion and more than 100 million plastic bottles, respectively, through the use of Repreve.
• Under Armour, which will receive a Special Recognition Award for its commitment to Repreve in the sustainable performance wear space by recycling more than 165 million bottles.
• Lovesac, which will receive a Special Recognition Award as a sustainable leader in the home furnishings industry, having transformed more than 80 million bottles.
• Inditex, which has earned the Global Brand Award for giving second lives to more than 360 million bottles through Repreve fibers and yarns.
• Serta Simmons Bedding, which has been named a Rising Star for its widespread use of Repreve in sustainable bedding.

“Our partners share our vision for a brighter, better, more sustainable future,” Ingle says. “We are very pleased to celebrate the 2024 Repreve Champions of Sustainability who led their respective industries forward with their commitment to environmental responsibility. Unifi looks forward to continued innovation and positive impact alongside our extraordinary partners.”

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Unifi also is doing its part to promote sustainability in its operations. In its 2023 sustainability report, the company set a target to recycle the equivalent of 1.5 billion T-shirts worth of textile and yarn into new products by its 2030 fiscal year. The company previously committed to recycle 50 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by December 2025 into Repreve.

Additionally, the company set a goal to reduce its Scopes 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity by 30 percent in that same timeframe and aims to achieve zero noncompliant water discharges annually according to local, state and national regulations or permitting.

The full list of award winners can be found here.