To protect our glaciers, LENZING™ spearheads collective action in the textile chain to produce a game-changing new geotextile.

The jury is in: Glaciers, integral to the Earth's climate system, face unprecedented threats due to climate change. They are rapidly melting, and urgent solutions are needed. Thus far, geo-textiles have played a crucial role in covering glacials that are under threat in heavily tourististed areas — protected them from melting by reflecting the sun’s rays. 

But solutions are never straightforward: these geo-textiles are petroleum-based, which raises environmental concerns, including microplastic pollution — fine fibers left on the ice that can enter the ecosystem, impacting nature and microorganisms, and enter the food chain.

After years of research, LENZING™ revealed a plastic-free, biodegradable, cellulosic geotextile, recently trialled on the Stubai glacier in Tyrollian Alps, not far from Lenzing’s headquarters in Austria. The coverage, a proven alternative to the standard petroleum-based fleeces, protected the melting of four meters of ice mass without leaving behind microfiber pollution. 

“I have a dream that tourism and the Alpine ecosystem can coexist, and LENZING™ fibers can support this. Climate change does not know borders between countries. Hence, we invite alpine clubs, the forest-based industry, political decision-makers and the public to join forces. Our Alps and glaciers are too precious,” says Berndt Köll, head of the project and Emerging Business Development, LENZING™.