Our environmentally friendly fabric is the first sunscreen fabric in the world awarded Cradle to Cradle Certified Gold with a Platinum Material Health certificate.

It is not made from the standard polyesters used for conventional glare control fabrics but from an ingenious new material that is 100% extracted from annually renewable vegetable raw materials rather than from oil.

It meets the same performance standards as polyester fabrics, is very durable and less fossil fuels are used in the production of the raw materials and less greenhouse gases are produced in comparison with the traditional polymers used for synthetic fibres.

It is made from a PLA (PolyLactic Acid), which is a biopolymer, and compared to conventional “polyester” polymer it:

• Requires 42.9% less energy
• Causes 77.3% less CO2 emissions

Fossil fuel savings equivalent to:

• Burning 3,837 litres of petrol
• Monthly electricity consumption by 81 residents in Western Europe
• Lighting a 100-watt bulb for 15 years
• 27 barrels of oil a year

CO2 savings equivalent to:

• Covering 55,941 kilometres in a new car in Western Europe
• The storage of carbon by 2 hectares of pine or fir forest for a year
• The consumption of 342 propane cylinders used for home barbecues
• The growing of 210 tree seedlings for 10 years

These reductions are estimates and based on the “cradle to pellet” element of the life cycle.

After the use phase, these glare control fabrics can be mechanically recycled. In mechanical recycling the plastic is processed back into pellets that can be re-used for a new application. If this fabric ends up in a landfill site it will not break down, so the carbon will be stored in the landfill and a positive contribution will therefore be made to climate change.