Building Circular Products at Scale

Safe chemistry is the foundation of circularity. With ten product groups now Cradle to Cradle Certified® (C2C Certified®) for Material Health at the Gold level (Version 4.0), Archroma Textile Effects is enabling brands and mills to design products that not only meet today’s market needs but can also be safely and responsibly recycled at end of life.

We sat down with Andrew Bentley, Head of Customer Support & Ecolabels, and Bernhard Knoche, Global Brand Engagement Director, for a joint conversation about the path to certification and how this achievement helps our customers advance their sustainability goals.

1.    Archroma has around 200 certified products, right across the portfolio. Why is this significant for the industry?

Andrew: Archroma’s mission is to lead our industry toward a more sustainable future. With C2C Certified® solutions that span the textile value chain – from pretreatment to dyeing, printing and finishing – we’re helping advance circularity across the industry. And while the breadth of our offering is important, what really matters is that we’re proving it’s possible to eliminate hazardous chemicals while saving resources and still delivering aesthetics and performance.

Bernhard: Absolutely. We’re seeing textile mills and fashion brands worldwide choosing Archroma products that carry the C2C Certified® Material Health certification to support their own C2C Certified® Gold collections. This not only helps them stay ahead of evolving regulations, but also provides credible third-party verification that earns recognition from key stakeholders, from business partners to consumers.

2.    Cradle to Cradle certification is rigorous. What did the journey look like behind the scenes?

Andrew: The Material Health category of the C2C standard evaluates the chemical composition of products for safety to humans and the environment. Achieving the Gold level means assessing every substance and eliminating every hazardous chemical. That’s very demanding, especially when you consider that we’ve successfully certified approximately 200 individual products across dozens of product groups. This is not the work of weeks or months, but of years.

Bernhard: It takes deep technical expertise to find viable alternatives to restricted substances while maintaining product performance and production efficiency. But this is exactly what brands expect from Archroma – safer, high-performing solutions that support future reuse and recycling, backed by the transparency and credibility that independent Material Health certification provides.

3.    How are fashion brands and retailers thinking about circularity right now? What are they asking for?

Bernhard: As Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations expand in Europe and other markets, fashion brands need supplier partners who can support circular design principles from the outset. They want sustainability claims that are credible, independently verified and strong enough to reinforce their brand positioning with consumers and stakeholders. But sustainability can’t come at the expense of performance or profitability, so solutions have to be clean and resource-efficient as well as cost-effective and scalable.

Andrew: Yes, and that’s precisely why we developed our SUPER SYSTEMS+ Impact Matrix. It addresses these challenges by quantifying what can be achieved so brands can make informed decisions about adopting cleaner chemistries, improving end-product durability and delivering resource savings. Our C2C Certified® products generally fall within the Impact and Impact+ quadrants of the Matrix, helping customers go beyond standard industry requirements and stay ahead of evolving regulations.

4.    What does this mean for mills today? What challenges does certification solve for them?

Bernhard: For mills, this really simplifies life. They no longer need to demonstrate chemical safety on their own. Selecting C2C Certified® Material Health Gold products gives them strong support for alignment with restricted substances lists, ZDHC levels and brand sustainability programs. It reduces uncertainty, lowers the risk of product rejections and helps accelerate approvals.

Andrew: And on the process side, certification means mills can integrate safer, resource-efficient chemistries with confidence. Solutions like our Blue Magic pretreatment system already help mills save water and shorten processing time. When those types of solutions are also aligned with C2C Material Health Gold, mills know they’re starting from a fundamentally safer foundation — which is essential for designing textiles that can be safely recycled in the future.

5.    What’s next? How does Archroma build on this momentum?

Bernhard: We’re seeing strong and growing demand from brands that want to design circular products at scale. Our next step is to make that as seamless as possible. We’ll continue to combine certified chemistries with resource-saving process innovations because customers want holistic solutions, not isolated ingredients. We’ll also expand the certified portfolio where it brings meaningful value, and we’ll work closely with customers to support their circularity and compliance goals.

Andrew: Our team is motivated to keep pushing to make safe and circular chemistry the industry norm. We’re already working on future improvements, identifying safer alternatives and exploring where we can raise the bar even further. These certifications are an important milestone, but they’re also the foundation for what comes next.