From Forest Fibre to Future-Ready: Scaling Next Gen Materials for a Circular Economy

This April, the Canadian Circular Economy Summit 2025 gathered leaders across industries to accelerate Canada’s shift to a circular economy. I represented Canopy to moderate a panel discussion exploring the role of Next Gen materials — such as hemp, wheat straw, and mycelium — in meeting rising market demand for lower-impact fibre solutions. The panel addressed strategies for securing reliable future fibre supply, the environmental and business advantages of these alternative inputs, and practical steps for integrating them into existing supply chains. As companies navigate evolving regulatory landscapes and shifting consumer expectations, advancing circular fibre solutions is becoming an operational and competitive imperative.

The panel I moderated as Canopy’s North America Hub Strategist, opened with a clear call: to protect the world’s forests and reduce waste, we must invest in and scale Next Gen alternatives to vital forest fibre. Dan King of Zylotex/Davey Textile Solutions Inc. outlined the potential of hemp-based lyocell and the need to remove industrial hemp from restrictive regulations to unlock innovation. Lauren Degenstein, also from Davey, highlighted the pivotal role of government procurement in scaling sustainable materials and urged companies to push past their comfort zones, even when early incentives are limited. Stephanie Lipp of MycoFutures closed the discussion with insights on fungi’s resilience and Myco™ — a leather alternative made from mycelium. She stressed the importance of infrastructure readiness and flexible standards to support adoption of fungi-based materials.

Every year, over five billion trees are logged to produce paper, packaging, and Man-Made Cellulosic Fibres (MMCF) for clothing — many from the world’s most climate-critical and biodiverse forests. This status quo is unsustainable. Our panel, “Key Enablers to Circular Innovation Within Traditional Supply Chains,” showcased practical, scalable solutions to accelerate the shift away from forest fibre. By investing in and integrating Next Gen materials, we can not only relieve pressure on Ancient and Endangered Forests but also build more resilient, future-ready supply chains fit for business and the planet.

The panellists each spoke from their array of experiences, highlighting the real-world challenges and opportunities of scaling Next Gen materials. Dan King, talked about how important it is for lawmakers to correctly classify hemp. This will help them overcome barriers and make it easier for hemp to be used as a textile feedstock. Lauren Degenstein emphasized the importance of governmental procurement to scale solutions. Stephanie Lipp explained how fungi-based leather alternatives are viable but need infrastructure, offtakes, and flexible standards to grow. 

Across the board, the panel stressed that progress can be helped by collaboration: 

• Brands stepping up with commitments
• Governments offering policy and subsidy support
• Innovators are being allowed to iterate imperfectly and with support inside the existing system without fear of imperfect iterations

No big industry has reached scale and success by itself, and the expectation for Next Gen materials to match conventional materials in price, performance, and volume right out of the gate hampers progress.

From Aspirations to Reality

Scaling Next Gen alternatives like hemp, wheat straw, and mycelium is key to taking forests out of textiles and paper packaging. With investment, infrastructure, and cross-sector collaboration, circular supply chains can move from aspiration to reality, helping brands to mitigate supply chain risks, and protect forests and biodiversity for generations to come.

Partner with Canopy today to bring circularity from aspirations to reality.