What: C&A has introduced innovative flooring made from recycled denim offcuts in its flagship store in Vienna, with plans to expand this sustainable solution to another store in Madrid.

Why it is important: This initiative underscores C&A's commitment to sustainability by repurposing textile waste into functional store elements, reducing environmental impact and setting a precedent for eco-friendly practices in retail.

C&A has launched a pioneering project to use recycled denim offcuts as flooring in its stores, beginning with its flagship location on Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna. This innovative flooring solution will also be implemented in the Parquesur shopping centre in Leganés, Madrid, by December. The flooring incorporates surplus denim from C&A’s Factory for Innovation in Textiles (FIT) in Mönchengladbach, with future plans to include denim collected from customers.

Each square meter of the flooring utilizes approximately one kilo of denim offcuts, effectively reducing the amount of unused textiles and creating a unique visual appeal in the stores. Developed by the Swiss company LICO, the flooring combines denim fibres with cork underlays from the bottling industry and wood-based boards. Natural products like vegetable fats and natural rubber are used in processing the denim fibres into flooring.

This exclusive pilot project has received the Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) and the Blue Angel ecolabel from the German federal government, highlighting its environmental benefits and C&A's dedication to sustainable innovation.

C&A's sustainable initiative: Denim offcut flooring