VW Announces Project to Replace Leather Car Interi
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Earlier this week, Volkswagen announced that it would be working with Revoltech GmbH to produce a leather alternative for its vehicles. Revoltech manufactures leather from hemp, making its products 100% plant-based, as well as plastic free and sustainable.
The German automobile manufacturer made this announcement just months after the cannabis legalization law took effect in Germany. The industrial hemp to be used will be sourced from farms in the region, with Volkswagen noting that the material will be made from hemp residues that cultivators have no use for.
In the press release, Kai Grünitz, a board member at VW, revealed that the company was open to new ideas from different industries. He added that Volkswagen was focused on sustainable, creative and innovative solutions for resource saving and holistic vehicle development. The hemp material, dubbed LOVR, 2ill also be vegan, oil free and leather free, as well as nonabrasive and moldable. The fiber will be combined using special tech and processed to make it a surface material.
Volkswagen’s head of strategy, Andreas Walingen, noted that the companys’ objective was to combine corporate interests, sustainability requirements and consumer desires. Revoltech CEO, Lucas Fuhrmann, added that its material was groundbreaking and scalable for sustainability in the automotive sector.
This comes as interest in the use of hemp to produce sustainable alternatives to concrete and plastic, among other materials, continues to grow globally. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States recently gave almost $6.2 million in funding to a nonprofit that works with hempcrete. Two years ago, the U.S. Energy department granted $3.47 million to Texas A&M University for a project to 3D print hempcrete products. The objective of the institution was to create affordable housing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also recently informed stakeholders of a policy change that would see China impose stricter regulations on CBD derived from hemp. The agriculture department has been boosting its support for the hemp industry, having recently appointed industry stakeholders to a trade advisory committee to back efforts to promote cannabis cultivated in the U.S. globally.
In other news, the latest farm bill also contains provisions to lessen regulatory barriers for hemp cultivators and scale back a ban that prevented individuals with drug felony convictions from participating in the industry. Specifically, the legislation would allow the USDA as well as tribal entities and states to remove a policy that prohibits individuals with convictions in the past decade from obtaining licenses to produce industrial hemp.
This new use case for hemp creates another money maker for the solid matter left after various entities, such as Software Effective Solutions Corp. (d/b/a MedCana) (OTC: SFWJ), have extracted the compounds that they need from hemp biomass.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Software Effective Solutions Corp. (d/b/a MedCana) (OTC: SFWJ) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://cnw.fm/SFWJ
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