ABOUT ANANAS ANAM

• Ananas Anam is a manufacturer making natural textiles from waste pineapple leaf fibres.
• It was founded by Dr. Carmen Hijosa, a leather goods expert, who acted after seeing the impact of mass leather production and chemical tanning on the environment while consulting on the Philippines leather export sector in the 1990s.
• Headquartered in London, UK, it has subsidiaries in the Philippines and Spain, and ships worldwide. Orders destined for Turkey, India, and Myanmar are processed manually, and customers are required to contact the company via email.
• It produces two materials, Piñatex, a non-biodegradable leather made from pineapple leaves, PLA, and petroleum-based resin — considered a Transitional Material by PlasticFree — and Piñayarn, a 100% plant-based, recyclable textile.
• A for-profit company, Ananas Anam works to have a "positive social impact and low environmental impact", while operating a transparent supply chain and following the Cradle to Cradle principle. It says it aims “to meet the challenges of our times, by developing innovative products in which commercial success is integrated with, and promotes, social, ecological and cultural development.”
• By working directly with farming cooperatives and using pineapple waste, the maker has helped create an additional source of income for farming communities in the Philippines.
• In 2020, Ananas Anam created over 100 jobs in the Philippines, increasing to more than 300 in 2021 according to its 2021 Impact Report.
• Ananas Anam was awarded B Corp certification in 2020, with an overall impact score of 80.5. 
• In 2017, Dr. Hijosa was awarded the Women in Innovation Award by InnovateUK and was also a finalist for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award in 2016 and the European Inventor Award 2021.
• In 2021, Ananas Anam collaborated with Nike on the Happy Pineapple collection — a trainer range made from Piñatex. For this, the company was awarded the Collaboration Award at the PETA Fashion Awards 2021. Crucially, however, this range was still plastic based, and the vegan leather narrative has a habit of masking the impact of plastic in favour of the animal-free conversation.
• That same year, Ananas Anam partnered with Dole in the Philippines to secure pineapple leaf fibre supply and help the fruit supplier in reaching its promise of zero fruit loss by 2025.
• Ananas Anam’s long-term partnership with Treedom has enabled it to become 100% carbon neutral. By planting forests across six developing countries, the company reduced its carbon footprint by 42% and offset all of its remaining carbon emissions.
• It pledged to reduce its carbon footprint by a further 15% during 2022.
• In the future, Ananas Anam aims to “work with other pineapple growing countries to support local economies and strengthen their exports, further develop its material and diversify its product offering, and share knowledge and experience with the communities it works in, through collaborations in academia and helping young minds.”