January 11, 2006 - The Philosophy of Responsible Innovation

Material ConneXion Milano at Heimtextil introduces the new reality of sustainable materials and Ingeo™ fiber reinforces this message

Milan - January 11, 2006 - At Heimtextil, an important international event in home textiles, people will have the opportunity to experience Ingeo™ fiber's unique characteristics firsthand. The fair organizers have allocated a special space for The Creative Gallery, a crossroads between commerce and creativity. Here you will see a carefully selected range of significant innovative objects designed and produced with a common environmental vision, all using recycled or natural materials and low impact methods to offer responsible choices for the home. The public and professionals alike can look, touch and feel the difference today's environmentally-friendly materials are making. Materials of the products on display are made from range from recycled plastics, to re-used 'waste' and new biopolymers. It is in this category where we see a real step change in our understanding of responsible innovation.

Ingeo fiber featured here, made from NatureWorks® PLA resin, is the first man-made fiber derived entirely from annually renewable agricultural resources, not oil.

For years, sustainable and eco/green materials were often considered worthy but not always beautiful. Now, in the hands of these contemporary innovators, we see desirable objects freely available to all. More particularly, Ingeo fiber provides the best of both worlds, where no compromise is needed to produce high performance textiles as well as all the beauty and aesthetic appeal of a natural material. These attributes, along with its versatility, have combined to make it a widespread commercial success in a mere three years since its introduction.

The Creative Gallery has been made possible in large measure by Material ConneXion Milano. Founded in the U.S. by George M. Beylerian, Material ConneXion Milano is the world's key resource for research into innovative materials and processes, with core offices in New York, Bangkok, Milan and Cologne that provide information and consultant services to professionals, designers, architects, companies, researchers, institutes, and universities looking for new materials or wanting to know more about what is available. With a database of more than 3,000 innovative materials collected from all over the globe and divided into eight different categories (polymers, metals, glass, ceramics, carbon-based, cement-based, natural and derived from natural), Material ConneXion Milano represents the world's single most important material database.

More than a testament to creativity and an initiative with artistic appeal, The Creative Gallery is a message for the entire industry, helping open people's eyes to the changing reality of textiles. Today, sustainable can easily be an added value to both the creative and the beautiful. Thanks to innovative textile solutions like Ingeo fiber, sustainable now means not only capturing people's imagination, but also gives them the products they want for their everyday lives.

Change is possible. Choice is available. Ingeo fiber, the first man-made fiber produced from 100% annually renewable resources - not oil

Note to Editors:

Founded in 1997, NatureWorks LLC is based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, USA And is wholly owned by Cargill It is the first company to offer a family of commercially available polymers derived from annually renewable resources with the cost and performance to compete with petroleum-based packaging materials and fibers. The company has achieved this breakthrough by applying its unique technology to the processing of natural plant sugars to create a proprietary polylactide polymer, the world's first greenhouse-gas-neutral* polymer, which is marketed under the NatureWorks® PLA and Ingeo™ fiber brand names. For more information about NatureWorks and its brands, please visit www.ingeofibers.com.

Ingeo, the Ingeo logo and NatureWorks are trademarks of NatureWorks LLC. * Based on the purchase of renewable energy certificates by NatureWorks LLC.