Biovinyl+

Biovinyl+

Biovinyl+ is the name of the material Farmerrain builds its rainwear from: a PVC fabric made from BIOVYN™ and plasticised with Pevalen™ Pro 100 — two raw materials linked to renewable biomass through certified mass balance, instead of relying solely on fossil feedstock. The result is the same proven properties galon fabric has always had — completely waterproof, hard-wearing, welded seams — combined with a plasticiser that is entirely free of phthalates.

What is Biovinyl+?

The PVC component is BIOVYN™ from INOVYN — the world’s first commercially available bio-attributed PVC, in production since 2021. Through certified mass balance, a share of renewable biomass is linked to the PVC that is produced, following the same accounting principle used for, for example, renewable electricity or bio-based plastics in other industries: the renewable feedstock is fed into a shared production process, and a corresponding quantity of the finished product is credited — attributed — as renewable, traceably, through a certified system. The substitution of fossil feedstock with renewable biomass is RSB-certified at 100 percent, the biomass doesn’t compete with the food chain, and according to INOVYN, BIOVYN™ delivers a greenhouse gas saving of over 90 percent compared with conventionally produced PVC.

The plasticiser component is Pevalen™ Pro 100 from Sweden’s Perstorp — entirely free of phthalates, and made from 100 percent renewable or recycled carbon under the same mass-balance principle, certified through ISCC PLUS. According to Perstorp’s own figures, the plasticiser has roughly an 80 percent lower carbon footprint (cradle to gate) than its fossil equivalent. Since the plasticiser, by Farmerrain’s own calculation, accounts for roughly 40 percent of a garment’s total climate footprint, that choice alone is one of the single most important factors in the material’s overall environmental performance.

Properties

Completely waterproof

a water column of 20,000 mm, with welded seams on the vast majority of models

Free of phthalates and PFAS

Never needs reproofing — the waterproofness lies in the material itself, not in a surface treatment that wears off.

Resistant to oil and cold.

En kvinna som går i strandkanten i marinblå hängselbyxa

Climate footprint and verification

Farmerrain’s sailing jacket has a third-party-verified Environmental Product Declaration (EPD-IES-0005125) under the international standard ISO 14025, reviewed by Sweco Environment: 5.82 kg CO2e per jacket, cradle to grave. The declaration is valid until January 2027, and a new measurement is underway to capture material changes since the last one.

According to the same declaration, the jacket is made of 88 percent bio-based PVC and 12 percent recycled polyester from PET bottles (the backing fabric). The material contains no phthalates and no substances on the EU’s candidate list of substances of very high concern (SVHC), the water column is above 20,000 mm, and the material is Oeko-Tex tested.

The collaboration with Perstorp was described in a case study published on 26 August 2026. Jonas Carlsson: “With proper care, our rainwear can last at least 30 years.” Carola Carlsson: “We focus on improving our own operations rather than comparing ourselves to others.”

 

Cold

Perstorp's own tests of Pevalen™ Pro 100 show a softer feel, better fabric drape and retained flexibility in the cold compared with conventional plasticisers. Farmerrain's own field tests have shown unchanged properties down to around −30 °C. The garments are made and tested to perform well down to −30 °C — this is not a guarantee, and −50 °C is not promised.

lifespan

The technical lifespan is calculated at 30 years. With proper care, repair when needed and reasonable use, a Biovinyl+ garment can last at least 30 years. Heavily used garments, however, will find it difficult to reach this lifespan in practice.

Recycling

The fact that the material is phthalate-free increases the possibility that it can be recycled, compared with PVC containing phthalates or other substances that require special handling. We also always accept worn-out Farmerrain garments at our warehouse in Emmaboda, so the material can be recycled or reused properly.

 

Condensation and ventilation

Like all other completely waterproof, plastic-coated fabric, Biovinyl+ doesn’t let water vapour through. During high physical activity, moisture can therefore condense on the inside of the garment — that’s a characteristic of the material, not a defect. The solution is ventilation rather than a more waterproof fabric, and several of Farmerrain’s models are therefore built with mechanical ventilation: the Hunter jacket has vents on the chest and back, the Adventure anorak and the Trenchcoat 2.0 have back ventilation, and the Hunter waist trousers and the Matching Kid waist trousers have ventilation mesh.

Models
Biovinyl+ is used across large parts of Farmerrain’s own range of jackets, trousers, capes and overalls. One exception is the waders, which are not made in Biovinyl+.

 

The models below have mechanical ventilation built in

Matching Kid waist trousers

waist ventilation

Biovinyl+ compared with traditional PVC
Chemically, Biovinyl+ is still PVC — polyvinyl chloride — just as traditional galon fabric has always been, and the fundamental properties that have made the material the first choice in fishing, farming and professional life for over a hundred years remain the same: total waterproofness, high abrasion resistance, and seams that can be welded into a homogeneous, durable joint. The difference lies in two stages of the manufacturing chain. The first is the PVC feedstock itself: traditional PVC is made exclusively from fossil naphtha, whereas the BIOVYN™ in Biovinyl+ is linked to renewable biomass through certified mass balance — an accounting system in which a quantity of renewable feedstock is fed into a shared production process, and a corresponding quantity of the finished PVC is credited as renewable, traceably, through third-party certification. The substitution of fossil feedstock is RSB-certified at 100 percent and the biomass doesn’t compete with the food chain; according to INOVYN, this gives BIOVYN™ a greenhouse gas saving of over 90 percent compared with conventionally produced PVC. This doesn’t necessarily mean that every individual polymer molecule in the specific fabric that becomes a Farmerrain garment physically originates from biomass — mass balance is an established, certified method for introducing renewable feedstock into an existing production chain, widely used across the chemical industry, not a guarantee of physical traceability molecule by molecule. The second stage is the plasticiser, where the difference is more concretely measurable: traditional PVC is often plasticised with phthalates or chlorinated paraffins, substances subject to growing chemical regulation and which can complicate future recycling, whereas Biovinyl+ is plasticised with Pevalen™ Pro 100 — a polyol ester entirely free of phthalates, made from renewable or recycled carbon under the same mass-balance principle, with roughly an 80 percent lower carbon footprint than its fossil equivalent according to Perstorp’s own figures. Taken together, then, Biovinyl+ is not a different material from PVC, but the same material made with a feedstock chain linked to renewable sources and with a
plasticiser whose chemistry and climate footprint differ measurably and demonstrably from the industry standard.

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