The prophecy that the Third World War is going to be fought for water is now like an old saying. Indeed water is increasingly becoming scarce and also a subject of concern, the western world is already talking about water credit and as of today hundreds of garment factories in Delhi-NCR alone are spending many lakh of rupees on clean drinking water. Taking a proactive approach, many brands/buyers are working to support the industry for water conservation, rubbing shoulders with their vendors at different manufacturing bases like India, Bangladesh and many such countries where clean drinking water is much more than just the need of the hour. Apparel Online takes a closer look at the brand initiatives in water conservation, currently underway.
The requirement of water in the textile industry is immense, especially for washing and finishing needs. Among the most water consuming product in garments, a pair of jeans requires nearly 3,800 litres of water throughout its lifecycle from cotton cultivation (68 per cent) to consumer use (23 per cent). Taking responsibility to reduce the water consumption in jeans, Levi Strauss & Co (LS&Co) in its Annual Report for Fiscal 2014, wherein it reported net revenues of US $ 4.8 billion, claims that it saves 1 billion litres of water since 2011 through its Water<Less™ process, which reduces the water used in garment finishing by up to 96 per cent. To reduce the impact of cotton consumption, LS&Co is working with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) programme to train farmers to grow cotton using less water. BCI harvest data claims that in 2013, cotton farmers in China reduced their water use by 23 per cent compared with farmers who were not using BCI techniques.
Taking responsibility to reduce the water consumption in jeans, Levi Strauss & Co (LS&Co) in its Annual Report for Fiscal 2014, wherein it reported net revenues of US $ 4.8 billion, claims that it saves 1 billion litres of water since 2011 through its Water<Less™ process, which reduces the water used in garment finishing by up to 96 per cent.
Encouraged by the results of its efforts, LS&Co plans to continue working with its global suppliers with the goal of sourcing approximately 75 per cent Better Cotton by 2020 for its cotton needs, up from 6 per cent today. The company has also committed to continue working towards using less water during manufacturing by expanding the Water<Less™ process to include more Levi’s® products, such as tops. By 2020, the Levi’s® brand aims to make 80 per cent of its products using Water<Less™ techniques, up from nearly 25 per cent today. “Our LCA (new Product Lifecycle Assessment, an update on the company’s ground breaking 2007 study) findings have pushed us as a company to rethink how we make our jeans, and we’re proud that our water stewardship actions to date have saved 1 billion litres of water. Not only that, by engaging and educating consumers, we can fundamentally change the environmental impact of apparel and, ideally, how consumers think about the clothes they wear every day,” says Chip Bergh, CEO and President LS&Co, very happy with the achievement.
Another brand working on similar tracks is Nike, which has launched its second garment product line, dyed using the waterless CO2 dyeing technique invented by Dutch company DyeCoo Technology. The company’s Tennis ColorDry Polo was dyed without using water, which also eliminates the need for added chemicals during the fabric dyeing process. It was made using 96 per cent recycled polyester fabrics, wherein each polo T-shirt is made with the equivalent of 11 plastic bottles. DyeCoo’s dyeing machine incorporates a stainless-steel chamber where the supercritical fluid CO2 – rather than water – is used to dye textile materials. The supercritical fluid CO2 swells hydrophobic man-made fibres and this process enables modified disperse dyes to diffuse within the fibre. In the same chamber, fabric drying and the removal of excess dye are also carried out.
Already an established leader in ethical sourcing C&A Foundation has made a US $ 1 million contribution to Water.org’s New Ventures Fund, with a special focus on WaterCredit initiatives in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia and India. The donation will primarily help accelerate programs that put microfinance tools to work in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) sector, such as WaterCredit. In addition, the grant will support the global expansion and refinement of the WaterCredit initiative, and help Water.org research and innovate new ways to tackle the global water crisis.
Inditex’s Global Water Management Strategy is the roadmap which enables the company to collaborate with all their partners and stakeholders (suppliers, customers, employees, Governments and NGOs) to work toward better conservation of the planet’s freshwater and marine ecosystems.
Inditex has committed to foster sustainable water management across each of the six areas covered by the CEO Water Mandate: direct operations; supply chain and watershed management; collective action; public policy; community engagement; and transparency. Under the commitment all manufacturers and suppliers working for the company through its various brands shall monitor the consumption of water used in their operations in order to optimize its use and prevent water wastage. Facilities’ effluent must be properly treated and monitored to ensure compliance with outlet principles prior to the effective outlet.
About a third of the units that perform wet processes for H&M are located in areas which are now, or will be by 2025, considered extremely water scarce. Keeping this as the baseline, in 2012 H&M collaborated with WWF to work with public policy makers, NGOs, water institutions and other companies to support better management of particular river basins in China and Bangladesh. Adding their thrust to the water conservation movement, US-based womenswear brand Eileen Fisher, having more than 50 stores in the US, is using 25 per cent less water at its bluesign® certified dye house in China. The company has set a target that 30 per cent of its product will be bluesign® certified by 2020, and company is working steadily in this direction.
Even comparatively smaller, but environmentally aware brands are not far behind. Sweden based outerwear retailer Peak Performance has developed the Dyedron Jacket. The ski jacket made without using a single drop of water has won a Gold Award from ISPO using the ‘Drydye’ technology of the Yeh Group. The technology uses supercritical CO2 as a solvent to replace water in the dyeing process in a method which also lowers energy use and eliminates the need for added chemicals during dyeing.
