As one of the biggest developments in the manufacturing sector today, sustainability is gaining firm foothold in the apparel industry of Bangladesh which accounts for a staggering 84 per cent of the country’s exports with textile and garment manufacturers increasingly embracing sustainability with fresh zeal and enthusiasm — be it in manufacturing processes, handling of wastewater, fabric sourcing, energy use to partnering with supply chain associates with credible certifications relevant to social and environmental compliances. Entrepreneurs are now investing significant amount of time and money more than ever before to incorporate sustainable technologies, practices and interventions in the manufacturing processes.
As majority of the textile industry in Bangladesh is reliant on ground water, depleting ground water levels and other associated issues coupled with coming up of various movements and entities like National Resources Defence Council’s Responsible Sourcing Initiative, Green Project WST and Partnership Agreement for Cleaner Technologies (PACT), have led the manufacturers more strongly towards sustainable practices to save water with measurable results.
Among the two factories working under the PACT programme in Bangladesh is the fabric unit of Giant Group and the same unit, Giant Textiles, which is also working under Green Project WST.
“While WST is only backed by Lidl, PACT is supported by a lot of brands and the latter focuses on overall efficient utilization of resources instead of just concentrating on water, and our factory has undergone a complete diagnostic programme under the same,” shares Majedur Rahim, Director, Giant Group with 39 circular knitting machines producing 17 tonnes of fabric per day along with a dyeing capacity of 24 tonnes per day, and adding, “Every product made under the WST project will be retailed by Lidl at a US $ 2-3 higher price with a tag highlighting the water and energy savings registered under the project,” in an obvious hint towards the business viability aspect of being sustainable.
Among the pioneers to take up the cause of water saving is also Landmark Group, one amongst the first two companies where the Green Project WST programme was initiated.
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“We have been working with Green Project WST since 2012, under the guidance of Dr. Engel. At that point of time the idea was not as established as it is today and it was just an idea to help the environment, without any push from international buyers. But once we succeeded, buyers like Lidl are now pursuing WST as their prime requirement to save water consumption of their vendor factories,” shares Dipak Bhowmik, Chairman, Landmark Group, a US $ 60 million knit composite company with backward linkages for accessory manufacturing.
Dr. Wolfram Engel is the President & CEO of Green Project WST (Water Saving Technology) with a long history in the apparel and textile industry whose aim is to ensure that Bangladeshi factories use just 5 litres of water for producing a white T-shirt, which stands at present at whopping 40 litres of water per shirt.
Apart from the buyers’ insistence, societal and environmental accountabilities, rising wages and operating overheads have also led many companies to take the sustainable path which according to NRDC’s claims have enabled 33 Chinese mills to save approximately US $ 14.3 million following the best practices defined by their report. “We realized that we need to be more competitive and focused on reducing the overhead costs,” points out M.S. Zaman, Managing Director, Micro Fibre Group, a US $ 100 knit composite company with backward linkages for accessory manufacturing, who has managed to extensively work on the aspects of water and energy savings in his company without being a part of any programme. Zaman has also worked out a productive method of water usage in the dyeing department, considered the epicentre of water usage. “We are successfully reusing water in various processes such as in de-sizing, scouring, washing or rinsing instead of sending it to the ETP plant… We have also worked out a process to trap the heat from the hot water and save a lot of energy wasted in re-heating water,” underlines Zaman.
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Realising the importance of water conservation, Giant Group and Micro Fibre Group have also invested in construction of water reservoirs for storing the rain water during monsoon and are not using the groundwater during monsoons. At one of its two upcoming dyeing facilities with a combined capacity of 100 tonnes per day, Micro Fibre Group plans to create a pond of 84,000 sq. feet while Giant Group’s new facility Giant Textiles has an underground water reservoir with a capacity of 9,00,000 litres. In the same facility Giant Group has also maximized the use of daylight by making individual floors with the roof height at an average of 30 feet.
Silver Line Group headed by M.A.H Salim (Managing Director) is another company which is sincerely working towards achieving the goal of sustainability and already have in place various interventions to minimize energy consumption. It has Toyota JAT 810 air jet looms, equipped with a new weft insertion system, which enables 20% reduction in air consumption compared to the previous models. The company has also installed a heat recovery system capable of saving US $ 5,100 and 500,000 litres of water; 40,500 cubic metres of natural gas and even reducing the carbon emission by 60+ tonnes annually.
“We would have a certain edge over other textile companies in terms of efficient utilization of resources because all the machines and technologies were bought with an idea to have energy and water efficiency at the centre,” points out Raashid Ashraf Khan, CEO of Silver Composite Textile Mills, who was recruited specifically by Salim to give shape to his monumental expansion and sustainability plans.
