Bangladesh is not only the second largest exporter of apparel items globally, after China, but has also become a role model across the world in building environment-friendly factories, thanks to the endeavours of the garment makers here who despite numerous challenges (like huge infrastructure cost, high maintenance cost and lack of financial support and without any incentives from the buyers), have taken it up on themselves to come up with green garment units for the sake of environmental safety, safe working place, less energy consumption and not to mention, their reputation.
“Our RMG industry has crossed a milestone in terms of sustainable apparel manufacturing practices. Starting from the number of green factories to ensuring compliance and labour laws, we have already proved our excellence…,” maintained President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Faruque Hassan in an interview with Apparel Resources.
He then went on to add, “Bangladesh is one of the safest apparel producing countries in the world. Over the last few years, our RMG sector has achieved tremendous progress in terms of sustainability and workplace safety; 138 factories have already been LEED-certified by US Green Building Council (USGBC), 39 got LEED Platinum, 84 Gold and more than 500 are in the pipeline now. Further, 13 out of 20 LEED green factories around the world are currently located in Bangladesh.”
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh has by far the highest number of green garment factories in the world and very recently, the USGBC, in recognition of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association’s (BGMEA) strides towards making the local apparel industry eco-friendly, has awarded the garment makers’ body the prestigious ‘USGBC Leadership Award’.
Addressing a virtual press meet from the BGMEA’s Dhaka based office, Faruque Hassan, maintained that this was first USGBC leadership award for any organisation globally.
Apart from being green, the sector has also made unprecedented progress in terms of overall sustainability and ethical manufacturing. A survey report unveiled by Hong Kong-based supply chain compliance solutions provider, QIMA, ranked Bangladesh second in ‘Ethical Manufacturing’ with a score of 7.7 only behind Taiwan, which scored 8.0 while Vietnam came in third, followed by Thailand, Pakistan, Turkey, China, India and Brazil.
The ethical auditing report covered a vast array of compliance and ethical manufacturing, i.e. hygiene, health and safety, waste management, child and young labour, labour practices, including forced labour, worker representation, disciplinary practices and discrimination, working hours and wages etc., and by comparing the ethical auditing practices of major manufacturing countries, QIMA noted that Bangladesh stood out for the good practices of its local suppliers in the international supply chain.
We have also participated in IFC’s Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT) project to reduce our water footprint while BGMEA is also working with Ellen MacArthur Foundation and Reverse Resources for implementing circular economy in the Bangladesh RMG industry, further added Faruque.
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh’s textile and garment factories have significantly cut water and energy consumption by adopting low-cost and cleaner production processes and installing new technologies under a programme initiated by the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Some 338 washing, dyeing, spinning, weaving, and garment factories are saving around 28.7 billion litres of water a year by adopting the solutions of the Partnership for Cleaner Textile (PaCT), a flagship programme of the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group.
Similarly, the factories are saving 2.9 million megawatt-hours (MGh) of electricity annually and avoiding 558,391 tonnes of carbon emission, according to data from the PaCT while under the PaCT-2 programme, the mills and factories slashed wastewater discharge by 24.1 billion litres even as participating mills and factories have invested around US $ 44 million for the purpose.
Launched in 2013, the PaCT supports the entire textile value chain – spinning, weaving, wet processing and garment factories — in adopting cleaner production practices and focuses on reducing the environmental impact and resource consumption.
The PaCT is also the first programme ever to incorporate cutting-edge innovations to address the environmental and sustainability challenges related to the textile sector, which ranges from low-cost or no-cost changes in management and housekeeping practices to process modifications to larger investments such as new equipment.
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Apart from the sector’s participation in the initiatives regarding climate change and circularity, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has also taken a pledge to sustainability, said Dr. Rubana Huq, the immediate past president of the association.
In collaboration with the UNDP and the Global Reporting Initiative, a survey to develop a report highlighting the impact of readymade garment factories on the Sustainable Development Goals has also been conducted.
The BGMEA has joined the UN Climate Change and the Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action with an ambition to reduce GHG emission by 30 per cent by 2030.
We have also committed to the Green Button Initiative of the German Government, Rubana claimed further.
The green endeavours as initiated by the garment makers seem all set to get a further boost now after the country’s National Board of Revenue (NBR) has recently proposed allocating another US $ 200 million for the Green Transformation Fund (GTF) to help export-oriented textile and leather manufacturing industries set up environment-friendly facilities, or will it actually?
Welcoming this initiative, industry leaders have called for financing from the fund for setting up a strong backward linkage industry, especially for woven fabrics.
Mohammad Ali Khokon, President of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), stated, “It is a good initiative, which might help strengthen the backward linkage industry…We would like to request the Government to give priority to the woven sector as Bangladesh still imports 60 per cent of woven fabrics.”
Meanwhile, speaking to the media on condition of anonymity, an entrepreneur, who is a green factory owner and also set up the facility with money from the Bangladesh Bank’s green fund, said, “The money allocation from such a fund is not practical as it now covers only buying machinery, not setting up a green factory. If the Government wants to transform those units into green ones, it should include both.”
Explaining the further existing scenario, he said the GTF currently only allows financing for capital machinery, which cost only one-third of a green project even as he mentioned that a similar fund is available in the market for setting up green factories but entrepreneurs have not shown interest in getting that fund as it allows them for partial financing.
It may be mentioned here that earlier, in 2016, the Bangladesh Bank introduced a US $ 200 million refinance scheme namely the Green Transformation Fund for the export-oriented industries of the textile and leather sectors to set up environment-friendly infrastructure and before that, the central bank had also another similar fund only for financing green building.
The GTF is intended to facilitate access to financing in foreign exchange by all manufacturers, exporters in export-oriented textiles and textile products, and leather manufacturing sectors to import capital machinery and accessories for implementing environment-friendly initiatives even as the refinance fund is provided for water use efficiency in wet processing, water conservation and management, waste management, resource efficiency and recycling, renewable energy, energy efficiency, heat and temperature management, air ventilation and circulation efficiency and work on environment improvement initiatives in the export-oriented textiles and leather industries.
Given the views shared by the garment makers, it goes without saying that green manufacturing could very well get a further boost from such initiative only if the proposed allocation of another US $ 200 million for the Green Transformation Fund (GTF) could be a little more inclusive and taken into account, apart from buying machinery, other expenses as well incurred towards setting up a green facility, which industry people think would help better the entrepreneurs in achieving their green goals.
