India’s leading fashion company Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited (ABFRL) is collaborating with Germany’s GIZ, to strengthen its circular business practices.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft fr Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is a federal enterprise with worldwide operations. It supports the German Government in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development and international education.
A joint statement from ABFRL and GIZ said that the material innovation, reducing inputs of harmful substances, increasing textile-to-textile recycling, developing alternatives to plastic packaging, and fostering traceability will be focused areas of collaboration.
This initiative is part of the ‘develoPPP programme’ and is being implemented by ABFRL and GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
It will complement existing business practices such as downcycling, recycling, reusing and introducing new sustainable production processes.
The statement further added that with the support of GIZ, ABFRL along with the Indian industry players will be able to leverage circular business practices and adopt complex processes that are technically superior and consumer friendly. This will support the industry to match supply and demand which was witnessing pressure due to resource constraints.
Ashish Dikshit, MD, ABFRL said, “There is a need to ‘self-disrupt’ existing practices and transition to a more circular approach. Promoting a common understanding is therefore crucial from a sustainable development perspective for the entire textile sector in India. Along with GIZ, we aim to create awareness amongst key stakeholders to drive circular approaches, reduce waste and create closed-loop systems.”
Ashish Chaturvedi, GIZ India Director Environment, Climate Change and Natural Resource Management said, “The cooperation with ABFRL has great potential to help improve the sustainability of the Indian textile industry. In our opinion, combining the strength of both public and private partners is a win-win scenario, as it can create both developmental benefits for the local population and business benefits for the private companies.”
