"Just like corporates in steel and automotive industries, apparel companies are increasingly waking up to sustainability and doing their bit to go green. In line with this, Pratibha Syntex, Indore, is going to be the first company to release its sustainability report. Last year, Arvind, had produced its first ever sustainability report for the year FY 2013-14. Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a division of Aditya Birla Nuvo, also generated a sustainability report under its parent company Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL)."

Just like corporates in steel and automotive industries, apparel companies are increasingly waking up to sustainability and doing their bit to go green. In line with this, Pratibha Syntex, Indore, is going to be the first company to release its sustainability report. Last year, Arvind, had produced its first ever sustainability report for the year FY 2013-14. Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, a division of Aditya Birla Nuvo, also generated a sustainability report under its parent company Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL).

Green initiatives

Pratibha Syntex, winner of GLASA award, is India’s first textile factory to achieve the ‘bluesign system partner’ status. It has decided to convert all its materials to 100 per cent sustainable products regardless of whether buyers take interest in them or not. Some of its key efforts to achieve this goal cover both environmental as well as social aspects like using zero discharge facility when its 100 per cent processed water is recycled with 93 per cent efficiency and is reused in the operations of the plant. Rain water harvesting in one of its facility makes its water positive. Under solar powered facility, electricity generated from solar panels constitutes 30 per cent of power consumption by the company. It has replaced its entire lighting system with LED lights which leads to significant amount of energy savings. Sameer Bhand, VP-Strategy & Sustainability of the company states that Pratibha’s focus is not just on bringing change but inducing overall transformation.

On similar lines, Devadas PM, AVP, Business Excellence, IE & Sustainability, Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, says the company is working on seven sustainability missions with targets identified and fixed for each mission. Like energy, it reduced purchase of grid electricity by 25 per cent through demand/waste reduction and achieved 14 per cent reduction in consumption by implementing the LED lights across all the factories. Very soon, 60 per cent of Madura plants’ energy consumption will comprise of solar energy.

Exporters’ initiatives

While large corporates are leading the pack, exporters are also doing their bit. A Sakthivel, Chairman, Poppys Knitwear, Tirupur, says the company uses 100 per cent BCI cotton and organic cotton yarn for its garment orders as required by buyers. It is first factory in Tirupur to initiate the green factory project. The company has fitted solar street lights, sewage treatment plants, servo motors in sewing machines, which consume less energy. Even more than 30 per cent of the normal tube lights have been replaced by LED lights. One more such company making commendable efforts is Raj Group, Panipat. The company has converted 40 per cent load of electricity by solar rooftops, converted pet-coke boilers to LPG and is running printing rotary machines totally through LPG plant. With rain water harvesting in place, the company is developing three big parks nearby its factory and has planted 500 trees in these parks for ensuring fresher, cleaner air.

Investments needed

But these efforts need substantial investments to gain sustainable status. Poppys Knitwear plans to spend approximately 2 per cent of its total budget on sustainability. It also envisions replacing remaining normal tube lights with LED lights, incorporate windmill power projects and solar panel roofings. Making it a core agenda of the organisation, for Pratibha Syntex, sustainability is not a programme with certain budget; it is in the company’s DNA and therefore its entire operation is very much aligned with it. Madura Fashion & Lifestyle has spent Rs3 crore till date and further plans to invest in solar installation at 4 of their facilities, rain water harvesting systems in 5 facilities and reduction of waste in all their activities. Raj Group is putting 500 KLD plant for ZLD, using recycled cotton, BCI cotton and GRS cotton in our products.