the consumption of energy and chemicals. Global brands such as Nike and Adidas have forged a partnership with the company; a Taiwanese contract manufacturer for Nike started using DyeCoo technology in 2013.
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● In 2012, a Company called ColorZen developed a treatment which changes cotton’s molecular composition, making it more receptive to dye without creating toxic discharge. They tested this formula on about 400 pounds of cotton fibre, successfully dyeing it with 95 per cent fewer chemicals, 90 per cent less water, 75 per cent less energy, and 50 per cent less dye in less than one-third of the standard eight hours.
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● A company called Novozymes, which specializes in developing enzymes for making products such as food, laundry detergents, bio-energy prod- ucts, agri-food products and pharmaceutical products, received an innovation award by the Society of Dyers and Colourists (SDC) in 2014 for their patented Combi process, which uses neutral cellulases rather than acidic cellulasas to make it possible for textile manufacturers to combine biopolishing and bleach clean-up processes in the dying step.
These new processes save time, water, energy and ultimately costs.
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list of chemical substances that a company wishes to eliminate or to keep below a required concentration in their products. The effectiveness of the list depends on how suppliers are selected, monitored and managed.
However, this effort has not been able to stop factories from using hazardous substances and discharging them into the natural environment.
This is a reactive approach, so suppliers will only provide information when they are strictly required to by a customer. To control the selection and use of chemicals, some companies adopt eco-labels or standards such as EU Flower and Oeko-Tex Standard 100. Oeko-Tex requires suppliers to declare raw materials used in the production process and detailed information about each chemical used in every production stage, and they are verified by third-party tests and certification.
The challenge is that not all chemicals are sourced from established chemical manufacturers (eg Dyestar, BASF, Clariant, etc) which often already have products certified by the Oeko-Tex system. Many factories source chemicals from trading agents or local chemical producers and therefore information regarding the contents and certification can be rather inaccurate. As discovered by the study of Chinese textile factories by Zhang (2009), the main problems are the lack of proper records of chemical usage and the passive attitudes of the suppliers toward customer demands for compliance to documentation requirements. Another problem is that new textile factories are built in countries requiring less transparency in terms of waste water discharge. For example, the West Java region of Indonesia has been described as ‘Pollution Paradise’ by Greenpeace after they discovered some irresponsible factories which supply clothing to many global brands. Until the day when voluntary Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) become common, the textile supply chain will still be using the reactive environmental information system.
Following the release of two Dirty Laundry Reports by Greenpeace in 2011, top clothing brands including Nike, Puma, Adidas and H&M have agreed to eliminate discharges of all hazardous chemicals across their entire supply chain and product lifecycle by 2020. For example, H&M has defined seven ambitious commitments on sustainability:
1 provide fashion for conscious customers;
2 choose and reward responsible partners;
3 be ethical;
4 be climate smart;
5 reduce, reuse, recycle;
6 use natural resources responsibly;
7 strengthen communities.
H&M is committed to conserving water, soil, air and species. In terms of raw materials, H&M aims to use only cotton from sustainable sources by 2020 by switching to certified organic cotton and other raw materials made from recycled materials including fabric. The use of organic cotton grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers is good for the health of the farmers as well as the environment. H&M has been actively involved in the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), and also continues to increase the use of conscious materials such as recycled polyester, polyamide and wool which receive third-party certification following the Global Recycling Standard (GRS). In terms of water and chemicals, H&M needs to work with the factories to improve the way water is used and treated from cotton to customer, to ensure the use of chemicals safely and to eliminate discharges into water, soil and air. The company does not own factories and therefore develops environmental requirements for suppliers according to the above commitments. Suppliers are audited by external auditors according to the Textile Exchange Standards or Organic Content Standards (OCS) and transactional certificate (TC). The OCS verifies the presence and amount of a given raw material in a final product. It is a voluntary standard that tracks the flow of a raw material from the source to the final product and is certified by an accredited third party. The certification of the raw materials itself is verified independently by another production process certification.
For those who own factories which use a lot of water and chemicals, cleaner production becomes the main strategic objective. Esquel Group is a producer of premium cotton shirts, and has production facilities in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mauritius, and Sri Lanka, with a network of branches servicing key markets worldwide. Esquel manufactures for the world’s best- known and most highly respected brands, including Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Brooks Brothers, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Bestseller and Muji.
Esquel chooses to vertically integrate its supply chain operations to retain control of its product quality in every step of the production process. Cotton is grown in its own facilities in Xinjiang province in north-western China.
The company takes care of the remaining value chain activities including spinning, weaving, dyeing, manufacturing, packaging and retailing.
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Esquel uses a pollution database developed by Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs from China to identify environmental problems with suppliers and its own factories. External auditors are sent to the factories whenever a problem is reported. Strict instructions are given to suppliers to make corrections and offer explanations whenever an environmental problem or offence is discovered. In some cases, suppliers do not have the financial capability to install water treatment facilities, and customer orders are not large enough to support investment in such facilities. In such instances, the company helps suppliers to identify chemicals that are less polluting and use less water. As a result, suppliers save energy and water, and some of them even receive ISO14000 certification and rewards from the Chinese government. The company also uses Oeko-Tex Standard 100 to require suppliers to declare raw material use in the production process and detailed information about each chemical used in every production stage. These are verified by third-party tests and certification. The drivers for adopting cleaner production appear to come from Esquel’s ‘E-culture’. E-culture comprises Ethics, Environment, Exploration, Excellence and Education. Since ethics and environment are the main corporate culture, corporate and environmental responsibility is at the heart of the whole organization.
The journey towards toxic-free textiles has been tough. Some global fashion companies believe that it is not possible to make their supply chains fully transparent and ban all toxic chemicals from all steps of production. The ‘Detox Campaign’ launched by Greenpeace has helped companies identifying and eliminating the use of major hazardous, persistent and hormone-disrupting chemicals in the textile industry (http://www.greenpeace.org/). Under pressure from various stakeholders including Greenpeace, fashion companies such as Adidas, Puma and Nike have promised to go toxic-free by 2020, while many others are still resisting. With these pioneers leading the change and demonstrating the payoffs of such audacious ambitions, there will be followers.
The textiles case above illustrates the role of standards and certifications. To make cleaner production an integrated part of environmental management efforts, it is desirable to make it a part of the environmental management system (EMS). EMS is a ‘formal system and database which integrates procedures and processes for the training of personnel, monitoring, summa- rizing, and reporting of specialized environmental performance information
to internal and external stakeholders of the firm’ (Melnyk et al, 2003, p 332). EMS generally provides formal structures of rules and resources for managers to establish organizational routines that help achieve corporate environmental goals and innovate. EMS is also the main mechanism for creating awareness and providing training to workers. A number of well- known international manufacturers (eg Shape, 3M and Xerox) have decided to manufacture their products according to (or beyond) the highest environ- mental standards (Thierry et al, 1995), and they are achieved through the establishment of an integrated environmental management system.
ISO 14001 is the international standard for EMS and among the most widely used in the world. Eco-management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is the second most popular EMS standard in Europe. These two standards have very similar structures but there are some fundamental differences.
EMAS firms must be compliant to relevant environmental rules and regula- tions to guarantee their certification. However, ISO 14001:2004 emphasizes only the commitment to compliance but such compliance is not essential to keep their certification. In addition, the evaluation of the EMAS standard is guaranteed by obligatory audits every three years where all requirements are checked and a statement is made public. ISO 14001:2004 audits check for environmental system performance against internal benchmarks; some- how there are no penalties for lack of improvement and the frequency of audits is left to the discretion of the individual firm. The revised 2015 version of ISO 14001 has increased the onus on the organization’s strategic planning processes leadership roles to promote environmental management.
Organizations are expected to commit to proactive initiatives to protect the environment. This is a shift away from simply improving manage- ment systems to improving environmental performance, and an increase in control and influence over environmental impacts associated with product design and development to address each stage of the lifecycle, communica- tion and documentation practices.
In the literature, other than zero emission, some novel concepts such as Factor 4 and Factor 10 have been established. These concepts can be used to guide companies when they set cost and environmental improvement targets. Factor 4 (http://www.wupperinst.org/) means being twice as produc- tive with half the resources (Weizsacker et al, 1998). That also means the same functions of a product can be achieved by using only a quarter of the resources. To achieve factor 4, a seven-step toward resource productivity has been proposed (Weizsacker et al, 1998) based on the idea of using material input per service (MIPS). This method is very similar to the concept of value engineering, whereby fewer components or lower quantities of materials
Product Design, Cleaner Production and Packaging 139 are used to create the same value for the customers (functions or perceived benefits). Another concept, Factor 10, means 10 times more productive with the same input; this is a more ambitious target. The main motif is to drive environmental ambition. These concepts have been applied by governments as well as commercial firms. Similarly, zero emission cannot be practically possible but it is a goal which could drive serious efforts. Zero emission is now becoming a benchmark among industries. In some industries, some companies are competing to become the first to achieve zero emission.