Chinese Textile Mills Save $14.7 Mn Year on Year

Over 30 Chinese textile mills, many of which create clothing for major high-volume apparel brands and retailers are saving $14.7 million annually by adopting simple efficiency measures in their production processes, according to a new analysis by an American environmental action organisation – Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

In a statement, the NRDC said these improvements have dramatically reduced the pollution generated by these mills, cutting up to 36 per cent of water use and 22 per cent of energy use per mill and a total of at least 400 tons of chemicals. The 33 mills are part of NRDC’s Clean By Design programme, a global model for manufacturing sustainability that is working with major fashion retailers and designers to green the fashion supply chain industry-wide. 

“Great fashion can also be green fashion. Although apparel manufacturing is among the largest polluting industries in the world, it doesn’t have to be,” said Linda Greer, NRDC senior scientist and director of Clean By Design. “There are enormous opportunities for the fashion industry to clean up its act while saving money, and Clean By Design offers low-cost, high-impact solutions to do just that.”

China currently produces more than 50 per cent of the world’s fabric, totaling more than 80 billion metres annually. As a result, the country is suffering from increasingly serious pollution problems while also contributing significant carbon into the atmosphere. Textile manufacturing, particularly the dyeing and finishing of fabric, is incredibly water and energy intensive as the process swallows up to 250 tons of water for every 10,000 meters of fabric produced and consumes 110 million tons of coal every year. The textile industry ranks as the third largest discharger of wastewater and the second largest user of chemicals in the country as well. 

NRDC officially brought the Clean By Design programme to scale in 2013, partnering with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). In 2015, Clean By Design will further expand, moving next to the greater Suzhou area, in Jiangsu Province, another Chinese city with a high concentration of textile mills.