Clean By Design: China's Textile Mills Cut Costs Via Eco-Operations

Over the past twenty years, China has exploded as the world’s premier manufacturing hub. However, without restrictions on production levels and inefficient waste mechanisms in place, China’s raging hunger has lead to a surge in pollution, severe water shortages, and toxic chemical contamination, which is affecting its people. While the eco-effects of unsustainable manufacturing have been known for some years, a new study undertaken by the Natural Resources Defense Council has confirmed sustainability also leads to cost savings and higher manufacturing profits for mills - when done right. The New York-based NRDC launched its Clean by Design initiative in 2009 as an innovative "green supply chain" program empowering foreign retail giants to actively realise the cost and eco-benefits of improving the factories in their offshore supply pool. The NRDC first launched the Clean by Design program in China, notorious for its energy, excessive use of water and extreme pollution load – especially when it comes to producing and dying textiles. Thirty-three mills formed what was dubbed the Clean by Design class of 2014 across two locations in China with high concentrations of textile mills. The first was Shaoxing City, which has the greatest number of textile mills in China and then Guangzhou. Both factories service the world’s leading fast-fashion retail chains - Target, Gap, Levi Strauss and H&M – and all 33 mills that supply to the corporations agreed to participate. Over the twelve months, each mill provided initial benchmarking information, hosted expert consultations, submitted implementation plans, undertook improvements, and completed reports that allowed the NRDC to evaluate their results. According to the report, more than 90% of the 231 individual projects proposed for implementation by the mills were completed in 2014. In total, the program reduced more than 3 million tons of water, 61,000 tons of coal, and 36 million kWhs of electricity. Meanwhile, the biggest incentive for investors was the $14.73m (92m RMB) accrued in total reduced operating costs, as a result of the factory changes. In the report the NRDC concluded: “The resource reductions and economic returns of the Clean by Design 2014 class reflect permanent improvements that will continue to accumulate in the coming five to ten years and beyond, multiplying their impact substantially.” In order to achieve the change, mills invested $17.3m in total via a one-time upfront cost, with a payback time for the whole program of 14 months. The NRDC revealed it was a collective positive result, with all mills reaping benefits, despite some exceling more than others.Water savings averaged 9%, with the top five mills reducing water consumption by more than 20%; energy reduction averaged 6%, with the top five mills reducing energy consumption more than 10%; and finally, electricity reduction averaged 4%, with the top five mills reducing their electricity by more than 6.5%, said the NRDC. The NRDC estimated the annual return per mill to be $440,000, with the top five mills saving more than $800,000.As part of its expansion plan, Clean by Design has branched out to the greater Suzhou area in Jiangsu province, another area deeply concentrated with textiles mills. The NRDC said it is now working with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, a group that represents more than 40% of global apparel production - taking an initiative that the rest of the world's textile mills truly need.