Clothing manufacturers are scrambling to clean up their act in the wake of recent media attention on the pollution from toxic chemicals used in the textile industry.
While companies such as Puma, Nike and Adidas engage in high-profile struggles to reduce the environmental impacts from the materials they purchase, one textile company is quietly helping textile manufacturers go green.
Singapore head-quartered Huntsman Textile Effects, a multinational firm with operations in 110 different countries, makes dyes and chemicals to treat textiles for products ranging from clothing to automotive fabrics to digital printing.
Paul Hulme, president of Huntsman TE, shares with Eco-Business what the company is doing about the industry’s biggest sustainability challenges - carbon emissions, and the consumption and pollution of water.
Eco-Business: Does the textile industry have a big impact on carbon emissions?
PH: The textile industry is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases, because of the numerous processes and products required to manufacture clothing and other items. Measuring the carbon footprint – or carbon dioxide emissions – of products and processes allows companies to evaluate their impacts on climate change and develop solutions to reduce it.
EB: What are the industry’s impacts on water resources?
PH: The textile industry is the second largest industry in the world in terms of water consumption. Vast amounts of water are used at every stage of textile wet processing, from de-sizing, scouring and bleaching through dyeing and printing to finishing. Reducing water consumption is one of the highest priorities in the textile industry today. Simultaneously, if the water is not properly treated, wastewater pollutes - aggravating the situation further.
By 2030, the world demand for fresh water will increase by 40 per cent, and by 2050 an estimated billion-plus people will lack the water they need for daily activities such as drinking, cooking and bathing.
EB: What does Huntsman do to address these challenges?
PH: At Huntsman TE, we not only strive to minimise the environmental impact of our own manufacturing processes, we also help the textile supply chain to achieve sustainability.
We work with textile mills to ensure they use the best available technologies that enable them to save water and energy, and reduce wastewater. We also help them communicate with brands and retailers, so they can show consumers how to cut down on water and energy consumption during washing, tumble drying and ironing.
Huntsman TE creates innovative products and technologies with intelligent effects to reduce water and energy consumption, meeting the needs of the customers and supporting a more sustainable environment.
EB: Can you provide some examples of products with intelligent effects?
PH: We have developed a new cotton dye, for example, that requires significantly less water. The average water consumption for dyeing 1 kilogram of cotton using today’s best available technology is 30 to 40 litres. Huntsman TE has taken that a step further with the introduction of our reactive dye, Avitera-SE, which uses just 15 to 20 litres of water.
Gentle Power Bleach is another flagship innovation that saves energy consumption by 40 per cent and reduces water usage by at least 30 per cent. Cotton bleached using this chemistry also reduces carbon dioxide emissions by a quarter.
EB: Which regions will benefit the most from these innovations?
PH: With this new dyeing technology, we’ll help companies in the major Asian textile processing countries such as China, India or Bangladesh reduce their water consumption by over 50 per cent.
EB: How does the company deal with the differing regulatory and labour conditions in the countries where it operates?
PH: In China and India in particular, we have seen tighter rules being implemented to restrict energy and water usage throughout the factories. These changes are not a challenge for us because we recognised this need well ahead of the new regulations. We are fully supportive of these shifts for environmental protection, so that everyone in the textile industry can work together to safeguard the world for future generation.
EB: How does Huntsman TE work within the textile supply chain on environmental and health and safety issues?
PH: Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) is a key priority and all of our products are rigorously tested to meet global environmental health and safety standards.
We use a comprehensive product stewardship programme - an integrated process for identifying, managing and minimising EHS impacts at every stage of a product’s life cycle - that provides a solid foundation for all our products and processes. As part of this programme, we track all of our products and provide on-going help and support to customers in their safe handling and use.
Thanks to this philosophy, we are already ahead of international environmental legislation [such as REACH, a European Commission regulation passed in 2007 to ensure the safe use of chemicals]. We were also the first dye maker worldwide to operate a plant to the ISO 14001 EHS standard [part of the International Standards Organisation certification for environmental management] and are a founding member of Bluesign [an independent industry-developed standard for sustainable textiles].
EB: Your website talks about lowering the environmental footprint of products even after they’re in the hands of consumers. How do you approach that, and what sort of public awareness needs to happen to for it to be effective?
PH: Huntsman TE believes that reducing the environmental impact does not just stop at products and processes. As prices escalates, pollution increases and concern for the environment grows, consumers across the globe are clamouring for a higher level of sustainability.
We work together with our brands and retailers to meet their consumers’ expectations for reduced water and energy consumption. Huntsman TE also works very closely with brands and retailers to communicate and promote environmental awareness to the end consumers.
We have introduced the Productivity Improvement Programme (PIP), where we work very closely with our partners to help them enhance productivity and efficiency through sustainability. This programme allows us to undertake an exhaustive audit of our partners’ processes and set out recommendations to show how businesses can turn sustainability into added advantage.
For brands and retailers, for example, we have introduced the Hang Tag programme, which provides a visible sign of eco-friendly products to their customers. Customers have in turn become more aware. Their rising demand for such sustainable products proves our effectiveness in educating the end customers to do their part so we can work together to conserve our environment.
Based in Singapaore, Paul Hulme is president of Huntsman Textile Effects. Mr Hulme, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom, has been with Huntsman TE since 1999. He and his team have committed to taking a leadership position in pushing the textile manufacturing industry toward higher levels of environmental sustainability.
