S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y
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“GREEN NEW DEAL”: A PARADIGM SHIFT FOR THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY The coronavirus pandemic has been a wake-up call for the world. According to a Mckinsey consumer survey, two-thirds of consumers state that sustainability has become a more important priority to combat climate change following COVID-19.
Anup Goswami SENIOR CONSULTANT GHERZI CONSULTING ENGINEERS PVT LTD
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bstract
The coronavirus pandemic has been a wake-up call for the world. According to a Mckinsey consumer survey, two-thirds of consumers state that sustainability has become a more important priority to combat climate change following COVID-19. The sustainability concerns in T&C can be typically clubbed under four major impact areas. The intensity varies depending on the stage of the textile or clothing product life cycle. Vast environmental impact According to the UN Alliance for Sustainable Fashion, the textile and clothing (T&C) industry accounts for 10% of the world’s GHG’s and 20% of the industrial waste water pollution.Annually,48 million mt of clothes are disposed off, the bulk of which ends up in landfills.
world’s third-largest manufacturing sector after the automobile and technology industries. Contributing US$ 2.4 tn to manufacturing value, if it were a country, the industry would be ranked 7th in the world by GDP. ICAC says, by 2025, 8.1 billion people will require clothing. As per WTO, T&C is ranked among the top 5 traded merchandise (5% share). Gherzi findings reveal that T&C sector is a large employer, especially in Asia. In India it is the second largest employer after agriculture. Sustainability concerns The following statistics, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, provide a glimpse into the environmental impact of the T&C industry •Every year the T&C industry uses 93 billion m³ of water — enough to meet the consumption needs of five million people.
Large economic footprint The global fashion industry has a large economic footprint. It is the | SEPTEMBER 2020
•Around 20 % of wastewater worldwide is generated by fabric dyeing and treatment. •Of the total fibre input used for clothing, 87 % is incinerated or disposed off in a landfill. •The T&C industry is responsible for 10 % of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. One ton of textiles generates 17 tons of CO2 equivalent vis-a-vis 3.5 tons for plastics and <1 ton for paper •Besides, consumers produce 120 million tons of CO2 equivalent during washing and drying of clothes •If demographic and lifestyle patterns continue as they are now, global consumption of apparel will rise from 62 million metric tons in 2019 to 102 million tons in 10 years. •Every year half a million ton of plastic microfibers are dumped into the ocean, the equivalent of 50 billion
