The world textile industry is a large part of our daily lives, from the clothes we wear to the napkins at eateries. Dyeing and finishing that textile can be an environmentally taxing process: One ton of fabric can lead to the pollution of up to 300 metric tons of water with a suite of harmful chemicals, and consume vast amounts of energy for steam and hot water.
Starting in China, the world’s largest center of manufacturing, NRDC reviewed more than a dozen textile mills and studied five in-depth to identify simple, cost-saving opportunities to reduce water, energy, and chemical use—via improvements in manufacturing efficiency. Now, the initiative has expanded the work to Bangladesh. This report summarizes the practices that NRDC found to be the top money-saving, environmental protection opportunities in Bangladesh, which largely overlap with the practices identified in China.
This Best Practice Guide recommends metering as the first priority among these practices, since measuring resource use is the critical starting point for improvement. Next, it summarizes the six other best practices to save water and energy—those with relatively minor upfront investment and no risk to product delivery times, price, or quality.