China Textile Magazine Article: The Power of NGOs in Driving Industrial Energy Efficiency
Posted below with the permission of the author, Xu Huan, is the English translation of an article about NRDC’s Responsible Sourcing Initiative (RSI) which appeared in China Textile Magazine‘s June Issue:
In today’s society, due to the constant growth of the market economy, all production units and individuals have a dual identity; they are both consumers and producers. Any company or individual can make a substantial contribution to environmental protection through promoting green sourcing. This is our undeniable duty.
The Power of NGOs in Driving Industrial Energy Efficiency
Written by Xu Huan
The starting point of a green textile trade
At the first International Textile Industry Green Summit, held on March 29th in Changshu, Jiangsu Province, partners from Changshu and Jiangsu Province came together with NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) to kick off “The Textile Industry’s Best Practice City,” a project aimed at helping textile enterprises in Changshu contribute to the low-carbon economy and sustainable development. This marks a major step taken by NRDC’s Responsible Sourcing Initiative (RSI). Through influencing the purchasing orientation of multinational garment retailers and well-known brands, this initiative aims to help textile mills in the supply chain control pollution and promote environmental protection.
Other initiators of RSI also include Wal-Mart, Gap, Levi, H&M, Nike and Li & Fung—the most influential multinational buyers in the world. With these major buyers at the top of the supply chain on board, this project exudes a unique kind of power. According to Franky, the director of Gap’s environmental affairs, Gap has been committed to social responsibility work for 15 years, and its efforts have steadily evolved from simple priorities such as labor protection to include more complex ones such as water resource conservation, energy development and environmental protection. “Some jobs can not be done single-handedly. In 2010, we will focus on the supply chain, training enterprises both up and downstream and setting requirements of clean production and energy saving for our raw materials suppliers.”
Gap, Wal-Mart, Nike and the like are not alone in having transformed their Corporate Social Responsibility Departments into a “Sustainability Departments.” Mr. Chen Jie, the former Director of Fabric for Wal-Mart’s Global Fabric Sourcing Office, noted that in October of 2008, Wal-Mart established its Department of Sustainability, setting higher social responsibility requirements for the company itself and advancing incentives for energy savings and emissions reductions in the supply chain. The company also requires that its top 200 Chinese suppliers reach a 20% goal in energy efficiency and emissions reduction. Nike was also one of the companies to realize consumers’ demand for green products, so the company has been working on environmental protection and circular usage for years. Bob, the Director of E2 Nike, disclosed that from 2010, Nike will require that environmental protection and energy efficiency in the manufacturing process be taken into account starting in the design phase. Nike will also pay careful attention to the impact of the product’s life cycle on the environment.
In any case, the measures being adopted by these sourcing giants indicate that the trend of global consumption is gradually being pushed towards “sustainability” and “green” brands. Being green and environmentally friendly will eventually become the undeniable hard index of manufacturers.
It is worth mentioning that the “Textile Industry’s Best Practice City” is confined to textile mills in Changshu. This shows, on the one hand, that Changshu textile companies are working diligently to improve their environmental profile and, on the other hand, that the giants at the end of the supply chain are paying more attention to Changshu. Through close collaboration with NRDC’s RSI, Changshu has taken the lead in implementing energy efficiency and environmental protection management, emerging as the starting point of green textile trade between the Chinese textile industry and international clients. This presents the city with an opportunity to enter the international green trade sourcing chain for textile products. The municipal government of Changshu holds high expectations for this undertaking. In the kick-off ceremony, Mayor Hui Jianlin clearly stated that “the city will deepen its cooperation with NRDC and co-found a mechanism for long-term cooperation. Under the support of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Jiangsu’s Environmental Protection Bureau, we will shape Changshu into a green Davos in the international textile industry.”
RSI is not a means that these international end buyers use to simply shirk their social responsibility for environmental protection. The first benefit for Changshu mills that joined RSI via the “Textile Industry’s Best Practice City” program is that they are provided a free, mill-specific energy efficiency assessment and methods for improvement by industry experts. To minimize the cost and impact on production of these changes, the experts begin with the front line of production, with the equipment currently available. They select some improvement measures that are easy to implement, require low investment and enjoy a short payback period (around 8 months). At the project kick-off ceremony, a handbook called “NRDC’s Ten Best Practices for Textile Mills to Save Money and Reduce Pollution” was distributed to Changshu mills. The manual describes in detail ten measures that help to save water, energy and money, which are universally applicable to Chinese textile dyeing and finishing mills，as well as input and output ratios.
The manual does not recommend expensive equipment or a systematic overhaul, but rather emphasizes “improving measurement systems,” “leakage checking and preventative maintenance,” “steam traps maintenance,” “insulation of pipelines and valves,” “condensate/cooling water reuse,” “heat recovery,” “compressed air system optimization” and other easy measures for enhanced energy efficiency in the production process. Since 2006, NRDC RSI has collaborated with the Jiangsu Academy of Environmental Sciences to set up an expert team for process control, pollution reduction and energy auditing. Over the course of three years, through dozens of mill visits and the in-depth analysis of several others, the RSI team selected this set of best practices with regard to environmental protection as a stepping-stone towards altering the mills’ mindsets and elevating their performance. “At little or no cost, we can improve the efficiency of the dyeing and finishing process, as well as energy and resource efficiency to significantly ramp up environmental performance. The benefits of energy saving are great enough to repay the efficiency investment within a period of only a few months.” Cindy Lin, an NRDC Associate, encouraged enterprise delegates to adopt these efficiency measures by emphasizing their economic benefits. By the end of the kick-off ceremony, almost ten enterprises registered for the RSI project.
Obtaining the commitment of multinational buyers and the Changshu government, the cooperation of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the experts’ pro bono consulting, and the easy and effective “Ten Best Practices,” it is, perhaps, surprising to find that the driving force behind the mobilization of so many resources, completion of design projects, handling of on-the-ground work and launching of the “China Station” for green trade of global textiles, came from an NGO which is not even remotely related to the textile industry–NRDC.
China Textile Magazine Article: For Beautiful Mountains and Water
Posted below with the permission of the author, Xu Huan, is the English translation of an interview of NRDC Global Environment and Health Program Director, Dr. Linda Greer, which appeared in China Textile Magazine‘s June issue:
For Beautiful Mountains and Water
–An interview with NRDC Global Environment and Health Program Director, Dr. Linda Greer.
Written by Xu Huan
China Textile: In your 30 years of environmental protection experience, what do you find are the differences between the textile industry and other industries? What are the challenges to environmental protection in the textile industry?
Linda: In most other industries, water is mainly used in the cooling process—where water is heated, but the water quality remains unchanged—however, given their production features, textile mills not only guzzle water, but also contaminate it. Textile mills use water in the dyeing and rinsing processes, the result to process water being that it is polluted. The most damaging pollutants contained within discharged water are oxygen-depleting molecules. When discharged into rivers, these molecules absorb available oxygen, thereby damaging the flora and fauna. What’s more, the hazardous heavy metals and chemicals contained in the dye threaten the environment and drinking water further downstream, which poses a challenge for treatment.
China Textile: What does the future of RSI (Responsible Sourcing Initiative) hold? How many plants can be changed?
Linda: Our plan is to encourage a few hundred mills to join our initiative. The short-term goal is to work with 20 mills in Changshu, or about 20% of all the dyeing and finishing mills in the city. We want to make Changshu “The Best Practice City,” so 20 mills could be representative. While these projects are underway, we will also work on facilities in other cities, but this work will depend on the interest of multinational buyers in those facilities.
Zijin Mining Group’s Inadequate Disclosure of China Acid Spill – What Needs to be Done?
[11 Chinese environmental groups issued a letter to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Stock Exchanges last week calling for greater environmental transparency for listed companies in the aftermath of the Zijin Mining chemical spill: NGO呼吁沪港两交易所完善上市公司信息披露制. NRDC supports this call and signs on to the letter. The following is an English translation of the original letter.]
Regarding Zijin Mining Group’s Suspected Intentional Delay in
Disclosing Information about its Pollution Incident
An Open Letter to the
Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange
Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange:
We would like to call to the attention of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) and Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) the actions of the listed company Zijin Mining Group (2899.HK, 601899.SH). This company has been suspected of inappropriate acts and deliberate delay in the disclosure of information related to a major pollution incident. We request that the HKEx and SSE thoroughly carry out an investigation into this matter. Following verification that violations were committed, we request that the HKSE and SSE issue a public denouncement and appropriate punishment. Concurrently, we call on the HKEx and SSE to improve their institutional rules and regulations regarding information disclosure to ensure effective protection of the environment and affected communities, and to uphold investor interests.
According to an article published by Xinhua News Agency on July 3, 2010, an incident occurred at the Zijin Mining Group’s Zijinshan Copper Mine. The incident involved a leak of 9,100 cubic meters of acid from the plant’s wet sewage facilities into the Ting River, resulting in serious pollution and the death of 1890 tons of aquatic life. The Zijin Mining Group not only delayed public announcement of this grevious incident for a period of nine days but also claimed that the reason for the pollution incident was due to rainfall, stating, “this leakage incident is primarily related to natural disaster. It was impossible to predict.”[1]
This statement clearly contradicts official judgements rendered on the case. Read more…
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