24 September 2022, Mumbai:
Sustainable is fashionable. Sustainability is attainable. Sustainability is achievable. All the above must be sounding like cliché. It is only going to dominate global fashion in the coming decades. The semblance is sustainable fashion is no more aspirational.
There are emerging opportunities in the new paradigm a new generation of designers/brands in India are aspiring for making fashion more sustainable in practice.
Let us harp in this article to discover how sustainability can drive the apparel sector ushering into a futuristic era and thus driving consumer demand. Technology is an enabler facilitating promising solutions for manufacturing sustainable textiles but all this would happen only on the back of apt infrastructure & eco-system.
The deeper issue here is the comprehensive assessment covering the four key practices of corporate social responsibility: the environment, fair working conditions and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement.
Digitization & apparel industry
First comes a commitment to bring a change we want to see in this world where the clamour for sustainability is getting only louder as global climate change concerns become real. The theme of sustainability and how digitalization reinforces the industry's agile transformation into a sustainable value chain through supply chain disruptions is laudable. Albeit all will come true if the trade methodically takes up all the pieces of manufacturing methods, cost, colocating, and time optimization as we go down the path of making sustainable apparel/garment. Digitization per se brings in transparency removes middlemen, improves speed, and aptly addresses the issue of inventory management.
Again the product mix needs to be worked out which is good to go for the making of sustainable fashion. The advent of new age automated cutting-edge machines is securing enduringly energy efficiency & cutting down on the time cycle promising to make apparel making a more sustainable process.
What is interesting is a lot of brands are exploring these sustainable technologies thus the adoption of technology is turning out to be an effective tool for bringing in sustainable ways, reducing waste reduction for apparel making.
The need, therefore, is the adoption of the right technology to ride on the bandwagon of something called sustainable is cool today.
Bottle-to-fiber recycling
As a matter of fact, every garment made by the trade supports the recycling of 8-10 PET bottles is a smart way of reducing global plastic waste which in the absence of it will end up reaching water bodies deep inland to the sea, thus fuelling enormous ocean pollution.
The good news is recycling of pet bottles into garments has all started to happen in India which is pretty encouraging & consumer is accepting these sustainable apparel merrily. Predominately PET flakes are obtained from PET bottle wastes undergoing a series of processes such as sorting, washing, grinding, drying, etc.
Thus PET flakes manufactured are utilized for staple fiber applications in the textile sector meeting 'Global Recycled Standards' is a common occurrence these days.
Vision for a Decarbonised apparel industry
Debunking here the concept of the key objective of decarbonization is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions globally as quickly as feasible. The goal to target the aim of attaining decarbonization is very optimistic presently given fashion industry is construed to be one of the heaviest polluting sectors.
Decarbonization, climate change, and sustainable fashion all have to come on the same page aligning them to the supply chain is the road ahead but we are still in the early days. Materials must be produced or gathered to make the garments that cover the earth.
Reimagining the apparel making
Improving the sustainability of the man-made fibers (MMF) sector & its sustainable development attributable to the production, and processing of its fibers is the guiding principle to improving the ecological, economic, and social performance of the sector responsible for securing something like 70% of global apparel consumption V/s quite the opposite in India.
The good news is increasing govt focus on its PLI for textiles in the space of MMF & trade sources are indicating PLI II is coming, mega text parks and the RODTEP scheme are very many other supportive measures in giving a boost to the sector. Albeit still there are challenges that need to be addressed.
There was a time when MMF did not get adequate investments because of maybe lack of interest/ecosystem but the situation is improving gradually. Although MMF manufacturing does not lack the wherewithal of fundamentals in India like raw materials availability, self-reliance & resilient value chain. The sector enjoys 100% FDI investment too to kick in sizeable investments as we move ahead.
Here it is pertinent to mention our spinning is world-class but alas! same does not reflect upstream of the manufacturing pyramid.
Improving the sustainability of man-made fibres (MMF) sector is the guiding principle to improving ecological, economic and social performance of the sector and this only is what is responsible for the sector having hit something like 70% of global apparel consumption V/s quite the opposite in India.
Following the sustainable path
In summary, sustainability is the key to influencing every stakeholder in the apparel industry to imagine what it takes to make the sector as sustainable as it gets. How it compliments value add in any apparel or brand going down this road of achieving sustainable growth.
Given the growing global concern around climate change it is the time when the focus should shift to now sustainable fashion as it is going to be the bedrock of innovation and value addition going forward.
Sustainability is started to play a pivotal role in developing sustainable apparel what we see today as multi-stakeholders are now getting invested in sustainable options opening new opportunities & challenges.
