Brandix announces 2020 Eco Pledge

Sri Lankan apparel exporter Brandix has revised its sustainability targets through a pledge to reduce its environmental footprint by 20% by 2020.

The company’s revised environmental sustainability targets was announced alongside the development of Brandix’s own Eco Index, an environmental assessment tool that will enable companies group-wide, as well as supply chain partners, to benchmark and measure their environmental footprint.

“Our vision of being ‘The Inspired Solution’ encompasses not only the delivery of best quality products to the shelves, but also helping our workforce and community grow with us, while mitigating any impact of our business on the environment. We believe that in order to create a sustainable business, all the elements that help in its success need to be nurtured in return,” Brandix Director AJ Johnpillai said.

He added that Brandix, using 2013 as a base year, would make further investments in processes and innovations that progressively reduce the impact of its operations on the environment.

Brandix invested over US$ 3 million in energy efficiency improvements over the course of 2011, resulting in approximately US$ 800,000 in savings and 28,000 gigajoules of saved energy whilst a switch to renewable energy sources replaced 115,000 litres of fossil fuels.

The pledge from Brandix followed the achievement of its end-2012 target to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% and its target of reducing water consumption at apparel factories to 35 litres per head per day, six months ahead of schedule.

Meanwhile, with regards to the company’s target of achieving zero solid waste to landfills by the end of this year has nearly been met according to Johnpillai, who stated that currently, the target has been 75% completed.

In its efforts to divert solid waste from landfill, Brandix factories recycled 430,000 kilograms of paper this year, exported nearly 2.5 million kilograms of cut fabric waste, and in 2011 supplied the handicrafts and cleaning industries with 164,000 kilograms of shredded defected garments, which would normally be incinerated.

Industrial sludge, a by-product of waste water treatment, which the group converted into construction bricks in the past, is now being experimented with as a medium for briquettes that can be used as fuel in coal boilers.

More details about the company’s environmental sustainability initiatives can be found in Brandix’s maiden Sustainability Report, the first of its kind by a private company in Sri Lanka.