Textile Science and Clothing Technology Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Editor Sustainability in the Textile Industry Textile Science and Clothing Technology Series editor Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu, SGS Hong Kong Limited, Hong Kong, Hong Kong More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13111 Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Editor Sustainability in the Textile Industry 123 Editor Subramanian SenthilkannanMuthu SGSHong KongLimited Hong Kong Hong Kong ISSN 2197-9863 ISSN 2197-9871 (electronic) Textile Science andClothing Technology ISBN978-981-10-2638-6 ISBN978-981-10-2639-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-2639-3 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016951701 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#22-06/08GatewayEast,Singapore189721,Singapore Contents Introduction... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 1 Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Evaluation of Sustainability in Textile Industry... .... .... ..... .... 9 Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Environmental Sustainability in the Textile Industry... .... ..... .... 17 Kyung Eun Lee Social Sustainability in Textile Industry . .... .... .... .... ..... .... 57 S. Grace Annapoorani Sustainable Practices in Textile Industry: Standards and Certificates.... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 79 K. Amutha Sustainable Design and Business Models in Textile and Fashion Industry.. .... .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 109 Rudrajeet Pal Sustainability in Jute-based Industries .. .... .... .... .... ..... .... 139 Sanjoy Debnath v Introduction Subramanian Senthilkannan Muthu Abstract Textile industry is one of the basic industries which satisfies one of the basicneedsofpeopleandhencebecomesasaninevitablepartofhuman’slife.This book is planning to cover the detailed aspects of sustainability in textile industry encompassing environmental, social and economic sustainability in textiles and clothing sector. Beginning with the introduction to various faces and facets of sustainability, this book revolves around their implications to textiles and clothing sector.Itisimportantandneedofthehourtotalkabouttheenvironmentalimpacts oftextilesandclothing.Butwhenitcomestosustainabilityoftextilesandclothing, itismostcommonlynoticedfromvarioussourcessuchasliteratureandmediathat the other two pillars of sustainability namely social and economic are masked and carried away by the environmental impacts. Only environmental impacts are in focus when sustainability in textiles is defined. The other two parts or elements of sustainability are also equally important and they make much more sense when it comes to sustainability in textile industry. These uncharted areas will be discussed in detail to augment to the sustainability in textiles knowledge further. (cid:1) (cid:1) Keywords Environmental sustainability Economic sustainability Social (cid:1) (cid:1) (cid:1) sustainability Raw material Manufacturing End of life 1 Introduction Sustainabilityintextileindustryisavasttopicanditcannotbeexplainedinasingle volume of book, as this topic encompasses a wide array of elements into it. This topicismainlychosenasathemeortitleofthisbookformanifoldreasonsandone ofthemisthatthistitleisbecomingmoreandmoreimportantthesedaysandmany universitiesintheworldhavestartedteachingsubjectsinthisareaandwithahope that this book can become as a useful reference for the students. Second reason is S.S.Muthu(&) EnvironmentalServicesManager-Asia,SGS(HK)Limited,HongKong,China e-mail:[email protected] ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2017 1 S.S.Muthu(ed.),SustainabilityintheTextileIndustry, TextileScienceandClothingTechnology,DOI10.1007/978-981-10-2639-3_1 2 S.S.Muthu thatthistopicissodiverseandthereisalotmoretowrite.Therearemanyaspects of this topic, which were rarely touched or there are no books on those aspects. Theconceptofsustainabilityisnotnewandithasbeenknowntotheworldsince 1962 after the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Publication of Silent Springisthebeginningofourthoughtprocesstowardssustainabilityandespecially the interactions among the basic elements of sustainability (SD Timeline 2012). Later on, there were many developments in the field of sustainability (Mebratu 1998)sincetodayandthedevelopmentsaregoingonandoneveryday.Therewere manyactivitieswhichhavefosteredtheconceptandunderstandingofsustainability afterthereleaseofSilentSpringin1962,suchastheinitiationoffirstEarthDayin 1970 (USA), polluter pays principle in 1971, release of work on chlorofluorocar- bons (CFCs) by Rowland and Molina in Nature journal in 1974, release of World ConservationStrategyin1980,establishmentofWorldResourcesInstitutein1982, discovery of Antarctic ozone hole in 1985. This long list also has the release of Brundtland Report—Our Common Future in 1987; this is the report of the World CommissiononEnvironmentandDevelopment,whichhasunitedsocial,economic, cultural and environmental issues and global solutions together. Very important aspect of this report is that this is the one which has familiarized the term ‘sus- tainable development’. Post-Brundtland report release, there were many important activities to enhance the sustainability thinking such as establishment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988, Earth Summit—UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in 1992, First meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development in 1993, adoption of ISO 14001 as a voluntary international standard for corporate environmental managementin1996,releaseofreportingguidelinesbyGlobalReportingInitiative in 2002, entering of Kyoto Protocol into force in 2005, development of Montreal ProtocolonSubstancesthatDepletetheOzoneLayerin2007(SDTimeline2012). Whatdoessustainabilityreallymean?—Thisisamilliondollarquestionandone cannot get an unanimous answer from everyone if the question is asked among a wide array of people, and the debate on the definition of sustainability still con- tinues. This is due to the matter of fact that sustainability and sustainable devel- opment (predecessor of sustainability) mean different to different people and the challengeofdefiningsustainabilityhasalreadybeennotedbymanyauthorsalready (White 2013). A well-known and very frequently read definition is the ‘develop- ment which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. This was defined in the World Commission on Environment and Development’s report—Our Common Future (World Commission on Environment and Development 1987). This definition was criticizedheavilysinceitsinception,asitisvagueandopentointerpretation.After this, there are a plenty of definitions one can see for sustainability and sustainable developmentandtheywerediscussedelsewhere.Onecanseeenormousamountof informationfromvariousmedia(Web,books,reportsandresearchpapers)onthis. In the quest of defining sustainability in simple terms, I read many books and papers in the literature for a considerable amount of time. Through my earnest Introduction 3 Economically •Produce goods and Sustainable services on a System conitnuous basis Environmentally •Maintenance of stable Sustainable resource base System •Able to acheive Socially distribiu(cid:415)onal equity Sustainable and dequate provision System of social services Fig.1 Sustainablesystem(SourceDesignedbyAuthorfromthereferenceHarris2000) efforts,IfoundalotmanyandtheveryspecificonewhichIwouldliketopointout here is as follows: Ifreliablerainfalladds100lofrainwatertoatankeveryday,itissustainabletouseupto 100lofthiswaterperday.Ifthetankislargeandisfulltobeginwith,forawhileitmaybe possible to use considerably more than 100l per day. However, if the daily input from rainfall remains only 100l, even starting with a full 10,000-l tank, one cannot use more than100lperdaysustainably.Thetankwilleventuallyrundry.(PopulationMatters2011) Concentrationofthecruxofsustainabilityvariesbetweendifferentprofessionals when they define sustainability. Environmentalists and ecological professionals define sustainability with a chief focus on environmental side, and businessmen shift the focus on economic side and so on. However, as said earlier, it has three dimensions–economic, social and environmental, and all the three have to be ful- filled (Rankin 2014).Figure 1 isthereflection ofasustainable system fulfilling all these three pillars into the core concept of sustainability (Harris 2000). It is a great challenge to manage all the three issues together for today’s man- agers(CSRmanagers).Itishighlyimportantandneedofthehourforcompaniesto understand that they are not detached, rather they are part of a actuality that demandsthemanagement ofscarce resources andaswellastheconcern for social issues (Savitz and Weber 2006). 2 Environmental Sustainability Environmentalsustainabilitycansimplybedefinedas‘theabilitytomaintainthings or qualities that are valued in the physical environment’, where the physical environment includes the natural and biological environments (Sutton 2004). ‘Environmental sustainability’ requires maintaining natural capital as both a 4 S.S.Muthu provider of economic inputs called ‘sources’ and an absorber called ‘sinks’ of economicoutputscalled‘wastes’(Daly1973,1974;WorldBank1986;Serageldin 1993; Pearce and Redclift 1988; Pearce et al. 1990a, b). Environmentalsustainabilityreferstoecosystemintegrity,carryingcapacityand biodiversity. It demands that natural capital be preserved to be a foundation of economicinputsandasasinkforwastes.Resourcesneedtobeharvestednofaster than they can be regenerated. Wastes must be emitted no faster than they can be digested by the environment (Kahn 1995). When it comes to embedding environ- mental sustainability into a sustainable system, such system must be able: (cid:129) To maintain a stable resource base; (cid:129) To avoid over-exploitation of renewable resource systems (or environmental sink functions); (cid:129) To evade the depletion of non-renewable resources to the possible extent; (cid:129) To deplete non-renewable resources only to the extent that investment is made in adequate substitutes (necessarily includes maintenance of biodiversity, atmospheric stability and other ecosystem functions not ordinarily classed as economic resources) (Harris 2003). 3 Economic Sustainability ‘Economic sustainability’ refers to a system of production that satisfies present consumptionlevelswithoutcompromising futureneeds (Kahn1995).On asystem level, an economically sustainable system must be able to produce goods and services on a continuing basis, to maintain manageable levels of government and external debt and to avoid extreme sectoral imbalances which damage agricultural or industrial production (Harris 2003). 4 Social Sustainability Looking at a basic sense, ‘social sustainability’ implies a system of social orga- nization that assuages poverty. In a deeper fundamental sense, however, ‘social sustainability’establishes thenexus betweensocialconditions suchaspovertyand environmentaldecay(Ruttan1991;Basiago1999).Whenitcomestosystemlevel, asociallysustainablesystemmustachievefairnessindistributionandopportunity, adequateprovisionofsocialservicesincludinghealthandeducation,genderequity, and political accountability and participation (Harris 2003).