Birla Cellulose to focus on ‘Vision Sustainability 2020’

SSM Schärer Schweiter Mettler AG has participated at the following exhibitions in spring 2015: Textile Asia, Pakistan; Indo InterTex, Indonesia; and Techtextil, Germany.
On May 15, 2015, Birla Cellulose, Aditya Birla Group´s umbrella brand of their Pulp and Fibre business partnered with Control Union (CU), an international network of inspection operations and certifications with dedicated laboratories to focus on ´Vision Sustainability 2020´.

The one-day event on sustainability was held on May 8, 2015 at Hotel Velan Tirupur, Tamil Nadu. With environment pollution at its peak in Tirupur, the Vision Sustainability 2020 seminar held even more importance than before as it brought sustainability awareness across the entire textile value chain. The event gathered eminent speakers from the industry who presented on product, challenges for textile processing towards sustainability, sustainable clothing and the industrial growth.

The full day event ended with a welcoming note from Dr Binay Kumar Chaudhary from Control Union, taking about CU´s certifiactions, inspection operations for a sustainable textile industry. It was followed by different Sustainability initiatives by companies who consider sustainability as an important part of their company structure. The focus of this event was sustainable clothing and the challenges faced.

Birla Cellulose is taking initiative with Control Union to focus on every part of the textile value chain. Taking this opportunity, Rohan Batra, Special Projects presented on ´Heart of Sustainability and its execution´ at Birla Cellulose. Batra highlighted the aspect of sustainability being thought even while designing the brand logo of Birla Cellulose. ´The circle signifies the cycle of ´nature & sustainability´ and floating leaves symbolises ´comfort and lightness´. The Leaves fall & grow all over again, they are a renewable resource of nature. Birla Cellulose is much like these leaves and is made from the same trees´ stated Batra.

He spoke at length about sustainability explaining the efforts at Birla Cellulose right from seeding to pulping, to processing and manufacturing. He spoke about the endeavours of the Pulp and Fibre business of the Aditya Birla Group and their vision to become the industry leader by 2017 for sustainable business practices across its global operations.

´Birla Cellulose leadership in creating awareness and best practices in sustainability has progressed with leading brands. Viscose is uniquely placed amongst the category of fibres – it is a manmade fibre and yet is natural. It brings benefits of both worlds, being made from a natural and renewable resource like wood pulp coupled with engineered precision of manmade fibres. It is one of the most sustainable in terms of raw material, life cycle assessments (LCA) and eco-friendliness of the product.´ averts Batra

Going forward he spoke about the responsible wood sourcing policy and explained how Birla Cellulose strictly adheres to all environment laws and regulations applied by respective countries for wood sources ´Our key raw material, wood pulp is sourced through a responsible wood sourcing policy which takes care of high conservation forest, bio diversity and more is planted than cut. The plantations in India save land 6-7 times and saves water by 3-4 times in comparison to cotton´ he explained

´With the view to lead innovation, the business has invested in R&D across the entire chain of production. Grasim Forest Research Institute for plantation research, Pulp Research Institute at Dominova, Sweden for pulp research, Birla Research Institute and Aditya Birla Science and Technology Centre (ABSTC) for fibre research, pilot plant for fibre innovation and the Textile Research and Development Centre (TRADC) for fibre to fashion, has been set up with an aggregate investment of over Rs.100 Crores´ states Batra

He further went on to highlight ´St