Sustainability is a journey, not a destination

Intertek Group is a total quality assurance provider to industries worldwide. For more than 130 years, companies around the world have depended on Intertek to help ensure the quality and safety of their products, processes and systems. André Lacroix, CEO, and Sandeep Das, President Global Softlines & Hardlines, RMD South Asia, Intertek Group, highlights the importance of adopting sustainable practices worldwide with Divya Shetty.

Do you believe the textile industry has been successful in embracing sustainable practices?  

Sustainability is the movement of our time. Consumers are questioning how products in the marketplace are being sourced and manufactured; especially the younger generation, who are right to put pressure on us to save the planet.

• With businesses having to respond to consumer demands and stricter regulations, there has been a definite and rapid shift in the textile industry towards a sustainable economy. For example, we are seeing more circular models of repurposing, recycling, and reusing materials. Sustainability practices like reusable packaging, garment recycling, eco-friendly raw materials, third-party certifications, and ethical sourcing are becoming popular while emerging trends like regenerative fashion and smart fabrics are catching on. There is a rising demand for sustainability reporting, with a focus on ESG risks across supply chains, and many brands are committing to net-zero targets.
• Leading textile and apparel brands are embracing sustainability as a key component of their strategy, and there is an impressive range of tangible actions that we are seeing in the industry. But like any other continual improvement process, sustainability is a journey, not a destination. Every retailer, brand, and supplier are at a different stage in their respective journey. While the industry has been quick to adjust to various disruptions over the past few years, there is still a lot to do to make sustainability a real competitive advantage.

How is your company addressing environmental concerns in the textile industry?  
Intertek is a global authority when it comes to Total Sustainability Assurance. We have developed industry-leading science-based solutions that are helping buyers and suppliers become pioneers in products that are good for the planet.
Our strategic partnership in the sustainability journey is end-to-end, right from helping clients understand global regulations, supporting them digitally so that they can have efficient carbon reporting, providing them with solutions that mitigate operational risks, offering independent certification programs, and supplying the quality assurance of renewable power that helps reduce carbon footprints.
Sustainability services have been core to our global business for more than 100 years. Through our global network of experts in Environmental, Social, OHS, Risk, and Sustainability who understand local and global standards and have subject-matter expertise, we provide end-to-end solutions that include corporate sustainability certifications along 10 standards, ESG data and reporting, and operational sustainability services for the textile industry such as wastewater testing, MRSL testing and certification, RSL scan, biodegradability testing, microfiber testing, recycled polyester verification, textile exchange, zero waste to landfill, and chemical management programmes like ToxClear.

• We are also working with clients on GRI sustainability reporting, carbon neutrality and footprint assessment, water footprint assessment, GHG emissions, energy management, and public disclosures like ECOVADIS scoring and CDP rating.
• Is the company engaged in research and development of new sustainable services? If yes, please cite with examples.   
• The Intertek culture is grounded in science-based excellence and a drive for innovation. For example, Intertek’s ToxClear is a ZDHC-approved cloud-based chemical management digital platform synchronised in real-time with ZDHC Gateway – Chemical Module. Its intuitive UI/UX design allows brands to easily monitor the MRSL conformance performance of their supply chains and set achievable targets. It also provides suppliers an easy-to-use chemical inventory tool for ZDHC Performance InCheck Reporting Easy in-system communication functions allow brands and suppliers to exchange real-time information from the system and communicate with each other, providing total traceability and transparency of chemicals used in the fashion supply chains. 

Intertek’s SourceClear platform helps customers to manage the entire Textile Exchange certification lifecycle while our experts provide independent certification of facilities and product materials and manage the end-to-end process for scope certificates and transaction certificates against Recycled Claim Standard (RCS) and Global Recycled Standard (GRS).
Are you receiving enough support from the government to implement those practices?  
Across the world, governments are introducing and implementing sustainability regulations and guidelines and India is no different. The transformational change for the Indian industry, boosted by government support, has sustainability at its core, both for the planet and for the textile industry.
A few years ago, the Indian Ministry of Textiles launched Project SU.RE. – Sustainable Resolution to establish a sustainable pathway for the fashion industry to work towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and long-term environmental, social, and corporate governance goals.

Recently, India signed a co-operation agreement between the United Nations’ Environment Programme and The Cotton Corporation of India to ensure circularity and mainstream sustainability in the supply chain. The government is known to be considering incentivisation for the textile industry to foster sustainable practices and is launching an ESG task force to help prepare a road map for sustainable textiles.

This shift in gears from linear to circular operations means greater scope for third-party testing and certification companies like Intertek to help businesses interpret and implement evolving guidelines, earn sustainability credentials, set science-based targets, and achieve these targets with careful monitoring and reporting.

The government’s commitment to sustainability through policy intervention creates for us the opportunity to partner with the textile industry to provide Total Quality Assurance, from Zero Liquid Discharge wastewater treatment to Recycled Polyester Verification in fibres.

What are your projections for the Indian textile and apparel industry in terms of sustainability, and digitalisation?  
The Indian textile and apparel market size is projected to grow at a 10% CAGR to reach 350 billion US$ by 2030 (according to a recent FICCI-Wazir Advisors industry report). This will be about 15% of the global market. We believe that India can get a lion’s share of the exciting growth opportunities ahead in the global textile industry through the simple winning formula of quality + value for money + sustainability.

This belief was reinforced during our CEO André Lacroix’s recent trip to India, when he visited Tiruppur, one of Asia’s biggest knitwear export hubs, and met with regional stakeholders such as the Tiruppur Exporters’ Association (TEA). The pioneering sustainability work that the cluster is doing with world-class initiatives, in all factories, is impressive. As a partner for growth to the Indian textile industry for three decades, we are exploring ways to help build sustainability credentials and boost the adoption of digital tools and innovations within key textile centres like Tiruppur to accelerate their development and global competitiveness.

Strengthening the textile value chain, embracing circularity and sustainability practices, and focusing on digitalisation to improve processes and efficiency levels will be among the key enablers for attaining the 350 billion US$ market.