In the first of a series focusing on remarkable companies that are making waves in the areas of green industry and sustainable development, Making It spoke to K. M. Rezaul Hasanat, Chairman and CEO of the Viyellatex Group, the Bangladeshi textiles and apparel manufacturing company.
***
The Viyellatex Group is composed of a variety of operational and functional units such as spinning, knitting, dyeing, washing, printing, embroidery, and stitching, all based in the greater Dhaka area. It supplies knit and woven garments, mainly t-shirts and shirts, for top European and American brands, including Puma, Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger. Monthly production varies from 1.5 to two million pieces, and the Group employs around 18,000 people. Vyellatex’s yearly turnover is close to US$200 million.
As Hasanat explains, the company has come a long way in a short time. “When I started Vyellatex in 2001, it was just one small garment factory. At that time, I wasn’t concerned about sustainability. My concern was survival.”
Since then, the company has not only grown to be a commercial success, but has won plaudits for its commitment to sustainability by ensuring environmental protection, maintaining robust labour standards, upholding human rights and combating corruption. Viyellatex has won several awards from international organizations, private sector forums, local workers’ organizations, and the government of Bangladesh. For example, in 2010, HSBC, the leading international bank, and The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s largest English daily newspaper selected Viyellatex as the winner of their annual Green Business Entrepreneurship award in recognition of the company’s moves to adopt green and energy-saving technology in manufacturing garments.
In 2009, Viyellatex signed up to the United Nations Global Compact, and was subsequently selected by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) as a model for putting the Global Compact principles into action in the region. The UNESCAP report stated that Viyellatex “demonstrates that there is an opportunity to make profits, provide worthwhile and well-numerated labour without the need for forced labour or other forms of exploitation.”
Hasanat explains, “Workers’ welfare committees operate in our factories and, for three consecutive years, we have been commended for our practice by the federation of garment workers’ unions. It is not only about providing good working conditions, but we also pay 20% more than the national minimum wage. I told my directors that we have high-end customers, so why should we follow the government’s minimum wage.”
For Hasanat, the logic behind his company’s progressive approach to labour relations is simple. “The tangible return is that, over the last 11 years, we have never had a workers’ strike or any problems with the community.”
Viyellatex is also winning accolades for its commitment to green industry and sustainability. Recalling how his company first started on the road to sustainability, Hasanat says, “Our first sustainable initiative was all about steam. Releasing steam from our factories was a waste of energy. I sat with my directors and said, ‘Let’s use that steam and hot water’. The result is pre-heated water, free of charge.”
Viyellatex takes steam, which is produced as the output wastage from the steam supply system for garments and dyeing units, and uses it to heat water boilers to an instant 70-80 degrees. The company’s 2010 report to the Global Reporting Initiative states that the system saves 40% of the previous cost of heating water.
Other initiatives followed: more than 300,000 litres of treated effluent water are used for the toilet flushes every day, saving large volumes of underground water; approximately 45 million litres of rainwater are collected from one factory roof each year and are then used in textile processing, saving valuable underground water and avoiding the expenditure on chemicals to soften the water; and water from workers’ wash basins is filtered and used to irrigate trees that are planted in patches throughout the factory compounds.
Artist’s impression of Viyellatex’s Eco Couture factory, under construction on the outskirts of Dhaka. Eco Couture will house a 144,000 sq ft establishment for all its operations from sewing to packing the finished product. The project will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012.
Yet another initiative involves the company diversifying into tea production. Food leftovers from the workers’ lunches and kitchen waste are mixed with cotton dust from
the spinning mill and are converted into compost fertilizer that is then sent to the company’s newly purchased tea estate in the north-east of the country. Hasanat explains that there are clear rewards for greening his company. “We can be environmentally friendly but, unless there is a return, we can’t continue the initiative. We are saving money.”
Asked, if the benefits are so clear, why are other companies not adopting the same sustainable practices, Hasanat replies, “They don’t see it yet, but my factories are practicing steam, water and exhaust recovery, and if they knew how much we are saving, they would do it too. Who wouldn’t be interested?”
At the UN Private Sector Forum 2011 in New York, organizations were encouraged to commit to sustainable energy-related activities in support of the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative. Viyellatex committed to become a carbon-neutral company by 2016, and announced that it would install energy-efficient and smart lighting systems, replace inefficient machines and invest more in renewable energy sources.
To the question, ‘apart from saving on costs, what drives sustainability at Viyellatex?’, Hasanat responds frankly, “Membership of the Global Compact, the Global Reporting Initiative and Sustainable Energy for All provides me with a benefit. All these awards for environmental initiatives and corporate social responsibility give us a competitive edge. Our customers are inviting me to speak to their shareholders. They are showcasing me to their customers. When companies negotiate a price with me, I can get a better price from them, because they don’t want to lose me. I am in a better bargaining position.”
● K. M. Rezaul Hasanat, Chairman and CEO of the Viyellatex Group.
Join us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to Magazine
Here is an interesting article in Bangladesh’s Financial Express newspaper.
Especially this section:
Impediments towards green economy
Bangladesh needs huge financial support with no conditionality or rational conditionality to follow the green path. It also requires technological support. In this connection, the responsible group of countries should come up with their respective due shares, said Shah Md Ahsan Habib, a Professor and Director [Training] of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM).
“To move towards a green economy, government should take necessary steps to enforce existing environmental regulations and formulate appropriate rules to ensure ‘Polluter Pays Principle’ in the country”, Mr Habib, a green economy expert said.
Regulations should be formulated and enforced in such a manner so that polluters can be penalised. It can be seen that common people or third party that are not engaged in the process of production or consumption of a particular product are getting affected and paying the price.
“The Central Bank of Bangladesh can play a pro-active role in formulating a national level ‘Green Credit Policy’ and creating a sound incentive structure for performing ER (Environmentally Responsible) practices by banks. Much more is expected from NGOs and civil society organizations in the form of awareness development, research activities and business monitoring”, Mr Habib suggested.
Bangladesh’s progress in the areas of green economy
Bangladesh has formulated a good number of relevant regulations, however enforcement of all these have been very weak. As a whole the responses of the stakeholders in the country remained inadequate.
According to the recently disclosed Environmental Performance Index 2012, Bangladesh ranked 115th out of 132 countries which indicates relatively less effort and initiatives (weaker performer) by the country in regard to environment related performance as compared to other global economies, however, the index reveals improvement in the country’s environmental performances. Bangladesh has been placed among the ‘Weaker Performers’ alongside China and Pakistan; India is among the ‘Weakest Performers’; and Nepal is among the ‘Stronger Performer’ economies. It is nice to observe that Bangladesh has been categorized among the ‘Modest Improver’ countries alongside Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh government has already outlined its approach in the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan (BCCSAP), which has been acclaimed around the world. Within this framework, a Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) has been created with budgetary allocations, which has received Tk 210 billion over the last three years. Another Tk 40 billion has been allocated in the current (2012-13) budget. Already some 83 projects are being implemented, mostly for adaptation but some also for mitigation, by various ministries and agencies of the government, with support from this Fund.
Another Fund, Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF), has also been established with contributions from development partners.
The BCCRF has so far received US$170 million and more is expected in the course of time. A few projects have already been initiated with support from this Fund.
Bangladesh should take effort to solicit money from a US$ 513 billion fund pledged at the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development held in June, a senior government official said.
“As governments, private sector, civil society and other groups expressed their commitments at the summit, now our goal is to secure climate funds for the country,” said SM Ahsanul Aziz, deputy director (climate change), Department of Environment (DoE).
Amazing to read about a company actually putting green industry technology into action. Can’t understand why more companies aren’t doing the same. As Hasanat says, it saves money and it makes money…
I like the candid answers that the Viyellatex CEO provided. He says other companies would implement the same green practices if only they knew how money it would save them. And he says the other main reason that he tries to make his company sustainable is the competitive advantage that it gives him when negotiating prices with the Western companies that he supplies – they want a green supplier because it impresses their shareholders and customers. Thing is though, why don’t all the other garment assembly companies in countries, like Bangladesh, see what Viyellatex can see?
Very good news for us and Bangladesh. I think “Echotex Ltd”, chandra polli Biddut, Gazipur” is the another example of such factory and this factory is trying to be fully eco-based and eco-friendly factory, and trying to maintain government and environmental all rules and regulations. This factory also has green practice. Already this factory gets some national awards about environmental issue within three years of dye house starting. This factory is trying to disperse zero discharge waster form ETP with biological treatment and re-using huge water and heat to save energy and environment. This factory is working to save the planet.