Partners to unveil blueprint for a new tier-two factory set-up
Sustainability-focused textile innovation platform Fashion For Good has joined forces with India-based conglomerate Arvind to work on a new initiative called Future Forward Factories.
This initiative will focus on tier-two factories, the facilities that process raw materials into the fabrics that ready-made garment factories will use to make clothes further downstream in the supply chain.
The partners call tier-two factories “the backbone of the supply chain”, but claim they are responsible for more than half of the fashion industry’s CO2 emissions and nearly all water and chemical usage.
In addressing this, Future Forward Factories will have two objectives. First, it will identify innovations that can deliver a more sustainable way of carrying out tier-two manufacturing processes and use these to draw up an open-source blueprint for future factories.
Secondly, based on this blueprint, it will construct a new tier-two factory in which it will “bring these innovations to life”, resulting in a facility that will be environmentally responsible and economically viable.
Arvind will build the new factory in the Indian state of Gujarat. It will produce cotton woven and knit fabrics and is projected to achieve a reduction of more than 90% in greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional manufacturing operations. It will also save around 60 litres of water per kilo of fabric.
The Future Forward Factories partners have said the new Gujarat factory will be “the industry’s first near net-zero textile production centre”. They insist that the open-source blueprint will mean the new set-up can be adopted industry-wide.
