Henning Høy Nygaard

Sustainable Textile Production Tirupur, India

Final report from a multi-stakeholder pilot implementation project in the Nordic countries and Tirupur, India

TemaNord 2015:527

Sustainable Textile Production Tirupur, India

Final report from a multi-stakeholder pilot implementation project in the Nordic countries and Tirupur, India

Henning Høy Nygaard

ISBN 978-92-893-4058-8 (PRINT)

ISBN 978-92-893-4060-1 (PDF)

ISBN 978-92-893-4059-5 (EPUB)

http://dx.doi.org/10.6027/TN2015-527

TemaNord 2015:527

ISSN 0908-6692

© Nordic Council of Ministers 2015

Layout: Hanne Lebech

Cover photo: Claus Aabling

Print: Rosendahls-Schultz Grafisk

Printed in Denmark

This publication has been published with financial support by the Nordic Council of Ministers. However, the contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views, policies or recommendations of the Nordic Council of Ministers.

www.norden.org/en/publications

Nordic co-operation

Nordic co-operation is one of the world’s most extensive forms of regional collaboration, involving Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland.

Nordic co-operation has firm traditions in politics, the economy, and culture. It plays an important role in European and international collaboration, and aims at creating a strong Nordic community in a strong Europe.

Nordic co-operation seeks to safeguard Nordic and regional interests and principles in the global community. Common Nordic values help the region solidify its position as one of the world’s most innovative and competitive.

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Content

Foreword

Executive summary

1. Part I: Framework

1.1 Project background

1.2 Project objectives

1.3 Project organisation

1.4 The Nordic Ecolabel

2. Part II: Project Activities

2.1 Project activities in Tirupur

2.2 Project activities in Denmark, Finland and Norway

3. Part III: Analysis

3.1 Barriers to Ecolabel implementation in Tirupur

3.2 Potential in Tirupur

3.3 Barriers for Nordic companies

3.4 Potential for Nordic companies

4. Part IV: Conclusions & Recommendations

4.1 Future perspectives for Tirupur

4.2 Attitude and interest from Tirupur suppliers

4.3 The way forward

5. Sammenfatning (Danish Summary)

Foreword

“The Potential for Green Textile sourcing from Tirupur – on the path to more sustainable global textile chains” and the project “Sustainable Textile Production Tirupur, India” are two pilot projects funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Working Group on Sustainable Consumption and Production. Both projects were designed and executed by the Danish Federation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and Danish Fashion and Textile, in co-operation with Ecolabel and textile organisations in Norway and Finland.

The Danish Federation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises has extensive experience within CSR and environmental projects in the textile industry in Tirupur, as well as in other parts of India and countries in Africa and Latin America. Danish Fashion and Textile has thorough knowledge of environmental certification requirements and CSR issues within the industry.

The first pilot project was carried out from 2011 to 2012 with the main objective to analyse the current environmental situation in the textile industry of Tirupur, India and estimate the potential for Nordic textile companies to promote the EU Flower or the Nordic Swan Ecolabel as a comparative advantage in Tirupur industries. The investigation and final report was published in the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2013 and led to the follow-up project “Sustainable Textile Production Tirupur, India”. This was a pilot implementation project investigating the need for capacity building in Tirupur, and working with Ecolabels among Nordic textile companies, utilising the advantages of working with a textile cluster one step ahead of other global competitors in the field of social and environmental compliance.

The project was managed by Mr. Henning Høy Nygaard from the Danish Federation of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in collaboration with Pia Odgaard from Danish Fashion and Textile, in close co-operation with Ecolabel Denmark. The project team would like to thank our partners in Norway, Finland and India. We have received enormous support from textile organisations, companies and consultants from the Tirupur region and without them we would never have managed to complete this innovative project. Last but not least, we wish to express our gratitude to the companies that participated in the workshops and matchmaking events in Copenhagen and Tirupur. Their experience, knowledge and interest have been very valuable sources of information in identifying challenges and possibilities for promoting sustainable textile labels in the Nordic countries.

Sigurbjorg Saemundsdóttir

Chair of the Nordic Council of Minister´s

SCP working group, Ministry of Environment

Reykjavik, Island

Executive summary

The pilot project “Sustainable Textile Production Tirupur, India” was kick started in Tirupur by the Danish Federation of SMEs in co-operation with Danish Fashion and Textile in the year 2013, with the findings from the project “Tracking Environmental impact in global production chains” in the year 2012.

Some dramatic changes have taken place in Tirupur since 2010 when the Madras High Court ordered the closure of practically all of the approximately 754 dyeing plants because of non-compliance with zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) norms. The ZLD norms refer to the effluent treatment process with 100% reuse of water resources. At first, the situation was desperate for the Tirupur textile industry, as the technology to handle the ZLD norms was not available in the dyeing units, but today a new beginning seems to be on its way. There is a growing interest among companies and public institutions in Tirupur to strengthen the green profile of the Tirupur cluster by defining some joint standards related to not only the ZLD norms, but also possibly to Ecolabel standards.

The objectives for this pilot implementation project were to promote sustainable production and knowledge of the Nordic/European Ecolabels in Tirupur, and to assist building local companies’ capacity to comply with Ecolabels. In Denmark, Norway and Finland, the very first and initial dissemination of the Tirupur green cluster’s competitive advantages took place in order to create a more social and environmental textile trade, in the long run.

The pilot project’s milestone activities were successfully completed by conducting capacity building programs on EU/Nordic Swan Ecolabels in Tirupur, textile seminars in Norway, Finland and Denmark and a Buyer Seller Meet in Denmark. This report disseminates the lessons learned and the consolidated inputs from the stakeholder organisations and various opportunities to scale up the business between Nordic textile companies and the sustainable textile cluster of Tirupur.