A fibre factory in Hoa Xa Industrial Zone of Nam Dinh province. (Photo: VNA) The association’s president Vu DucGiang said that most fashion brands in the US, Japan and the European Union(EU) were now more demanding on the quality of products, adding that manyimporters required the production to be friendly to the environment, such asthrough water-saving and not using coal.
They also required suppliers to usegreen and recycled materials to meet global consumer trends, meaning thatmanufacturers must be transparent in production and ensure producttraceability, which was no longer an option but a mandatory requirement.
Giang said that the requirement togreen the garment industry’s production chain was not new but became a pressingissue since the COVID-19 pandemic. Especially, the Vietnamese Government’scommitment at the COP26 to achieve net-zero emission by 2050, which wouldpush the garment industry to go green.
“We joined in the global playingfield, and we must comply. Compliance with the international commitments wouldbring advantages when we implement the signed new-generation free trade agreements,”Giang said.
Many enterprises had invested inupgrading the production lines to save water and be more energy-efficient andlook for supplying sources of environmentally–friendly materials.
Tran Hoang Phu Xuan, General Directorof the Fashion Connection Joint Stock Company, which supplied the market withabout eight million metres of finished fabric made from green materials, saidthat developing a sustainable environmentally-friendly fashion industry becamean inevitable trend to spread the message of green living. Consumers now tendto use safe products for health and safety for the environment.
Although greening the garment supplychain is a trend, the investment was mostly in upgrading the production tosave water or use solar energy, while little attention was paid to developingnew environmentally-friendly materials, according to VITAS.
Xuan said that the problem thattextile and garment enterprises faced in going green was high costs forswitching to environmentally-friendly materials.
Vietnam had an abundant source ofraw materials such as coffee, coconut fibre, mint and lotus, which could bedeveloped into high-value natural fibres, Xuan said.
According to Giang, itis necessary to improve the Law on Environment to ensure theappropriateness to global requirements and the situation in Vietnam.
The Government should also developindustrial zones specialised for garment and textile production, which meetwaste water treatment standards, Giang said.
The United Nations EnvironmentProgramme's findings show that the fashion industryproduces between 2 to 8 percent of global carbon emissions.Textile dyeing was also the second largest polluter of water globally.
Every second, the equivalent of onegarbage truck of textiles was landfilled or burned. If nothing changes, by2050, the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbonbudget. Textiles were also estimated to account for approximately 9 percent ofannual microplastic losses to the ocean./.
VNA
