Yunus Textile Mills leads way in sustainable practices

Launched in February 2013 in New York, the coalition aims to lead the industry toward a shared vision built on a common approach for measuring and evaluating textile product sustainability.

“At present retailers and sourcing managers operate on individually created guidelines for social compliance. By forming the Sustainable Textile Coalition we aim to standardize the measurement and evaluation methodology to assess environmental and social performance across the textiles value chain on a global scale while building a repository of best practices for the industry as a whole to benefit from” said Mr. Nisar Palla, Chief Operating Officer of Yunus Textile Mills while speaking to Textiles Update.

The implementation of sustainability initiatives is not new to the company. A shining example is the manner in which Yunus Textile Mills ensures that all waste water from textile processing is treated before being released using the most advanced bio-reactor waste water treatment plant in Pakistan. This is being taken to the next level with the “installation of a membrane based ultra-filtration plant, which is expected to be operational by September 2013.

“This first of its kind unit in Pakistan will save 800,000 gallons of water per day” said Mr. Palla. He also added that this has been done “despite the initiative being a zero investment return to Yunus Textile Mills. Yet our responsibility to our community, environment and country tells us this is the right decision to take”.

The focus on efficiency attained through sustainability is a core value of Yunus Textile Mills. Installation of LED lights, reuse of hot water on bleaching machines, reuse of hot water from washing chambers to the mercerizing process, caustic recovery plant, water based screen stripping and replacement of old power generators with new energy efficient engines are just some of the initiatives undertaken over the past few years to reduce energy, water and chemical consumption.

These sustainability efforts have yielded benefits. Total energy consumption in weaving and processing has decreased 6.5% while production in weaving increased by 4.5% and in processing by 22.4% Yunus Textile Mills is parts of the Yunus Brothers Group who continue to invest in the future of Pakistan.

Through the decision to join the Sustainable Textile Coalition as a founding member, “not only do we want to identify methodology to achieve efficiency and best practice, we want to show the world that such long term thinking and global leadership can be found in Pakistan” said Mr. Palla. It is this desire for continuous improvement and evolution that keeps Yunus Textile Mills on the forefront of global sustainability.