The Swiss specialty chemicals group Clariant has announced the introduction of a new service called ONE WAY that helps textile mills, brands and retailers measure the impact of their textile solutions on the environment, resource and climate. The company wishes to help its customers to develop textile solutions that are both more ecologically and economically sustainable by providing a fast, measurable and reliable approach to the selection of chemical products and process solutions.

According to Textile Exchange’s global market report, an estimated six million tons of textile chemicals is used each year, making the environmental impact of textile processing a global issue. Textile waste occupies nearly five percent of all landfill space, with one million tons of textiles ending up in landfills every year. In addition, 20 percent of industrial fresh water pollution comes from textile treatment and dyeing; and one trillion kilowatt-hours are used every year by the global textile industry, which equates to 10 percent of global carbon impact.

“With increasing consumer awareness of these issues, brands and retailers today are under growing pressure to set and enforce sustainability policies, as well as monitor and measure the environmental impact of their textile dyeing and finishing processes,” said Emrah Esder, head of marketing, textile chemicals, Clariant. “However, a long-time headache has been the difficulty of measuring the overall ecological impact of any textile process. Clariant’s ONE WAY will address this gap by providing fast and reliable information on the economical and ecological impact of each textile solution.”

Clariant’s ONE WAY will offer mills, brands and retailers a systematic methodology based on a three-step process.

Step 1: Product selection based on eco-standards requirements

Customers will choose from a wide range of Clariant ONE WAY products, developed and pre-tested against more than 15 of the industry’s most stringent environmental and consumer safety standards, including Blue Sign®1,OekoTex®2, GOTS3, the 11 substances of the Joint Roadmap towards Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals, bioelimination and 20 major Restricted Substances List (RSLs). The Clariant ONE WAY product database already includes more than 200 products, covering most of the needs of the industry across the value chain.

Step 2: Process short-listing based on environmental focus

Dyes and chemicals have been screened and clustered into groups based on their environmental focus. This will allow textile manufacturers to narrow their selection of potential products to the process group that best fits their environmental focus, whether this is CO₂ emissions, savings in water or energy or the amount of waste water generated.

Step 3: Solution selection based on cost and eco-benefits calculations

A sophisticated calculation software tool, the cornerstone of the ONE WAY toolbox, is currently in final testing phase and will be available by January 2013. This calculation tool will allow customers to make an informed decision by delivering the overall cost and performance profile—including dyes, chemicals, water, energy and time—and the impact of each textile solution against key ecological performance indicators, such as chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, CO₂ emissions, energy and water.

As a leading supplier of chemical solutions for the textile industry, Clariant has a long-term commitment to developing products and application processes that are safer for the consumer, and have less impact on the environment. In May 2012, it joined the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC). Clariant is also a member of the Textile Exchange and is a System Partner of bluesign®.

Source: Clariant