Garment businesses strive to protect the environment

Multiple solutions

As the largest garment enterprise in the province, since its inception, Tinh Loi Garment Company Limited has established an Environmental Board to manage, regularly inspect the implementation and improvement of environmental protection work. The company always complies with the provisions of law on environmental impact assessment reports. The unit also installed an automatic environmental monitoring system including automatic monitoring equipment and an automatic sampling system and officially connected data to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment from October 10, 2017... Every year, the company conducts periodic environmental monitoring in accordance with regulations.

A representative of Tinh Loi Garment Company Limited said: “During its operation, in addition to strictly complying with the provisions of the law on environmental protection, the company has also implemented many other solutions such as: Installing a boiler system using modern technology and a fabric incinerator (synthetic raw materials). The company also invested in installing a solar power system for its production workshops. According to calculations, thanks to this system, the company reduces about 2,500 tons of CO2 emissions each year and saves about 5 billion VND in electricity costs. During its operation, the company regulates the collection and classification of daily waste in a closed manner from production to collection and transportation. Many improvements to protect the environment have been implemented by the company, such as maximum digitalization campaigns to save paper and energy, especially the campaign "Say no to disposable plastic products".

In order to achieve the goal of planting more trees in localities where there are factories, since 2008, the company has annually organized tree planting and donated trees to many localities in the province. To date, the company has planted and donated about 2 million trees.

TBT Garment Company Limited in Thanh Hai Commune (Thanh Ha) specializes in producing women's fashion for export and has been operating for 15 years. Although the average number of employees (about 300 workers) and the production scale are not large (exporting 1.5 - 2 million products each year), this company is always concerned about environmental protection. In previous years, the company treated wastewater with biological ponds. According to the permitted standards, with the scale, capacity and actual operations of the enterprise, the wastewater of TBT Garment Company Limited must reach level B according to the standards. However, with the goal of sustainable development, since 2021, the company has invested in building and putting into operation a centralized wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 50 m3/day and night. The unit has gradually invested in a system of modern machinery and technology, switching from mechanical machines to automatic machines. In the process of using fuel, the company has used a part of dry wood to replace coal in the boiler combustion process. Since 2019, the company has used a part of recycled fabric materials to replace conventional fabric in the production process.

Tran An Garment Company Limited in Cam Thuong Ward (Hai Duong City) also always identifies protecting and improving environmental quality as an important task to contribute to the city's goal of developing a green urban area. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Dung, environmental officer of Tran An Garment Company Limited, said that the company focuses on planting trees in the factory premises. Currently, the proportion of trees in the factory premises is more than 20%. To minimize dust during operation, for many years now, the company has replaced the entire ventilation fan system in the production workshops with a steam cooling system. At the end of 2022, the company replaced coal to burn boilers with sawdust to minimize toxic gases emitted into the environment.

Continue to improve quality

With practical work in environmental protection, Tinh Loi Garment Company Limited has been honored to receive many environmental awards from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the General Department of Environment and was voted by the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association as one of the 20 typical safe enterprises in the Vietnamese textile and garment industry and was awarded one of the best places to work in Asia by HR Asia Magazine (the leading prestigious magazine on human resources in Asia).

Mr. Le Viet Thu, Director of TBT Garment Company Limited, said that the company's wastewater has now reached level A, higher than the prescribed standards. Using a part of recycled fabric instead of regular fabric has taken advantage of excess materials, reducing processing costs. Using a part of firewood instead of coal fuel has contributed to reducing CO2 emissions into the environment. Investing in more modern machinery and technology has helped the company reduce electricity costs, increase productivity, and reduce labor costs. "Although the cost of using alternative materials and fuels is higher than using traditional materials and fuels, for the purpose of protecting the environment, the company still decided to invest," said Mr. Thu.

According to the Department of Environmental Protection (Department of Natural Resources and Environment), currently garment enterprises basically meet the requirements on environmental protection according to regulations.