January 2020 Edition Apparel January 2020 issue | Página 32

ARVIND’S SANTEJ TEXTILE PLANT
TAKES IN FOUR MILLION LITRES OF
WASTE WATER PER DAY
FROM THE GANDHINAGAR
MUNICIPAL CORPORATION.
The innovation hub will also house a library and
a lab space to develop water-management
solutions as well as a classroom and conference
space for those wishing to learn more about the
technologies available for water conservation.
Once completed, the centre will generate scalable
solutions that can be replicated at other mills
and laundries.
Arvind Envisol, a subsidiary of the $1.5-billion
textile conglomerate Arvind Group, has
30
I APPAREL I
January 2020
INTERVIEW
been focused in the area of researching and
bringing to life new technologies to help the
textile industry and beyond to sustainably
utilise water. The company has emerged as
a prime player in the Zero Liquid Discharge
market (ZLD), which is considered the last-mile
technology in environmental pollution mitigation.
As a manufacturer, Arvind Limited has always
been conscious of the water utilisation in their
manufacturing plants as well.
Arvind’s Santej textile plant takes in four
million litres of waste water per day from the
Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation while another
plant in Ahmedabad uses 1.5 million litres per
day from the Ahmedabad Corporation; and its
garment factory in Bengaluru, where the system
was first installed in 2016, sources somewhere
around three million litres of grey water per day
from the Bengaluru Corporation.
We further spoke to Punit Lalbhai, executive
director, Arvind Limited, about this new
development and how it holds synergies with the
company’s overall vision for the industry.
WHY PARTNER WITH GAP WHEN
ARVIND HAS SEVERAL OTHER BRANDS
IN ITS KITTY TO COLLABORATE WITH?
The partnership is with GAP Inc., United States
and Arvind Limited, who supplies textile and
apparel to GAP Inc. since many decades. GAP
is our strategic and largest customer, and they
immensely value sustainability initiatives in their
supply chain. Arvind has approached GAP Inc.
with this idea of partnership, which their team
appreciated, and they joined hands with us.
HOW DOES THIS PLAY INTO THE
EXISTING BUSINESS THAT ARVIND HAS
IN ITS AEGIS AS ENVISOL?
The key aim of the partnership was to build a
water-recycling plant that would recycle eight
million litres of municipal sewage water every
day and make it usable for textile production.