The event was held @ PHD House, New Delhi, on September 17th, 2024.
Rohit Kansal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, made a strong business case for sustainability in the textiles by iterating that, this is the season of sustainability and it would certainly appear so if one were to look at the many conferences that we have been honored to be part of the Honorable Minister and myself. Were at a conference at sustainability last week. The CII is holding its annual sustainability conference today, and we have another conference by Deloitte tomorrow.
So this only goes on to show how sustainability especially sustainability in textiles is slowly but surely becoming the centerpiece of attention in all our discourse. But of all the meetings and conferences that I have attended, I was delighted to be part of this panel today because of the many interesting and useful threads that I picked up when my co-panelists were speaking.
And in each of their discussions, I found something or the other that so very closely resonates with what I think and feel. For instance, Jadhav spoke about what Mahatma Gandhi said, there is enough in this world for everybody's need, but not enough for everybody's greed. How profound a statement that is!
And how interesting it is for us to learn that sustainability is not something that is thrust upon us, which is being forced upon us, either by consumer preferences from the West or legislation from the West, or brand demands from the West. When Mahatma Gandhi spoke about there being enough for everybody's needs, he was only echoing.
What ancient Indian wisdom and culture has taught us so far? For instance, the concept of deviyo and rituals that signify the replenishing of mother nature. Or the Prithvi Sutta from the Atharva Veda that treats the earth as a mother and underscores the importance of respectfulness towards our ancestors and Mother Earth.
So when the Brundtland Commission define sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the needs of the future, it is doing nothing but only repeating and reiterating what we Indians, as a civilization of the heritage, have known for millennia and known for a generation.
And this is burnout in the many small actions that we take every day in and every day out. Whether it is repurposing or reusing our old clothes, what we today call down cycling, upcycling, reuse, and recycling, is something that every Indian family has been using for generations.
Be that as it may, sustainability and circularity today has become a key focus for all fashion, textile, and apparel industry.
And why this is so, I will come to in a moment. But the concept of sustainability itself has changed. A few decades ago, it was a nice thing to do. We all needed to be sustainable. But today, it has changed from being just a nice thing to do, to what some would call a sine qua non. And what does sine qua non mean? Something without which not.
This is something that you cannot do without, whether you are a domestic producer, whether you are an exporter, whether you are part of the textile ecosystem, this is something that you cannot do without.
Mind you, it is not just about foreign legislation, it is not just about the demands of brands and consumers that are sitting elsewhere.
And I again pick up from what one of my co-panelists said, if we are producing unsustainability, we are exporting not just garments, we are exporting our water, we are exporting our energy, we are exporting our materials. Therefore, sustainability is about people, planets, and products, the energy we use, the water we consume, and the material we use and it is also about people, ethics, and fairness.
If you look at the global textile ecosystem, what are the megatrends that are affecting the global textile ecosystem? And my friend Varun here spoke about the trillion-dollar industry that textiles is going to be. I will give you another figure. It is estimated that by 2030, the global trade in textiles and apparel will be of a value of around 1.2 trillion.
If you look at a CAGR of 2 to 3 percent, around 60 percent of it will be apparel color. So that is one megatrend. What is the other mega trend? The other mega trend is innovation, digitization, industry 4. 0. What is the third mega trend? The third megatrend is a shift in sourcing patterns. We all talk about so and so plus one, so and so plus two.
But if you simply compare the value of products being exported to some of the advanced countries vis a vis the countries from which they are importing, the shift in resources, the shift in sourcing pattern will become very much apparent. But what is one trend which is the overarching trend, which is driving all other trends?
It is sustainability. And I again pick up from what somebody said, that it's not just about being sustainable. It's also about telling the entire world that you are sustainable. The equivalent of putting it up on Facebook and Instagram. Textile production results in greenhouse gas emissions of 1. 2 billion tons per year.
But I think it's not just about the negative impacts. I think there is a good business case for sustainability as well. And let me quote you another figure. It has been estimated that it is possible to unlock a 500 billion dollar market in global trade simply by adopting sustainable and circular practices.
In the next two years, our sustainable fashion market, And we also know how material efficiency, water use efficiency represent good business cases for anybody who tries to be sustainable. So given this overall context of sustainability and given the global context and the global labor trends, what is India doing for?
I spoke about how we have a culture of sustainability, and how we have a heritage of sustainability. And it will surprise so many of you to know that even in the present, our textile industries, our textile clusters are doing enormously well when it comes to sustainability. You heard Mr. Sharma talk about the steps that his company is taking.
And there are any number of large companies which are as sustainable as the best companies in the world. Whether you take, talk of India's largest, the world's largest denim producer, Arvind, or you talk of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail, you talk of the largest exporter, Shaheen, each one of them is a leader, a bellwether in sustainability.
That is, what is so interesting or important, although that holds a position of its own. What is interesting and important is the steps that are being taken by so many of our clusters representing MSME units on this path to sustainability. And I will give you only three examples.
130 crore liters of water representing reuse and water recovery of 95 percent of water is taken care of by the Tirupur NETWARE cluster. Which is one of the most sustainable things to do in terms of the use of water. 95 percent of plastic bottles in India are recycled today. The largest recycling cluster is Panipat.
But Panipat is also now becoming a story that is a little old. So it is the women-led clusters. Samana and Agroha clusters in the south are leading the way in textile recycling. Surat is the MMF capital of India, but some of the sustainability steps taken by Surat in terms of water efficiency, in terms of recycling need to be evaluated and of course, at the policy level you have the MOC mandate in the BRSR reports.
you have a renewable energy target. And we have met our green energy targets in so far as our Paris commitments are concerned almost one decade before we were supposed to be there. Over 45 percent of our installed capacity generation in energy is now from non-fossil fuel sources. One of my panelists spoke about Kasturi cotton.
Kasturi cotton using blockchain technology is one of the best examples. We are setting up seven Mitra paths, each Mitra path will use green energy and promises to be a net zero path. So friends, what I want to tell you is that we do not have to look at any external agencies to give us lessons on circularity.
If we only look at each other. If our other clusters were to look at what Tirupur is doing in water reuse and water efficiency, or what Panipat is doing on textile recycling waste, and if all of us clusters were to look at each other, learn from each other, I think we will all be one of the most sustainable textile economies in the world.
In summary
The entire textile production is in the global south, so it is only to reason that the standards for recycling, the standards for sustainability should also be set by the global south. India has been a leader in sustainability in many ways and models. We are adding the largest and the fastest amount of renewable energy.
We are now going to be leaders in the EV ecosystem, and I dare say that sustainability in textiles is going to be the third area when India can rightfully occupy a leadership position, and I exhort all of you to work together toward that goal.