Green Supply Chain Management in Textile Industry

Soma Parven

Environmentally conscious businesses often ask a critical question: Is green supply chain implementation really possible? Has green supply chain implementation been implemented in Bangladesh? Green supply chain management can play a major role in increasing the competitive advantages of your business. Essentially green supply chains aim to help industries reduce their carbon emissions and minimize waste while maximizing profits. Textile and leather industry is the main industry of Bangladesh. But these two industries are responsible for environmental pollution. Despite being one of the fastest growing economies, Bangladesh lags behind in implementing green supply chain management practices. In this article, I’ll cover the basics of achieving a green supply chain, why it’s important, and how our industries can benefit from green supply chain management.

What is Green Supply Chain?

A supply chain is a set of principles, processes, management actions and technologies that collectively deliver products and services to meet the identified needs of a company or customer. Where the main objective is to satisfy customer needs and generate profit.  On the other hand green supply chain is the management of environmental, social, and economic impacts, and the encouragement of good governance practices, throughout the life cycles of goods and services. The main object of green supply chain is to minimize the damage to the environment by industrial process.

 What is Green Supply Chain Management?

Supply chain management is the integration of key business processes from end users to key suppliers that provide products, services and information that add value to customers and other stakeholders.  In the apparel supply chain every organization starts from the primary fiber supplier to the customer who purchases the apparel product for final use. Green supply chain management is defined as the integration of environmental thinking into a supply chain management, which includes product design, material sourcing and selection, manufacturing process, final product delivery to the consumer and the products can be reclaimed and re-used at the end of their life-cycle therefore, creating a sustainable supply chain.

Development of Green Supply Chain Management:

Green supply chain management is also known as environmentally conscious supply

Chain management. GSCM considers environmental issues and emphasises positive efforts on the environment. In 1994, the green collection was first proposed by Webb. He suggested choosing “green” raw materials and focusing on the reuse and recycling of resources based on environmental conditions. Later in 1996, the concept of green supply chain was launched by National Science Foundation (NSF). In 1999, Beeman introduced a new approach to supply chain design by introducing some environmental factors.  Danbin is the first person who proposed a system of green supply chain. He integrated the goals, issues, technology foundations and contexts of green supply chains into a GSC model. In 2003, some Chinese researchers studied their influence on the development of green supply chains.

Why is Green Supply Chain Important for Textile Industry?

One of the biggest challenges facing the textile industry is the rising cost of apparel production and the rising cost of local and imported raw materials. Manufacturers produce garments for both local and export markets. The export market is highly competitive as China, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India are all competing to offer a better price to apparel buyers to keep their export share high. To survive in the market, first of all, the direct and indirect costs involved in the production of garments must be reduced and the right solution is to use supply chain management. Through this appropriate sourcing is possible and where cost is minimum. Now consumers are environmentally conscious. They are preferring low-cost as well as environment-friendly products. Green supply chain management practices provide considerable benefits to the environment. It strives to make supply chains sustainable by using less energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and other air pollution. This is why green supply chain management is so important for the textile industry.

How Our Industries Can Benefit from Green Supply Chain Management?

Green supply chain management is not only about mitigating the environmental impact of the supply chain; it can also offer value-driven opportunities for growth and innovation.

Its key benefits include:

1. Higher efficiency of resources.
2. Create flexibility in operation.
3. Less waste storage and production.
4. Ensure logistics management.
5. Reduction of production costs through recycling and reuse of raw materials.
6. Compliance with international policies and standards.
7. Positive brand image as consumer support for sustainability increases.
8. Reduction in energy and greenhouse gas emissions.

What Practices are Needed to Implement GSCM in Bangladesh?

In Bangladesh, the following green supply chain management practices are recommended:

1. Life Cycle Assessment: Green product design is always done by considering environmental performance assessment throughout a product’s life cycle, from its raw material production to disposal after use.

• Green Manufacturing: Establishing a green manufacturing process aims to reduce the use of toxic chemicals, eliminate carbon emissions, reduce environmental pollution, reduce waste and reuse products. The most important component of going green at this stage is reducing energy use. 

• Green packaging: Green packaging considers every step of the package’s life cycle. This includes everything from the source of the supplier to how the consumer disposes of the packaging. The use of biodegradable materials, returnable, reusable and recyclable packaging are essential features of green packaging.

• Green Purchasing: Green purchasing, which means finding suppliers of environmentally sustainable products and services. Materials must be sustainably sourced raw materials or recycled or remanufactured materials, on which the rest of the supply chain depends.
• Green design: All processes must be designed as environmentally friendly in order to reduce negative impacts, reduce resource consumption, increases the use of renewable materials and components.
• Green Transportation: According to the EPA, transportation accounted for 28.2 percent of 2018 greenhouse gas emissions. To make transportation greener, goods must be consolidated to reduce the total number of air freight shipments or truck trips. Investments can also be made in electric trucks or alternative fuel trucks. And rail transport cannot be ignored, providing an efficient and environmentally friendly solution.
• Green Marketing: This concept deals with the entire supply chain to promote products, production processes, manufacturing industries and markets. Green marketing can also be successful by releasing a large number of environmentally friendly products in the market and encouraging consumers to buy environmentally friendly products.

Conclusion: Green supply chain management is a discipline that manages the flow of green supplies at all stages of a production cycle. GSCM applies to any organization that undertakes environmentally friendly projects, manufactures green products or provides services. The main objectives of green supply chain management in textile and fashion industry are to reduce costs, improve overall organization performance, and customer satisfaction by improving product or service delivery to the customer. Bangladesh is still far behind in implementing green supply chain. If a beautiful and environmentally friendly supply chain can be implemented, the textile industry of Bangladesh will go a long way.

References:

1. https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/how-our-industries-can-benefit-green-supply-chain-management-3189716
2. https://www.agility.com/en/blog/what-are-green-supply-chain-practices-your-guide-to-supply-chain-sustainability/
3. https://fashion2apparel.com/supply-chain-management-in-textile-and-apparel-industry/
4. https://textilelearner.net/supply-chain-management-in-textile-and-fashion-industry/
5. https://commons.wmu.se/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2478&context=all_dissertations