Usually, today’s sustainability news revolves around something new – AI, climate tech, new fuels, etc. It isn’t terribly often we see wins by using older/known solutions. A recent Yahoo Business article discussed plans by Arvind Limited, one of India’s largest textile manufacturers, to build a “’near-carbon-neutral’ textile production center.”
The operation will use technologies
“from low-temperature enzyme pre-treatment to waterless dye carriers to heat and water recovery systems. Together they could drive as much as a 30 percent reduction in steam, 41 percent in water and 33 percent in electricity. Innovation will be behind the planned minimization of chemicals. A similar approach is set to improve wastewater quality so less treatment is required when it flows out of the plant.”
Clearly there are direct operating cost savings in Arvind’s plans, meaning hard-dollar wins right off the mark. The “near-carbon-neutral” facet is interesting too, but could be seen as a secondary financial benefit. A substack from Shivam Gusain looks at this more. Shivam backs away from Arvind’s goal of reducing GHG emissions by 93%, instead preferring a more conservative 80%.
“With an 80% emissions reduction in wet processing:
- New wet processing emissions = 4.56 kg × 20% = 0.912 kg CO₂e
- Total new per-shirt footprint = 0.912 + 4.04 = 4.95 kg CO₂e
- That’s a 42.4% reduction in total emissions per T-shirt, from 8.6 kg to 4.95 kg CO₂e.
The new plant will process 36 million metres of fabric annually. At ~0.6 metres per T-shirt (industry average), that equates to 60 million T-shirts/year, each one saving 3.65 kg CO₂e, leading to 219,000 tonnes of CO₂e saved per year.
Building this factory costs €30 million. So €30,000,000 / 219,000 tonnes CO₂e = €137 per tonne CO₂e abated
Compare that to (purely for context and not as a suggestion that they are interchangeable):
- EU ETS carbon price: €70/tonne (and rising)
- Voluntary offset market: €10–50/tonne (low quality, often unverifiable
- Direct Air Capture (DAC): €500–€1,000+/tonne (recent Climeworks failure)
- Fashion’s most popular solution (Recycling): €1,000 – €1,500″
I didn’t verify his production or per-unit emissions estimates, nor am I clear that Arvind is legally obligated to abate their emissions in any way (i.e., spending money). But as I said, that may not need to be a primary factor here. The lesson is: if you can find meaningful financial wins through sustainability-linked operational changes, you don’t need to cling to soft-dollar claims or contingencies.
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