Most of the textile manufacturers in South Asia do not comply with environmental and social compliance issues despite the fact attracting to the world’s leading buyers because of their low labor wages and cheap products with desired quality, says a research study on the sustainability risks, carried out by a group of researchers. However, this industry is also considered highly polluting because of its intensive, hazardous discharge to the environment.
In recent decades, said the study, the textile industry of Bangladesh faced several serious accidents, including the collapse of the Rana Plaza (death of 1134 workers), the Spectrum factory building (death of 64 workers), the Phoenix factory building (death of 22 workers), and Tazreen Fashions fire (death of 112 workers).
These accidents resulted from a lack of attention to compliance issues. This industry suffered significant losses as a result of these massive accidents, and international buyers were hesitant to outsource their goods from Bangladesh. Later, the tendency of practitioners to overlook non-compliance issues has been changed. Moreover, elite citizens and segments of buyers have raised their voices to demand an SSC in the textile industry.
Now, with augmented attention to compliance requirements and competitive business benefits, textile managers are trying to ascertain sustainability practices in their Supply Chains (SCs). Therefore, the textile industry has emerged as an important area to explore and assess Supply Chain Sustainability Risks (SCSRs) through which practitioners will understand the current sustainability gaps and get directions to materialize sustainability in their SCs.
The textile mills of Bangladesh had discharged 349 million m3 of wastewater through conventional dyeing processes in 2021, according to an assessment-based study. Meanwhile, several studies claimed that most of the companies in this industry do not comply with environmental and social compliance issues.
