Swedish retail brands Indiska, KappAhl and Lindex have reduced their chemical and water use, saving 284 million liters of water and 402 metric tons of chemicals annually, by participating in a cleaner production program that has also improved production capacity.
The project, Sustainable Water Resources (SWAR), is a cooperation between the Swedish brands and their Indian suppliers, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), Sida, and India-based consultancy cKinetics.
More than 40 factories in Noida, India,participated in the project. In addition to the water and chemical reductions, the factories were also able to save an average of 3 percent of their energy costs and 3 percent of their operational costs.
The project trained more than 13,000 factory workers and managers on resource efficiency in the past two years.
More than half of the participating factories will continue to work on their own, communicating their development to their clients in Sweden. Others have joined a network created by SIWI and the three fashion brands for continuing training.
This year the project scales up to include several Indian states and four other countries in the world. It involves more than 120 suppliers globally and is a part of the project Sweden Textile Water Initiative.
