Water Strategy

Water is predominantly used in our dyeing processes. Here it acts as the medium for applying dyes to our yarns or is used for rinsing and washing yarns before and after dyeing. In the form of steam it is also the medium used for heating water used in processing or for applying curing heat in some coating processes.

Our long-term vision is of processes that are waterless, and our investment in 2018 in Twine, a start-up company developing yarn digital dyeing processes that use no water, was partly aimed at helping to deliver that long-term goal. Twine launched their first generation of sampling machines in June 2019, to much industry interest, and we look forward to working with them on the development and implementation of their technology in the coming years.

In the meantime, our goal is to continue to reduce our use of water and hence to help safeguard this natural but limited resource. Our goal is to reduce our water usage intensity by 40% by 2022 against our 2018 baseline. This requires a further acceleration in water saving initiatives compared to the 28% saving that we achieved in the six years up to 2018. Up to the end of 2019 we have undertaken detailed water balance studies in 31 of our major plants, accounting for 62% of our total water usage. These studies enable us to map the water into each process in the plant and then determine the opportunities for reducing water usage through process changes.

A number of global and site level projects have been initiated during 2019 as a result of these studies which will impact on water usage in 2020 and beyond. During 2019 our water usage dropped by 2% against 2018, and we are confident that we will see this accelerate in 2020.

Reducing water use in traditional dyeing machines

The new generation of dyeing machines are more water efficient than older ones. The intrinsic water efficiency of a machine is measured by the liquor ratio. This is the ratio of water to thread once the machine is filled, and typical older machines will operate at a ratio of 8:1 while more modern machines, can operate at 4.5:1. This is a 44% saving in water for the same output, and is largely achieved by improved design of pumps and pipework. However, while all our new machines are low liquor ratio designs, with almost 2000 dyeing machines in use, we have a lot of older machines that still have years of life in them.

Our team in Bangladesh have been challenging themselves to find ways to achieve lower liquor ratios on old machines without modifying the machines themselves. Through a combination of maximising the thread load, optimising the water level, rationalising flow direction and adjusting the pump speeds they have managed to reduce the liquor ratio from 8:1 to 6.5:1, a 19% reduction in water used. The water saving also impacts on energy use as a lower water volume takes less heat energy to raise it to operating temperatures.

We will be spreading this innovative approach across other dyehouses in 2020.

Read more case studies

¹2018 data has been restated without NA Crafts, with Gotex and Patrick Yarn Mills and with finished goods output basis to help with like for like comparisons to 2019

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