Instead of taking sustainability as a cost, President of Everest Textile, Roger Yeh believes genuine support of environmental protection links with efforts that make green production not only possible, but also profitable. Green production and the manufacturing of green products are thus more likely to sustain and can be further developed in the long run, Mr Yeh told ATA Journal at the recent Interstoff Asia Essential exhibition in Hong Kong this March.

Adsale: Adsale ATA Journal
Yeh: Roger Yeh

Adsale: What reasons have driven Everest Textile to support sustainability?

Yeh: Everest Textile supports sustainability based on three factors.

About 30% of the manufacturing cost was brought down due to its efforts to optimize its manufacturing and other operations.¹ The company also improves its corporate image through the pursuit of sustainability, and the social value is enhanced as the company maintains harmony with the local community and the neighboring environment.

Adsale: What is the latest achievement of Everest Textile in sustainability?

Yeh: Earlier this May, Everest Textile became the first company in Asia to receive bluesign international textile environmental protection certification for coating and lamination. This proves Everest's determination and efficiency in the pursuit of innovation and environmental protection. We do what we say immediately and this is the main reason why we are the first-choice benchmark company for many customers.

Since the company officially became a bluesign partner in May 2008, we have continued the efforts to develop green products, reduce energy use and waste and pay close attention to environmental and personnel safety.

At present, Everest has 22 product lines and 935 products have been awarded the bluesign standard. Everest's Thailand and Shanghai plants are currently undergoing bluesign screenings.

: What are the economic benefits of supporting eco-friendly production at Everest Textile?

Yeh: Among the multi-faceted efforts Everest Textile rolled out, the construction of a green production facility serves as a foundation to save water and energy.

The new facility of Everest Textile was designed to recycle hot water to reduce heating cool water from the tap, but heating warm water transferred from other processes within the facility. By adopting heat-exchange techniques, we are able to reuse the process heat to save both water and energy substantially.

In addition to the core green factory building, Everest Textile opened the 53-acre Tainan site in December 2008, which is an eco-industrial park equipped with solar-energy lighting, a greenhouse of vegetables and fruits, a flower garden, a district that breeds fireflies and butterflies, and more. Landscaping with trees and climbing plants helps keep the neighborhood cooler and reduce indoor air-conditioning costs. In addition to saving money, conserving energy directly translates into less carbon dioxide emission otherwise generated at power stations.

Adsale: What are the core competences of Everest Textile?

Yeh:Apart from minimizing environmental footprint, Everest Textile considers product innovation and integrity as core values of the company.

Everest Textile is equivalent to innovation among many of our clients. Despite the current economy, we keep investing in our research efforts and launching new products in 2009. We have registered 21 patents in Taiwan and overseas and annually invest 4% of its total revenue on R&D.

About 70% of Everest Textile's product innovation is its own proprietary research to maintain its edge in the market.

Everest Textile also focuses on design-for-the-environment principle and takes into its design considerations the environmental impact of every stage of the product life cycle. The manufacturing department, meanwhile, stresses on maximizing production efficiency adhering to principles of resources optimization, minimal pollution, and recyclable manufacturing approaches.

About 15% of the company's production (in volume) is eco-friendly textiles, including PFOA/PFOS-free fabrics, Tencel Plus EverTek, organic cotton, recycled polyester and recycled nylon, as well as Ever PLA (polylactic fibers).

Meanwhile, 77% of Everest Textile's products are directly sold to brands. Major clients are based in the US, Europe and Japan. The company operates three factories in China (Shanghai), Taiwan (Tainan) and Thailand (Bangkok) respectively.

Adsale: What do you expect from 2009 in business-doing?

Yeh: After working on cost structuring and eco-related technologies in 2007-08, we anticipate a 10%-20% production growth in 2009, partly due to the recent currency depreciation in Taiwan. The cost level of the Tainan factory is the same as that in China, thanks to the adoption of new cost-effective and eco-efficient technologies.

¹ Some of the measures were covered in Feature Story of ATA Journal's Apr/May issue.