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| Issue date:21/08/2009 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - Aug 2009 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
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Featured company: Everest Textile
by Michelle Phong
If sustainability means additional cost, then manufacturers may consider the approaches of Taiwanese company, Everest Textile. According to its president, Roger Yeh, some energy saving measures undertaken have helped the company to cut operating cost by as much as 30%
Based in Tainan city, Taiwan, Everest Textile has recently become the first company in Asia to be recognised by an international organisation for its environmentally friendly production processes.
The company was awarded the “bluesign international textile environmental protection certification for coating and lamination” in May, which made it a benchmark company for others in the textile manufacture field.
Bluesign is an independent international quality standard. Adhering to an input stream management, manufacturers are able to offer low-pollutant textiles under an environmentally friendly, resource-efficient and thus economical production. The standard is an instrument for meeting criteria of environment, health and safety.
Speaking about Everest becoming the first textile company in Asia with bluesign certified coating & lamination products, Roger Yeh, President of Everest, said: “This proves Everest’s determination and efficiency in the pursuit of innovation and environmental protection. We do what we say and this is the main reason why we are the benchmark company for many customers.”
Since becoming a bluesign partner about a year ago, Everest has made efforts to develop new green products and reduce the use of energy, in addition to enhancing the safety of employees by ensuring the solvent content in the work environment of DMF (Dimethyl Formamide) TOL (Toluene) and MEK (methyl ethyl ketone) are all within the legal limit. These solvents are used in the manufacture of man-made fibers including that of PET fibers. Moreover, a “DMF circulation system” was also established to allow DMF solvent to be recycled and reused.
At present, Everest has 22 product lines and 935 products have been awarded the bluesign standard. Its Thailand and Shanghai plants are currently undergoing bluesign screenings.
Roger Yeh |
About 30% of the manufacturing cost was brought down due to its efforts to optimize manufacturing and other operations. Under the “Everest Sustainability Model”, the company engaged in process optimization to reduce dyes and auxiliaries, optimize formula to minimize the environmental impact, and enhance cost efficiency by lowering energy and water consumption. A group of eco-efficiency indicators are adopted to provide a record that evaluates its manufacturing activities and their environmental impacts.
Moreover, Everest also takes into account production and environmental costs in the design process so as to minimize resources wastes and losses. This also contributes to an overall saving in the cost of mass production when the product is commercialized.
Green facilitiy
Among the multi-faceted efforts Everest rolled out, the construction of a green production facility serves as a foundation to save water and energy.
The new facility of Everest 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, the company is able to reuse the process heat to save both water and energy substantially.
Cabbage butterflies (above) are seen in green areas of the Tainan factory of Everest
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Mr Yeh explained that his dyeing house is cooler than a common one. “The Tainan-based factory was designed to keep in-house environment cool and comfortable through sufficient air convection, as well as the installation of a drencher system to cool down air coming from outside the building, especially during summer.” Tainan city in southern Taiwan lies in a sub-tropical region with an average temperature in July at 29.1℃.
The drencher system provides a curtain of water at the exit of the factory. As a result, incoming air is lowered to about 27℃ when the outdoor temperature is 35℃ on a hot summer day. Afterwards, cool air is ventilated through rooms and corridors of the facility, using the principle of negative pressure.
“These are low-cost but highly efficient approaches to make ourselves comfortable while saving costs… I used to enjoy air-conditioning so much, but now my office is equipped with fans, and I feel healthier in such lifestyle,” he said.
In addition to the core green factory building, Everest 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 leads to less carbon dioxide emission otherwise generated at power stations.
Product innovation is core competence
Apart from minimizing environmental footprint, Everest considers product innovation and integrity as core values of the company.
“We put forward functionality and product characteristics as the unique selling proposition of our products. Product value drives users and consumers to pay for our products, whilst the love for the nature is our responsibility,” said Mr Yeh.
“Everest 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,” he added. The company has registered 21 patents in Taiwan and overseas and annually invests 4% of its total revenue on R&D.
About 70% of Everest’s product innovation is its own proprietary research to maintain its edge in the market. A recent example is “Airpass”.
“Airpass” is green, breathable and stretchy technical fabrics, applicable for outerwear and other apparel. The waterproof breathable shells of the Airpass fabrics enable faster moisture vapor transmission for greater comfort.
Engineered fabrics with microporous coating |
Everest 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 aligned with principles of resources optimization, minimal pollution, and recyclable manufacturing approaches.
Moreover, simplicity is a key driver of Everest’s innovation. “Simplicity is power. We innovate for simpler yet quality and functional fabrics to streamline costs. We produce ‘modules’ such as warped yarns with selected ends of 1200, 1400 and etc,” he said.
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 the company’s products are directly sold to brands, which are sent to usually original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for further manufacturing. The rest of buyers mainly purchase fabrics for their own use.
Everest started selling fabrics to brands about a decade ago, e.g. Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, Nike, Pantagonia, Puma, The North Face and Under Armour. Today, major clients are based in the US, Europe and Japan. It has established some 10 sales and marketing offices in Dubai, New York, Paris, Osaka, San Francisco and Tokyo.
Everest operates three factories in China (Shanghai), Taiwan (Tainan) and Thailand (Bangkok) respectively. The factories in Taiwan and Thailand primarily produce to meet overseas orders, whereas the China factory sells a small portion of its products to the local Chinese market.
After working on cost structuring and eco-related technologies in 2007-08, Mr Yeh anticipated a stable performance in 2009, partly due to the recent currency depreciation in Taiwan. He said the cost level of the Tainan factory is the same as that in mainland China, thanks to the adoption of new cost-effective and eco-efficient technologies.
Everest is an example of Taiwanese producer-turned innovator gaining its market status in the global man-made fiber market.
Due to insufficient natural resources for textile production and vigorous international competition, the Taiwanese textile and apparel industry have shifted the focus to higher value textile and garment products for years. Reputed Taiwan-made textile products is engineered man-made fibers with added functionality and improved performance. Taiwanese players are able to maintain their shares in the global market through maximizing a collection of advantages, namely stable production of quality products, prompt responses to market changes, good and quick services, as well as active communications with clients, said Mr Yeh. A recent example was seen in the ISPO exhibition in Munich this February, where Taiwanese players projected a satisfactory image in association with the Taiwan Textile Federation, he added.
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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