Switzerland-based specialty chemicals manufacturer Clariant International Ltd. has introduced One
Way — a tool to help textile mills, brands and retailers measure the ecological and economical
impact of their chemical products and process solutions.
The environmental impact of textile processing has become a global issue, as an estimated 6
million tons of textile chemicals are used each year, according to the O’Donnell, Texas-based
Textile Exchange’s 2010 Global Market Report on Sustainable Textiles. The report reveals that 1
million tons of textile waste are sent to landfills annually, taking up almost 5 percent of
landfill space; textile treatment and dyeing contributes to 20 percent of industrial freshwater
pollution; and the global textile industry uses 1 trillion kilowatt hours of energy annually,
equivalent to 10 percent of the global carbon impact.
“With increasing consumer awareness of these issues, brands and retailers today are under
growing pressure to set and enforce sustainability policies, as well as monitor and measure the
environmental impact of their textile dyeing and finishing processes,” said Emrah Esder, head of
marketing, Textile Chemicals, Clariant. “However, a long-time headache has been the difficulty of
measuring the overall ecological impact of any textile process. Clariant’s One Way will address
this gap by providing fast and reliable information on the economical and ecological impact of each
textile solution.”
One Way presents a systematic methodology based on a three-step process. First, customers
select products from Clariant’s One Way database of products that have been pre-tested by the
company against more than 15 environmental and consumer standards including bluesign®, Oeko-Tex®,
The Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), the 11 priority chemical groups of the Joint Roadmap:
Toward Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals, and 20 major items on the Restricted Substances List
(RSL). Clariant’s database has more than 200 products thus far.
Second, customers narrow their selection of potential products to the process group that
best fits their environmental focus using One Way’s system, which screens dyes and chemicals and
groups them based on environmental focus.
Third, customers select the appropriate textile solution using a sophisticated calculation
software tool that provides the overall cost and performance profile – including dyes, chemicals,
water, energy and time – and the impact of each textile solution against key ecological performance
indicators. The tool currently is in the final testing phase and will be released by January 2013.
October 9, 2012
