Viyellatex vows to be fully carbon-neutral by 2016
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Raihan M Chowdhury
Viyellatex Group is enhancing 50 per cent capacity despite a crisis of gas and power adopting various steps on 'green economy'. Green economy is the quintessence of the company's business ethics. "The enhancement of our capacity is obviously costing us because of severe power and gas crisis but the additional investment won't put any pressure on us since our vigorous efforts on green economy will offset the extra costs," David Hasanat, the group's chairman told The FE in an interview Tuesday. He said by 2016, the company will be fully carbon-neutral. The Viyellatex Group is constructing country's first "carbon-neutral" factories-knit and woven-on the outskirts of Dhaka. "It will be completed by September of next year," he disclosed. The new building will be more environment-friendly and energy-saving than the factories the company had set up earlier. The concept of green building mainly focuses on environmental issues and energy efficiency, according to experts. Also, carbon emission from such building is comparatively low. Such a building is designed as per rules of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council. LEED was launched in an effort to develop a 'consensus-based, market-driven rating system to accelerate the development and implementation of green building practices.' A three-member team of the Department of Architecture at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) has developed the design in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation-GTZ, Mr Hasanat said. " As a business graduate, I tried to apply my knowledge in 'out of the box' way incorporating the ethics of sustainability," he added. "Viyellatex Group conducted Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for the first time in Bangladesh to report the sustainability of the group on the basis of social, economic and environmental aspects. It would be the benchmark for other companies in our country," Mr Hasanat said. "I will attend a conference arranged by UNIDO on green economy on November 28-29, Mr Hasanat said. Apart from adopting steps on green economy, the company took some other social welfare-oriented programmes for the employees include female workers' pre-natal and post-natal services, eye care and training of physically crippled girls. There are some 18,000 workers in the company. A vertically integrated textile and apparel manufacturing group, Viyellatex made its debut in 2001 and the turnover stood at $ 165 million in 2008-09. In recognition of the company's efforts, Viyellatex won Standard Chartered-Financial Express CSR Award in 2008, HSBC Export Award in 2009 and HSBC-Daily Star Climate Change Award in 2010. Replying to a question whether the ongoing global recession will hit the Bangladesh export market, Mr David Hasanat replied in the negative. "We won't be affected in long term because of our unique competitiveness and capability," he asserted. He said Bangladesh won't be affected in the RMG business in next 8 to 10 years due to its unique competitiveness and capability. "No country in the world has such twin advantages," he said.
Viyellatex Group is enhancing 50 per cent capacity despite a crisis of gas and power adopting various steps on 'green economy'. Green economy is the quintessence of the company's business ethics. "The enhancement of our capacity is obviously costing us because of severe power and gas crisis but the additional investment won't put any pressure on us since our vigorous efforts on green economy will offset the extra costs," David Hasanat, the group's chairman told The FE in an interview Tuesday. He said by 2016, the company will be fully carbon-neutral. The Viyellatex Group is constructing country's first "carbon-neutral" factories-knit and woven-on the outskirts of Dhaka. "It will be completed by September of next year," he disclosed. The new building will be more environment-friendly and energy-saving than the factories the company had set up earlier. The concept of green building mainly focuses on environmental issues and energy efficiency, according to experts. Also, carbon emission from such building is comparatively low. Such a building is designed as per rules of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a rating system devised by the United States Green Building Council. LEED was launched in an effort to develop a 'consensus-based, market-driven rating system to accelerate the development and implementation of green building practices.' A three-member team of the Department of Architecture at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) has developed the design in collaboration with the German Technical Cooperation-GTZ, Mr Hasanat said. " As a business graduate, I tried to apply my knowledge in 'out of the box' way incorporating the ethics of sustainability," he added. "Viyellatex Group conducted Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for the first time in Bangladesh to report the sustainability of the group on the basis of social, economic and environmental aspects. It would be the benchmark for other companies in our country," Mr Hasanat said. "I will attend a conference arranged by UNIDO on green economy on November 28-29, Mr Hasanat said. Apart from adopting steps on green economy, the company took some other social welfare-oriented programmes for the employees include female workers' pre-natal and post-natal services, eye care and training of physically crippled girls. There are some 18,000 workers in the company. A vertically integrated textile and apparel manufacturing group, Viyellatex made its debut in 2001 and the turnover stood at $ 165 million in 2008-09. In recognition of the company's efforts, Viyellatex won Standard Chartered-Financial Express CSR Award in 2008, HSBC Export Award in 2009 and HSBC-Daily Star Climate Change Award in 2010. Replying to a question whether the ongoing global recession will hit the Bangladesh export market, Mr David Hasanat replied in the negative. "We won't be affected in long term because of our unique competitiveness and capability," he asserted. He said Bangladesh won't be affected in the RMG business in next 8 to 10 years due to its unique competitiveness and capability. "No country in the world has such twin advantages," he said.