SUSTAINABILITY

At Manohar Filaments we believe in creating a lasting, tangible and sustainable impact on the environment and community we live in.

We understand that every small step matters when it comes to being more sustainable and promoting a sustainability driven culture within the organisation. We are working on our in-house processes and also within our communities to create a lasting impact which nurtures sustainability and promotes our greener ambition.

A few of our initiatives include the plantation drive of planning more than 50,000 trees in and around our Manohar factory locations, adopting a pond to create fresh potable water for local population and to apply water harvesting and solar power in all of our manufacturing facilities. Amongst this we have also built a “green” factory in Vietnam which will open in 2021.

This drive is additional to our team’s constant efforts to innovate and introduce new sustainable products, which reduce the impact our customers have on the environment.

PRODUCTS

Sustainability is about gradualness, care, flourishing and responsibility. At Manohar filaments our mission is to create the best product with the least amount of harm to the environment and to use business to inspire and implement a tangible solution to the global crises. We believe in promoting the use of sustainability manufactured raw materials like recycled paper, FSC^® paper (ask about our FSC^® – certified products), recycled yarns and organic yarns – in polyester and cotton. Our goal is to promote sustainable solutions to our partners, without compromises on the design or costing of the product. We are collaborating with the leaders in sustainability to enlarge our product offering and are active participants in the HIGG Index analysis program, being driven by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition. Manohar have successfully deployed sustainable solutions like paper hangers and 100% recycled labels for our partners. To find out more on the sustainable range of products in our range ‘Ecolutionary’ please get in touch with us.

OUR INITIATIVE

At Manohar Filaments, it is our prime focus to support our words with actions and as our home country’s martyr Gandhi once said, “Be the change we want in the world”

Below we highlight our initiatives which we have committed to in accordance with our board’s sustainability charter;

1) We are participating in the HIGG index program, helmed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, this ensures our facilities are suitable to the global standard for sustainable supply. Our manufacturing units are being re-engineered to produce less waste such as eliminating discharge of ETP water, establishment of treatment plants to allow recycling of waste water, thereby reducing our consumption by millions of litres per annum. Our aim is to have all Manohar units aligned with this.

2) Our facilities are being equipped with solar power plants, rain water harvesting initiatives and the use of electronic documents to reduce the use of paper in the workplace.

3) Manohar are dedicating our creative resources and R&D teams to work on sustainable product offerings, where the goal is to create product which has the least impact to the environment yet still remains at near cost-parity with conventional, labels, packaging and fashion accessories.
We aim to incorporate sustainable and eco-friendly options in our exclusive designer collections, which provides evidence to customers that sustainability and commercial design can go hand in hand without compromising on aesthetics or functionality.

Our trade marked collection ‘Ecolutionary’ was created by our team to promote the use of eco-friendly and sustainable products in 2019, our second collections are now available for review and we will continue to promote such products through our participation in global trade fairs, across Munich, New York, Paris, London, HK, Delhi and Bangalore.

4) Manohar filaments provides its customers with the ability to choose 100% sustainable products. We have certifications such as FSC^®(FSC-103974), GRS & GOTS, which under-pin our sustainable initiative is traceable right from the sourcing of raw materials.

The raw material in all Manohar products is sustainably sourced and does not cause harm post-consumption. We advocate the use of recycled and recyclable products and are working constantly with our partners and customers to create a circular economic model, which allows for every trim of a garment and accessory to be either recycled or up-cycled, for a better and greener earth.

5) From a community standpoint we have pledged to create a greener landscape by one tree at a time, we have embarked on a journey to add 50,000 trees in and around our facilities in India and then across our global facilities.
Through the cooperation & help of the local administration we have adopted a local pond for providing potable water to a village in India. We also actively fund education of under-privileged children in India and our goal is to provide education which goes beyond basic schooling, but also covers their graduation and vocational trainings.

6) We are partnering up with UNESCO in Bangladesh, in an initiative aimed to improve the status-quo for children associated with the clothing and apparel retail industry – this initiative is BB4C or Better Business for Children. We look forward to bringing in improvements to the lives of children whose parents are involved in the industry and by doing our best to ensure that child labour is eradicated and children receive the rightful education and skills to have a better tomorrow.

As we move along on this journey to make the world a better place, we ask that you join us in our endeavour and mail us your suggestions and ideas at ecolutionary@manoharfilaments.com

CHARTER

The Board of Manohar Filaments has approved a three pronged sustainability charter which will focus on our products, processes and societal impact.
We endeavour to be a pioneer in sustainability, not just as an Indian manufacturer of garment accessories & trims, but as a global contributor to support the sustainability initiatives of our partners and clients across the world and in all locations Manohar Filaments owns and operates in. The strategy is based on an adoption of more eco-friendly raw materials for our products, incremental adoption of sustainable practices in our processes across locations where we manufacture, starting from the flagship unit in Delhi, India.
Similar process initiatives are to be implemented across manufacturing units in a period of five years. Another key area for implementing sustainability and moving towards a circular economy is through contributions to the society. Manohar Filaments is trying to create an ever-incremental strategy which will impact the community in which it operates across the world continually and in a lasting manner.
Find below the modus-operandi, in which the strategy will work for the next few years, up until 2025. Updates to the charter will be shared quarterly.

1. Products– Manohar Filaments manufactures various products and has pledged to use as much as possible material which is sustainable in nature. Textile and Paper products are the two areas of intense improvement, where the goal is to be 70% sustainable by 2025, based on global apparel trends.

a) Textile/Yarn Based Products
Use of recycled cotton, recycled polyester, recycled spun polyester (all products)
Sources
GRS – Global Recycle Standard certified. To establish chain of custody Manohar Filaments is getting certified by GRS, which provides traceability of yarn that ensures recycled yarn employed is being used with proper chain of custody and material made is with agreed percentage of recycled yarn. Traceability and certification would be maintained to confirm yarns are PCW based, depending on requirements placed by partners.

b) Paper– Use of FSC^®, Non-, FSC^®

Recycled paper is being increased and promoted with all partners. Declaration for recycled material can be made available to ensure the paper is recycled specifically with post-consumer waste.

c) Sustainable Product Collection– Products with sustainable options launched every year. This endeavour will help our clients choose various sustainable product options and understand that they may choose sustainable products without compromising on quality/aesthetics with minimal incremental cost.

2. Process– All manufacturers who are engaged in apparel branding are trying to make an improvement to production. Manohar Filaments recognizes that the responsibility towards a truly sustainable future begins with manufacturing. There is a large scope to make internal processes and practices more sustainable in nature and our changes which have been already made or are in the process of execution in next 5 years’ timeline are listed below.

a) Boiler– In the year 2018 Manohar’s packaging and dyeing unit switched from use of petcoke as a fuel to bio-fuel which is more sustainable and produces lower emission. By end of 2019, switch to Piped Natural Gas, PNG, which will reduce emissions drastically as it is almost fully combustible.

b) ETP (Effluent Treatment Plant)– Manohar’s packaging and dyeing unit uses a Bio Cleaner technology, which minimizes use of chemicals and sludge generation, from approximately 2 tons in a conventional ETP to 150-200 K.G. Also the sludge generated is handed over to approved recycling vendor, certification is available for the same. A similar model will be used in Manohar’s global manufacturing locations and all units will be aligned with this ETP by 2025.

c) Solar Power– 100 KW plant by 2020 in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam to be followed, with a target of 500 KW power through Solar by the year 2025.

d) Rain water harvesting– 40K Litres per season is harvested, the plan is to increase the same and align all units to ensure that 400K litres of water is saved in all units by the year 2025.

e) Global Commitment– Manohar is committed to the global apparel initiative towards sustainability and HIGG Next audit in India and BD is year 2020.

f) Paper used in house– Use of packing boxes and cartons are predominantly with recycled paper, approximately 2 tons per month. Certification can be made available.

3. Society– While being sustainable in the internal processes and products manufactured are extremely important, building a community which is sustainable both internally and externally are of great importance to Manohar Filaments.

a) Farmer Welfare– Manohar Filaments is a member of BCI initiative, which is working continually towards the upliftment of farmers.

b) CSR– Education of children, Manohar filaments sponsors education of underprivileged children with Purkal, an NGO working relentlessly for providing equal opportunities to children whose families can’t provide them such opportunities.

c) Potable water for Ladsauli Village– Manohar Filaments has adopted a pond for filtration and conservation, the goal is to keep it potable for use by villagers. Two rain water harvesting pits are also to be installed at the pond site to save 50 K litres minimum, year on year, thereby by positively impacting the ground water levels.

d) Plantation– 500 trees planted annually in premises on World Environment Day.

e) Future Manufacturing Locations– Manohar Filaments is committed to making all manufacturing locations ‘Green’, in terms of impact on environment, the upcoming plant in Vietnam will be built accordingly.

f) Plantation– We as a business are in discussion with local authorities to adopt an area which we can maintain a plantation and ensure that the area is revamped and maintained with a minimal level of 50,000 trees over a period of 5-10 years.