Sustainable chemical management firm ZDHC Foundation has released its Air Emissions Guidelines V1.0 to establish performance criteria for air emissions within the textile, apparel, leather, and footwear manufacturing industries.
ZDHC clarified that rather than testing, the first version of the guidelines is intended to raise industry awareness, allowing suppliers to set their baselines and obtain a thorough understanding of air emission limits.
These rules will be tested in later iterations.
The ZDHC Air Emissions Guidelines V1.0, in the company’s opinion, represent a critical turning point in ZDHC’s objective to improve environmental responsibility throughout the world supply chain.
These recommendations emphasise ZDHC’s commitment to supporting sustainable practices via continuous improvement and are based on the framework established by the organization’s 2019 Air Emissions Position Paper.
For greenhouse gases, ZDHC has made a conscious decision to align these guidelines with existing industry efforts to avoid unnecessary duplication:
For suppliers – Gain valuable insight into suppliers’ VOC and GHG emissions current performance. Establish effective VOC emissions practices and progress from Foundational to Aspirational Levels. Demonstrate suppliers’ commitment to sustainability.
For brands – Empowers brands’ supply chains to adopt cleaner manufacturing processes to improve air emissions. Map brands’ supply chain’s current status quo for VOC and GHG emissions. Build on brands’ sustainability commitments/goals.
ZDHC stated that a methodical, phased approach is being used in the preparation of these guidelines. In this first iteration, the company is concentrating on input formulations that contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), rather than greenhouse gases (GHGs), as a result of the industry’s collective efforts to set the specifications.
ZDHC anticipates that facilities will submit their data following these current regulations.
