News and Events
Interactive Session on Sustainability and Circularity - Episode - 2 on 22nd July 2024 at TEA
July 22, 2024
A hands-on workshop on Sustainability and circularity was organized by Arizona State University and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetam in collaboration with Fair Trade India and TEA at the Padmashri Dr. A. Sakthivel Auditorium, Tiruppur Exporters Association on 22nd July 2024.
General Secretary of Tiruppur Exporters Association Mr. N. Thirukkumaran, Vice President of Apparel Export Promotion Council and executive committee member of TEA Mr. R. Ramu, Chairman, Skill Development and SAMARTH Sub-Committee, EC member of TEA, Mr. R. Sakthivel, TEA Executive Committee Member Mr. S. Sundaramurthy, Advisory Committee Members Mr. V. Raghupathi and Mr. A Sunilkumar, Vice-Chairman of Young TEA Sub-Committee Mr. S. Saranraj, TEA Women Empowerment Subcommittee Member Ms. Shruthika, Dr. Rajesh Buch and Dr. Rim Jhim Aggarwal from Arizona State University, Ms. Urvashi Baith, Dr. Viswanathan, Professor Mr. Balasubramaniam and Dr. Payel Das, Dr. Tripthi Basant from Amrita University, Exporters and many representatives of exporters’ organizations also participated in the event.
Vice President of Apparel Export Promotion Council and Executive Committee member of TEA Mr. R. Ramu welcomed the gathering.
General Secretary of the TEA Mr. N. Thirukkumaran in his keynote address proudly mentioned that Tirupur exporters were leading in green garment production and recycling. Under Sustainable production principles efforts such as recovery and reuse of up to 96% for dye effluent and achieve Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD), investment in green energy production of up to 6 times the consumption of Tirupur Cluster, planting and maintenance of 2 million trees, desilting of lakes and ponds, adoption of government schools, rain water harvesting etc., are being followed by the Tirupur Cluster in the move to achieve Sustainability goals. He also mentioned that an agreement has been signed with Europe based company REVERSE RESOURCES to design methods of recycling and reusing textile waste, and an another agreement has been signed with Swiz based firm Bluesign to provide Sustainability audit reports and Bluesign tag. He also mentioned that Tirupur cluster consists of over 90% MSMEs and appealed to the government to provide them with at least 50% subsidy on capital investments for green energy.
Dean of Amrita School of Business Dr. Viswanathan noted that Amrita University is a leader in India in adopting the principles of Sustainability and Circularity.
Amrita University Researcher Ms. Urvashi Baid detailed the history of Tirupur’s knitwear industry from the 1930s to 2024 and highlighted the challenges faced by the industry during the period of growth.
Dr. Rajesh Bach and Dr. Rim Jim Aggarwal, Professors of Arizona State University gave a presentation on the UN’s vision of Environment Social Governance, the recent legislations brought forward in various countries in EU and United States of America, the Four level implementation phases from 2023 to 2034 and the position of Indian Government on the Sustainable Production through a PowerPoint Presentation. They said, by adhering to these, all producers can achieve the goals of Sustainability.
On behalf of the President of Tiruppur Exporters Association Mr. K.M. Subramanian, the General Secretary Mr. N. Thirukkumaran requested that the research papers from such universities should highlight the bottlenecks faced by the knitwear manufacturers in such a way that it attracts the attention of the Government.
Amrita University researcher Mrs. Urvashi Baith proposed the vote of thanks.
