Sri Lanka apparel exporter gets ready for carbon footprint rules

Apr 02, 2010 (LBO) - Sri Lankan apparel exporter Brandix said it is investing more to cut energy costs and carbon emissions and comply with anticipated laws in key markets requiring disclosure of carbon footprints of products.

The group, which has invested four million US dollars on the initiative, said it has already reduced its annual carbon footprint by seven percent and is well on target to achieve a reduction of up to 30 percent by 2012.

We believe this will be very important in the years to come from the EU and the US markets, said A J Johnpillai, Group Director, Brandix.

We feel that very soon there will be legislation whereby a manufacturer has to identify how much of carbon is emitted from each garment.

When that comes we will be able to do that very fast.

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The group would invest another two million dollars (230 million rupees) over the next two years to improve energy efficiency, switch to renewable energy and promote eco-friendly manufacture to reduce its carbon footprint by nearly a third by March 2012.

The initiative to calculate the carbon footprint for every individual type of garment manufactured by the group would help in obtaining eco-friendly labels which carry weight with buye