AMSTERDAM – A new public disclosure tool aims to drive transparency around the release of wastewater by textile mills. The ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme’s online Public Disclosure Portal will help apparel brands spot pollution hotspots in their textile supply chains with the aim of identifying gaps and driving performance in meeting the requirements of the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines.
The Public Disclosure Portal gathers information from verified facility wastewater test data from the ZDHC Gateway – Wastewater Module as well as wastewater test data from the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) platform.
The ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines, released in 2016, set the industry’s first unified expectations on wastewater quality. It provides a harmonised set of parameters, limit values and test methods, to ensure brands and facilities are working to the same set of expectations at a global level. Testing in accordance with the Guidelines helps to validate facilities’ conformance to the ZDHC MRSL.
The Public Disclosure Portal builds on the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines by providing clear public information on conformance. It helps to identify the most impacted areas worldwide and prioritise actions to mitigate the environmental impact of supply chains.
In the Portal’s interactive map, colour-coded spots represent individual facilities’ aggregated wastewater data. Green indicates all tested analytes meet the ZDHC Wastewater Guideline requirements, red indicates that at least one tested analyte does not meet the requirements, and yellow confirms that at least one tested analyte does not meet the requirements, and that a corrective action plan has been submitted.
Said Stefan Seidel, head of corporate sustainability at German sportswear brand Puma: “This tool is a major step forward to encourage all actors to take up the ZDHC mission to advance towards zero discharge of hazardous chemicals in the textile, leather and footwear value chain. By moving the entire industry towards conformance, we are working to ensure wastewater discharge from the textile, leather and footwear industry does not adversely affect the environment and surrounding communities.”