Planet Textiles has made a big sustainable push during the one-day summit that was part of a week-long series of events on environmental and social issues in the textile sector. More than 340 delegates from 25 countries attended the summit, which included a two-day Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) annual members meeting and the SAC manufacturers’ forum.

The event on textiles and sustainability discussed various crucial issues including textile wastewater pollution, chemical management and natural resource conservation for both energy and water use.

"The value of the Indian textiles industry, currently at $108 billion, is expected to reach $223 billion by 2021. Presently, the Indian textiles sector consumes around 830 million cubic litres of water per annum," said Manoj Gulati, executive director, India, from international NGO Water.org, which works with the likes of IKEA, Gap and Inditex to equip people with the means to access water and sanitation in textile producing regions.

At the summit, keynote speaker Tracy Nilsson, senior director of social environmental affairs at Adidas emphasised the importance of reducing water use at a minimum of 20 per cent by 2020.

"Water is not only essentially for life, it is a key resource for our industry. Factors, such as the ever growing population and the impacts of climate change are tipping the scale to a point where water supply may no longer meet demand. With an increase and ever growing issue of water scarcity, we have developed an overall approach to address water efficiency, improve wastewater quality and provide better accessibility to water in communities," Nilsson said.

The breakout sessions sponsored by Archroma, Oeko-Tex and the ZDHC Group, focused on practical, sustainable, solutions for textile wet processing, chemical management and discharge, and pollution.