An empirical study regarding the environmental sustainability practices in the textile industry

Abstract

The textile industry causes various types of pollution due to extensive utilization of resources, resulting in harmful impacts on the natural environment and people’s health. As a result, many environmental organizations and countries are implementing various environmental safety policies. The developing countries are making less effort in the protection of the global environment. Hence, it is very important to analyse the environmental sustainability situation of the developing production markets and subsequently provide suggestions for improvement. Pakistan is a developing textile market, providing a range of textile products around the world. This paper presents the results of a survey regarding the environmental sustainability in the textile industry of Pakistan related to energy sustainability, water sustainability, air sustainability, materials sustainability, transportation sustainability, safety & health and consumer use sustainability. For the data collection, this research uses a structured questionnaire, interviews, and personal visits to 122 textile mills. Data collected through a questionnaire related to the above areas of sustainability was analysed by calculating the frequency distribution, mean, and median in the statistical software SPSS. The results of the data analysis exhibited that the Pakistani textile companies are gradually improving many environmental sustainability areas. The paper identifies some weak sustainability areas which need more attention to accelerate the implementation process. In addition, the textile companies that are involved in international trade tend the implementation of environmental sustainability. In addition, this study integrates the insights for policymakers and practitioners to improve the environmental sustainability in the textile industry of the developing markets.