1 February 2020
Rajby Textile, C&A, Archroma Pakistan and EIG team up to create the first C2C Certified Platinum Fabric
Rajby Textle, a Karachi based denim manufacturer, is the first company in the world to achieve Cradle to Cradle Certified™ at Platinum level for its fabric Beluga. With EIG’s support along the way, C&A active involvement to enable the active product cycling and Archroma working hard to achieve water quality requirements, Rajby Textiles is paving the way to new quality standard for the fashion industry.
After working to design and manufacture a C2C Certified™ Gold level fabric- Green Mystery – Rajby wanted to go one step further to develop the first Platinum level textile product in the world.
Together with their Cradle to Cradle assessor, Eco Intelligent Growth, the company developed a denim that meets platinum requirements for all five categories. This required Rajby to work closely with its suppliers and clients to make denim that is:
-100% safe and healthy for people and the environment
–100% from rapidly renewable (plant-based) resources and recyclable
-Being actively cycled
–100%+ of the final manufacturing stage is carbon neutral
–All water is relooped and reused in the facility
–Verified for social fairness claims by a third-party audit
This makes the Beluga denim the first C2C Certified™ Platinum award ever in fashion and textiles possible.
Rajby, a company that thrives for Good
There were several challenges to overcome to achieve this fully optimized product. And as every C2C optimized product is part of a effective system, solutions are to be achieved by collaboration.
Main achievements by quality category:
Material Health
To meet the platinum challenge, Rajby had to design a fabric made entirely of safe and rapidly renewable ingredients, both fibers and chemicals. This means that no oil-based dyes, auxiliaries, or other chemicals could be used for this product, which can also be difficult to identify due to a lack of transparency in the chemical supply chain. Luckily, Rajby had the support of their key supplier Archroma, who worked extensively with its own supply chain to identify textile auxiliaries with the desired performance and that still followed the demanding requirements. MBDC was the Material Health Assessor in charge of the full chemical and exposure assessment.
Material Reutilization
In order to meet Platinum level, a product must be actively cycled. Since Rajby does not sell products to the end consumer, the company had to work with one of its key clients to ensure that Beluga will be actively cycled into a new product after its usable lifetime, instead of becoming a waste. Since an active cycling rate was required data was gathered from a brand. The Dutch retail brand C&A had an active role in gathering the required data to ensure that this fabric will be a part of its takeback system.
Water Stewardship
In order to meet Platinum level in this category Rajby designed a new system to recover all water used in the Beluga process, separately, to ensure complete reuse. This was possible due to the combined work of the technical managers at Rajby together with key supplier Archroma, to innovate after several attempts with the right chemicals for this system to work properly.
Renewable Energy
In addition to quantifying the amount and offsetting 100% of the energy used by Rajby to make Beluga at the final manufacturing stage, the company reached out to its supply chain to obtain first-hand information on the carbon footprint of the product upstream. In order to quantify the overall carbon emissions from cradle to gate, EIG worked with LCA-based data. These carbon emissions were partially offset by Rajby, as an additional requirement to meet platinum level.
Social Fairness
Outside of the Platinum product certification, Rajby also has progressive social objectives aiming to have a more inclusive workforce and provide opportunities to minorities in their community. Rajby also has been audited and approved by WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production)
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