Effluent and Emissions
Continued enhancement of effluent treatment plants along with constant real-time monitoring is key to ensuring that stringent effluent quality parameters are achieved. Increased water recycling and hence reduced stress on water supplies is also part of the company strategy.
Leader's Voice
“While no common global standards for effluent
quality existed, Coats developed and used its
own global effluent standards. We did this
because we consider that the environment is
equally precious everywhere and we wanted to
be certain that we were operating to the same
high standards in all our plants, even where the
local legislation was not as demanding.
Legislation will continue to vary widely from
country to country, but since 2016 we have been
members of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous
Chemicals group, and are wholly supportive
of the attempts being made by this body to
establish common effluent standards and
reporting transparency across the global textile
industry. We have now adopted these standards
as our own global standards and are reporting
against them biannually via the organisation’s
portal. In addition, all of our major plants have
constant online monitoring of key effluent
parameters to ensure that effluent never strays
outside accepted limits.”
Stuart Morgan
Chief Legal & Risk Officer and
Group Company Secretary
Effluent and Emissions Strategy
Our long term vision is to cease to use water for dyeing, but there is no technology currently available at industrial level to achieve that goal, so while we continue to use aqueous technology we will have a need to manage our effluent to avoid detrimental impacts on the environment. Since 2011 all of our units have worked to an internal set of effluent standards. These are, in most cases, considerably more stringent than the local requirements. In 2016 we joined the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) association as this was gathering momentum across the textile industry with the goal of creating common standards that would be applicable across the whole industry. In 2019 we adopted the ZDHC standards as our standards instead of the Coats standards. Our target is to have all units meeting the ZDHC standards by 2022, and thanks to the work already done 74% of our effluent was compliant by the end of 2020. Late in 2019 the ZDHC standard was updated to include sludge testing, and our 2020 figures now include sludge testing as well as effluent. Ensuring that all of our units are capable of meeting the required limits is important but it is equally important to ensure that effluent treatment plants are working consistently and to ensure this we installed, during 2018, automated measurement systems in all of our key units. These take measurements of core parameters every 30 seconds and issue automated warnings if the systems begin to approach control units. We also piloted, in 2019, a system that automatically shuts off discharge if a standards breach is likely. We are planning to start extending this pilot to other units in 2021.
As a significant user of energy, Green House Gas (GHG) emissions are a key concern for us. Our activities have been described above in the Energy section; reduction of energy usage and transition of energy sourcing to renewables. Our target, will be determined once we have established Science Based Targets during 2021. In 2020 we achieved a reduction of 5% in GHG emissions intensity compared to 2018. While we recorded a reduction of 23% in absolute GHG emissions compared to 2018 this is not representative as 2020 production volumes were low due to pandemic plant closures and demand drops.
By 2022, we will build on our global standard by complying with the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) effluent standards
Meeting Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals Effluent Standards by 2022
Our aim is to progressively
reduce the use of chemicals
in our processes. The very
comprehensive Coats Restricted
Substances List system that
we have had in place now
for 15 years and which at
least aligns with the tightest
requirements from any of
our customers has been
instrumental in ensuring that
we have reduced or eliminated
hazardous chemicals from our
operations.
The Zero Discharge
of Hazardous Chemicals
system is a very welcome next
step as it will drive improved
chemical management across
the supply chain, and we are
delighted to be participants in
the programme. Our approach
essentially rests on three
pillars; tight control of input
chemicals, appropriate design
of effluent treatment plants
and continuous automated
monitoring so that we can be
confident that our effluent
treatment plants are always
functioning optimally.
Maintaining high standards through a
continuous approach
Our long-term vision is to stop using
water for dyeing. But there is currently no
technology available at industrial level to
achieve that goal. So, while we continue
to use aqueous technology, our diligent
and continuous approach helps to avoid
any negative impacts on the environment
from our wastewater.
Of the water used in 2020, 67% was discharged as waste effluent (down 2% from 2018). Any effluent that we discharge needs to comply with local legislation and discharge limits and meet our internal global effluent policy, which now incorporates ZDHC standards (see below). This policy has been developed to ensure that all our operations, regardless of location, will meet a high standard in terms of the effluent they discharge. In 2019 we established an online and dynamic register of legislative changes in all the countries that we operate in which includes control of operational permits, incident reporting and control of improvement projects.
To improve monitoring of our wastewater
discharges and ensure continuous
compliance, sensors have been
installed in the final discharge point of
12 sites, including all sites where treated
wastewater is released directly into the
environment, giving immediate feedback
on parameters that would normally
take up to five days to test in laboratory.
These sensors monitor the quality of
effluent discharges every 30 seconds
measuring against five criteria, including
temperature, pH, biological oxygen
demand, chemical oxygen demand and
total suspended solids. The data is sent to
a ‘real-time’ dashboard and if the levels
of any of the parameters gets close to or
exceed a limit, the operational team will
be notified immediately. This enables us
to respond rapidly to mitigate any issues
and provides the detailed information we
need to investigate the root cause of the
issue, remedy the situation and ensure no
future incidences take place.
During 2019 we also ran a successful pilot in Shenzhen
whereby, if target parameters for online
tests are in danger of breach, the
discharge valve is closed and the treated
effluent is routed back to the start of the
treatment process. This process will be
implemented in other units during 2021.
As an unexpected benefit, the new
sensors also allowed us to see spikes in
suspended solids when the power supply
was re-established after a power cut.
Recognising this trend enabled us make
some key adjustments to stop those spikes
from happening at the start up.
Over the past six years, we have spent over $14 million on new effluent treatment plants and related technology and this spend will continue.
To date 9 of our manufacturing locations are certified to ISO14001. This represents 18% of our sites, and the certified sites account for over 30% of our output.
Zero Discharge of Hazardous
Chemicals (ZDHC)
In 2016, we signed up to the Zero
Discharge of Hazardous Chemical (ZDHC)
programme, which aims to unify efforts
to eliminate hazardous chemicals from
the global footwear and textile supply
chain. Launched by six leading brands,
the ZDHC programme has since grown
to 30 signatory brands, 114 value chain
affiliates and 21 associates. Coats is a
value-chain affiliate.
In 2019, we adopted the ZDHC
conventional parameters with foundational
limits as our Coats internal standards across
all our direct discharge sites. This applies
to all sites, including those that are not
part of the apparel and footwear supply
chain. We aim to have all units meeting
the ZDHC standards by 2022.
As of the end of 2020, 74% of our effluent was compliant with ZDHC standards, putting us on track to meet our target. The ZDHC standards have been extended to include sludge analysis and the above figure includes testing on sludge compliance.
