EN3: Direct energy consumption by primary energy source
Anvil’s primary sources of direct energy are depicted in the below chart. Anvil’s principal source of direct energy continues to be Bunker C oil which is used to power the onsite boilers that produce steam for dyeing and finishing fabric at our Honduras textile plant. This year’s 36% increase in production led to a 64% increase in Bunker C due to the increased energy needed for our dyed t-shirt production. As a consequence of this increase, our engineers have been focused on identifying opportunities to make this production more energy and resource efficient.
Natural gas, our next largest source of direct energy which is used to heat our 18-acre South Carolina distribution facility, and generates steam at our North Carolina garment dye factory, increased by 28% but remained below 2008 levels.
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For emissions information, please read our response to EN16-EN18 under the Emissions, Effluents and Waste Aspect of this Section.
EN4: Indirect energy consumption by primary source & AF21: Amount of energy consumed and percentage of the energy that is from renewable sources
Although our primary source of indirect energy continues to be the electricity we use to power all seven of our facilities, we remain committed to increasing our use of bio-mass, a refined fuel made from biodegradable waste and an environmentally sustainable alternative to emission heavy fossil fuels. In 2010, our use of bio-mass fuel increased by 10%, which helped us avoid using 60,460 gallons of oil. In 2011, we have entered into a leasing agreement with the owner of the bio-mass provider to become the operator of the system. Our next report covering 2011 should further reflect an ever increasing of energy generated by bio-mass as we work to make the system more efficient.
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EN5: Energy saved due to conservation and efficiency improvements
As we reported last year, the focus of our energy conservation initiatives remains on making our use of Bunker C oil and electricity more efficient, our two primary sources of direct and indirect energy respectively.
While we had already made significant improvements to our Waste Water Heat Recovery System in the last three years, in 2010 we focused on how we could continue to be more even more efficient. To that end, we implemented various technical changes that allowed us to better manage how water flows through the system to, for example, prevent wasteful overflows. In addition, we made certain adjustments to the dye and bleach recipes that reduced dye bath temperatures and increased reuse of cooling water. Also, we added Moisture Monitor Speed Control systems to our fabric dryers. With all these initiatives together, we saved the equivalent of over 120,000 gallons of Bunker oil or about $190,000.
Meanwhile, our fabric dryers use steam as their primary source of energy, and electricity as a secondary one. The automatic controls we installed on all dryers in 2009 to control their speed based on the moisture of the exiting fabric and the fabric temperature inside continued to yield savings for us in 2010: we saved more than $39,000 on steam, or 3,300,000 lbs. of steam, which is roughly equivalent to 25,000 gallons of bunker oil.
The energy-saving programs we instituted across the company continue to help reduce our overall use of electricity, yet we believe that there continue to be opportunities to improve efficiency.
For example, at our Honduran textile plant, we installed 10 motion detectors that automatically shut off lights several minutes after motion stops; and at out North Carolina textile facility, we saved 138,000 kwh in 2010, as a result of overall procedural improvements that reduced the number of fabric re-works needed. A more efficient manufacturing process overall means less energy needed.
And though our cut-and-sew facilities in both Honduras and Nicaragua are less energy intensive, we still invested in and installed more than 400 new, energy-efficient sewing machine units. These changes, among various others, helped us achieve a 6% reduction in electricity usage at the cut-and-sew plants. While those improvements are significant, they were not enough to offset the overall 8% increase in electricity used, which was driven mostly by energy consumed at our textile plants.
This is why this year we’re focusing on even more electricity improvements, in particular at the textile plants. For example, we have already replaced more than 300 high intensity 400-watt lamps with more energy efficient 200 watt induction lamps at the Honduras textile facility. This change is estimated to save about 378,000 kwh per year moving forward.
We also continue to do serious research around both solar power and induction fluorescent solutions that we believe may enable us to realize even more savings in the future.
Lastly, we are in the process of converting all of our manufacturing facilities to our AnvilSustainableManufacturing program, which is based on our sustainability principles and a manufacturing strategy that seeks minimum of waste in production inputs and processes. The program’s goal has been to train and empower employees at all levels to make more sustainable and efficient decisions at the point of manufacturing, and responsible choices that impact the product, how we make it and the energy we consume along the way.
ASM is designed as a comprehensive company-wide initiative that ensures responsible manufacturing and reduced use of resources to hedge against rising costs and potential future resource scarcity. We believe that these initiatives are investments which yield operational improvements and protect Anvil’s brand and private label customers. Full rollout of ASM at both cut and sew plants with anticipated completion date in 2012 and roll out throughout the Company.
Results to date have shown that ASM will improve costs through:
- Improved lead-time
- Improved quality
- Reduced Work In Process inventory
As of today we have converted about 20% of our cut and sew operational teams to ASM units and we have started training and select projects at our textile plant; while we are unable to quantify the energy savings that result from this implementation due to the comprehensive nature of the program, we know they do in fact exist because we are reducing irregulars, reducing inventory to just in time inventory, reducing production time to the final product. We will continue to monitor the program’s progression in order to determine specific savings.
EN6: Initiatives to provide energy-efficient or renewable energy-based products and services, and reductions in energy requirements as a result of these initiatives
In last year’s report, we stated that “reducing the energy we consume and improving our overall energy efficiency is a core part of our business strategy” and that “our key tactic is to aggressively pursue and introduce products made with more environmentally friendly fibers, which are also less energy and emission intensive.” In a difficult economy, however, introducing more products, in particular ones made with environmentally sensitive fibers that often carry a premium cost, became difficult. Unfortunately we found ourselves unable to bring as many products to the market as we had initially anticipated. And yet, our commitment to the environment remains strong.
Indeed in 2010, we made a commitment with the Texas Organic Cotton Marketing Cooperative (TOCMC) to double the amount of U.S organic cotton acreage. We’ve been working with TOCMC to look into ways to break down the barriers to entry for farmers converting to organic practices. Double It! is an initiative to support U.S organic farmers and restore the land back to its natural state. We are presenting an opportunity to transitional and organic farmers by providing a significant premium for all the production from the increased organic acreage. We are currently assessing alternatives for Double It! – from academic research to grassroots support and will provide updates during our next reporting period.
Four years ago, we started this by creating our first eco-product: a short sleeve t-shirt made with 100 percent certified organic cotton. It was the first product made under the AnvilOrganic® brand, and its success led us to manufacture an additional 16 eco-products and create two more brands—AnvilRecycled™ and AnvilSustainable™. Today, AnvilOrganic® produces various women, men’s and youth tees, in addition to a unisex sport shirt and a tote bag. As was the case with the first t-shirt, all are made with 100 percent organic cotton certified to the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) standards.
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In 2011, we conducted our fifth GHG Product Life Cycle assessment, which includes data for three styles from our new Made in US from Imported Fabric line of t-shirts. This new line is made from US cotton, spun into yarn in the US then knit into fabric in our textile plant in Honduras and returned to the US for cutting and sewing. The estimated carbon footprint of these shirts vary, based on short-sleeve, long-sleeve, or pocket styles.
In 2009, we conducted a life-cycle analysis on several Anvil t-shirts and we discovered that the ones made with organic cotton have a carbon footprint 20 percent lower than those made with conventional cotton. The lower emission is due primarily to the environmentally friendly methods—no pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers or genetically modified seeds—used to farm the organic cotton that goes into the shirt.
AnvilRecycled® tees are made in part with pre-consumer recycled cotton. Scraps left over from when patterns are cut are sorted according to color, broken down and re-knitted into fabric. Since the fabric has already been dyed, the dying process in our cycle can be skipped altogether, saving the energy and water usually associated with this stage of production. We estimate that AnvilRecycled® tee production requires 36% less energy and 43% less water than normal production conditions. According to the life-cycle analysis, the manufacturing of the AnvilRecycled® tee is seven percent less emissions-intensive than that of the conventional tee.
In addition to avoiding the emissions associated with the waste and disposal of fabric scraps that would otherwise wind up in a landfill, Anvil also calculated the tee’s final carbon footprint and reduced and offset the emissions of each shirt sold through a partnership with Carbonfund.org. (You can read more about one of the projects we support through Carbonfund.org by clicking here and by reading our response to questions EN14)
AnvilSustainable ™ is Anvil’s most innovative eco-brand, featuring tees and fleece made from a blend of polyester made from recycled plastic bottles, and either certified organic cotton or transitional organic cotton, grown by farmers switching to organic methods. For the shirts manufactured under this brand, Anvil purchases transitional cotton from U.S. farmers as a means of supporting their efforts to convert to methods that are pesticide and chemical free. In addition, each shirt contains fiber made from approximately three recycled plastic bottles. Our life cycle analysis found that the AnvilSustainable™ tee is about 15 percent less emission-intensive than a conventional t-shirt and 6 percent lower than a conventional blended t-shirt. See the below chart for more information on our life cycle analysis.
The lower emission is due primarily to our use of recycled PET, and avoiding the use of virgin cotton or virgin polyester. In our emissions assessments, we account for the energy and associated emissions of curb-side bottle pickup, collection, sorting, flaking, conversion to fiber and yarn spinning of the PET material. Through the use of recycled PET, we avoid the emissions intensive virgin PET production phase.
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As excited as we are about the progress we’ve made in sourcing fibers with a better environmental profile, we are also facing some serious challenges in the near future. In 2009 and 2010, Anvil exhausted its supply of US-grown transitional cotton. And while we have kept our commitment to purchase American-farmed organic and transitional cotton, as long as it is available, before sourcing foreign-grown alternatives, we expect demand may exceed the US cotton supply in 2011 and we will likely need to reach out to other countries as sources. We will, however, continue our close work with American farmers to support the market for transitional and organic cotton fibers and thereby continue increasing the US supply.
EN7: Initiatives to reduce indirect energy consumption and reductions achieved
Sources of indirect energy are described in EN4.
Energy-Intensive Materials
As discussed in EN6, our key tactic to reduce the consumption of indirect energy is to introduce more products made with energy-efficient materials, such as recycled fibers and organic cotton.
In addition to our continued commitment of environmentally friendly inputs, we work closely with our suppliers to ensure they are being responsible. One of our newest partners, Mortex Apparel, which will manufacture our Made in US from imported fabric line of t-shirts, is a great example. Mortex is a stakeholder in Cotton of the Carolinas, an initiative to make apparel with the absolute lowest footprint. This program uses cotton grown, spun, knit, dyed, cut and sewn in North Carolina with full accountability and accessible tracking of each fiber, process and worker along the way. Mortex also recycles all scrap fabrics that then gets turned back into product and all 4 Mortex facilities are electric plants. In addition, Mortex recycles all plastic wrap and cardboard from packaging.
Business-related Travel
While business-related travel, which includes air travel, employee-owned vehicle use, hotel stays and rental car use, accounts for less than .5% of our overall carbon emissions for 2010, we continue our efforts to reduce it. We continue to rely on the use of our internal video conferencing system, which connects our US operations with our European subsidiary as well as our offshore facilities in Honduras and Nicaragua, to the extent possible. Adding our European subsidiary and our Nicaraguan facility to this system was an addition implemented in 2010.
Subcontracted Production Since Anvil is a vertically integrated company, and we manufacture the majority of our goods, subcontracted production was not analyzed for the purposes of this report.
Employee Commuting
In 2010, commuting represented an estimated 9% of our total organizational footprint, down from 11% in 2009. We continue to encourage car-pooling in facilities where employees drive to work. However, we have not documented energy reductions as a result of this practice. The below chart illustrates the changes in the commuting profile for the company from 2009 to 2010.
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