Business

Dyers, Colorists, Retailers, Brands Mull The Way Forward For Green Textiles At SDC Intl Conference

SDC International India Pvt Ltd in India successfully conducted an 'Engaging Color, Coloration & Compliance with Dyers and Colourists' conference at the ongoing ITMACH India 2019 exhibition in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. After the opening ceremony on December 5, 2019, Yogesh Gaikwad, Director, SDC International, introduced SDC, its mission and its objectives to the delegates.

The first presentation by Mr. Yogesh Gaikwad, Director of SDC International India Pvt Ltd
The second presentation by Mr. Uday Kale, Sr. Application Engineer of Datacolor Solutions PVT Ltd. Mumbai.
The Third presentation by Mr. Sunil Malvankar, DGM in JAY Instruments & System Pvt Ltd.

Yogesh Gaikwad, Director of SDC International, introduced SDC, its mission and its objectives to the delegates. Chief guest for the event, SDC CEO Dr Graham Clayton, addressed the gathering of dyers, colourists and other textile value chain stakeholders on the conference theme. He presented various initiatives from the SDC to engage with members and non-members. He highlighted that unless associations adapt, they won't survive. The SDC's two key strategic strands are: 1) To develop a colour education pathway spanning further and higher educational years, through employment and into retirement. This pathway will include technical and design communities worldwide & at all levels of qualification including the SDC Designer's Coloration Certificate, the SDC Foundation & Textile Coloration Certificate and of course the flagship ASDC, and related LSDC, along with CCol Chartered status and FSDC, Fellowship of the SDC. 2) To develop SDC communities to bring together like-minded individuals based on either geographical or interest commonalities. The conference included some interesting panel discussions. The first panel discussion on 'Compliance in Textile Manufacturing' was moderated by Ullhas Nimkar, Director of NIMKARTEX Technical services. The panelists comprised Dr Ruma Chakrabarti, business head-India, Centexbel; Subhash Bhargava, Managing Director Colorant Ltd; Subaash Dhananjayan, Managing Director for India & South Asia, The Sting, a Netherlands-based retail brand. In a very interactive session, Dr. Nimkar and the team of panelists highlighted the need to screen input chemicals like acids, salts for banned products too as in some cases heavy metals were found in salt. Textiles made of recycled material collected from the sea can also have chemicals that leached out due to prolonged exposure to sunlight. The second panel discussion on 'Solutions to sustainable textile colouration' which was moderated by Anjani Prasad, Managing Director & Head, Brand Performance, Textile Specialities India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Archroma India Pvt Ltd. The panelists included Jayant Khera, Vice President South Asia, DyStar India Pvt Ltd; Siddharth Raj, Regional Marketing Manager-Dyes Responsibility, Huntsman International LLC; Dr Binay Choudhary, Chairman, CU Inspection India Pvt Ltd; and Yawar Ali Shah, Chairman and Co-founder, AMA Herbal Laboratories Pvt Ltd. It was a matter of concern raised by the panelists that a lot more needs to be done for a 'cleaner' colouration of textiles. Brands, retailers and chemical manufacturers must collaborate and make collective contribution to sustainable textile colouration. Anjani Prasad and the panel gave various examples where waste from one industry was used to create durable products in another. The session on 'Brands response to call of sustainability' was moderated by Dr Siva Pariti, Global Technical Program Manager, Sustex Solutions, Sumit Gupta, Deputy Director, GOTS and Vandana Arora, Manager, Back Selling & CSI Liaising, DyStar India Pvt Ltd, Ashok Sarda, Vice President Zydex Industries and Venkat Ramana Bhat, Regional Materials Manager were among the panelists. The panelists provided examples of sustainable initiatives by brands, Sarda highlighted the need for using pigments to reduce resources and create better managed colouration. Sumit Gupta highlighted the success of brands and designers who have embraced organic pathway. Vandana put forward the example of recycling by brands and that domestic brands must push much more towards attending a sustainable fashion brand. Bhat briefed about the precautions taken by Colombia during sourcing their raw materials for their products. Environmental expert Dr Jaideep Dudhbhate, consultant at Dr JD Consulting, spoke on 'Best available technologies for wastewater management' in the last session.