You barely hear who’s behind the biggest denim brands in the world. But Saitex, the Vietnam-based manufacturer of jeans garments, is taking action to measure and improve their environmental performance.
Located in Vietnam, Saitex is the denim partner of choice for the world’s biggest jeans labels.
Saitex was founded in 2012 and has grown to accommodate five different facilities employing over 4.500 people. The company produces 20.000 pairs of jeans in one single day.
The fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. But Saitex doesn’t play by the same dirty rules.
The size itself may not make Saitex different than its competitors. But the company really stands out for its environmental and social strategy.
Saitex became the first certified B Corp factory in Asia and the only large-scale manufacturer of denim to adopt the environmental and social standards set forth by B Lab.
Although Saitex is the most sustainable denim manufacturer, a consumer probably doesn’t know their name. This is because denim brands always write their name on the label and not those of their suppliers.
This doesn’t give the manufacturer much room to differentiate. But Saitex is in fact very different than its competitors.
While Saitex has many state-of-the-art technologies and processes, a brand-made decision about the design could sometimes mean that a less sustainable process or denim finish needs to be used. A designer simply doesn’t have the tools or data to make this choice.
We are trying to get our message out there. However, nobody knows who makes their garments.
Virginia Rollando, Sustainability Manager at Saitex
Saitex always tracked their consumption in terms of water, energy, and chemical use. They could however not assign this to individual garments. With Ecochain’s tool Helix, this became possible.
Saitex can now really see what environmental impact a design or product group has. This helps to see where the focus needs to go and where the biggest improvement potentials are to be made.
Environmental data gives Saitex the possibility to engage with their clients and convince customers to choose more sustainable designs.
As Saitex correctly puts it: ‘How fashion is made, matters’.
Data is the solution to allow customers to make informed decisions
Virginia Rollando
