The most sustainable jeans manufacturer in the world

#futureproofbusiness

How Saitex uses environmental data to tell their story

It’s not for nothing that Everlane, Eileen Fisher, G-Star Raw, Madewell, Tommy Hilfiger, and many other world-class clothing brands have their products produced at Saitex. This Vietnam-based denim manufacturer is known as the most sustainable factory in the world.

Meanwhile, Saitex has grown into a company with more than 4,500 employees producing 20,000 pairs of jeans every day. It is Saitex’s innovative, technology-driven approach to sustainability that has enabled Saitex to acquire big names. Despite everything, however, the name is not yet known to the general public. And they want to change that.

It’s certainly not weird if you’ve never heard of Saitex. You can’t find their labels in the jeans. Small-scale brands start revealing their supply chain. However, Saitex’s story does not yet end up with the consumer. The producer cannot distinguish himself well when they are different from the competition.

Saitex features the latest technology to manufacture and cut jeans. From Ozone treatments to lasers, Saitex is fast becoming the factory of the future. However, the new technology is not yet used for every order. When a designer of a clothing brand makes a design, it inherently affects the methods that can be used. A designer simply doesn’t have the tools to make his decision based on environmental impact.

Saitex wants to change that. Although they always kept track of their consumption of water, energy, and chemicals, they could not yet assign this to individual products. Together with Ecochain, they ensure that this problem becomes a thing of the past. Saitex now has now allocated all their energy and raw materials on the various jeans models. For this, they use Ecochain’s Activity-Based-Footprinting method. In this way, the impact per model is measured and improvements can be quickly identified. In addition, this gives Saitex the opportunity to communicate different design methods with the relevant impact clearly to its customers.

Environmental Sustainability

98 % of all water is recycled. 2 % evaporates.
Saitex plants trees to compensate for the remaining part of emissions.
100 % of the jeans are air-dried.
Heat and steam are recycled
Biomass is used to generate heat
Solar energy is used to generate electricity
Ozone technology and lasers are used to replace old harmful methods.

Social Responsibility

Saitex believes in equality and an honest salary for their employees.
Currently there is a 58/42 women/man ratio.
1 % of the annual turnover is used to combat hunger in Vietnam.
Saitex supports 4 shelters and offers children who turn 18 a training and a job in its factories.
Heavy and harmful work has been robotized.
Dirt produced by water filtering is used to make bricks that can be used to make houses for the less fortunate.
Saitex owns its own hydroponic systems to efficiently produce organic and healthy vegetables for its employees.