Birla Cellulose

Management Approach: The company has a holistic approach towards sustainable manufacturing of viscose fibre.

"We apply the best combination of best in class technology, global benchmark management practices and a well-skilled and trained operations team to deliver the highest quality fibre in a safe and environment friendly manner. All the pulp and viscose manufacturing sites are certified for Environment Management System i.e. ISO 14001:2015. By continuously innovating the processes and technology, the pulp and fibre units have been able to significantly reduce the resource consumption, including raw materials, water, energy and waste." Special technologies have been applied at several plants to reduce the consumption of materials to the extent of 50 per cent or more. Birla Cellulose has gone beyond the regulatory norms and is applying the most stringent EU BAT norms across the viscose manufacturing sites.

Reducing Environmental Footprint: Achieving more with fewer resources, is a key priority area for the company's business. "We have a very focused approach and have taken several steps in this direction. As the business expands, resource requirement increases, so it becomes inevitable to conserve the naturally occurring resources. Our emphasis is on 'abatement at source' to reduce the consumption of important resources. Closed-loop production process of fibre ensures that the waste is minimised in the process by maximising the efficiency of the process and reducing/reusing the generated waste."

Carbon Neutrality: Birla Cellulose has conducted comprehensive evaluation of its GHG emissions. The scope 1 and scope 2 GHG emissions of all its 11 sites globally are completely neutralized by the carbon sequestered in its directly managed forests. Birla Cellulose is first viscose producer to do the comprehensive scope 3 evaluation. The exercise was done by E&Y, using the GHG Protocol and IPCC guidelines for the greenhouse gas inventories.

New Benchmark for Specific Water Consumption using 3R: The mantra of 3R principle was applied across (reduce, reuse and recycle). Alternative innovative processes for water savings were adapted, including improving the efficiency to reduce consumption, reuse of water multiple times, and technologies which could clean up and recycle wastewater. Birla Cellulose have established new global benchmarks in specific water consumption.

Treated Wastewater Discharge: Responsible and safe management of treated wastewater from the point of generation until the final disposal is a key priority at the sites. "All our sites have an operational effluent treatment plant (ETP) and is adapting the EU BAT norms for waste water. Birla Cellulose is committed to minimise the potential adverse impact on the environment by implementing best practices in wastewater management."

Adapting Standards and Systems: The company is striving to adopt standards and systems accepted and recognised globally.

"Our collaboration with experts, external agencies, and reference systems like the EU BAT are some of the steps to make our processes more environment friendly."

• Health and Safety : Health and Safety of the employees and the surrounding community is of highest priority to Birla Cellulose. All sites safety program are based on OSHAS 18001.
• EU BAT: The European Union BAT (Best Available Technology) standard gives references of technologies that can be applied to achieve stringent norms of emission to air and waste water and is (called BREFs). These are considered to be the most stringent norms for viscose industry.
• Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC): As a step towards incorporating the best chemical management practices, the company made its way to ZDHC in 2018 to promote sustainable chemistry and drive innovations in the textiles industry.
• Demonstrating Positive Legal Compliance: The compliance and assurance programme is designed to ensure that "we can prove, we meet the requirements of local laws."
• HIGG Index: Birla Cellulose started its self-assessment journey with Higg Index (2.0) FEM and adopted (3.0) FEM that links manufacturers, brands and retailers together on measuring the impacts on an industrial scale. Birla Cellulose leads the viscose industry with third party verified Higg 3.0 FEM scores of > 90% at all sites.
• Quality Management: Quality of products and processes is a collective responsibility owned by employees at Birla Cellulose. "We have a well implemented Quality Management system with ISO 9001:2015 that ensures that products of high quality are produced across most of our manufacturing facilities."

Product Safety: The products are used as ingredients for other products which are used on daily basis for various applications: apparel and home décor, personal care, hygiene and medical. "Safety of our products, is therefore, a top priority. We make sure they are safe for use during their use phase and do not degrade the environment in their post-use
phase. Our products are certified with Oeko-Tex Standard 100 both for textile and nonwoven applications and allay any concern regarding the safe use of products which are worn next to the skin.

Our fibres have qualified for 'Skin Compatibility & Skin Irritation' tests by the German Institute FKT - Fördergemeinschaft Körperverträgliche Textiliene. The test proves that Birla Viscose& Birla Spun-dyed are suitable for 'next-to-skin' applications."