The launch of sustainable solutions for the textile industry by Novozymes

This week, Novozymes, a Danish company and a world leader in biological solutions for wet processing of textiles, launched BioPrep® Fusion – Sustainable Cotton Knit Pre-treatment Process. The event was jointly organised by the Embassy of Denmark in Bangladesh and Novozymes A/S. Her Excellency Ms. Winnie Estrup Petersen, Ambassador of Denmark to Bangladesh and Ms. Ethel Fanny Laursen, Business Unit Director, Technical Industries EMA – AP, Novozymes A/S – Denmark hosted the event on 20 November at the Edge Gallery in Dhaka.

The event included a panel discussion on sustainable cotton knit pre-treatment with industry experts, buyers, and other stakeholders with a focus on the challenges the Bangladesh textile industry faces. Appealing designs sent from buyers often require a disproportionate amount of resources such as water and energy. The burden is on Bangladesh producers to ensure the efficient use of such resources but there is an absence of sustainable solutions and a need for better prices from buyers to match their effort. Mr. Faruque Hassan, Managing Director of Giant Group and Senior Vice President of BGMEA highlighted that sustainability is expensive and the full support of buyers is a major consideration for producers.

BioPrep® Fusion Concept, a proven innovation of Novozymes, can address these challenges. It allows textile mills handling knit processing to increase productivity and saves costs with reliable enzymatic scouring. It reduces the producer’s environmental footprint as it saves 67% of water, 50 % of energy and 50% of time in knit pre-treatment process. Ms. Ethel Fanny Laursen said, ‘Novozymes is proud to contribute to sustainable production in Bangladesh. The innovation enables sustainable and increased production, which is highly necessary for the Bangladesh garment industry, to reach its target of 50-billion-dollar export by 2021’.

Her Excellency Ms. Winnie Estrup Petersen in her inaugural remarks said that ‘Bangladesh is a country of great vision and abilities. The industry must be congratulated for having 7 out of world’s top 10 “state of the art” green factories. Although, the RMG sector still faces serious challenges in terms of sustainability, it is encouraging to see Danish companies like Novozymes bring innovative and sustainable solutions to the industry in Bangladesh.’

Denmark’s bilateral relations in Bangladesh include promoting trade and investment between Denmark and Bangladesh. The Embassy of Denmark’s commercial section, The Trade Council, assists Danish exporters and investors in their business activities in Bangladesh and provides information to Bangladeshi companies looking for Danish business associates or suppliers.