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Hayleys Fabric team with the Best Projects Sustainability Award at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2022
South Asia Textiles Ltd. (SAT), a subsidiary of Hayleys Fabric PLC is making waves in the global and local fashion industry with ‘Midnight by Charcoal’ – a novel range of textiles featuring organic dyes derived from biomass charcoal waste.
SAT’s ‘Midnight’ range gained fresh international acclaim, after winning a place among the ‘Top 10 Innovations in the Street Sports’ category at ISPO Munich – a leading German platform for discovering and showcasing the world’s most innovative, sustainable, high-performance fabrics. This is the second time in the past year that a powerful Sri Lankan innovation in eco-friendly fabric dyes has been recognised by ISPO, and both from the Hayleys Fabric Group.
Locally, the ‘Midnight’ innovation also won the coveted Best Projects Sustainability Award, at the recently concluded Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Awards 2022 (BCCSA), organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
“The entire team at Hayleys Fabric and South Asian Textiles is honoured by the positive response following the launch of our fabric dye ‘Midnight by Charcoal’. We believe that such organically sourced, eco-friendly innovations hold the potential to create the next generation of sustainable textiles. In line with our purpose: to strengthen the fabric of society by knitting together a better environment for all, these solutions are enabling a new paradigm of circularity across the global fashion industry,” Hayleys Fabric Managing Director Rohan Goonetilleke said.
Notably, SAT was the only textile manufacturer to win at this year’s BCCSA, which is considered to be Sri Lanka’s most competitive, and highest profile platform for showcasing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) leadership.
The sustainable innovations being pioneered at the Hayleys Group’s textile manufacturing sector are part of a broader commitment towards the policies and targets laid out in the Hayleys Lifecode. Leading the charge on the company’s eco-friendly fabric dyes is Hayleys Fabric PLC Head of Sustainability and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Pioneer for Responsible Production, Leonie Vaas.
“While the fashion industry is associated with a large environmental footprint, we believe that sustainable innovations pioneered at Hayleys Fabric could pave the way to a truly circular model for fashion globally. If we can transition from synthetic to natural dyes completely, it is estimated that we could potentially reduce Green House Gas emissions by as much as 36%. This has immense positive implications for the environment, especially given that the global market for natural dye is projected to hit $ 5 billion by 2024. This growth is being driven by a new generation of conscious consumers that are genuinely passionate about supporting and rewarding brands that can demonstrate a real positive impact,” Vaas added.
