Practical factory sustainability in the footwear industry

The footwear industry, being very labour-intensive, cannot just promote local economy development but must also provide considerable employment opportunities. However, due to the use of many hazardous chemicals, the traditional footwear industry has a significantly adverse influence on the environment and employees.

As one of the hot topics in 2014 in China, the pollution in Wuji county of Hebei province became the focus of great attention following media exposure. After about ten years of development in the leather and chemical industries in this area, around 1,000 leather factories were established. In order to save the cost of wastewater treatment, some factories discharged the wastewater directly into the groundwater without any treatment.

It has been predicted that the polluted groundwater area reached about 100km². The discharge led to serious pollution of well water with an estimated 20% of the 1,500 villages who drank it. Despite local government investment in 2005 with the digging of a deep well, just two years later an analysis of this new well showed the presence of high levels of organic pollutants.

Besides the impact of discharge on the environment, improper use of chemicals may also result in damage to employees’ safety and health. For example, in 2015, a total of 46 workers from the company Ruifeng in the Fujian province in China were taken to hospital with nausea and bad headaches following the use of a spray during the water-resistance treatment of footwear. It was found that the footwear factory carried out this kind of water resistance treatment on an improper site without authorisation and that the operating personnel did not wear qualified respirators. At the same time, the spray used lacked important information on the label such the production date, a certificate of quality or the manufacturer.

Information relating to the environmental impact of the footwear industry has spread much faster and more efficiently than ever, with the help of emerging media such as Facebook, Weichat and a whole host of websites, as well as with more traditional media such as newspapers, magazines or TV. Each time, the exposure of the bad influence of the footwear industry on human health and the environment always creates heated online discussion. The Chinese Government has also noted these adverse influences and published related regulations to monitor and provide guidance for the situation, such as ‘Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution’, and national mandatory standards such as GB 4287-2012 ‘Discharge standards of water pollutants for dyeing and finishing of textile industry’. Local standards are also applied, such as DB 44/817-2010 ‘Emission standard of volatile organic compounds for shoe-making industry’, to reduce the harm to the environment and employees. Today, under the increasing pressure from consumers, society and government, the footwear industry is seeking for routes to become more sustainable.

Sustainable value chain

The footwear industry has a complex value chain, as schematically shown in Figure 2 (page 31). As one of the most important areas, the sustainability of the manufacturing process directly affects the overall sustainability of the value chain. The relevant manufacture factories in the footwear industry include those factories that produce components using chemicals and raw materials, as well as those producing the final footwear products using a variety of components.

Sustainability implementation in the factory using the 4C model (method)

To achieve the sustainable development of the footwear industry and minimise environmental impacts, each factory, as one sub-unit within the value chain, should learn to be sustainable. Based on technical and systematic knowledge on footwear production, SGS applied for and obtained copyright protection of the ‘4C model’ in 2012 (see Figure 3). This is a practical tool that can be used to implement sustainability in the footwear factory. The 4C model is composed of four sections, namely:

• commitment
• competence
• critical point control
• comprehensive system.

Commitment

This part is the foundation of the 4C model. The first step towards achieving sustainability is to understand the actual current situation including market trends, stakeholder influence and influence quantification. For example, the factory needs to know the requirements from regulations and buyers, and the increasing demands for green production as well as the adoption of industrial pioneering sustainable routes. The factory also needs to make a quantitative analysis on the effect of non-compliance with those requirements and demands. For example, in the case of a recall, the factory must be liable for the direct economic loss, damage to the factory’s and brand’s reputation, and must also face pressure from society. If buyers’ requirements are not fulfilled, the products may be rejected, which also affects the relationship with the buyers. As such, factories should set priorities according to this influence quantification. Awareness of the actual situation should not be limited to the management level that makes the final decision, but it should be ensured that everyone in each department of the factory knows the actual industry situations and also their own responsibility for sustainable production in the factory.

After establishing the current situation, management should have the vision to establish a policy of sustainable footwear products that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. As useful tools to achieve sustainability and restricted substance control, a chemical management manual, and an internal RSL and MRSL should be established and updated as policies in the factory. The established policy should be documented, with detailed implementation and maintenance procedures. The factory should ensure all the employees in the facility fully understand and follow the commitment to the policy. To further achieve sustainability, the factory should also require its suppliers to follow the commitment by formally signing a declaration of conformity (DOC) that specifies the responsibility. A system to ensure all suppliers understand factory and clients’ requirements may also be created.

Competence

With the support of the establishment of a policy along with the whole factory and suppliers’ commitment, the factory employees should also have the competence to implement sustainable production. In the factory, there should be a clear organisational chart to indicate the responsible person for the implementation of sustainable production and a sustainability management team should also be established as a first step. The team should be composed of staff with professional knowledge, know-how and experience. The basic requirements of a sustainability team are as follows:

• support from the top management team
• at least one person should have overall responsibility for the work
• a chemical and environmental background
• a good command of English and information collection
• an understanding of legislation and clients’ requirements
• an understanding of raw material and production process
• effective communication skills
• experience of management systems.

As one further example, it is well known that chemical management is critical to a sustainable factory. In order to achieve good performance of final products, waste discharge and the working environment, the sustainability team should gain the competence to:

• collect regulatory requirements and standard ecological requirements
• be familiar with high-risk chemicals, typically used in the manufacturing process
• understand the GHS system and evaluate whether an MSDS is acceptable
• collect information on chemicals, identify hazards and conduct risk assessments
• help prepare the chemical inventory list.

The sustainability team should be involved in the daily work of different departments that are relevant to chemicals. Before a chemical is purchased in the factory, the sustainability team should assist the purchasing team, and cooperate with the technical team in the factory to identify hazardous chemicals and conduct chemical risk assessments, and then give advice on whether the chemicals can be purchased. For chemical storage, the sustainability team should be involved in warehouse safety management, and help to check that incompatible chemicals are segregated and that spill kits are in place. The sustainability team should also work with the technical development team to phase-out high-risk chemicals and find alternatives.

Following this, the factory also needs to build a sustainable company culture and provide a safer work environment. Once the sustainability policy has been established, the implementation of the policy requires efforts from all the members in the facility. Besides the system of rewards and punishment to ensure compliance and good practices, employees can also be affected unconsciously by company culture.

Finally, the factory should establish a method and toolkit to facilitate sustainability implementation. For example, the sustainability team should ensure the corresponding MSDS is available in the place where chemicals are stored, used and disposed, and help to prepare the GHS pictogram board for the departments relevant to chemicals. The factory can assign a unique identification code to each chemical for easily recognition, and an ERP system can be used throughout the facility.

Critical point control

The third level of the 4C model is critical point control. The critical points that affect factory sustainability should be managed, verified and monitored. Based on the chemical flow across the factory, this key point can be divided into three sections:

• input: raw materials and chemicals
• in processing: product manufacturing
• output: product and waste discharge.

The factory can prepare a checklist including the critical points and then carry out an internal audit to evaluate factory performance. The following are some examples of critical point controls.

Input

The chemical inventory list is one of the most useful documents for chemical management. Besides the chemical name and supplier information, the list should include, for example, the CAS number, hazard information and risk assessment results.

Chemical risk assessment is one of the determining factors for chemical purchase. When the factory conducts the assessment, DOC certificates and positive lists from the suppliers/buyers should be checked and recorded in the facility. The assessment should also take supplier MRSL awareness and supplier assessment into consideration.

Labelling can facilitate the traceability of chemicals and hazard information transfer. Besides chemical name and manufacturer information, the labelling should also include, for example, lot number, manufacture date, expiry date or GHS classification label.

In processing

During processing, PPE is critical to employee safety. The sustainability team should check if the safety showers, eye wash bottles and fire extinguishers are correctly in place, and when they can be used according to MSDS and technical data sheet advice.

When chemicals are handled or weighed, a weighing accessory or temporary container may be used. It should be noted that the temporary container and weighing accessory (jars, buckets, spoon) are used for only one individual chemical and are clearly labelled to avoid contamination.

Documented standard operation procedures (SOPs) can not only guide the employee to avoid accident and injury,
but can also reduce the risk of quality fluctuations due to non-standard and improper operation.

Output

Internal and external testing is an effective way to verify the compliance of final products. External testing by a qualified third-party organisation is a good supplement, especially for chemical test items that normally need expensive instruments.

Wastewater should be treated before being sent to the municipal sewage treatment plant. In addition, the factory needs to monitor the water quality after treatment and confirm if the parameters meet regulatory requirements.

The hazardous chemical waste and its containers should be disposed of according to the relevant regulations. The chemical waste needs to be clearly labelled and its storage should follow the requirements.  

Comprehensive system

The highest level in the 4C model is a comprehensive system in the factory, and this level is endless for the factory and represents continuous improvement. During the development of the management system, the scope is expanded from ‘point control’ to the ‘net management level’. As such, the factory needs to learn from the advanced management method, and achieve self-improvement of management in order to perfect sustainability by referring to the industry’s best practices and experiences. The following are brief introductions to different quality management methods (see Figure 4):

Point control: its focus is quality inspection. In this process, the quality inspection is on a particular area, and it is static; for example, on IQC (incoming quality control), FQC (final quality control) or OQC (out-going quality control).

Line management: this invloves statistical process control (SPC). SPC is a method of quality control that uses statistical methods. SPC is applied in order to monitor and control a process to reach its full potential.

Plane management: this refers to total quality management (TQM). TQC is applied to business processes from the design stage to delivery of goods to the end users. In addition to the manufacturing department, TQC also involves design, purchasing, marketing and other relevant functional departments in the factory.

Volume management: also know as big quality management (BQM). The quality in this level includes not only product quality, but also work quality, after-sale quality and management quality.

Net management: this involves all the stakeholders in the quality/value chain. In this level, the management is not just limited to intra-organisation, but also includes suppliers, logistics, retailers and other parts of the quality chain.

In order to fulfil sustainability in the factory, the integration of different management systems, such as quality management, environmental management and chemical management is required. The factory should not only reward original invention but also encourage the sourcing of new ideas from outside of the supply chain, such as different industries, and successfully apply them in the organisation.

Summary

Under the current marketing environment, the sustainability of the footwear industry continues to be a development trend in the near future.

As an effective tool to implement sustainability in the footwear industry, the 4C model can help the factory to better understand the actual situation, then establish a reasonable policy and make the commitment to this policy. By acquiring competence and achieving the critical point control, the factory can then build one comprehensive system to enforce continuous improvement.