Birla Cellulose has targeted to reduce its water intensity by 50% by 2025 from the baseline year 2015. This will be achieved by the application of new technologies based on the principles of 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle). The best practices in the area of water management and innovations that allows multiple times reuse of water, and technologies such as membrane processes to clean up and recycle the wastewater have been applied across all fiber sites of Birla Cellulose successfully reducing the water intensity by 30% from the baseline of 2015. This has resulted in some of the sites creating new benchmarks for water intensity in the global viscose industry.
Dilip Gaur, Business Director - Pulp and Fiber Business, Aditya Birla Group informed that climate change and water scarcity are the two biggest concerns of the global community today and need to be addressed by concerted efforts. A strong focus on reducing fresh water intake can result in fresh water being available for alternative uses.
Going Beyond Regulatory Norms
Reducing fresh water intake also leads to equal reduction of the waste water discharged, thus creating large positive impact on the environment. Dilip Gaur added that Birla Cellulose is in the process of applying the most stringent norms across all its fiber manufacturing sites, by going beyond the applicable regulatory norms, and implementing the European standards (referred to as EU BAT norms) for wastewater discharge.
Water is the lifeline of every living entity on earth and is the most important shared resource on the planet. Water is a key resource for economic and social development and is vital to maintain health, grow food, generate energy, manage the environment, and create jobs. However, the world is grappling with severe water scarcity, as per a United Nations study, 2.1 billion people or about 40% of the global population live in water scarcity today. Textile industry is one of the largest consumers of water during production of fiber and fabric and for irrigation of crops like cotton, which consume huge amount of water. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 calls for ensuring the availability of clean water and sanitation for all by the year 2030.
Aligned to the United Nations SDG 6, Birla Cellulose is committed to improve the availability of water, the most precious shared resource, for the people and the planet. It is in alignment to the strategy of Birla Cellulose of making the business more sustainable by being the leader in implementation of the sustainable business practices in the manmade cellulosic fiber industry.
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