The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS) have endorsed a project named ‘Greening Vietnam’s textile sector through improving water management and energy sustainability’ with the declared aim of transforming the Vietnamese textile industry into one which is more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

To be implemented from 2018 to 2020, with a focus on Vietnam’s textile-manufacturing heartland in the Mekong and Dong Nai river Deltas, the project entails engaging manufacturers to improve water and energy sustainability.

WWF lists international brands with suppliers in Vietnam, factories around the country, financial institutions, development partners and other relevant initiatives as key project partners.

However, industry observers are doubtful as to the degree of receptiveness among Vietnam’s textile-apparel manufacturers. Sheng Lu, an associate professor at the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies at the University of Delaware, US pointed out that it is hard to say whether it will make the wider Vietnamese garment sector more competitive. “The term ‘eco-friendly’ is a judgment call, and its impact on pricing is uncertain,” he says.

A recently-published book (released in August) ‘Where to buy eco fabrics: for production in Vietnam’ by Ho Chi Minh City-based garment-sourcing advisor Chris Walker suggests that the WWF/VITAS project will have a lot of work ahead. It shows that only about 5% of the 6,000 textile–apparel manufacturers in the country have earned any eco-certification by international organisations. 

Specifically, Walker counted 300 enterprises with the Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX certification; six with Global Recycle Standard (GRS); four with bluesign; and only three each with Sustainable Textile Production (STeP) by OEKO-TEX and Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS).

That said, multinational assurance organisations Intertek and SGS have fabric testing laboratories in Vietnam that can conduct eco tests, for example for azo dyes and formaldehyde. Also, while “there are not many eco fabrics sellers in Vietnam…eco fabrics can be imported into Vietnam for garment production,” says Walker.

“Among the most noteworthy examples of Vietnamese eco fabric makers is Thao Vu, a designer who has all her dyeing, weaving, batik drawing and calendaring done by nearly three dozen women artisans in four separate ethnic-minority communities across Vietnam,” he adds.

Walker goes on to explain that Thao Vu’s labour-intensive work entails, for example, a single batch of cotton fabric being dipped in indigo twice a day over a period of two months.

According to a note from Marc Goichot, who is responsible for water programmes at WWF’s Greater Mekong south-east Asia branch, in the long run his organisation wants to see factories, industrial parks and other actors come together to take more proactive collective actions to address risks and impacts beyond their factory fences and more responsibly manage shared resource uses across sectors. “With more than 10 years of working with the textile industries of top exporting countries such as Bangladesh, China, India and Pakistan, WWF believes that we can help Vietnam to create a big positive change for the sector,” says Goichot.

The joint project between WWF and VITAS is part of the “driving impact reduction through the textiles value chain” project sponsored by HSBC.

The amount of funding has not been released.