Epic Group (Hong Kong) is elevating sustainability standards in apparel manufacturing across its global operations. Epic Group’s approach to sustainability is a proactive response to the local and global socio-environmental challenges and the need for all global corporates to put ESG at the heart of their operations.
Environmental Sustainability Focus
The climate crisis is the most significant ecological challenge for humanity, threatening to reverse centuries of human prosperity. The apparel industry must be accountable for freshwater stress, chemical pollution, and high resource consumption within the global arena.
Epic Group has set an aggressive target in 2021 to reduce our greenhouse gas intensity by 20%. Epic Group is systematically upgrading all its energy systems to ensure optimum efficiency, including replacing older machinery with state-of-the-art new technology to reduce our Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. All expansions have optimally designed energy systems, including complete solar PV roofs, starting with the 730-kW system in our new factory that starts production in March 2022.
Epic Group is upgrading all its Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) to enable 50% water reuse. These upgrades will also ensure meeting the ZDHC progressive/aspirational level treated water quality. Epic Group has also aggressively reduced its usage of hazardous chemicals, moving from 72 in 2019 to 4 while meeting the strictest criteria and standards in chemical management.
Sustainable Fibers and Low-Impact Manufacturing
Epic Group has been continuously improving the sustainability of its products by moving into more sustainable fibers for cotton and manmade cellulosic. It is working in partnership with mills and yarn manufacturers to progressively integrate recycled fibers – both cotton and polyester. In 2020, Epic Group made 9,957,852 pieces of apparel using sustainable fiber. All cotton used by Epic Group since 2020 has been from more sustainable sources.
These sustainable efforts also affect how our production processes, and Epic Group’s initiatives on this front included the ‘low-water-denim’ line we launched with a leading retailer that reduced water consumption by 60% during fabric dyeing and finishing, as well as laundry.
The apparel industry is the pathway out of poverty for millions of workers around the world, and when an apparel company operates with a conscience, it can make a tremendous positive impact on the lives of the associates and their communities. Addressing gender and well-being is at the heart of Epic Group’s approach.
The COVID 19 pandemic has ravaged the entire world for the past two years. In some geographies access to vaccines, aftercare and education and knowledge to not fear the vaccine are not readily available. In Bangladesh, through Epic Group’s organizational support, the government authorities have been able to vaccinated nearly 100% of its workforce of nearly 30,000 people.
Making Women in Management Work
The apparel industry is known for female associates and male management. The Epic Group launched an initiative in 2020 to meaningfully facilitate career progression for females in our factories. The structured program involved off-site training at our EPIC University for 400+ hi-potential associates where technical training, soft-skill, and leadership training was carefully co-curated with BRAC. The year-long program gave the participants the opportunity to network and build skills. Our trained female associates were assigned to job shadow existing line supervisors for a period of 1 to 3 months, and after careful evaluation, they were promoted to line supervisors.
Within 2 years Epic Group has moved from six female supervisors to 92 female supervisors. It is expected that these numbers to elevate to 200 female supervisors by July 2022 along with our facility expansions.
Creating the Platform for Voice
A critical aspect of addressing gender and wellbeing issues at apparel factories is to create platforms for the effective voice of workers in the company, “voice with muscle” that can create a real dialog with management. A multi-pronged approach including women supervisors that act as mentors to deploying a smartphone app to all associates, that allows effective two-way real-time communication, (a service paid for by Epic Group), including raising any type of grievance. Further, EPIC Group’s code of conduct and anti-harassment training are lynchpins to create a harassment-free environment for all our associates.
Educating Communities and Fulfilling Dreams
Epic Group encourages women’s empowerment and creates a pathway for future experts of industries. Asian University for Women (AUW) is an independent, international university in Chittagong, Bangladesh seeking to educate a new generation of women leaders in Asia. Epic Group has partnered with AUW with a funding of US$500,000 and presently has five female associates from our factories studying for a 5-year Degree program which after their graduation will result in the placement of these women in management positions within Epic Group.
The five associates have commenced their university life and are on their first semester in the program.
“Neither one company nor a government can do enough to create a better planet. The onus lies on all companies, including private entrepreneur companies like ours, to continuously evolve and enhance our ESG initiatives to deal with climate changes and environmental challenges. ESG, and sustainability especially, are the foundation of our group and embedded into the culture of each and every member of the organization from bottom to top”, said Ranjan Mahtani, Executive Chairman, Epic Group.
Epic Group believes in living by its core mission and purpose. ‘The Relentless Pursuit of Better’. The relentless pursuit of making the communities and the world a better place.
About Epic Group:
For over decades, Epic Group has been a key player in the apparel industry, first as a major textiles trading house, then as a leader in sourcing quality fabrics, and since 2005 as a state-of-the-art manufacturing company with facilities in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.
Our evolution speaks to our core principle – to relentlessly pursue better.
This means we are dedicated to seeking out ever higher standards in everything we do, from world-class apparel manufacturing and design services to innovative machinery that enables us to reach increasingly better environmental sustainability targets.
By combining speed, efficiency, technology, design, and innovation we meet ever changing market trends and our customers’ demands with unfailing reliability.
For more information, visit www.epicgroup.global
