Crescent Bahuman Celebrates 25 Years of Sustainable Denim
When Carved in Blue spoke to Crescent Bahuman’s executive director Rizwan Shafi last year, the company was working to close the loop on a circular denim production line and bring denim innovations to Pakistan.
Today, the company is celebrating big strides in that journey, and striving even more to create the “Greenest Ecosystem the Denim Industry Has Ever Known.”
We checked in with Rizwan again to see what’s new and what’s next for Crescent.
Carved in Blue: What does 25 years of sustainability look like?
Rizwan: You’ve heard of farm to table, we prefer to say farm to denim! Our journey has been unique as we have sought to create an entire ecosystem, something that we believe is embodied in our end product, whether it be fabric or garment. Our 600-acre vertical facility was originally marshland. We introduced drainage and natural remedies to recover the land in 1992. To date, we have selectively planted over 850,000 trees while also providing sustenance through non profit farming for over 3,000 permanent residents. Flora and fauna is balanced in order to attract various forms of wildlife. We have monitored and supplemented our water table for the past 25 years through rain water harvesting. The facility houses a school educating 1200 children per year while playing a formative role in over 100,000 careers. We create steam from the husk of our rice crops and also integrate process waste such as pumice stones into our compost waste management systems.
For us sustainability isn’t just a slogan, it’s an ethos. Our aim is to continue building upon this self-sustaining ecosystem to be a testament to the belief that man, nature, and industry can indeed coexist. We recently covered our entire ecosystem in our commemorative documentary, which is viewable here.
Carved in Blue: What was the biggest hurdle in creating the “Greenest Ecosystem the Denim Industry Has Ever Known?”
Rizwan: Crescent’s vision was to create employment in a remote area and spark a cultural change. The village of Bahuman had always been considered marshland, thus not conducive to farming, resulting in astronomical unemployment and illiteracy rates. Creating and maintaining a self-sustaining ecosystem full of life and opportunity in such an unconventional location was definitely the biggest hurdle. Yet, it has been absolutely essential in building our core values. Aside from continuously improving and investing in our industrial processes, these values have helped us realize the importance of analyzing and questioning every element involved in producing a pair of jeans.
Carved in Blue: Can you tell us about some of the latest initiatives at Crescent?
Rizwan: Being Green Screen and GRS certified and currently implementing the ZDHC program, CBL is steaming forward with its sustainability vision! Apart from investing in various sustainable machinery such as lasers in our garmenting facilities, we have decided radically redefine our fabrics. “Our Love for Nature” capsule collection is in alignment with our objective to reduce dependence on cotton through hemp, Regenerated cellulose such as TENCEL™ Lyocell, TENCEL™ x REFIBRA™, TENCEL™ Modal and viscose, and iCollect certified PCW fibers. We also aim to eliminate Virgin Polyester by utilizing Repreve® by Unifi, which creates polyester through the recycling of PET bottles. Finally, we’re conserving water and improving reusability of indigo through Zero Water Discharge techniques in collaboration with DyStar®, hydro-free dyeing, eliminating salt formation and increasing the lifespan of our dyestuff, quick wash offs, and generally a reduced load on our Biological Water treatment by avoiding unwanted chemical formulation. We’re delivering a 40 percent reduction in the garment wash cycle.
Carved in Blue: What are other companies missing in the whole sustainability trend?
Rizwan: Due to an extremely competitive environment you will always have certain manufacturers preferring to take shortcuts. The lack of transparency will eventually be any manufacturer’s downfall as there will be no hiding place in the future. Sustainability can no longer be an after though in the product. It has to be ingrained into the product.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Rizwan: Carved in Blue gives us all a voice, a chance for all of our unique stories to be heard. It’s our favorite platform as it has become a town hall for all denim aficionados!