India’s Anubha Knows Denim Sustainability Starts With the Raw Materials
The denim industry is learning to do more with less.
And one such leader in the sector’s new sustainable education, is Anubha, a young denim mill in India.
The facility feels the industry is long overdue for a more environmentally-responsible revamp—starting with the raw materials. That’s why at Anubha, denim fabric is manufactured from fibers such as organic cotton and TENCEL™ Lyocell.
Carved in Blue caught up with Anubha’s Aditya Goyal to find out more about the company ethos and how more in the sector can catch onto its goodwill.
Carved in Blue: What’s your main mission with Anubha?
Aditya: Anubha was setup with the aim of producing clean denim fabrics. Clean encompasses the entire domain of cotton, chemistry and processes. Every aspect of our operations has been tailored to keep natural resource consumption to the lowest standards possible.
Carved in Blue: What’s India offering to the denim industry that other countries may not be?
Aditya: India has always been a center of creativity. Historically, Indian textiles have fascinated the Western world because of its textures, colors and prints. This creativity is reflecting in the domestic denim industry also as the Indian consumer perceives denim very differently from the American, European or Japanese consumer. The entire denim ecosystem in India is very different from the rest of the world and this is what sets it apart.
India straddles the entire spectrum of denim fabrics, which are appealing to the global consumer which loves indigo casts, conventional weaves, either functionality or vintage characteristics as well as the heavily textured, fancy weaves and variety of colors that the Indian consumer wants.
Carved in Blue: How important is sustainability to the business?
Aditya: Sustainability is the most significant word in the entire textile business now. It is no longer a keyword depicting a trend, collection or a target customer. It is actually the core question for the sustainability of the textile business. The entire textile fraternity globally has been notorious in depleting natural resources. Every developed country has gone through this cycle of ecological damage, followed by a clean-up act and then the business moving to lesser developed countries, which currently face the same challenges. We have now entered a phase where we do not have time for a clean-up act and displacement of the business to newer geographies. The entire textile community will need to adopt ecologically sensitive raw materials and processes for its survival. Fortunately, there are technologies now available which needs to be brought into the mainstream. More than this, every person in this entre value chain has to be agile and ready for the transformation of their production processes failing, which they might not have a business to look after in some time.
Carved in Blue: How are you making your fabric more sustainable?
Aditya: At Anubha, we look at sustainability holistically. I personally feel that we cannot have sustainable denim without organic cotton. At Anubha we have established our supply chains to ensure that we can work with sustainable cotton, sustainable polyester, sustainable TENCEL™ lyocell and all other sustainable yarns that are currently feasible. We have migrated our entire chemistry to meet with the bluesign® approved standards. I believe we would be among the very few mills which can claim that the entire production is done using sustainable chemistry. We are very conscious of our water consumption and have worked towards reducing our blue water footprint over the years, and are aiming to become water neutral in the next couple of years. This would be done both by reducing overall water consumption, hundred percent recycling of effluent for reclaiming processed water and rain water harvesting. We are in constant development of processes with chemistry suppliers as well as machinery suppliers for developing newer processes which can reduce energy requirements. We have recently started working with ultrasonic technology, which has helped us eliminate some chemicals from the process altogether.
The earlier we adopt and become comfortable with sustainable processes and materials, the greater are the chances for us to sustain our business over the long term. In the short run, newer technology, cleaner raw materials do pose a challenge in terms of costs. However, in the long run, with greater mass adoption of these materials, they will become the new standard and definitely good for everybody.
Carved in Blue: What’s next for Anubha?
Aditya: We are still evolving. We are looking at some significant partnerships over the next few years. We have a very strong team which is as passionate about clean denim as I am. We will be expanding our customer footprint.
Carved in Blue: A little about you now—when did you first know you were a blueblood?
Aditya: To be honest, denim is the new business for me. I have been in textiles for the last 18 years and the association with denim started in 2012 when I first thought about getting into producing denim fabric. Since then it’s been living and dreaming denim only.
Carved in Blue: What’s your favorite city for denim inspiration?
Aditya: Amsterdam for sure.
Carved in Blue: When does a jean stop being a jean?
Aditya: Ideally, a jean now should be alive forever. It should live different lives through continuous transformation serving as the raw material for the next avatar. While human rebirth is a matter or belief and myth, the rebirth of jeans and being alive forever is now actually possible.
Carved in Blue: What does Carved in Blue mean to you?
Aditya: Blue is the new green. I am excited to be part of a fraternity, which in spite of being labelled as the most damaging industry environmentally, is ensuring the greatest transformations in making the lives of all stakeholders cleaner and better.
