Last year Levi’s had launched Levi’s® Water<Less™ collection which used upto 96% less water in washing. With about 1.5 million jeans manufactured , Levi’s was targeting to save about 16 million litres of water..
For the Fall/ Winter 2011 , Levi’s will have about 12 million jeans in the Waterless collection and it hopes to save over 150 million litres of water. That is a significant amount of water saved and the increase from 1.5 million pieces to 12 million pcs is also quite a jump within an year.
In an effort to reduce the impact on workers , Levi’s had previously banned its vendors from using the sandblasting operation to protect the health of their workers. This step by Levi’s was emulated by many other retailers and brands including H&M . I think that even the waterless jeans concept would be similarly emulated.
12 million jeans , though a big quantity, is not even 0.3% of total jeans manufactured in the world . But , when Levi’s is strongly pushing the waterless jeans concept, it is highly likely that the positive impact of this step on environment would be realized by other important retailers and brands. And if over the next few years , this concept snowballs into a major trend , it would be really helpful in offsetting a part of the constantly increasing negative impact of jeans production on the environment.
As Erik Joule, SVP, Levi’s Men’s Merchandising & Design rightly says
“I’ve always believed the businesses not only have the ability to change the world — they have a duty to do so….”
Scientists and researchers are already forecasting that there will be a severe shortage of water for over 1 billion urban dwellers by 2050.. Though the year seems quite far away, it is imperative for various industries to understand the importance of developing water saving techniques for their own survival.
