Adidas is one among famous brands joining detox campaign. — VNS Photo

TÜV Rheinland, a technical inspection service provider from Germany, announced on Thursday that it would expand training to the north of Viet Nam in an aim to promote responsible chemical management in the textiles industry.

The company said that it had previously organised courses in HCM City which had attracted the participation of many garment manufacturers as well as famous brands.

Nguyen Ba Hoai Anh, director of the company’s softlines laboratory, said that after the oil industry, the garment industry has the second biggest environmental impact.

As for the challenges in the garment and textile industry, Hoai Anh said 28 billion kilos of fiber are dyed each year, while the industry uses over 5 trillion litres of water. Clothes that contain harmful substances can cause cancer or hormone disorders.

The training is an extension of the TÜV Rheinland Academy’s ongoing occupational health and safety training programme for the textiles industry.

The academy has worked with the German international co-operation agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH, on the latter’s “Resource Efficient Management of Chemicals” framework for apparel and footwear supply chains.

One of the most recent additions is a comprehensive detox offering, which TÜV Rheinland launched as a direct response to a Greenpeace campaign, aimed at uniting top textile and footwear brands and retailers to achieve zero discharge of hazardous chemicals by 2020.

Many famous brands, including Levi’s, Esprit, H&M, Adidas, Puma and Nike, have joined the campaign.

TÜV Rheinland, founded 145 years ago, employs 19,700 people around the world. It inspects technical equipment, products and services, and oversees projects, processes and information security for companies. Its experts also train people in a wide range of careers and industries. — VNS