Numerous textile and apparel businesses in Vietnam are working harder to make their production processes more environmentally friendly in order to comply with buyer countries’ laws and standards regarding product origin.
The waste directives, extended producer responsibility programs, and ecodesign standards for sustainable products are some of the most important EU legislation for the textile and apparel sector.
Through the development of a green, circular production strategy and the measurement of the carbon footprint throughout the life cycles of its products, the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex) is putting carbon reduction strategies into practice. Thus far, the group’s members have cut their electricity use per product unit by 2% in comparison to 2022.
The Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), however, believes that the country’s regulatory frameworks are inadequate and lack industry-specific circular economy laws or regulations. It stated that international deadlines for greenhouse gas inventory and carbon pricing regulations are being missed.
In the textile sector, achieving green standards necessitates high conversion costs and protracted transition times. This is an issue because the majority of Vietnamese textile exporters are small and medium-sized businesses.
A lot of Vietnamese companies are also eager to engage in green logistics, which can save transportation costs and improve supply chain efficiency by minimizing the number of empty or partially loaded vehicles on the road and optimizing delivery routes.
According to Tran Thanh Hai, deputy director general of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s (MoIT) Agency of Foreign Trade, green logistics will become a need in the future, therefore companies may encounter obstacles in terms of awareness and incentive to make the shift.
Some companies are aware of this, but they lack the resources or are too tiny to invest sensibly. Customers are not prepared to pay extra for environmentally friendly logistics services, despite the fact that there is a strong demand for them.
Green logistics, according to another MoIT official, is a relatively new idea that is not well understood in many emerging economies, including Vietnam.