Challenges to Adopt with Eco-Friendly Practices in Sri Lankan Garment Industry: with Special Reference to Seethawaka Industrial Processing Zone

Abstract

With the adverse impacts of the global environmental pollution, business world is highly concerning on the natural environment, because all of them depend on the natural resources. Garment industry is one of the most polluting industries in the world. This is mainly due to the production of cotton and synthetic fibers. Therefore, Eco-friendly business practices are highly demanded for the survival of the garment industry. In Sri Lankan context, some garment manufactures tend to produce in eco-friendly way. However, the others are still silence. Hence the study aimed to explore the existing eco-friendly practices and examine the challenges of adopting eco-friendly practices in Sri Lankan garment industry. Ultimately, the study expected to provide recommendations to overcome those challenges. The study was carried out under the qualitative research approach and Seethawaka Industrial Processing Zone was selected as the research site. Annual reports, sustainability reports and company publications were used as the secondary data sources to identify existing eco –friendly practices in the garment industry and primary data was collected by conducting unstructured interviews to identify the challenges to adopt with eco-friendly practices. As per the findings of the study, existing eco-friendly practices in Sri Lankan garment industry were related to the energy management, water management, waste management, chemical management, process optimization, biodiversity refuge and reduction of carbon emission. Also, it was found that the volunteer engagement of eco-friendly practices was at a lower level in the Sri Lankan garment industry. So also, the top management related challenges, resistant to change, financial challenges, lack of government support, poor awareness and knowledge, lack of buyer pressure, tied schedule of the production department, maintaining production standards and least competition were identified as the challenges to adopt with eco-friendly practices in the Sri Lankan garment industry. Finally, pressure from the government, volunteer involvement of top management and providing education and support to supply chain partners to become more sustainable were suggested as the recommendations to overcome the challenges. So that, this research will be beneficial to the garment factories, which are not implemented the eco-friendly practices yet, to identify the existing eco-friendly practices, its challengers and way of facing those challenges successfully.