Emissions
Spills
Gildan’s goal is to prevent all spills resulting from its supply chain, operations and transportation systems. To this end, we have implemented preventive measures and reinforced our retention infrastructure to ensure that spills resulting from human error do not impact the environment. Spill monitoring is a critical part of our Environmental Management System which is done based on a spill reporting procedure. Significant environmental accidents are reported to regulatory authorities. A complete root-cause analysis is conducted to develop sustainable corrective measures to prevent recurrence.
When a spill occurs, our internal spill-control procedure outlines how to secure and manage substances. At each facility, we have an emergency spill brigade that collects the spilled liquid and verifies that residual contaminants are managed appropriately.
Spilled substances can be either eliminated or recovered: when possible, we recuperate the spilled substance and reuse it in our processes. When it is not possible to recover the spill, either because it contains dirt or other undesired substances, it is eliminated with absorbents or other cleaning methods as required by our spill-management procedures. Eliminated spilled liquids are then sent as hazardous waste to a licensed waste management company for proper disposal.
At this time, the spills data does not include results from both our Haiti contractors and our manufacturing facility in Bangladesh, which was acquired in 2010.
In each reported instance, the spill was over a concrete floor and was cleaned with the appropriate emergency material. There was no resulting environmental impact. Following these incidents, a report was issued and corrective actions were implemented in order to prevent such recurrences at each facility.
In 2011, Gildan conducted a total of 6,600 man-hours of training regarding chemical and spill management.