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Energy
Energy consumption is directly linked to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Gildan’s greatest sources of energy are biomass, bunker fuel and electricity. Bunker fuel is used primarily to heat water necessary for our dyeing and compacting process – it is classified as “direct energy”. The balance originates from purchased electricity, classified as “indirect energy”. Our yarn-spinning facilities in the United States represents a large part of the electricity we use. Gildan has recently established the following reduction target: reduce energy intensity resulting from our owned operations by 20% by 2015 from our 2010 baseline.
In 2012, we decreased energy intensity by 2% from our 2010 baseline.
In 2012, the global energy consumption for all facilities and offices, including direct and indirect energy, was approximately 4,394,694 gigajoules, compared to 4,098,2281 gigajoules in 2011.
- 70% of the energy consumption was from direct sources
- Diesel (1%)
- Fuel Oil (29%)
- Propane (1%)
- Natural Gas (3%)
- Biomass (36%)
- 30% of the energy consumption was from indirect purchased electricity sources
Energy intensity (GJ per kg of products) across all Gildan facilities increased by 10% in 2012. We attribute this increase to the ramping-up of our new textile facility (Rio Nance 5) in 2012, as well as the ramping-down of our Rio Nance 1 textile facility, which used energy while not producing any output.
In 2012, we continued to reduce our bunker fuel consumption, representing a 26% reduction from 2011 and a 40% reduction since 2010. This is largely attributable to the increased use of biomass as a replacement for bunker fuel.
Gildan plans to achieve its 20% energy reduction target by implementing energy efficiency projects, which have been identified through an extensive energy audit conducted in 2011 at its Central American facilities, across Gildan’s operations. Examples of initiatives identified include the installation of skylights to improve lighting efficiency, the upgrade of the chiller plant control and the installation of the variable frequency drive to better control the chillers, which are responsible for the most important portion of the electricity use, and the optimization of the vacuum system at the textile facilities.
Gildan’s 2010 baseline year numbers have been normalized according to an adjusted baseline including Gildan’s mergers, acquisitions and divestitures since 2010. For more details on the methodology used for baseline adjustment, please refer to our reporting section.
The “Others” category includes our energy use from our yarn-spinning facilities, administrative offices, chemical production unit, retail stores and industrial park services.