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Energy

Energy Efficiency Project

Improving energy efficiency and thereby reducing our environmental impact remains a priority at all of our facilities.

Gildan’s current condensate return rates, at all of its textile and hosiery facilities, are close to 90%, which translates into substantial conservation of both energy and water. Condensate is the liquid resulting after steam energy has been used in a heat transfer process. Condensate is warm water containing chemical additives that can be reused to produce steam, at just one-third of the cost of generating steam from fresh water and new chemicals. Much of the energy consumed in our processes is used to heat the water used in the fabric dyeing process. Several heat recuperation systems have been incorporated into the condensate return loop, boiler’s surface and bottom purges - used to clean solids accumulations. Using these heat recovery systems, we are able to pre-heat water and have it available when required by our different processes, thus reducing the amount of steam needed to reach the process temperature. This way, Gildan reduces its energy and consumption costs and engages in effective water conservation.

• Gildan’s achievements in reducing various types of energy consumption

  • The hot water heating project was completed at four Gildan facilities – our textile facility in the Dominican Republic, as well as two textile facilities and a hosiery facility in Honduras. The remaining textile and hosiery facilities in Honduras will be completed by the end of 2012 as we ramp up production at these locations. Also noteworthy, the bunker heating control system and condensate recovery process at just one of our textile facilities in Honduras will save approximately 2,000 gallons of bunker fuel per month.
  • At one of our facilities in Honduras, cold water supply to one of our processes has been switched to hot water use, thus reducing our bunker consumption by 200 gallons per day. This shift will be implemented at our four other Honduras facilities by the end of 2012.
  • In 2010, we completed a project which aims at reducing operating steam pressure of our compactors from 80 psi to 30 psi at two of our textile facilities in Honduras, providing an estimated bunker fuel saving of 600 gallons per month.
  • Boiler management and combustion control systems were installed at one textile facility and the two hosiery facilities in Honduras during 2010. This type of system provides better control of energy consumption, resulting in an approximate bunker fuel saving of 3,000 gallons per month. Combined with the addition of bunker flow meters installed at all our textile and hosiery facilities in Honduras, this instrumentation provides us with the tools necessary for quantifying the exact amount of energy consumed, thus helping us to better manage it. Water and steam flow meters were also installed for dryers and dyeing machines, allowing us to measure the amount of steam used and therefore giving us better control over our water and energy use. We are also utilizing this type of measuring device for our chemical dispensing equipment in order to obtain more accurate results with regard to our energy and chemical consumption.
  • At our San Miguel sewing facility in Honduras and at our two sewing facilities in Nicaragua, the lighting system was changed from 75W lamps (wattage originally installed in the facilities) to 59W lamps. This reduced our energy consumption without impacting workers’ vision, safety or production quality. Our second sewing facility in Honduras is in the process of installing 59W lamps, and our new hosiery facility will be equipped with the new generation of LED lights. This will further reduce our electricity consumption, as well as our air conditioning requirements, as LED lighting does not produce heat. We will publish the results of these initiatives over the course of 2012.