Sustainable and Cleaner Production in Manufacturing Industries

December 2010

Creating a policy framework which supports SMEs to switch to sustainable production practices is one of the key aspects of the SWITCH-Asia Project “Sustainable and Cleaner Production in the Manufacturing Industries of Pakistan (SCI-PAK)”. From the start, opportunities to increase energy and resource efficiency in the textile processing and leather tannery industries of Pakistan have been identified. There has been training for industrial equipment manufacturers on sustainable technologies, awareness-raising sessions on the clean development mechanism (CDM), and knowledge-sharing with university faculties on sustainable production. In November 2010, five pilot projects were registered in Faisalabad, Gujranwala and Kasur. To enable more SMEs to change their production processes, the project consortium aims to actively modify the policy framework in Pakistan.

Both Pakistani project partners, the Iqbal Hamid Trust (IHT) and the Cleaner Production Institute (CPI), are currently carrying out interviews with the government representatives to identify potential opportunities for improving the policy framework. The areas with highest potential impact for sustainable production in the textile and leather industry are: i) efficiency in the use of raw materials and water, ii) energy efficiency, iii) solid waste and wastewater, iv) health and safety. The interviews not only focus the current level of policy interventions in these areas but also their impacts and effectiveness. The gaps and opportunities identified through the interviews will form the basis for future actions.

By demonstrating good cases of policy interventions in other Asian and European countries, concrete suggestions for improvements will be developed. Based on the suggestions, the project partners will hold a dialogue with the key policy organisations and public bodies in Pakistan to create a supporting policy framework for SMEs. This will, together with the dissemination of the life case studies of the textile and leather tanneries, promote the sustainable production concept in different industrial sectors of Pakistan. 

In early September 2010, the SWITCH-Asia Project Cleaner Production in Manufacturing Industries (SCI-PAK) conducted a four-day training session for faculty members of different Pakistani engineering universities. The project is promoting sustainable and cleaner production in the textile processing and leather tannery industries of Pakistan. At the training session it shared concepts and tools for sustainable production, along with local and international case studies. The SWITCH-Asia experts wanted to build on the capacity of the university faculty members so that they can impart such trainings to their students.  The University of the Punjab (Lahore), the University of Engineering and Technology (Peshawar), Kinnaird College for Women (Lahore), the National Textile University Faisalabad (Faisalabad), and the University of Management and Technology (Lahore) participated in the training and agreed to organise similar courses in the form of seminars at their campuses. The faculty members who attended this training will lead the seminars. SCI-Pak also aims to arrange field trips and internship opportunities for students who will participate in the seminars.  

On 25 August, SCI-Pak signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Peshawar. At the signing ceremony Mr Qazi Sabir, representative of the SCI-Pak consortium pointed out that by working with the universities the project helps them to develop as future change agents for the industry. Future cooperation includes topics such as energy auditing, sustainable production and consumption, better housekeeping, end of pipe treatment, environmental impact assessments, and initial environmental examinations. For more information please visit: http://www.sci-pak.org

From 3 to 8  August 2010, representatives of 18 industrial equipment manufacturers (IEMs) belonging to the tannery and textile sectors of Pakistan attended a training in Tilburg, Holland. The training aimed at increasing the capacities of Pakistani IEMs in the field of cleaner production technology. Specific topics of the training were: waste heat recovery, high efficiency burners, use of biomass boilers, caustic and dye recovery strategies and process steam and compressed air leakage control. Parallel to the training a networking event with European IEMs took place. It gave the opportunity to the Pakistani IEMs to intensify the best practices learning process and identify synergies for future European-Pakistani partnerships.

SBP banker Mansoor Ali observed that although SMEs are typically vulnerable to economic downturns, yet given the importance of SMEs to the country’s growth and employment prospects, actors have to ensure and encourage continued access to finance for SMEs. Therefore SBP, on its part, has unveiled a number of initiatives to encourage lending to the sector.  These include: establishment of Credit Guarantee Scheme for SMEs and concessionary refinance scheme for modernization of SMEs, revision of regulatory framework for SME financing, conducting SME cluster surveys and financial awareness programs for SMEs. 

Access to finance needs commitment from both sides

He emphasised that for sustainability of any initiative focused toward fulfilling financing needs of SMEs; there should be a strong commitment on part of both the financial institutions and business associations. Therefore, it was agreed that one potential commitment would be the support of the Energy & Resource Efficiency Network as a platform to facilitate the communication and interaction between financial institutions, service providers and SMEs. The conslusion of the roundtable was that the problem on access to finance in Pakistan was not the lack of financial resources but the lack of interaction tools, mechanisms and codes to close the supply and demand of financial resources. For that reason, the participants welcomed the appropriate momentum of the launch of the E&RE Network.