Birla Cellulose: Inspiring the textile industry to be sustainable

To promote sustainability, Birla Cellulose has revamped the entire manufacturing process from raw material sourcing to the distribution of the final product, and the same has been done in order to make it in consonance with the principles of sustainability

- Ganesh Kalidas

In this age of rapid development, human beings have been conveniently ignoring the other species that they co-exist with. We have overused, exploited and misused natural resources that are essential to us for our basic survival. In this process of greed for accumulating more, we have forgotten that we always reap what we sow. Our actions towards the environment in the past are now being experienced in terms of climate change, water crisis, depleting resources, bad air quality, and so on. Unfortunately, the flourishing textile industry is one of the biggest contributors to this problem by virtue of it being the second most polluting industry in the world.

Several activists have shown great determination in spreading awareness about the effect of negatively impacting the environment but the real impact will only show when industrialists and other key players in the textile industry change the way they operate. One such messiah of change is the Aditya Birla Group, who through their pulp and fibre business – Birla Cellulose, the global fibre brand of which Grasim Industries Ltd. is part of – has successfully been able to demonstrate to the world that it is, in all the sense of the word, a global leader in the sector it operates.

With the qualities of passion, integrity and commitment, Grasim Industries Ltd. was established when G D Birla anticipated the need for man-made fibres due to the shortage of cotton and other environmental concerns related to natural fibres. Interestingly, the company was established in the year 1947 when India received independence from the British Raj while G D Birla aimed to give independence to human beings from being dependent on cotton textiles. In the year 1954, the company commissioned its first viscose staple fibre (VSF) production at Nagda, Madhya Pradesh.