Shoe company innovates

Participation in Cleaner Production in Industry (CPI) has helped us accomplish major economic and environmental achievements and assure occupational safety

“Participation in Cleaner Production in Industry (CPI) has helped us accomplish major economic and environmental achievements and assure occupational safety,” Vinh Phu Shoe Company Director Bui Manh Hung told the Vietnam Economic News.

Located in Viet Tri in Phu Tho Province, the Vinh Phu Shoe Company makes 650,000-700,000 pairs of shoes for export each year. Before the company applied cleaner production solutions, a certain amount of toluene, which is used in adhesion, unexpectedly leaked into the environment. This resulted in adverse impacts on the environment and workers’ health. On top of this, the company discharged about 100 tonnes of solid waste, including scraps of fabric and leather into the environment each year. With assistance from the Phu Tho Province Department of Industry and Trade, the company learned about and began applying cleaner production solutions in early 2007.

Vinh Phu established a clean production team composed of 10 members. It began clean production methods with low-cost solutions. Specifically, the company bought leather, imitation leather and leather cutting machines and tools which improved upon its prior operations in terms of better product quality and minimizing waste such as unusable, discarded surplus of input products. It also sought out skilled workers to do material cutting while making use of surplus material to make small aspects of products. By doing this, the company saved VND150 million annually.

Like many other companies, Vinh Phu was also inefficient in its energy consumption. To save power, the company replaced T10 neon lights with T8 and compact lamps, isolated heat consuming equipment and fix the amount of power used by individual workshops, all for a cost of VND350 million. This has helped Vinh Phu decrease its energy consumption by 45,500kWh of electricity per year.

Having acknowledged the major benefits of cleaner production solutions, Vinh Phu then invested in more costly solutions to reduce adverse environmental impact in and around the company’s production facilities. It procured and installed a new air filtration system, dozens of ventilators, vacuum cleaners and other mechanical devices for a total cost of VND890 million. This investment has helped the company earn additional profit of VND170 million from reducing the number of overtime hours, power consumption and pollution.

The company improved and expanded its solid waste containment area from 100 square meters to nearly 300sq.m while installing additional taps, fire and explosion prevention equipment, shelves and more for a total cost of VND100 million. This has helped the company decrease its solid waste transportation costs by VND10 million per year. Also, this made it easier to classify and manage solid waste, and improve environmental hygiene and occupational safety. – VEN

Tags: Vietnam shoe companies