Developing Competitive Sustainable Manufacturing in the Indonesian Textile Industry

Abstract

The Government of Indonesia through its Ministry of Industry launched a voluntary sustainability standard for textile industry called “Standar Industri Hijau (SIH)” or the Green Industrial Standard (GIS) in December 2015 in response to the increasing pressure by global consumers to produce environmentally and socially conscious products, and to improve the textile industry’s competitiveness in global markets. This study compares and evaluates GIS which is limited to dyeing, printing and finishing processes, with four globally-established textile sustainability standards namely, STeP by OEKO-TEX, EU Ecolabel, Adidas and the Higg Index as benchmarks. Then uses both a quantitative survey and qualitative interviews of stakeholders in the Indonesian textile and apparel industry to uncover the deeper issues involved in implementing sustainable manufacturing practices and processes from a variety of perspectives.