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SGMA and DEQ organize Green Garments tie-up
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Posted on Feb 03 2005
CNMI Division of Environmental Quality’s Dave Hodges recently met with health and safety managers and maintenance personnel of Saipan Garment Manufacturers Association members to kick off the Green Garments Partnership.
The Green Garments Partnership between SGMA and DEQ, funded by a $75,000 federal grant award through the Environmental Protection Agency, will survey factories for ways to implement pollution prevention plans, conduct factory audits on chemical use, disposal, recycling and prevention, prepare a best practices handbook for all SGMA members and train factories in implementing those practices to protect the island’s environment and save factories money through the process.
At the SGMA offices in Gualo Rai, Saipan, Hodges outlined the contract that will be signed with a firm to manage the partnership with SGMA. Surveying will begin and audits will start in mid-year. Training after the handbook is completed will begin in the fall.
The GGP evolved after SGMA requested a meeting in January 2004 with DEQ, Coastal Resources Management, the Department of Public Works and the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. to think of ways to protect the local environment with initiatives within the industry.
SGMA will select a 6-member task force to work with DEQ to prepare all SGMA factories for the GGP, which has already received praise from current Saipan factory buyers and retailers as fitting the corporate responsibility guidelines their ownership maintains in offshore purchasing arrangements.
SGMA spokesperson Richard A. Pierce said that this project will continue as planned, as well as other initiatives to be better corporate citizens of the Commonwealth, even as the factories themselves seek ways to protect financial viability in the CNMI.
