What is Environment Policy

To ensure healthy and hygienic environment for suitable and comfortable work place at Auto Limited. This policy applies to all employees of the company regarding all aspects of healthy environment in respect to national and international laws. Bangladesh is earning substantial amount of foreign currency by exporting readymade garments product. The project is an 100% export oriented garment manufacturing industry Established in January -2001. It is well recognized that each industrial development has impact on the natural environment policy directly or indirectly. So, the environmental aspect of factory activities have been taken in to consideration and attention is paid to protect the environment. The first step in this process is to identify the potential impact of the factory and evaluate the intensity of the impact so that effective measures can be taken to mitigate adverse impact.

Risk assessment exercise

We provide a safe, accident free operation at our facilities and identify potential hazards before the manufacturing process begins. All manufacturing and R&D locations are subjected to a detailed safety audit and risk assessment exercise. We provide proper in-house education and training with an objective to in calculate in every member of the organization, a sincere appreciation for Environmental, Safety & Health concern. This policy has provided the information on impact of different environment policy issues due to the operations of the facility. The main objectives of this policy are: . To present the factory activities. To describe the existing environment.  To identify the major environmental impact due to the implementation of the existing industrial development. To suggest the effective measures to mitigate the adverse impact.

Legal & Policy consideration

As per environment conservation act “95 and Environment Conservation Rules “97 Ministry of Environment & Forest, Government of The peoples Republic of Bangladesh.

Project Description

Present status of the Factory: Our factory is now in running stage. The total capacity the Factory is about 1.5 million pcs (per month). Our factory has got Environmental no objection certificate (NOC) from the local authority and environment certificate from Department of Environment (DOE), Government of the peoples republics of Bangladesh.

Raw materials: The raw materials are using in the factory are different types of sewing thread, button, label, light detergent etc. Which are imported on basis of back to back L/C or sometime buyer nominated source. The packing materials are collected our own source or sometime buyer nominated source.

Baseline Environment

Physical Environment: AUTOKnit Wear Ltd has been set up

Water Quality: There is no permanent surface water body around the factory

Air Quality: Up-to-date Air quality data around the factory site are not available, as there is no provision for monitoring air quality in this area. But it has been observed that the apparent ambient air quality of the area is fairly good.

Hydrology:The factory area received sufficient amount of rainfall and there is a good availability of ground water which is being used after water treatment (Drinking and domestic purpose).

Evaluation of impact

Impact due to project Location: There is no potential bad impact due to our factory, as the factory situated in Industrial area.

Impact Due To Liquid Discharge: There are small amount of liquid discharge from the factory as the GMT is being with plain water and detergent. The insignificant liquid wastes generated from domestic activities. The water requirement for domestic purposes is 40m3/day. All domestic waste water has been disposed in a proper way for the recycling process so that it does not create any pollution in the surrounding environment.

Pollution From Solid Waste: Some sold wastes in terms of cut pieces of cut pieces of fabrics, domestic wastes are generated from this industry. These are properly collected and disposed of in a safe way to get rid of the environmental pollution.

Effect On Air Quality: AUTOKnit Wear Ltd has emission from its operation activity during operation. But small thermal pollution has been observed from the boiler and generator operation.

Occupational Health: The workers engaged in the GMTS Production inside the factory area face occupational health hazard due to different operational process. Safe and good occupational health and safety policy status  is  not important only for the persons working in the factory, but also for the better plant operation and maintenance.

Socio-economic Impact: Most of the significant positive impact of the factory is the earning of foreign currencies through exporting of ready-made garment. The other important positive impact of the factory is the employment of personnel for the operation of the factory. The factory employed about 3000 skilled and unskilled personnel. Apart from this two positive impact other beneficial impact include local transport business, local economy because of employment, community development etc.

Measure for Mitigating the Adverse Effects

For Project Location: There is no potential bad impact due to the factory situated in this area as the factory is in Industrial area.

For Liquid Wastes: It is already mentioned that all the factory building is situated in Industrial area.This group already set up Effluent Treatment Plant Equipment (ETP) for safe environmental purpose.

For Solid Waste: All types of solid waste in terms of cut pieces of fabrics and yarn are collected properly and handed over to small trades for recycling purposes. Other domestic solid wastes are collected and disposed of in safe way. Chemical drum, fused eclectic light and other items are properly stored and centrally disposal-system/ back to the supplier.

For Air Pollution: There is no emission or mitigation measure required regarding air pollution, But to disperse the hot air from the boiler and generator the company has installed a 15m chimney with these two equipment.

For Occupational Health: Protective clothing and accessories are provided to those workers who are subjected to exposure to hazardous substances and situation. Regular medical check-up are conducted to ensure the soundness of health and safety policy of the employees and workers. A separate Medical section and sufficient Doctor, Medicine & others operational equipment is present here. The doctor and his experience and background in occupational health problems has been employed to coordinate and implement a detailed and adequate training program conducted for workers in occupational health to ensure health and safety policy for all workers in the factory.

Disaster Management plan: It has been observed that the fire is the major risk factor for the garment factory. So the safety of the factory workers and the factory it self has been considered in a priority basis. The factory has fire Fighting, Risqué management team, first Aid management team, fire evacuation plan, fire alarm & heat detector system, emergency alarm system, smoke detector, sufficient number of fire extinguishers, fire fighting equipments, wide scale staircases. For ensuring regular practice of fire evacuation both announced and unannounced Fire Drill is conducted at least once in a month.

Other Provision: Beyond the above, the AUTOKnit Wear Ltd. also full provision of pure drinking water, toilets, first Aid boxes, Child care center, dining hall, medical center with full time Doctors Facility etc.

Health and Safety Policy

Lime-Washing and Painting:   The interior walls, ceilings, passages and staircases of the factory are clean, dirt free and properly painted. Floor is clean and painted with Epoxy.

Health and Safety Policy
Health and Safety Policy

Cleanliness :   Whenever dirt and refuges are accumulated, these are swept by the cleaner at once, from the floors and passages. The floor is cleaned at least once in every week by washing and house keeping of whole work room is done once in a month, using detergent and disinfectant where necessary. Record of this cleanliness is maintained in a Register, as prescribed by local laws.

Infestation:   There are hardly any chances of staying of infest at the work space as cleaning is done regularly. Even though these comes from outside seasonally when excessive humidity and temperature takes place and during winter. These are taken care with various anti infest items in regular interval. In the toilets Phenol are used daily. Around the work space Aerosol is used regularly. At night around the window side anti-insect bulb are lighted and dark curtain are used so that light doesn’t attract insects from outside. At an interval of six months, with the help of Pest Control organization whole factory space are sprayed with pest control liquids and vapour to kill all alive infest and larva.

Wastages and Effluents  :   There are small disposal of fabrics cut pieces and loose threads that usually accumulated in the factory and once in a month it is disposed off through local vendor. They (vendor) crashed all cut pieces into cotton for various domestic uses, which is   environment friendly. There is nothing effluent in factory floor. Effluents of latrines usually drained to under ground safety tank. Waste water (from wash room) drains has been constructed maintaining sufficient slope so that nothing can be accumulated on the floor and there is no bad smell.

Ventilation and Temperature          :  The factory floor is equipped with sufficient number of ceiling fans. North South and East side of the floor surrounded by wider window which provide proper ventilation and circulation of fresh air. Natural fresh air from the south swept over the whole floor and keeps the temperature reasonably comfortable for workers therein.

Lighting  :  Glass fitted wider windows are available which provide enough natural light as south side is being unobstructed. Glass at windows is kept clean on both the outer and inner surfaces and free from obstruction as far as possible. In addition to the natural lights, the factory floor is lightened with tube light sets having reflectors with that to intensify the lighting which is sufficient and suitable for work place and passages all over the work place and passages. Level of illumination is more then 600 lax in the working area.

Drinking water  :   There is sufficient volume of fresh natural pure drinking water preserved in jars kept at convenient place on the floor and marked “DRINKING WATER” in English and Bengali. The water jar’s usually washed with normal water, hot water, detergent etc and record of wash is maintained. After wash refilling is done with fresh water and purified with Water Purification Tablets and recorded.

Spittoons:   There are sufficient numbers of spittoons kept at every entrance of the factory. These are filled with dry and clean sand and covered with a layer of bleaching powder on top of it.

Conclusion

There are total 19 separate toilets available for male and female workers. The toilet floor and wall is tiled and having hygienically proven sanitary system. Each toilet is provided with supply water line also equipped with cistern flashing system to wash down the pan/commode. Toilet/urinals are being cleaned once everyday with different types of liquid cleaner. Sufficient lighting systems are available inside the toilet. Toilets are fitted with industrial exhaust fans to accelerate the flow of fresh air. Human disposals drained out to under ground safety tank. This safety tank has been constructed according to design of local public environment policy , health and safety policy