Cotton SA Merit Award for Cleaner Production

BERG RIVER TEXTILES were awarded the Merit Award for Cleaner Production at the annual Cotton SA awards held in Pretoria in October 2002.

Juan Laubscher from Berg River Textiles accepts the Cotton SA Merit Award in Cleaner Production from Karen Lundbo and Mr Leonard Venter, Chairperson of Cotton SA.

The Merit Award for Cleaner Production was first introduced into the Cotton SA Awards in 2001. Based on the enthusiasm of all involved, it was decided to repeat this Merit Award in 2002.

Cotton processing textile companies were invited to submit an application to the Danced Project Team outlining the cleaner production initiatives that had been undertaken at their company in the last year, and the financial and environmental savings achieved.

Applications were received from 6 textiles companies, and, in total, 63 Cleaner Production options were implemented by the candidates, and these are shown in the Figure below.



Reported financial savings from those companies that supplied this information was in the region of R 4.2 million / annum.

These 6 applications were short -listed to 3 companies who were then assessed by a team of independent auditors. Criteria on which they were judged included:
  • Maintenance / control base level,
  • Communication,
  • General SHE / Quality Management level,
  • Condition of Boilers, Yards & Workshops,
  • Waste stream management,
  • Projects underway and planned,
  • Top Management Commitment to improvement, and
  • Savings p.a.
Each submission for the award was very competitive and the eventual scoring very close, with the award going to BERG RIVER TEXTILES, who obtained the highest score.