Grasim Wins Prestigious Gold Certification For VSF Product

Grasim Wins Prestigious Gold Certification For VSF Product

Grasim Industries Limited, a flagship company of USD 43 billion Aditya Birla Group has earned a Gold level Material Health Certificate from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute for their product Birla Spunshades Viscose Staple Fibre.

Grasim Industries assessed Birla Spunshades VSF against the criteria of the Material Health category in the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard. Based on the superior results it has earned a Gold level Material Health Certificate from the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. Headquartered in San Francisco, California USA, the Institute is a non-profit organization that administers the publicly available Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard which provides designers and manufacturers with criteria and requirements for continually improving what products are made of and how they are made.

To achieve certification, materials and products must be assessed across five sustainability categories: material health; material reutilization; renewable energy and carbon management; water stewardship; and social fairness. A product receives an achievement level in each category — Basic, Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. The certificate is valid for 2 years, after which manufacturers must demonstrate their work to further better their products for recertification.

Dilip Gaur, Managing Director, Grasim Industries said, “We are the first VSF manufacturer to get this certification, a truly great achievement by the Grasim team. This is yet another milestone in our sustainability journey. It reaffirms that sustainability is at the core of our business strategy. At Grasim, continuously striving for manufacturing excellence and focussing on sustainable production is a never ending journey. Having been certified Gold our aspirations is to reach for Platinum”

Rajeev Gopal, Chief Marketing Officer, Pulp and Fibre Business, Grasim Industries remarked “Material Health Certificate for Birla Spunshades from Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute will enhance the goodwill that our brand enjoys among our customers.”

"This certification confirms that viscose fibre is made for closed-loop systems with its natural origin and will enhance the confidence of the value chain players in delivering sustainable products," said Ajay Sardana, Chief Sustainability Officer of Grasim Industries.

Birla Spunshades, a USDA bio-based certified product, is made with coloured spun-dyed viscose fiber and a technique that embeds the colour pigments into the fibre itself. The result is a colour that fully saturates the fibre. Fibres are designed for fastness properties and uniformity in colour in order to prevent garments from losing colour during washes. Spun-dyed viscose fibres are designed to eliminate conventional fabric dyeing and washing-off steps leading to huge water conservation. The Certificate can be accessed here.

The Material Health Certificate issued by the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute uses the material health assessment methodology of the Cradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard to provide manufacturers with a trusted way to communicate their work towards chemically optimized products. ?To achieve a Material Health Certificate, a product must meet the same requirements at each level of the Material Health section of theCradle to Cradle Certified Product Standard, plus a continuous improvement/optimization requirement.

The Cradle to Cradle standard assesses product safety in context of people and the environment, as well as product design for material reuse. Based on the Cradle to Cradle ‘industrial design philosophy’, its purpose is to eliminate waste and to encourage products to be developed for closed-loop systems.