The Canadian Textile Sustainable Development Working Commitee (T2D2)

The Canadian Textile Sustainable Development Working Committee was created in 2006 as a result of a reflection that textile companies in Canada, even the most performing, could take advantage of this megatrend which constitutes sustainable development.

Its mission is to position the Canadian Textile Industry to become a world leader in the application of sustainable development concepts and management principals.

Its goal is to make the Canadian Textile Industry aware of the viability of sustainable development and to encourage textile companies to transform their practices to ensure their long term prosperity. To achieve this, the Committee must provide an opportunity to its members to share information, create synergies and more importantly, trigger actions to attain measurable objectives.

In the beginning, industry representatives were called upon to create an initial forum and propose sustainable development projects which could generate tangible benefits to the industry.

After a consolidation phase aimed to ensure optimal representativity on the committee, separate sub-groups will be formed to cover important topics such as financing, awareness program, creation of partnerships, information and public relations.

The committee’s main focus is to promote projects which meet the sustainable development principles, and among others, help businesses to :

• Design textiles and textile applications which consume less raw mmaterials and energy resources during production and distribution mstages.
• Design textiles, which, at their end of life, could be returned into the msupply chain.
• Design applications which would reuse the millions of tons of textile mproducts which presently end up in landfill sites.

For objectivity purposes, this committee is composed of representatives from the industry, from public and private organizations, from the government, and consultants, therefore gathering a complete representation of experts in the field of sustainable development.

The following individuals are presently members of this Working Committee : Peter Aspley (Paquet Yarns), Ronald Audet (Filspec), Huguette Biage-Major (MDEIE), Daniel Castro (Leigh Textile), Nadine Cormier (Industriy Canada), Richard Cormier (Stratcor), Guy Déziel (consultant), Serge Guertin (Noveon), Philippe Lalonde (Industry Canada), Yanne Larosa (Interface Fabrics), Jeanne Messier (Groupe Textile), Laurent Rhéaume (Groupe Textile).

At the Working Committee’s last meeting on January 29, 2008, the following members were elected by the Executive Committee : Yanne Larosa as president of the Working Committee, Richard Cormier – Financing/Projects Committee, Peter Aspley – Promotion outside Québec, Laurent Rhéaume – Information/Communications Committee and Jeanne Messier, Secretary-Treasurer & Archivist for the Working Committee.