Study shows that cooling costs for Bangladeshi garment factories can be recovered in four years.

A report published on Sunday showed that manufacturers and brands can benefit financially from investing in cooling systems for garment factory workers to reduce heat stress. Climate change is a growing threat to the apparel industry.

Researchers at Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute have found that cooling investments in Bangladesh factories, such as reflective paint, roof insulation, and airflow ventilation are both commercially viable and will pay off within four years. The report called on brands to ease prices for suppliers who invest in cooling workers.

The authors, who cited temperature readings taken over a period of six months at eight factories in Dhaka, found that temperatures inside factories are often higher than those outside. Workers in the ironing and finishing sections were most susceptible to extreme heat. Heat stress wiped out?4,1 percent of the average annual revenue for these factories, posing a financial risk to manufacturers and global brands.

Jason Judd is the executive director of Global Labor Institute. He said that the?report gives both buyers and vendors a 'context of the scale of intervention needed. If you are considering cooling investments, but don't have a clear idea of how much money is being spent on them, it can be difficult.

Judd stated that apparel brands expressed an interest in the payback time for heat adaptation expenditures at factories during conversations with researchers. He said that brands have been "back-and-forth" with their manufacturers about mitigation costs, achieving GHG (greenhouse gases) targets and identifying alternative sources of energy.

Heat and flooding can wipe out $65 billion of apparel exports from Bangladesh, Cambodia Pakistan, and Vietnam by 2030, according to research conducted three years earlier.

Climate change is becoming more and more apparent in the apparel industry. The extent to which global brands invest in?adaptation is still an open question.

Last week, the American Apparel and Footwear Association released a 'toolkit aimed to protect workers from extreme temperature. The trade group suggested that brands should share the cost of resilience measures when the manufacturer may not be able to generate enough'returns' for the investment.

Nate Herman, Executive Vice President of AAFA, said that extreme heat is becoming a more common occurrence around the world. This means our industry needs to take action to protect workers at the core of our supply chain.

(source: Reuters)