MUMBAI: World Environment Day – 2018 is going to be special as India is hosting global celebrations of the event today. To commemorate the occasion, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has launched a special T-shirt, branded ‘The Earth Tee’ and designed by renowned fashion designer Anita Dongre, under its unique programme – ‘Fashion for Earth’.
The idea is to nudge people to switch to fashion that not only enhances aesthetics but also help conserve the environment and our planet.
During the launch of R|Elan™, at the IMG Reliance’s Lakme Fashion Week in January 2018, RIL collected post-consumer (used) PET bottles from the venue – Jio Garden at the BKC. Those have since been processed, recycled and converted into R|Elan™ GreenGold fabrics – one of the greenest fabrics using which Anita Dongre has designed and created the elegant ‘The Earth Tee’.
This limited edition ‘The Earth Tee’ has been presented to celebrities, selected by IMG Reliance & Anita Dongre, to join the ‘Fashion for Earth’ movement and spot ‘The Earth Tee’ initiatives.
RIL a leader in sustainable business development is focusing on promoting the concept of Circular Economy. Earlier this year, at the Lakmé Fashion Week, incidentally - at the same time that R|Elan™ fabrics was launched with Anita Dongre as a design partner - RIL’s R|Elan has launched ‘Fashion for Earth’ an ongoing program to drive awareness pertaining to sustainable fabrics, fashion & living.
The Earth Tee is the latest initiatives from this program to commemorate the ‘World Environment Day’.
“Reliance is committed to ensure environmentally sustainable and responsible operations to achieve highest standards of excellence. The ‘Fashion for Earth’ is our endeavour to make people participate in our efforts to conserve environment and the planet. The Earth Tee, designed by Anita Dongre, depicts the new paradigm of environmentally responsible fashion. The initiative is launched to celebrate the initiation of this long-term relationship, as we decided to jointly promote The Earth Tee with Anita Dongre and Lakmé Fashion Week as partners”, a RIL spokesperson said.
Reliance Industries, the owner of brand R|Elan, is one of the largest recycler of PET bottles in India, recycling 2.2 billion PET bottles a year.
The R|Elan GreenGold, made from recycled PET, substantially reduces the emission of greenhouse gases, and cuts down on water usage as well. The fabric is made from pre-dyed fibres that doesn’t require much water. Whatever little water is required, 90% of it is recycled.
RIL is the only company in the world that has built a complete circle – right from creation of PET Resin for bottles, and collection of discarded bottles to converting them to Recron GreenGold eco-friendly polyester fibre, which in turn is converted to R|Elan GreenGold fabric for the manufacture of high-fashion apparels.
