GREEN INDUSTRIALIZATION OF READYMADE GARMENTS SECTOR IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to determine the extent of green industrialization of Ready Made Garment (RMG) in Bangladesh. Two green industries namely, Rami Holdings Limited and Plummy Fashion Limited of Narayanganj District were considered for the study. Data were collected from a sample of randomly selected 263 RMG Workers and Supervisors out of 840 from these two (2) RMGs. Simple and direct questions with different scales were used to obtained information. The study was conducted during the time from 02 June 2019 to 30 August 2019. Eleven (11) selected characteristics of the RMG Workers and Supervisors were considered as the independent variables. Out of 11 top Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified factories of the world, eight (8) factories are situated in Bangladesh. Findings revealed that overwhelming majority (84.41%) of the RMG Workers and Supervisors perceived low to medium green industrialization of RMGs in Bangladesh. The mean of green industrialization of green and non-green RMGs were 33.22 and 14.89 respectively as perceived by the workers and supervisors. The calculated value of ‘t’ (193.788) was significant at .001 levels which was clearly indicated that green industrialization of green RMGs was higher than non-green RMGs. The items wise green industrialization index revealed that “ensure enough sunlight and solar power utilization to reduce the cost of electricity” ranked first followed by “keeping about 50% free space of total factory premises to ensure enough trees for enough ventilation facilities”, “assure factory workers housing facilities”. The next twelve important green industrialization items in descending order were “use of high solar reflecting paints in rooftop areas”, “use of eco-friendly light in factory”, “use of re-cycling bricks”, “assure nearby market for shopping”, “use of sprinkler for fire incident”, “assure schools for workers children”, “use of hand gloves during working”, “collection of rainwater for factory”, “access waste water treatment plant (ETP)”, “use of fire alarm for factory”, “use of eye guard during sewing” and “use of musk during working”. The correlation coefficient was initially computed to determine the relationships among all the variables. Due to misleading results from multicollinearity, Step-wise multiple regression and path analyses were used to explore the

contribution

and effect of the selected characteristics of the RMG Workers and Supervisors to/on the green industrialization of RMGs as perceived by them. The analyses indicated that out of 11 variables only 4 variables namely decision making ability, knowledge, cosmopolitness and education had significant contribution and effect to/on the green industrialization of RMGs as perceived by the Workers and Supervisors. The result indicated that the whole model of 11 independent variables explained 63.5 per cent of the total variation in green industrialization of RMG. But since the standardized regression coefficient of 4 variables formed the equation therefore, it might be assumed that whatever contribution was there, it was due to these 4 variables.