The Nordic Agency for Sustainable Impact recently completed implementing a project financed by GIZ to improve the water footprint of the Tunisian denim industry.

Between 2022-2024, our consultants assessed resource consumption throughout production processes at 10 Tunisian denim factories, both in total, and per kilogram of end product, and provided several recommendations to participating factories on improving resource circularity (reduce, reuse, and recycle) for water, energy, chemicals.

We also provided feasibility projections for each suggested recommendation indicating the cost of implementing the recommendations against the potential financial saving that could be achieved in terms of improved resource use efficiency. Nine out of the 10 participating factories achieved good results in improving their water recycling practices, within a even short period of time, which has meant less dependence on water withdrawals from both municipal and groundwater sources.

The project achieved a total reduction of more than 230,000 M3 within a few months of implementation, through increased recycling. This in turn reduced the amount of water used per kilogram of product by 15.3%. This is a staggering result, also given the fact that all participating factories had already a water recycling rate of between 40% to 70% – according to their own data.

In total, the 10 denim producing factories were recommended to implement projects that require  a total (one-time investments) of 9,987,044 Tunisian Dinars (approximately 2.95 million EUR) which would give an annually recurring financial saving of 7,518,438 TND (approximately 2.33 million EUR recurring each year) and thus achieving a Return on Investment (ROI) of 75.28%  and in doing so, reduce immense amounts of water, energy, polluting chemicals, and air emissions.

“This project proves that despite the advancement of the Tunisian denim industry in terms of water recycling, there was much scope for improvement. The achieved result increase the Tunisian denim industry’s competitiveness for global eco-friendly markets,” according to Rami Narte, Principal Consultant at the Nordic Agency for Sustainable Impact.

The project was implemented in cooperation with the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources, and Fisheries, as well as CETTEX and CITET.