AEM Textile, End of 2021 recap and Progress for Sustainable Clothing in 2021

What a year 2021 was.. 

The only point that is certain about 2021 was, it's been a year of uncertainty. In respect to the results of global pandemic, we have seen so many challenges that proves our vision is very strong.

Designing our sustainable future. 

Our core vision is sustainability on all aspect of our business and together with our suppliers & customer partners we can overcome so many challenges. Respecting our nature, taking care of it pays back. We all learnt fast profits isn't valuable and shouldn't traded over longevity of the business model. 

Aligning with our customers & suppliers we have completed some serious amount of work improving our performance as a respectful and reliable business model. 

Strong growth numbers in 2021

AEM Textile grew 55% YOY in 2021 supported by sportswear and sustainable garment sectors demand goes up globally. As to our key customers, whom supported our growth with forecasting, a huge thank you for trusting us with your business. 

Our on time shipping rate for this year is above 95% as a year average and 97% for December 2021, respectively. 

Sustainability Clothing Works in 2021

Compostable packaging 

We started the year by choosing a compostable garment polybag for all our sample deliveries as our vision for providing sustainable clothing. Following a couple of deliveries, we have seen so many requests from our customers that are interested in compostable packaging. 

Eventually 6 of our customers switched their garment packaging into compostable bags in 2021. So this was a small step in the beginning but raised important awareness. 

Launching of AEM Textile Network

Next big challenge we've faced was the lock downs worldwide. Affected our work flow. Our fabric swatches and samples couldn't make it to responsible persons on time, delayed our processes, also we've seen some errors on our side such as duplicate swatch codes etc which we made manually. 

Decided to design our new dynamic online software called AEM Textile Network which eased ours and customers jobs dramatically. There are more than 1000 fabric swatches that we are working with at the moment. 

AEM Textile Network allows our customers to filter any kind of fabric by; Composition, Construction, Weight, Sustainability attributes with customer specific rules, (i.e Inditex Sustainability rules are implemented in our system, so fabrics complying with Inditex sustainability rules can be filtered with just 1 click. )

More than that, certification type, functionality and many more. Swatches and lab dips can be ordered worldwide free of charge and with add to cart feature. So our Network interface is pretty user friendly as shopping on Asos. 

Another cool feature of our Network would be the Collection Store Page. Where visitors can access to AEM Textile's freshly developed collections. Request stock samples in desired sizing sent to their current location with few clicks. Also the fabrics used on these collection styles are linked so related fabrics and also related collection styles can be reviewed and vice versa. Our network not only reduces the valuable time needed for developments but also GHG's by eliminating shipping of unnecessary swatches and samples. 

We have planned adding a 3D Design Request feature into our network in 2022 so this will be a cherry on top. 3D designs made out of the selected fabrics will be possible by a few clicks. Url: www.aemtextile.com/network

HIGG FEM Module Score

Our HIGG FEM Score is better than last year. Aiming to an even better score on 2023 with the addition of renewable solar electric generation systems. 

Please note that we do not run a dye house on our own the chemical management score is low for this reason.

Removing top sheet paper from our cutting operations

Project : Removing of top sheet covering paper from AEM Textile's cutting lay plan process. The idea was eliminating the top sheet from the cutting fabric layers. But it looked impossible at the beginning. Thanks for Cetin Ozcan (our cutting chief) working in details made it possible. What we've achieved ? 

Normal Cutting Process: 1- Bottom re-cycled paper sheet + 2- Top self adhesive coated paper sheet (plotter printed lay plan)

Improved Cutting Process: 1- Bottom re-cycled paper sheet only (plotter printed lay plan) 

Savings ? :) 0,65 metric tons of coated top sheet paper / year will be saved on AEM Textile's yearly production with today's numbers. However with our growth levels, we expect at least 1.1 metric tons of paper savings in 2022. 

AEM Textile choosing 100% Re-cycle boxes for shipping

AEM Textile commits on shipping all it's production with 100% re-cycled shipping boxes for a higher sustainability level. With this decision there will be: 959 trees will be saved, 77.564 kg's of CO2 emissions will be reduced, 844.146 liters of water will be saved each year based on our 2021 numbers. (to be increased YOY with our growth levels dramatically) 

AEM Textile Forest

AEM Textile's 2021 GHG emissions from it's processes have been calculated. That is equaling to 650 trees. We decided to form our AEM Textile forest by planting of 10.000 saplings in our hometown, Izmir - Turkey. These samplings been planted on behalf of our customers, suppliers and partners. 

Thank you very much for your co-operation in 2021 and all the best for the new year!