Hanesbrands’ Dos Rios fabric textiles facility in the Dominican Republic, which is our largest energy-consuming facility, began operating a state-of-the-art biomass system in January 2009. It burns rice husks, coconut shells, sawdust, and wood chips – all of which are widely available locally as agricultural waste products – to heat water to produce nearly all of the steam required for the plant’s bleaching, dyeing, and finishing operations. The biomass system saves more than 8,000 gallons of oil per day, dramatically reducing CO₂ emissions from steam generation.

In November 2009, Hanesbrands also signed a contract to purchase all of its electricity from the national hydroelectric generation company. Combined with our biomass system, this initiative will reduce the carbon footprint of Dos Rios Textiles by 95 percent, and to our knowledge give it the lowest carbon footprint of any industrial fabric textiles facility in the world.

We are pursuing further improvements to the biomass system, which include using steam generated by the process to co-generate electricity for the facility’s operation, and using the facility’s land to grow non-invasive crops for bio-fuel.

Dos Rios serves as a model for future efforts at HBI facilities around the world. We can use energy produced from renewable fuel sources to further reduce our environmental impact while significantly reducing energy costs.