Yeşim R&D Center Launches New Project

New Project from Yeşim R&D Center The "Natural Dyes Body Dyeing Project - Colors Of Life," developed by Yeşim R&D Center as an environmentally friendly initiative, stands out for offering half the number of baths compared to conventional dyehouse processes and delivering 40-50% savings in water and energy consumption. Rapid population growth and globalization, coupled with technological advances, are increasingly driving persistent environmental problems. Such issues not only disrupt nature's ecological balance and deplete limited natural resources, but also have serious negative effects on human health. Given the exceptionally high water consumption levels in the textile sector, the areas with the highest water use stand out as raw material production, fabric dyeing and finishing processes. At this juncture, the "Natural Dyes Body Dyeing Project - Colors Of Life," developed by Yeşim R&D Center as an environmentally friendly initiative, distinguishes itself by offering half the number of baths compared to conventional dyehouse processes and delivering 40-50% savings in water and energy consumption. Kerim Bayram, Vice President of Yeşim Group Fabric Operations, stated that the project uses plant-based sources as alternative materials to chemical dyes, and noted that among the project's other important outputs are converting post-dyeing waste into raw materials for different industries and developing new circular value chains. Bayram noted that the project was launched in the last quarter of 2021 in collaboration with Istanbul Aydın University under the consultancy of Prof. Dr. Recep Karadağ, and is being implemented by Yeşim R&D Director Filiz Emiroğlu and Senior Engineer Sena Mestanlı, stating: "We received extremely valuable support from Prof. Dr. Karadağ, who serves as project consultant and is someone with completed training in advanced chemistry and textile technologies, with 33 years of work in natural dyeing, analysis of dyes from historical and archaeological objects, and natural organic pigments, as well as expertise in plants and their chemical composition." Bayram added: "In line with the project, unused waste portions of plants cultivated in Turkey and used as raw materials are processed solely through grinding without any chemical treatment and used in the developed body dyeing process. Compared to processes using natural dyes sourced from Asian countries, the project offers numerous advantages including significantly lower water consumption, use of auxiliary chemicals free of heavy metal ions, broad color range, good fastness properties, and the fact that the plants used become natural waste after dyeing. With the project developed through a sustainable and environmentally friendly process, the aim is to enhance the importance of body dyeing activities within the institution as a new field targeting national and international markets.

Many needs opened the way for this project, such as reviving and cultivating historically significant natural dye plants, obtaining natural dyes from food sector waste and by-products, developing alternative natural dyeing methods, developing new auxiliary chemicals free of heavy metal ions as alternatives to chemicals containing heavy metal ions, and developing new, ecological and economical dyeing systems that eliminate certain disadvantages of natural dyes," he said.

Sustainability Approach

Yeşim, a pioneer in implementing sustainability commitments in the ready-made garments and textile sector, holds the distinction of being the first company in its sector in Turkey to obtain the SA 8000:2014 Sustainability Certificate in 2005 and the OEKO-TEX SteP Certificate in 2015. Also the first ready-made garments and textile company in Turkey to sign the UN Global Compact in 2006, Yeşim established a separate department in 2004 to make its sustainability efforts more systematic, and has been tracking sustainability targets through KPIs since that period. Yeşim considers the sustainability of raw materials it uses, environmental and energy work, social compliance conditions, worker health and occupational safety, and social responsibility projects for the community as priority areas. For this reason, it works alongside its strategic partner customers to ensure sustainability conditions at every stage from raw material production to the final product and to reduce its carbon footprint.