Veteran denim brand Levi’s has joined the sustainability movement by partnering with the City of Cape Town’s Department of Water and Sanitation to help tackle water conservation. Levi Strauss & Co. has, since its inception, always upheld values of empathy, courage and integrity. These values are brought to life through concerted business efforts and initiatives to reduce their impact in four key areas: Water, chemicals, carbon and people.
Levi’s has a corporate office in Cape Town, retail operations across South Africa, and an owned-and operated manufacturing facility and distribution centre in Epping, Cape Town.
“At Levi Strauss & Co, we embrace our obligation as environmental stewards in the communities where we do business,” says Gavin van der Horst, director of Manufacturing, Sourcing, Planning and Distribution. To this end, this new initiative will see Levi’s use recycled water as opposed to quality drinking water in their production processes.
This will involve the City extending its treated effluent network which comes from Athlone Wastewater Treatement Works, taking the pipeline a further 2km’s to Epping for the first time, to the Levi’s manufacturing facility. “The City will provide Levi Strauss & Co. with treated effluent water, at the approved tariff rate, which will enable us to use 100% recycled water in our jeans production process,” adds Gavin.
The innovative partnership is currently underway, and is due for completion in October 2019.
