At a time when Bangladesh’s apparel industry is striving to strengthen its global competitiveness through sustainability and responsible manufacturing, one issue is emerging as a significant barrier: fragmented compliance data requirements from international buyers.
Speaking at the Bangladesh Denim Expo, Mahbub Alam Milton Chowdhury, Executive Director of Masco Group, argued that the future competitiveness of apparel manufacturers will no longer depend solely on price, production capacity, or efficiency. Instead, it will increasingly be determined by transparency, worker wellbeing, environmental performance, and verified sustainability data.
From Reactive Compliance to Continuous Improvement
Masco Group’s sustainability journey with Better Work Bangladesh began in 2018 through Shanta Expressions Ltd. Since then, the company has expanded the programme across seven manufacturing units.
According to Milton Chowdhury, the most valuable outcome has not simply been achieving compliance but transforming organizational culture.
He explained that factories traditionally practiced “reactive compliance,” addressing problems only after they appeared. Through Better Work and Masco’s own Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement, the organization has shifted toward proactive systems that prevent problems before they occur.
This culture, he said, has strengthened management-worker trust through social dialogue while empowering employees to identify workplace challenges and jointly develop solutions.
Sustainability is Becoming the New Competitive Advantage
Milton emphasized that buyers increasingly expect manufacturers to demonstrate resilience, strong labour practices, safer workplaces, and responsible environmental management.
As regulations such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and evolving ESG requirements reshape global sourcing, sustainability performance is becoming a business necessity rather than an optional initiative.
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Bangladesh, with more than 250 green garment factories and years of investment in workplace safety, has already demonstrated remarkable resilience and commitment.
However, the industry now faces a different challenge.
Too Many Data Platforms, Too Little Alignment
Perhaps the strongest message from Masco Group’s Executive Director was his frustration over the absence of a unified global sustainability reporting system.
Years ago, industry initiatives promised harmonized compliance tools that would reduce duplication and simplify reporting. Instead, manufacturers today must repeatedly provide similar information through multiple buyer-specific platforms and different assessment systems.
Each buyer demands separate formats, separate questionnaires, and separate verification methods—even though the underlying sustainability objectives remain largely identical.
The result is unnecessary duplication, higher administrative costs, and significant resource burdens on manufacturers.
Milton argued that if the global industry genuinely wants meaningful sustainability progress, stakeholders must establish a single trusted platform where verified data can be shared across brands and buyers.
Such harmonization would allow factories to spend less time on paperwork and more time on actual sustainability improvements.
Data Must Drive Decisions
Another key takeaway from his discussion was the importance of data-driven management.
Masco Group has built its continuous improvement system around measurable benchmarks, internal targets, upper and lower control limits, and annual performance monitoring.
According to Milton, relying on personal assumptions often leads to poor decisions, whereas data enables organizations to reduce waste, improve productivity, strengthen quality, manage risks, and accelerate operational excellence.
He believes the same principle should apply to environmental and social compliance across the global apparel industry.
Bangladesh Has Strong Performance—but Needs Global Recognition
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Milton also highlighted Masco Group’s own sustainability achievements, noting that several of its factories have achieved exceptionally high scores under international assessment systems while maintaining continuous improvement initiatives across environmental and social parameters.
The company has committed to reducing carbon emissions significantly from its 2021 baseline while investing in broader sustainability initiatives covering multiple operational areas.
Yet he questioned whether these achievements receive adequate recognition because different buyers rely on different reporting systems and metrics.
Without globally accepted benchmarks, factories that invest heavily in sustainability may struggle to communicate their true performance consistently.
A Call to Global Brands
Milton concluded with a clear message directed at international brands, buyers, and industry stakeholders urging to create reliable, unified, and trusted sustainability data platforms.
Bangladesh’s manufacturers are prepared to compete on sustainability, transparency, and responsible business practices. But for those investments to generate maximum impact, the industry needs harmonized reporting standards that eliminate duplication and build confidence across the global supply chain.
As sustainability increasingly defines sourcing decisions, the apparel sector’s next competitive advantage may not lie in producing more garments—but in producing credible data that everyone trusts.
