Hanesbrands Inc. has begun shipping products from its new 1.3-million square foot West Coast distribution centre in Perris, California, the largest facility in the company’s worldwide supply chain and one of the biggest warehouses in the world built to advanced environmental standards.

The distribution centre, which will more than quadruple the company’s West Coast distribution capacity in 2009, is strategically located near the Long Beach, California port and receives goods from the company’s production centres in Asia and Central America for distribution to retailers.

“A large West Coast distribution centre increases our company’s flexibility to effectively and efficiently distribute our core products produced across our supply chain,” said Lee Woodard, Hanesbrands Vice President of Global Logistics.

“The majority of our distribution centres are located in the eastern half of the country. The West Coast distribution centre will help us service customers by reducing lead times and increasing speed to market.” Woodard added.

The company began shipping from 700,000 square feet of the distribution centre this week and will start up operations in the remaining 600,000 square feet in April. Hanesbrands will lease the distribution centre and retain NFI, a third-party logistics provider based in Cherry Hill, N.J., to manage the facility. The Perris centre will replace a 360,000-square-foot distribution centre that supports the company in Rancho Cucamonga, California.

Hanesbrands had the Perris distribution centre built to stringent standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council, focusing on innovative ways to operate sustainably through conservation of water, energy and material usage. The company will seek certification for the building from the Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, which would make it the largest LEED-certified warehouse in Southern California and one of the biggest in the world.

Sustainable features of the Perris distribution centre include:

• Energy usage by the operation has been reduced by 18 percent as a result of extensive use of natural sky lighting, motion-detection lighting, insulation of the roof and a design that does not require heating or air conditioning for a comfortable working environment. The company is also researching the feasibility of outfitting its more than 1 million-square-foot roof with solar panels or membranes, which would result in the building being a net energy generator rather than user of electricity.
• Water usage was reduced by 40 percent compared with typical warehouses of its size through low-water bathroom fixtures and low-water landscaping. The centre is also using natural green catchment basins to maximize storm-water retention and minimize water discharge into the sewer system.
• The project significantly reduced material that was sent to a landfill, preliminarily estimated at 50 percent, and material needed to be brought onto the site through recycling and material reuse, innovative site grading techniques and use of locally produced concrete and steel.
• Other highlights include the use of paints, carpets and other materials with low volatile organic compound content, an organic focused pest control program that minimizes chemical pesticide use, location near public transportation to reduce the parking lot size and reliance on automobile transportation, preferred parking for low-emission and low-energy vehicles, and on-site bicycle storage and shower and changing room facilities.

“We are proud of our environmental leadership,” Woodard said, adding, “Building and operating the Perris distribution centre to Green Building Council standards was an easy decision. As a company we already get more than 15 percent of our energy from renewable sources and have plans to double that in five years. We are committed to operating with a sustainable approach to the environment that recognizes the complexity of our natural systems and our need to be competitive in our industry.”

Hanesbrands’ other notable environmental achievements include building its Winston-Salem, N.C., retail store and Bentonville, Ark., commercial office to Green Building Council standards. Hanesbrands is also building a textile manufacturing plant in Nanjing, China, to Green Building Council standards, which is expected to be the first textile plant in the world to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification. The company also has innovative alternative energy programs, including biomass in the Dominican Republic and geothermal in El Salvador.