YKK highlights commitment to sustainable manufacturing and products

YKK, one of the world’s largest zipper and fasteners manufacturer, is pushing forward with its sustainable journey by putting into practice new manufacturing processes and techniques with a focus on minimising its environmental footprint.

João Matias, sustainability specialist at YKK, explains: “It’s not just enough to make a high quality product if there is a lot of environmental impact behind it or if you are using materials that in the long term will generate some kind of damage to the environment.”

Long before sustainability became a buzzword in the fashion industry, YKK has been pushing forward with its commitment to lower its environmental impact, dating back to 1994 with its Environmental Pledge in which the company recognised that harmony with the environment is a top issue to address.

Today, YKK is working towards a long-term roadmap, the YKK Sustainability Vision 2050 shared in October 2020, which addresses climate change, material resources, water resources, chemical management and human rights as well as 10 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This sustainability strategy was made with YKK founder Tadao Yoshida’s philosophy ‘Cycle of Goodness’ in mind, which charges that “no one prospers without rendering benefit to others". While this may be a roadmap for its own sustainability, YKK firmly believes that reducing environmental impact is a global issue and something that can’t be done alone.

“Collaboration is the key,” added Matias. “A lot of industry players have made their own commitments as well, but it will not be easy to achieve if everyone is not on board. YKK is committed to reducing the environmental impact in the long-term, and we can help others do the same, as we’re already preparing.”

Its goals build on the trims supplier’s prior environmental commitments and product collections like waterless dyeing processes and zippers made from plant-based polyester, plastic bottles, ocean-bound plastics and organic cotton.

A lot of progress has already been made, “but more can always been done,” added Matias, especially as the company is striving to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, which will not just benefit its own operations but also the thousands of apparel manufacturers that use YKK fasteners.

The journey begins by tackling greenhouse gas emissions and increasing its use of renewable energy, which has seen YKK factories in Spain and the US fitted with solar panels, and plans to extend the rollout to more factories in the near future.

YKK also adds that reducing carbon footprint is also directly linked to the use of more sustainable materials, and its commitment to more responsible materials contributes to YKK’s circular mission to divert waste and use it as raw material for production.

With research and development departments across the world, YKK is investing in developing product designs for circularity. It has pledged to switch to 100 percent sustainable textile materials, including recycled and naturally derived materials and replace all vinyl and plastic packaging materials with recyclable or reusable alternatives by 2030.

YKK aims to reduce energy consumption through streamlining operations and processes and using more efficient manufacturing and auxiliary equipment, with its vertical integration approach to manufacturing.

“At YKK, vertically integrated manufacturing is one of the reasons why we're able to make high quality products, because we're not just buying the parts of the zipper and putting them together to sell them, we are making every single component,” explains Matias. “We're also making the machines that we use to make the zippers. This ensures product quality globally and allows for high quality control and for us to be more efficient.”

By having control over components, it allows YKK to implement a comprehensive testing framework for quality and durability, and also create new best practices for sustainable manufacturing. A focus has been on water and chemical management to combat water resource depletion and degradation by taking action with efficient water-saving production methods and increased recycling of wastewater.

YKK manages wastewater at all its manufacturing sites by following government regulations and has in-house standards that take into consideration industry standards like Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals, to ensure that all discharged water into the environment is properly treated.

There is also a lot of innovation going into creating water-less and reduced water productions for its eco-friendly collections. Such as Eco-Dye, a waterless zipper dyeing technology that relies on a supercritical fluid dyeing process that ultimately reduces the amount of water used to almost zero.

It isn’t just for the textile part of zippers, YKK has also created new technology for surface finish of zipper pullers, including AcroPlating®, a new and exclusive plating technology. Studies in partnership with Peterson Projects and Solutions are being carried out in order to quantify the environmental footprint reduction of this new technology against conventional electroplating.

There is an ongoing approach to finding more sustainable practices, with Matias adding that YKK has development plans in place for contributing with circular fashion. There's a challenge though, as a balance has to be found between a material that is easily recyclable and a material that can still withstand the constant use of a zipper being opened and closed hundreds of times, while also reducing the carbon footprint.

“The more interest that the industry has in these innovative products, the more focus we can give, and the quicker we can make them available to market,” states Matias.

© YKK Europe Limited 2021 Photo Keisuke Otobe