Hong Kong based leading apparel manufacturer, Crystal International, has unveiled its third set of five-year sustainability targets; adding new goals, it hopes to accomplish by 2022.
Company included some plans in its Third Global 5-year sustainability Targets for the year 2018-2022. It plans to reduce carbon footprint per garment and fresh water consumption per garment to 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. The brand also intends to plant 1 million trees, empower 40,000 females through its CARE (Crystal Advocates Respect and Engagement) learning and development programme, and also engages the employees in over ten thousand volunteering hours.
Company’s new sustainability targets have been set out after the successful completion of its previous five-year goals which ran from 2013-2017, and have witnessed its factories attain a remarkable improvement on carbon, energy, and fresh water intensities.
Catherine Chiu, General Manager, Corporate Quality and Sustainability, Crystal International explained, “The latest targets are more comprehensive. It is for the first time that we have incorporated the social indicators to make known our emphasis on the development of Crystal talents, as well as give back to our communities.”
It replaced inefficient equipment, implemented heat recovery projects, and also improved cooling systems. This helped achieve a 26 per cent reduction in energy consumption per garment. The carbon footprint also dropped to 14 per cent against the goal of 10 per cent. Also, about 54 per cent more recycled water was used for production.
For water conservation, Crystal factories have invested in several advanced washing, laser, and printing technologies. In addition to this, they have also replaced traditional washing machines and the denim factories have increased the use of recycled water in production. This has resulted in 33 per cent of drop in fresh water consumption per garment, beating the original goal set at 8 per cent. With respect to global greenery, more than a million trees were planted in the past five years and the company achieved a significant result of 42 per cent in terms of renewable energy usage.
“With a view to reducing our environmental footprints, factories in different product types such as lifestyle wear, sweater, denim, intimate, sportswear, and outdoor apparel adopted extensive energy and water saving measures. We are currently working on the tool-kit package development in order to assist factories in implementing improvement actions,” said Catherine
Crystal International employs around 70,000 workers globally and manufactures over 350 million pieces of apparel a year at 20 different factories located in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. The company makes denim, athleisure wear, sweaters, and intimates for brands and retailers including Uniqlo, H&M, Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Marks & Spencer, Puma, North Face, Levi’s, Gap, and Under Armour.
