Hong Kong-based apparel manufacturing giant Crystal International is already making progress on its latest set of sustainability targets, with highlights including a 6% reduction in carbon footprint per garment. But it admits reducing the fresh water consumption per garment is proving more of a challenge.
The carbon footprint reduction for 2018 takes it well on the way to meeting one of the goals set out last year in its ‘Third Global 5-year Sustainability Targets (2018-2022)’ to reduce carbon footprint per garment by 10% by 2022.
The target is set against figures for 2017 as the base year, and its impact is potentially huge given that the company is one of the leading apparel manufacturers in the world, generating annual revenues of US$2.496bn and producing 470 million garments a year from 20 factories in Vietnam, China, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Other progress made in the last 12 months includes planting around 300,000 trees against a target of 1m by 2022; extending its CARE (Crystal Advocates Respect and Engagement) learning and development programme to 25% of female workers; and contributing 9,000 volunteering hours to the local community.
However, one target that has eluded the company is reducing the fresh water consumption per garment by 8% by 2022. It admits this actually rose by 20% in 2018, saying that “despite continuous efforts to achieve the freshwater target, our progress was behind schedule owing to various production requirements. This has prompted us to review our water consumption methods and to take further action.”
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By GlobalDataCrystal International Group Limited, which floated on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a near $500m IPO in late 2017, makes denim, athleisure wear, sweaters and intimates for brands and retailers including Walmart, M&S and Nike.
The theme of its Sustainability Report 2018 is ‘WE Inspire Talent’ – with “WE” standing for both Crystal and “Women Empowerment”.
“Crystal’s female workers account for over two-third of our total workforce of over 80,000, and we are determined to help unleash their potential and promote personal well-being,” explains Catherine Chiu, general manager, corporate quality and sustainability.
“We adopted a diary-writing format in the report to illustrate how a female worker grew and became a supervisor via various Crystal programmes and reflect the transparency in Crystal that she has acquired knowledge and insights on our company policies, people-oriented culture, and workers’ well-being in different countries and Crystal factories.”
Mitigating environmental impact
The Sustainability Report 2018 also highlights several projects and initiatives underway within the group to mitigate environmental impact at all stages from design, to materials and production processes.
In design and product development, for example, it produces digital samples without making a physical sample each time – meaning the denim product development process is now quicker, saving time and effort, as well as reducing the number of samples prepared, and saving materials, energy and water during the process.
In its denim factories, the company also uses a mix of Better Cotton in production, reaching 100% use of Better Cotton for some customers in 2018.
The denim factories are also equipped with advanced and innovative washing technologies, including more efficient washing machines that can save up to 90% water, energy efficient drying systems, laser technology and nano-technology. As well as the water and energy saving benefits, they are also able to increase productivity and provide more diversified products to customers.
Crystal’s lifestyle wear factory in China has carried out a retrofitting project in the ironing section, where installing steam separators on the steam pipes and advanced energy efficient irons has enabled savings of at least 30% steam consumption during the ironing process.
Its intimate factory in China installed photovoltaic panels on its rooftop, which can generate more than 200,000 kWh of electricity each year. Also in China, its factories have progressively changed their boiler fuels to natural gas – which is expected to reduce air pollutant emissions by an average of 90%.
The company is aiming to recycle 40% of the fabric waste generated by its Sri Lanka factories this year following the success of a fabric waste upcycling pilot project that began in 2018. With no start-up cost, the fabric waste is sent to Italy to be converted into fibre.
And in Vietnam, the installation of a waste-to-energy boiler for steam generation diverts around 40% of fabric waste and saves over 95% of diesel consumption every year.
