YKK Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Koichi Matsushima; hereafter, YKK) will begin using only low-carbon aluminum (*1) as the source for all aluminum alloy wire procured for zippers, as part of its initiative to convert all aluminum alloy zipper items to sustainable products.
YKK, together with aluminum material manufacturers Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Osaka; President: Osamu Inoue), and Sumitomo Electric Toyama Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Imizu City, Toyama; President Representative Director: Yasuo Yamamoto) agreed to a contract pertaining to the use of low-carbon aluminum. Beginning in FY2024, YKK began purchasing low-carbon aluminum alloy wires for use as materials in aluminum alloy zippers and gradually expanded their application.
YKK has adopted the YKK Sustainability Vision 2050, which sets the sustainability goals for realizing climate neutrality by 2050. The company has established targets in connection to five themes—climate change, material resources, water resources, chemical management, and respect people—and is working on initiatives to achieve 10 SDGs related to each of these themes. In the key area of climate change, YKK is promoting initiatives to slash its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions within the company and throughout its supply chain—by 90% for Scope 1 and 2 emissions and by 90% for Scope 3 emissions, compared to FY2018 levels—by 2050, based on the net-zero target outlined by the Science Based Targets (SBT) initiative (*2). Adopting low-carbon aluminum as material for zippers is one of YKK’s initiatives to achieve the reduction target for Scope 3 emissions.
YKK will continue to work with its customers and suppliers to accelerate efforts to reduce GHG emissions by developing and expanding sales of sustainable products and technologies, thereby contributing to the realization of a sustainable society.
Comment from Terry Tsukumo, Vice President, Product Strategy Division, Global Sales Headquarters, YKK Corporation: “YKK has been promoting efforts to use recycled materials and plant-based materials in textile materials for zippers and to increase the ratio of such materials. In addition to these efforts, we will promote the use of low- carbon aluminum made from renewable energy sources, such as hydropower. Through these efforts, we aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to climate change mitigation by revamping our product lineup, while taking advantage of aluminum's features—its light weight and silver color that is nickel-free and plating- free—and focus on developing products which can be widely used in apparel and luggage applications.”
*1: The aluminum smelting process requires a large quantity of electricity and emits different amounts of carbon dioxide depending on the power source used. The emissions of the low-carbon aluminum to be used for this initiative will be less than 4 metric tons of CO₂ per ton of aluminum ingots produced, as it uses renewable energy as the power source. This significantly reduces CO₂ emissions compared to using electricity generated from fossil fuels such as thermal power.
*2: The remaining 10% of emissions in the net-zero target must be reduced to zero through carbon absorption and removal, etc.