Last Updated: 2024.04.15
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Fast Retailing is developing products that minimize social and environmental impact, leveraging our strong partnerships with suppliers. Examples include our BLUE CYCLE JEANS, which use less water in the finishing process, and a range of products we make using recycled materials.
Development of BLUE CYCLE JEANS
The Fast Retailing Group has developed a new finishing process for jeans that reduces water usage by up to 99%*. The technology, named BLUE CYCLE, originated at the Fast Retailing Jeans Innovation Center, the Group's facility for jeans research and development in Los Angeles, California. The latest innovation combines advanced washing equipment utilizing nanobubbles and ozone, with the skills of expert jeans designers, to reduce the amount of water in the finishing process compared to conventional production methods, while still ensuring high quality and design.
In addition, the pumice typically used in the washing process has been replaced with artificial stone that can be used semi-permanently, helping to reduce water pollution. The burden on workers has also been lightened with the introduction of lasers to replace the labor-intensive scraping process that has traditionally been done by hand.
We are promoting these initiatives across all brands of the Fast Retailing Group.
*Comparing water use for 2018 model of UNIQLO Men's Regular Fit Jeans (68 BLUE) with water use for the same product from 2017. Water reduction rates vary by specific product.
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Jeans Innovation Center
The Jeans Innovation Center is a specialized facility for jeans research and development, established by Fast Retailing in Los Angeles, California, in November 2016. The facility brings together jeans specialists from throughout the Fast Retailing Group, who develop jeans utilizing innovative technologies and materials, while also adhering to tradition.
UNIQLO DOWN RECYCLING
In September 2019, UNIQLO stores began collecting UNIQLO's used down items from customers. As of the end of April 2022, the number of down products collected from customers exceeded 1 million (cumulative). A system developed by Toray extracts material from down products, to be cleaned for use in new down merchandise. By utilizing recycled down and feathers, it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the production process by approximately 20%*.
Conventionally, the stuffing in duvets and other items incorporating down is manually removed. By developing special extraction machinery, Toray has fully automated the cutting, stirring and separating and recovery, for 50-fold the process capacity of manual methods, thus greatly alleviating workloads.
In the 2020 Fall/Winter season, we launched Recycled Down Jackets as the first offering from the initiative, and have continued to sell them ever since.
*LCA (Life-cycle assessment)calculated values in the down manufacturing process for UNIQLO's 21FW Recycled Down Jacket (Toray survey)
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Clothing made from recycled materials
To achieve our greenhouse gas reduction target for the fiscal year ending August 2030, we are promoting the use of raw materials produced with lower greenhouse gas emissions at the product planning stage and in the selection of raw materials. We are gradually switching to such materials, with the aim of using at least 50% of these materials in the manufacturing or our products by 2030.
To date, recycled polyester has been used in UNIQLO product lines such as Dry EX and Furry Fleece, recycled nylon in AIRism bra tops and UV-cut parkas, and recycled cotton in some UT products.
