Kornit Digital has committed to saving 4.3 trillion liters of water and 17.2 billion kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and deducing overproduction in the fashion industry by 1.1 billion items by 2026.
The digital textile production technologies specialist made these pronouncements in its first “Impact and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Report” for 2020. The ESG goals also include the way Kornit conducts business, creates meaningful impact in local communities, and achieves environmental sustainability, in addition to how it will continue to build a diverse and inclusive company culture, foster employee growth and development, and empower fair and safe labor practices globally.
“Our vision is to boldly transform the world of fashion and textiles for a better, more sustainable planet,” said Kornit Digital CEO Ronen Samuel. “This report serves as our roadmap to achieving this vision.”
Samuel said the fashion industry is “unfortunately responsible for severe ecological damage, producing nearly 20 percent of global wastewater each year and over-producing an average of 30 percent” as part of its normal course of doing business.
“We are laser-focused on changing that trajectory,” he said. “Sustainability is top of mind at Kornit, in our spirit and in practice, every single day.”
In addition to enabling eco-friendly production processes with technology and consumables that use less water, reduce waste and minimize the carbon footprint, Kornit technology solutions enable sustainable production on demand, which eliminates overproduction of apparel and other textile goods, the company noted.
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A 2021 Life Cycle Assessment conducted on two flagship products, the Kornit Atlas Max and Kornit Presto S, demonstrated that compared to traditional analog processes, Kornit’s digital production systems used up to 95 percent less water and 94 percent less energy, and produced up to 83 percent less GHG emissions for the Presto S system and up to 93 percent less water and 66% less energy, and produced up to 82 percent less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the Atlas Max system.
Based on this study, in addition to past sustainability performance results and strategic projections for business growth and market expansion, Kornit Digital’s sustainable on-demand solutions are expected to enable the production of approximately 2.5 billion apparel items in a responsible manner by 2026.
By moving the industry to on-demand manufacturing, Kornit said it will help eliminate the estimated 1.1 billion apparel items overproduced using traditional production methods, based on an industry average of 30 percent overproduction.
In addition to eliminating overstocks, Kornit-enabled production on demand will support saving an estimated 1.1 trillion gallons of water. This is the estimated the be the amount of drinking water needed for the entire U.S. population for 11 years.
By enabling sustainable on-demand production, consuming less energy, and generating less waste, Kornit will prevent an estimated 37.9 billion pounds of GHG emissions, compared to traditional manufacturing methods.
Furthermore, the report outlines Kornit’s commitment to achieving key performance indicators (KPIs) that address waste, chemicals, GHG emissions, energy, product development, employee training, diversity and inclusion, and the company’s supply chain.
“While we are proud of our progress toward achieving the goal of being a technology leader for environmental, social and responsible corporate citizenship, and empowering the global fashion industry to elevate its creative possibilities while shrinking its ecological footprint, we know there is more work to be done,” Samuel added. “This report holds us accountable to our vision of providing the efficient, conscientious, uncompromising on-demand capabilities our stakeholders, employees, customers and the global marketplace demand. These KPIs reflect Kornit’s core values, embedded into every aspect of our business.”
Headquartered in Israel with offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific, Kornit Digital serves customers in more than 100 countries and states worldwide.