YKK Brazil has made a key advancement towards sustainability over the past two years! Starting in July 2021, they began constructing a biomass boiler to be powered by sustainable reforested and recycled wood as an alternative to the less environmentally friendly natural gas. The project was completed in April 2022, and led to a roughly 72% decrease in CO2 emissions from 2021 to 2022.
How Reforested and Recycled Wood is More Sustainable
YKK Brazil uses biomass boilers to produce steam, a valuable resource used as part of processes like electroplating, MF chain surface treatment, and dyeing. Natural gas can generate steam through a boiler. However, since natural gas originates from decomposed organic matter, it is a non-renewable energy source, rendering it unsustainable over the long term as new organic matter must be acquired to continue boiler operation. By switching to the alternative source of reforested and recycled wood, YKK Brazil starts to use a renewable fuel source, in turn contributing to the level of CO2 released into the atmosphere due to the burning of wood in the boiler remaining balanced or reduced as this CO2 is captured by new trees in growth that will serve as fuel in the future.
Towards our Sustainability Vision 2050
Our Sustainability Vision 2050 is organized around five themes, including climate change, or tackling GHG emissions and increasing use of renewable energy, and material resources, namely increasing use of sustainable materials. YKK Brazil’s advancements get us one step closer to our 2050 goal of emissions-free, fully sustainable operation.
