Unifi details progress, new goals in sustainability report

Unifi Inc., headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, has released its Sustainability Snapshot for its 2023 fiscal year and set a target to recycle the equivalent of 1.5 billion T-shirts worth of textile and yarn into new products by its 2030 fiscal year. The company previously committed to recycle 50 billion polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles by December 2025 into its Repreve branded fiber.

“Our fourth-annual sustainability publication showcases Unifi’s continuous progress and ongoing commitment to setting and exceeding new sustainability goals," CEO Eddie Ingle says. “In 2023, we made significant strides in recycling volume, waste reduction and strategy refinement.”

According to its most recent Sustainability Snapshot, by the end of its 2030 fiscal year, Unifi effectively will double its achievement of recycling 750 million T-shirt equivalents through the end of its 2023 fiscal year. It also set a goal to reduce its Scopes 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity by 30 percent in that same time. Its third new sustainability target involves achieving zero noncompliant water discharges annually according to local, state and national regulations or permitting.

Regarding its textile recycling goal, the company says: “This waste source expansion is a critical step for the global textile industry.”

Through its Textile Takeback program, Unifi transforms fabric production scrap into raw materials.

Unifi's efforts to reduce its GHG emissions intensity include leveraging its energy-efficient eAFK EvoCooler texturing technology in our Americas and Brazil operations and continuing facility upgrades to lighting infrastructure at the Repreve Recycling Center in Yadkinville, North Carolina.

The company appears to be on track to meet its 2025 goals to recycle 50 billion bottles and have Repreve fiber comprise more than 50 percent of its revenue, having recycled more than 38 billion plastic bottles as of the end of 2023. By the end of that year, Repreve sales also comprised 30 percent of its revenue.

Additionally, Unifi reduced landfill waste by 93 percent in the past year at its Central American production site and by 55 percent at its Brazilian production site.

Unifi says its Sustainability Snapshot has been guided by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) frameworks.