ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has invested in Ecommit Corporation (headquartered in Satsuma-Sendai City, Kagoshima; Teruyuki Kawano, Representative Director; hereinafter “Ecommit”), a company that is developing a resource recycling business through reuse and recycling.

In the textile and fashion industries, reducing environmental burden and maintaining sustainable growth are global attention as issues. ITOCHU launched the RENU Project in the spring of 2019 to shine a light on the problem of excessive waste, and has worked to solve this problem through developing RENU, a recycled polyester material derived from used clothing and spare fabric generated during textile manufacturing.

ITOCHU and Ecommit signed a business collaboration agreement in March 2022 and commenced the “Wear to Fashion” textile collection service (*1) in Japan. Through the popularization of this service, ITOCHU will minimize the volume of textile product disposal while also addressing issues from multiple angles as they pertain to waste from businesses and local governments involved in industrial activities, as well as that from consumers. In doing so, it will aim to realize a circular economy. Taking advantage of this investment, efforts will be made to facilitate greater collaboration between ITOCHU and Ecommit, and further accelerate the process of acquiring customers and expanding businesses in this initiative, with a view toward contributing to the sustainable growth of the textile and fashion industries.
ITOCHU’s “Brand-new Deal 2023”, its medium-term management plan, includes “business transformation through the incorporation of consumer needs into products” and “continued contribution to/efforts in the SDGs” in its Basic Policies. As a part of this plan, ITOCHU is working to create a value chain in the textile industry, starting with sustainable raw materials. Going forward, ITOCHU will continue to address issues faced by the textile and fashion industries through the evolution of business models and the offering of new services with a focus on the establishment of a value chain that includes everything from raw materials to products. Through these efforts, it will contribute to creating a recycling-oriented, sustainable society.