Sustainability — Our ESG Policies

We are aware of the impact we have on our environment, and take measures to reduce our footprint.

Production Site Impacts

• Energy & Water Conservation

  We are conscious of conserving limited resources in our production and office sites. We replaced lighting with energy-efficient LED and implemented occupancy sensors, installed solar panels on office building and factory facility roof, and we have a HVAC monitoring system that ensures efficient HVAC usage. Our employee hand book contains training information on the importance of energy conservation and require them to check equipment and lighting when not in use.

  We installed low-flow faucets, showerheads, and toilets in washrooms, cafeteria and other water-intensive areas. Our building facility collects and store rainwater for garden and landscape use. We scheduled regular leak detection and repair for our plumbing systems to prevent water waste. Our waste water treatment system treats wastewater in accordance with local, regional and national wastewater discharge regulations.

• Waste & Chemical Management

  To minimize the hazardous impacts of production, we carefully manage our waste disposal and chemical use. We implemented lean manufacturing principles such as timely ordering of materials to avoid excessive waste in manufacturing process. We have recycling and composting programs set up in our manufacturing, packaging, and cafeteria areas. We label, store, and dispose of hazardous waste in strict accordance with local environmental regulations.

  We minimize the use of hazardous chemicals in our manufacturing process, to reduce the toxicity of wastewater and ensure the health of our workers. Our employee and safe production handbook have sections on the use of chemical management and we train our workers on the importance of chemical product safety. We have designated areas for the secure storage of chemical products, and access is restricted and recorded.

Sustainable Sourcing Initiative

Aside from our own operations, to further increase our focus on sustainability, we established Zest's Sustainable Sourcing initiative. We surveyed and examined our database of vendors, and conducted an audit to verify certified sustainable eco-friendly fabrics and materials suppliers. We made sure our newest product developments had sustainable fabric alternatives, which we can recommend to clients. Several of our key fabric suppliers are now GOTS and/or OEKO-TEX certified.

Ethical Labor & Fair Trade

We strictly adhere to international free-trade and human rights standards, as well as national ethical production and labor laws. We also regularly pay our workers above national and regional minimum wage standards, and the Jiangsu province where we are located already has some of the highest wage standards in China. 

We prevent our workers from working excessive overtime, and prevents working on national holidays and rest days. Workers have options to choose to work overtime within national limits, and may choose to rest when tired. If workers continuously work overtime during busy season, we provide additional rest days for our workers. 

When Covid hit in 2020, Zest took measures to ensure we support our employee and community, while at the same time making arrangements to make sure clients' production can still be met with irregular closures of factories. Zest established a Covid task-force to ensure the health condition of our workers, and provide necessary flexibility during trying times. We made sure all workers received necessary Covid protection equipment, even beyond the workspace. When the city districts occasionally shut down business activity, we took measures to ensure stay-at-home employees had access to enough food and daily items. We value the loyalty of our workers, and take measures to show respect for their health and well-being.