Sports brands announce new roadmap on hazardous chemicals
21/11/2011
In a joint statement, the companies said the plan will set “a new standard of environmental performance for the global apparel and footwear industry”. The roadmap includes specific commitments and timelines.
They will jointly communicate the mission of zero discharge of hazardous chemicals to all suppliers beginning immediately. In addition, the companies will conduct pilot projects at major materials suppliers between 2011 and 2013 to better understand “the scope of use and discharge of hazardous chemicals”.
There are nine classes of hazardous or persistent chemicals that the brands believe are not currently used, but they will carry out checks to verify this. At the same time, they will carry out an inventory of all chemicals used in apparel manufacturing by the end of 2012, disclose the results of all pilots and studies undertaken as part of this commitment and report “regularly and publicly” on progress. They said these reports would come quarterly in 2012 and annually from 2013 until 2020.
The roadmap is the result of a meeting involving more than 30 brands at the end of September. Those committing to the roadmap now have made it clear they hope more companies will sign up in the months ahead. The September meeting came about after direct pressure from campaign group Greenpeace, which raised concerns about hazardous substances, which it traced to outsource manufacturing partners of the brands, appearing in samples of river water in China.
In response to the companies’ announcement of the roadmap, Greenpeace’s campaign co-ordinator, Martin Hojsik, said: ‘Toxic water pollution is an urgent problem for millions of people, so there’s plenty of work still to do for all of these brands, who must listen to their customers’ demands for toxic-free clothing, and move quickly and decisively to bring about effective and structural change in the fashion industry.”
A specialist consultancy, SustainAbility, will speak to ???a key group of stakeholders” over the next six weeks to gather feedback on the new roadmap. In addition, the companies are also accepting comments from the public until the end of 2011. All comments can be directed to ztdi@sustainability.com. Based on the feedback, the companies have said they will consider refining the roadmap in 2012.
The joint statement went on to say: “Tackling and achieving the goal of zero discharge is a complex challenge – one that our brand collaboration cannot solve alone. Our vision is that the roadmap serves as a benchmark and that many more brands join us in our efforts. Ultimately, we want and need a broad array of participants to partner with us in this endeavour – chemical suppliers, academics, NGOs, textile experts, entrepreneurs, policy makers and others. We understand that we are setting out to change the way apparel and footwear is manufactured, globally, and are thus casting our net wide for the best ideas and solutions.”
Share this story:
