Our partnerships
We try to meet the high standards of ecological and social responsibility. Our system partner bluesign® as well as our leader status membership in the Fair Wear Foundation and the Green Button play an important role in meeting these requirements.
BLUESIGN® SYSTEM PARTNER
BLUESIGN® SYSTEM PARTNER
We are a bluesign® system partner, as are many of our fabric and material manufacturers, raw material and chemical suppliers.
Together, we try to keep the impact of product manufacturing on people and nature as low as possible. Above all, this means that only certain chemicals may be used in the production of our fabrics (especially in dyeing). In addition, bluesign® checks that the chemicals used are completely filtered out so that they cannot be released into the environment in an uncontrolled manner.
Fair Wear Leader Status
Fair Wear Leader Status
The FAIR WEAR FOUNDATION (FWF) is a Dutch non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization. It is made up of non-governmental organizations, trade associations, trade unions and companies like us. Together, we have set ourselves the goal of improving working conditions in the textile industry. One of the ways we achieve this is by closely monitoring our sewing factories and carrying out audits to closely examine working conditions on site.
With our Leader status membership, we commit ourselves and our suppliers to adhering to a strict code of labor practices.
Audits
During the audits, a group of FWF experts, consisting of 2-3 auditors, visit our factories and scrutinize the working conditions for two days. The auditors check, for example, whether there are a sufficient number of fire extinguishers on site and whether there are enough emergency exits.
Brand Performance Check
The special thing about the FWF is that it not only audits our suppliers, but also us once a year. Because we also play our part in the working conditions in our sewing factories: How much do we pay for our products? Do we give our suppliers enough time to finish the products without excessive overtime?
Helpline
Another important component of the FWF is the so-called "Worker Helpline". This is a complaints hotline set up by the FWF in the production countries. Every worker has the opportunity to pass on serious problems directly to the FWF by telephone. The FWF records the complaint and then forwards it to our CR experts. They then contact the factory and try to ensure that the complaint is resolved within the factory. A poster with the complaints hotline is displayed in each of our sewing factories, which we check regularly.