Having a totally transparent textile chain may sound easy, but believe me, it isn’t.  When you are transparent, it means you must pay complete attention to every aspect of your production process.  This is a particular challenge in the sewing phase, because sewing is very labor intensive, with relatively little automation.  This puts the working conditions in the sewing factories at a substantial risk.

hessnatur controls and monitors the social standards in the sewing factories.  Our monitoring system is in accordance with the internationally recognized Fair Wear Foundation.

1. We inform our suppliers what our social standards are.  Our code of conduct, written in the local language, must be prominently displayed at the work site, so it’s clear to the sewers, not just the management.
2. Social standards are not at the discretion of our suppliers.  We inform them in detail, work with them on implementation to ensure ethical working conditions and insist on compliance.  Suppliers must provide comprehensive information relating to the conditions of the site.
3. We provide workers contact details for the Fair Wear Foundation in order to safeguard the social standards by providing them an impartial contact outside the factory in case problems arise.
4. Audits are performed by the Fair Wear Foundation, other independent experts and hessnatur specialists.  The selection of factories for inspection focuses primarily on those in critical countries, paying special attention to our key suppliers.  These factory inspections oversee both work safety and factory documentation: employment contracts, wage settlements, insurance documentation and hourly work records.  Audits by the FWF also include interviews with the workers.
5. All this data is collected in our specially developed computer management system in order to ensure transparency throughout the entire supply chain.  The data management also lets us continue to develop sustainable solutions for ethical working conditions.  This is a critical step in caring for workers.

If you care about what your clothes are made of, but haven’t paid much attention to how they’re made, you should.  It’s why we believe – and practice – at hessnatur, clothes are more than what you wear, they’re how you choose to live.

.

.

Tags: Environment, Fair wear, Social responsibility, social standards, sustainability

This entry was posted on Monday, January 11th, 2010 at 11:14 am and is filed under Environment, Fashion, Material, Production, Projects, Social responsibility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.