Clothing for life, harming neither wearer nor environment – this is the vision to which hessnatur has been devoted since its beginnings in 1976. Sharing the core of hessnatur’s environmental standards is also a strong dedication to fair and humane working conditions worldwide. Stefanie Santila Karl, a member of hessnatur’s Innovation & Ecology team, is responsible for the securement and further development of hessnatur’s social standards in the workplace. I spoke with her about the concept of social standards and the future of fair working conditions. Read here the last part of the interview with Stefanie.

Michael Krause (MK): How are hessnatur employees educated and guided towards concepts in social standards?

Stefanie Santila Karl (SK): All of hessnatur’s employees become experts in sustainable textiles through our course of essentials. Included, of course, is the topic of fair social standards. Last year, we also provided extra workshops for the purchasing department, going over the purchasers’ responsibilities and capabilities regarding social standards. Further workshops with the Fair Wear Foundation advanced the understanding of colleagues in Communication, Marketing, and Distribution, generally raising their awareness of the topic. Here, the participants learned in a playful context, how improvements can be implemented in a production facility after an audit.

MK: How will the pursuit of socially fair production develop in the future?

SK: Addressing the question of progress, I look at three important perspectives. Firstly, the international working conditions set by the ILO are universal, but national legal parameters and, more importantly, conditions in production facilities are always individual. As new suppliers begin work with hessnatur, we immediately inquire into their adherence to our principles, as well as any possibilities for improvement. Secondly, we are presently experiencing an increase in demand for products manufactured in a socially fair environment. This consumer demand has an effect on the providers of these goods. Manufacturers must examine their production chains and make the shift to an ethical, sustainable method of manufacture. The individual decides, and therefore makes the difference. In this regard, hessnatur is a pioneer of fair social standards in the textile production chain. And thirdly, I believe that it is important that purchasing within the industry itself be held closer to ecological and social principles. Rudimentary steps are already underway, but a solid implementation upon a broader foundation would be much better.

MK: What does the consumer get from fair social standards?

SK: Nothing – if you’re just talking about the product itself. A T-shirt is a piece of clothing with two sleeves and a hole for your head, whether the person who sewed it worked eight hours or fifteen. That said, it is quite probable, however, that the quality and workmanship of an article is better when manufactured in a facility where fair social standards are adhered to, and working conditions like light, air quality, and noise levels are regulated for the benefit of the worker. The decisive factor directing our own consumerism, however, should center around the crucial question of morals. Do I want to wear a T-shirt which I can assume was sewn by a seamstress who is not payed enough to feed her family, despite inhumanely long working hours? And accordingly, I make my decisions in favor of a sustainable T-shirt, with the knowledge that it was made by a company which strives for fair working conditions in the textile chain.

Clothing for life, harming neither wearer nor environment – this is the vision to which hessnatur has been devoted since its beginnings in 1976. Sharing the core of hessnatur’s environmental standards is also a strong dedication to fair and humane working conditions worldwide. Stefanie Santila Karl, a member of hessnatur’s Innovation & Ecology team, is responsible for the securement and further development of hessnatur’s social standards in the workplace. I spoke with her about the concept of social standards and the future of fair working conditions – here’s part 2 of the interview with Stefanie.

Michael Krause (MK): How are social standards in production implemented?

Stefanie Santila Karl (SK): It is fundamental for hessnatur to build a stable, long-lasting partnership with suppliers. The production facilities working for hessnatur are real specialists in the processing of certain natural materials such as silk, or for specific product groups like T-shirts or blazers. Ecological, technical, and social expertise is built up over years. Competence and quality are more important to us than the bottom dollar. That’s why it’s possible to work intensively on social standards, and to implement them in the workplace. Additional aspects are the cultures, traditions, and legal landscapes individual to each country. My most important task is to speak with the management and the workers on site, both to raise awareness for social standards, and to develop them further. In the case of new suppliers, there is often a list of suggestions for improvement after an audit. When a change in the logging system for working hours is called for, this can take some time. A schedule for maintaining fire extinguishers, on the other hand, can be implemented in no time.

MK: Once the required social standards are in place at the supplier, how can they be guaranteed in the long term?

SK: That is a mutual task shared by both hessnatur and its supplier, requiring a partnership based upon mutual trust. Therefore insuring fair working conditions always remains a process, and never a conclusion. Alongside our own inquiries, the Dutch based Fair Wear Foundation plays an important role, conducting audits on behalf of hessnatur. The Fair Wear Foundation is a coalition of associations, government organizations, and international businesses, with which hessnatur has worked together since 2005. The Foundation functions as an independent entity, officiating as a neutral, outside observer, which is of the utmost importance to hessnatur.

MK: How does collaboration with the Fair Wear Foundation actually work?

SK: Along with on-site audits, which occur unannounced to the supplier, we also bring our mid and long term plans into play. What do we want to accomplish? What sort of strategies do we have in mind to ensure fair social standards in the long term? On the other hand, we have our annual FWF report on social standards, which reviews all of that year’s projects and goals toward fair working conditions. This year’s report, for example, can be read on-line at hessnatur.info. Furthermore, the Fair Wear Foundation makes a yearly inspection of hessnatur itself. An entire day is spent visiting all of the departments in hessnatur which have to do with our suppliers. Frameworks and procedures are scrutinized to create parameters ensuring long lasting social standards in the production chain.

Clothing for life, harming neither wearer nor environment – this is the vision to which hessnatur has been devoted since its beginnings in 1976. Sharing the core of hessnatur’s environmental standards is also a strong dedication to fair and humane working conditions worldwide. Stefanie Santila Karl, a member of hessnatur’s Innovation & Ecology team, is responsible for the securement and further development of hessnatur’s social standards in the workplace. I spoke with her about the concept of social standards and the future of fair working conditions – read here the first part of th Interview with Stefanie.

Michael Krause (MK): How are hessnatur’s social standards structured?

Stefanie Santila Karl (SK): The requirements for socially responsible production for hessnatur are based upon the core values of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and explicitly govern the working conditions practiced by our suppliers. This includes, for instance, the right to voluntary employment – compulsory labor is not allowed -, payment of an adequate wage, prevention of unacceptably long working schedules, prohibition of child labor, and, above all, humane working conditions.

MK: Why are social standards required for production, but not for the cultivation of raw materials?

SK: Provisions securing socially fair conditions during cultivation are consolidated under the term “Fair Trade”. Our organic cotton from Burkina Faso is a good example. In addition to the Fair Trade premium, hessnatur also pays a bonus for organic certification. After cultivation, yarn and fabric manufacture are next in the textile chain. Fair working conditions must be guaranteed here as well, of course, according to hessnatur’s principles. This phase is dominated by a very industrialized process, however, with few employees and limited manufacture by hand. The main emphasis on working conditions lies therefore in actual clothing production – the stage in the textile chain with the most manual labor. It is within this process that our audits on location take place.