Legal compliance as a top priority

Germany has some of the strictest environmental legislation worldwide. We all benefit from this and have come to expect clean water, clean air and fertile soil as well as safe and healthy products.

Images of dense smog in Beijing, oil sands mining in Canada or burning rainforest illustrate the fact the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily follow the same rules. Thanks to the strict implementation of German legislation that includes official monitoring, products containing potentially hazardous chemicals or other safety risks rarely make it to the market in this country. This protects people and the planet and we believe that it continues to be a worthwhile investment.

German and EU environmental laws are democratically legitimized and therefore enjoy widespread acceptance by the general population and commercial enterprises. Violating these regulations not only involves a large financial risk but is also a risk to a company's reputation.

In some of our production countries, far-reaching environmental legislation is often either lacking or compliance with legislation is not sufficiently demanded and monitored (such as in China).
Even when we, as the contracting authority, cannot be held directly liable in these countries, we bear responsibility for our supply chain and we would be exposed to a high risks to our reputation if our suppliers violated national regulations in the countries of production. An example of this is the Detox Campaign of the environmental organization Greenpeace

For us at VAUDE, noncompliance with environmental laws and regulations is out of the question. At the company headquarters in Tettnang, compliance is reviewed annually by the EMAS and ISO 14001 certification process. These audits ensure our legal compliance. 

We have been working with an index of legal provisions that list environmental regulations in the area of environmental management for years. This index is audited annually in the EMAS verification process. A comprehensive index which includes the areas of environmental management, companies, products and workplace safety, is currently being drafted.

In the supply chain, the verification of compliance with all environmental legislation and labor standards, laws and regulations is nearly impossible – especially since we work almost exclusively with independent producers. Nevertheless, we take this issue very seriously and rely on the information provided by our suppliers and bluesign® system monitoring with regard to environmental regulations.

Many of our suppliers are bluesign® system partners. The bluesign® system checks compliance with all applicable environmental legislation in the respective country of production. We are not aware of any cases in which our suppliers or their subcontractors have violated environmental laws that led to a fine or non-monetary sanctions. More info – bluesign® system.

We depend on the Fear Wear Foundation audits of our supply chain with regard to labor standards, laws and regulations. As a member of the Fair Wear Foundation, we are committed to compliance with minimum standards based on the "International Labor Organization" (ILO) in all production facilities around the world. 100 percent of our production facilities in high-risk countries are audited by the Fair Wear Foundation. Read more here

With regard to product conformity, we observe many different laws, regulations and standards, including textile labeling,

product safety (such as the drawcord standard for children's clothing), REACH, and the EU Chemicals Ordinance. For this purpose, we are involved in various associations and working groups in order to be informed of all changes at an early stage and to incorporate them into our products and product specifications. 

Some products require a CE Declaration of Conformity. These VAUDE products are labeled with the CE mark, and we have the corresponding certificates and documentation.

We see ourselves as a socially active company, which is also reflected in our corporate philosophy. This means that we not only adhere to legal requirements for our product range and environmental standards, but also meet labor standards, laws and regulations. Read more here

To establish legal certainty we use various external sources and depend upon the advice of outside experts in different areas and fields. These include memberships in associations such as GermanFashion, Federal German Working Group on Environmentally Friendly Management BAUM e.V., Bundesverband der Deutschen Sportartikel-Industrie e.V., Dialog Textil Bekleidung, European Outdoor Group, etc. and partnerships such as the bluesign® system partnership.

From these sources we obtain current information on legislative changes or amendments to other rules. This also includes information about legal requirements in our production countries. In labor law issues, we work with a law firm that specializes in employment law.