10 years after Rana Plaza
In the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles, the federal government, textile and apparel industry, retail, trade unions and civil society are joining forces to put improved, internationally recognized environmental and social standards into practice throughout the value chain of textile production.
With this, disasters such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in 2013 should be avoided in the future.
The age of voluntary safety is hopefully over
VAUDE wholeheartedly welcomes the fact that the age of voluntary safety now finally seems to be over. On January 1, 2023, the German Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG) took effect. It’s a start – at least large companies will finally be obliged to comply with human rights in their supply chains.
With the planned EU supply chain law (CSDD), the legal requirements will hopefully be expanded once again. It is high time for binding, ambitious, swift and effective regulations for greater sustainability in the textile industry.
Founding member of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles
We became a founding member of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles in the fall of 2014. VAUDE was already able to contribute the sustainability expertise of our CSR Manager, Hilke Patzwall, to the preliminary work prior to the founding of the textile partnership, and Jan Lorch (Head of Sales and CSR) represented VAUDE in the interim steering committee, which carried out the Strategy and Process Planning of the partnership until July 31, 2015.
VAUDE is now working in the Due Diligence, Circular Economy and Living Wages strategy groups.
VAUDE is certified in accordance with the Grüner Knopf 2.0 and is thus fulfilling its obligations for the review process as a member of the Textile Partnership. More about the Grüner Knopf here.
VAUDE’s Corporate Philosophy fits the Partnership’s goals
The goals of the Textile Partnership are consistent with our corporate vision. From experience, we know that it is extremely difficult for us as a family-owned company to change conditions in the textile manufacturing industry on our own. Therefore, we have always committed ourselves to a joint approach across the industry and to political activism.
With the establishment of the Textile Partnership, the federal government is taking an important step in this direction. We welcome the fact that the federal government itself is contributing with financial support of specific projects and measures in the environmental and social arena, with public-private partnerships with the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (Society for International Cooperation), GIZ, and the further integration of sustainability criteria in public procurement.
»VAUDE is responsible for the social and environmental conditions under which our clothing is manufactured. That is why we support Minister Müller's proposal to make sustainably produced clothing visible to consumers with a government seal.«
Jan Lorch, Managing Director Sales and CSR
Opportunities and Challenges
We are encouraged that, the social and environmental sustainability of textile products is high on the political agenda.
We hope that all participants continue to pull in the same direction, including very critical campaign organizations, with constructive, professional and international agreements. This also includes that the good social and environmental standards and initiatives already in existence, such as Fair Wear or the bluesign® system, will be recognized by the partnership. We also hope that awareness of the challenges in textile production – both in the industry and among consumers – will be raised significantly.
The objectives of the Textile Partnership in the environmental and social spheres are fully in line with our own objectives. We advocate for ambitious goal setting with a degree of accountability and endorse an external label for the further development of the members such as those Fair Wear has (“Needs improvement”, Good”, “Leader”).
The biggest challenges currently for VAUDE are in chemicals management in the supply chain. More at Our Challenges. bluesign® technologies ag will represent us on this issue in the future working group of the Textile Partnership because as a family-owned company, our resources are limited.
We advocate the promotion of sustainable business
Based on our experience and values, we take a good look at socio-political issues. This includes the promotion of sustainable business - read more at Our political stance.
Copyright for the cover photo on this page: „Photothek.net“
