Information: This report is outdated – you can find the current sustainability report here.
VAUDE has a long tradition of business relationships that are based on partnership and responsibility. As a rule, we always work directly with of our producers and do not order over agencies. We are very interested in long-term relationships with our producers. Instead of a “hire and fire” policy, we have established an extensive collaborative understanding of our quality requirements over the years. This creates a degree of mutual trust that makes it possible to have an open and construction collaboration.
In this report year, we have worked together for five or more years with almost 70% of our producers. In addition, the production volume at 67 percent of all of our producers is more than ten percent of their total capacity.
In order to guarantee independent monitoring of working conditions in our production facilities, VAUDE has been a member of the independent “Fair Wear Foundation” (FWF) organization since 2010. Our goal is to achieve improved working conditions in our production facilities through exchanges with the experts of the “Fair Wear Foundation” and other member businesses.
The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization that works with brand companies, retailers and producers to improve working conditions in the sewing textile industry.
The FWF focuses exclusively on these producers because this is where labor-intensive sewing processes take place that require many workers. An automation of this process is scarcely possible. Material suppliers are not evaluated.
VAUDE made the decision to join the FWF for two main reasons: Firstly, the monitoring of the producers’ working conditions is not based on occasional audits, but on a holistic management system.
All work processes, timelines and responsibilities for production at the company headquarters are successively optimized so that the respective production facility can plan over the long term. We want to ensure, for example, at the very beginning of our collection planning process that overtime in production due to late orders will be avoided.
As a member of the Fair Wear Foundation, we have committed ourselves to complying with the strict rules based on the International Labour Organization (ILO) in all of our production facilities.
The full Code of Labour Practices from the Fair Wear Foundation can be downloaded here: “Code of Labour Practices ”.
Besides the quality handbook, all producers also have to sign the “Code of Labour Practices“ of the „Fair Wear Foundation“ as part of the contract. Further we inform them in detail about the FWF and our membership. When considering new producers we take into account wether they have other ecological and social certificates or not.
Before signing a contract with a new producer, a VAUDE Head of Production who is also a member of the VAUDE CSR team at the company headquarters in Tettnang visits the production facility – read more about this at VAUDE CSR-Team in „“Upward”, “downward” and “outward” effects“.
Any system is only as good as the extent to which it is put into practice. As a member of the Fair Wear Foundation, the principle of shared responsibility applies to VAUDE and its producers. We support our suppliers in the continuous improvement of working conditions
At the same time, we are working on our own procedures in the planning and ordering process, to create the conditions necessary for our contractors to plan at an early stage for the capacity of their workers. This helps them to provide timely deliveries, safely and without depending on excessive overtime.
GRI: | HR10 |
GRI: | HR11 |
GRI: | LA14 |
GRI: | DMA Supplier Human Rights Assessment |
GRI: | DMASupplier Assessment for Labor Practices |
GRI: | DMA Procurement Practices |
GRI: | Employment |
GRI: | DMA Forced or Compulsory Labor |
GRI: | DMA Market Presence |
GRI: | DMA Diversity and Equal Opportunity |
GRI: | DMA Equal Remuneration for Women and Men |
GRI: | DMA Non-discrimination |
GRI: | Child Labor |
GRI: | DMA Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining |
GRI: | DMA Occupational Health and Safety |
GRI: | DMA Labor Pracites Grievance Mechanisms |
GRI: | DMA Human Rights Grievance Mechanisms |
Our monitoring system complies with the Fair Wear Foundation. We determine which producers will be audited in the following year in an annual work schedule. We place priority on suppliers with a high production volume or with many years of collaboration as well as producers with whom we know that collaboration will continue, even when our production volume is currently small.
The FWF also provides information about those countries where the risk of poor working conditions is particularly high - see "Strict controls in risk countries". The FWF stipulates that from the 3rd year of membership, 90 percent of the suppliers must be audited. This ensures that most producers are audited.
Because the work plan for 2013 was developed and implemented on the basis of the EX-Works figures from 2012, the percentages reported here refer to the FWF audit of 2012. The work schedule 2013 was implemented and all further results are based on the audits that took place in 2013.
During each audit, the producers’ overall implementation of the monitoring is evaluated based on the Code of Labour Practices social standards in respect to labor practices and human rights, and other aspects. The audit team consists of independent, local auditors or agents of the Fair Wear Foundation.
The audits consist of three parts: a document check, the inspection of the production facility with a focus on occupational health and safety, and interviews of persons working within and outside the facility. In addition, local stakeholders are consulted on each point.
After each audit, a binding action plan (CAP) is jointly agreed upon with the audit team and the management of the respective production facility. VAUDE takes the responsibility for ensuring that the measures referred to therein are implemented.
The VAUDE quality control team leaders in Vietnam and China support local implementation. In case of implementation difficulties, a solution is sought in dialogue with the producers.
During the year, each producer is visited personally by VAUDE. Additional quality issues are determined regarding how the CAP will be implemented, which further action is necessary (if any) and when the next audit will take place.
After three years, a new audit is carried out by the FWF to evaluate progress made. If necessary, a new action plan is then developed.
In order to improve the tracking of audits and the implementation of measures resulting from the audits and action plans, and to better systematize them, we have incorporated our own employees on-site in China and Vietnam to a much greater degree in this issue since 2012. These are our quality assurance team leaders in Vietnam and China, as well as our office in Shanghai.
All employees on-site are locals, so they know the language and culture, including national, regional and local conditions and regulations. We have strengthened the teams with more personnel and trained a quality assurance team leader intensively on CSR and social standards in each of our Vietnam and China locations.
With these training measures, we offer our production facilities direct assistance in the implementation of social standards. The implementation of action plans is coordinated through our office in Shanghai. Our audited facilities report to this office on all actions taken and obtain support for continuing problems.
To anchor the Fair Wear Foundation’s monitoring system throughout the company and in particular in the entire product development and production process, we have carried out a series of internal information events and offered training classes at our head office in Tettnang-Obereisenbach.
To this end we use the intranet, the VAUDE Academy and our biannual Collection Introductions to the entire international sales workforce. Furthermore, the FWF and all corresponding issues are an integral part of the internal Update Meetings for all VAUDE product segments. All necessary action plans are reported on annually to the Board.
The management approach is evaluated annually by the "Fair Wear Foundation" during the "Brand Performance Check" and is a component of our membership. Thus independent evaluation and assessment are ensured.
Brand Performance Checks (BPC) evaluate the following two main aspects.
Efforts that VAUDE intends to implement in the coming year are listed with corresponding measures in the Work Plan. This includes the following:
The FWF has determined how many production units per year will be audited and actively supervised. This percentage refers to the total purchasing volume for VAUDE with the producers per year.
The following table shows the measurements for 2013 at the "Brand Performance Check".
This results in a "benchmarking score" resulted in 78 percent, which put us in the “Leader" category. In 2013, instead of the required 90 percent of the audit, we achieved only 72 percent which gave us a rating of “Good”.
Internal restructuring revealed that we could consolidate producers in some segments, which made it necessary to shift the required audits. This procedure was clarified with the FWF in advance.
Despite our good results, some weaknesses and opportunities for improvement were identified during the audit. We will work even harder on their implementation now.
The task is now to introduce these points in 2014 and actively promote them.