AMSTERDAM and BERLIN, Feb. 19, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The
Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) and the Partnership for
Sustainable Textiles today announced a strategic cooperation that
will contribute to better working conditions and increased
environmental protection across global textile supply chains. Both
parties have signed a letter of intent expressing their ambition to
align requirements, tools, and verification systems. In addition,
joint member companies can make use of joint activities and shared
information in the future.
"Working together with one of the leading global sustainability
initiatives in the garment sector is an important step for the
Textiles Partnership," Juergen
Janssen, Head of the Secretariat of the Partnership for
Sustainable Textiles, said. "The strategic cooperation between our
organizations will contribute to the harmonization of
sustainability requirements for our member companies and create a
level playing field across national borders."
Over the next four years, the SAC and the Partnership for
Sustainable Textiles will collaborate based on the due diligence
approach as defined by the United Nations Guiding Principles on
Business and Human Rights and specified by the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the garment
sector. Members of the SAC and the Partnership for Sustainable
Textiles will develop and test joint verification and reporting
systems and explore opportunities for a joint methodology to
measure impact.
"We strongly believe that national and global initiatives are
natural partners to face the immense sustainability challenges
ahead," SAC Vice President of Transparency Baptiste
Carrière-Pradal, said. "With this strategic collaboration, we are
enhancing harmonization between our initiatives, taking a necessary
step towards a leaner industry with more efficient practices and,
ultimately, creating greater impact throughout the supply
chains."
This strategic cooperation will provide companies in
Europe with tools and coherent
guidance to successfully implement environmental and social
sustainability practices along their supply chains. Members of both
initiatives will benefit from reduced administrative reporting
efforts.
"We believe that this cooperation will create synergies for
member companies in implementing supply chain due diligence,"
C&A Global Chief Sustainability Officer and Board Director of
the C&A Foundation Jeffrey
Hogue, said. "It is important that fashion brands and
retailers collaborate to address industry-wide sustainability
issues together. We are happy to see that both initiatives have
made a strong commitment towards this new cooperation."
About the Sustainable Apparel Coalition
The
Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) is an industry-wide group of
more than 200 leading apparel, footwear, and textile, brands,
retailers, suppliers, service providers, trade associations,
nonprofits/NGOs, and academic institutions working to reduce the
environmental and social impacts of products around the world.
Through multi-stakeholder engagement, the SAC seeks to lead the
industry toward a shared vision of sustainability built upon a
common approach for measuring and evaluating apparel, footwear, and
textile product sustainability performance that spotlights
priorities for action and opportunities for technological
innovation. The SAC was incorporated as a 501c(6) nonprofit
organization and launched the groundbreaking Higg Index suite of
tools in 2011. For more information, visit
www.apparelcoalition.org.
About the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles
The
Partnership for Sustainable Textiles is a multi-actor partnership
of companies, unions, non-governmental organizations, standards
organizations as well as the Federal German Government. The actors
have united in 2014 with the aim to jointly work towards
improvements alongside the entire textile supply chain. In order to
achieve this, they agreed on ambitious social and environmental
goals. The actors are pursuing these targets in practice by means
of individual measures of members and joint Partnership initiatives
in production countries. For more information, visit
www.textilbuendnis.com.
Contact:
Sustainable Apparel Coalition
press@apparelcoalition.org
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