Transparency

ILO launches book on “Forced labor: Coercion and exploitation in the private economy”

August 27, 2009
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ILO launches book on “Forced labor: Coercion and exploitation in the private economy”

The International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition was August 23rd. To mark the occasion, the ILO (International Labour Organization) has launched a new book on forced labour, titled “Forced labor: Coercion and exploitation in the private economy.” You can download the book’s Executive Summary in English, Spanish or French, here.   More than 200 years after a slave rebellion in the Caribbean sparked a movement that eventually led to the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, an estimated 12 million people around the world still work under coercion in forced labour, slavery and slavery-like practices....

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FIBERcast 3: Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry

August 21, 2009
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FIBERcast 3: Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry

The 3rd installment of FIBERcast went live on July 31, 2009. This episodes theme? Environmental Sustainability in the Apparel Industry. Thought I might offer some notes that stood out from the 1st half of the broadcast. Moderator: Marsha Dickson, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, University of Delaware Guest Speakers: Will Phillips, Manager, Environmental Strategy, Under Armour Inc., Rick Horwitch, Vice President, Solutions Business Development and Marketing, for Bureau Veritas – Consumer Products Services, Dr. Suzanne Loker, Professor, Cornell University, Huantian Cao, Associate Professor, University of Delaware The talk started off with Professor Huantian Cao breaking...

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Social Alterations: Forum

August 20, 2009
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Social Alterations: Forum

How can education foster sustainable change toward socially responsible fashion and apparel design and manufacturing practices? Social Alterations hopes to foster socially responsible fashion design education through aggregating relevant material that will inspire fashion/textile and apparel instructors, researchers, designers and design enthusiasts to get on board with thinking about consequence in the industry. Sign up to the Social Alterations Forum if you’re interested in sharing and contributing ideas on curriculum, research, projects, materials, design, etc. with this community.

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Watch: FTA’s ” Sustainable Fashion 101″

August 8, 2009
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Watch: FTA’s ” Sustainable Fashion 101″

Based out of Toronto, Canada, Fashion Takes Action is a member’s based organization dedicated to transforming the fashion industry.  FTA helps businesses, as well as designers, students, consumers and researchers, become more aware of their social and environmental impact, while learning the benefits of operating a more sustainable business. Up this week on the FTA site is video coverage of their recent event “Sustainable Fashion 101.” Presentations from FTA Founder, Kelly Drennan, Andrea Stairs, Head of Marketplace Development at eBay, Ellen Karp, President of Anerca, Elsa Poncet, ECOCERT Europe, and Lorraine Smith, an Independent Sustainability Consultant can be viewed...

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Oxfam Hong Kong launches new CSR report for the Garment Industry

July 24, 2009
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Oxfam Hong Kong launches new CSR report for the Garment Industry

Oxfam Hong Kong has just launched a new guidebook for the garment industry titled Good Fashion: A Guide to Being an Ethical Clothing Company. Although they encourage the use of the guidebook for educational use, as well as for research, advocacy and campaign purposes, be sure to notify them if you are going to use the guidebook so that they may assess its impact.   “As an active promoter of corporate social responsibility (CSR), Oxfam Hong Kong launches the first corporate social responsibility guidebook: Good Fashion: A Guide to Being an Ethical Clothing Company today. Good Fashion targets to...

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Greener By Design 2009 Conference

May 20, 2009
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Greener By Design 2009 Conference

The second annual Greener By Design 2009 “Greener Products for Leaner Times” conference was held yesterday and today in San Fransisco. William McDonough gave the keynote speech at the conference yesterday. This article, “Greener By Design: Nature’s Rights, Nutrients and Quality Design,” by Jonathan Bardelline sums it up. Check it out. For more on the conference, live blog posts, and twitter feeds (#gbd09) visit Greener Design    

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Makower talks Greenwash

May 20, 2009
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Makower talks Greenwash

    Back in April, TerraChoice released their second report on greenwashing, titled “The Seven Sins of Greenwashing.” The first report, “The Six Sins of Greenwashing,” came out in 2007. The recent report offers new stats and, of course, the added seventh sin. Unfortunately, fashion, textile and apparel products were not included in the TerraChoice research. Don’t let this fool you; greenwashing is rampant in the fashion, textile and apparel industry.   Joel Makower from Greenbiz offers a great commentary on the report, outlining where, and how, it may have fallen short: “Late last year, TerraChoice repeated the process, though extended...

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Women Exploiting Women

March 3, 2009
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  The National Labor Committee released a report last week citing sweatshop conditions in a Guatemalan factory manufacturing clothing for Briggs New York (80%) and Lane Bryant (remaining 20%) clothing.   If you don’t want to read the full article, here is the abstract:   “Young Mayan women sew Briggs New York and Lane Bryant clothing under abusive and illegal sweatshop conditions at the Nicotex factory outside Guatemala City.  Women in the U.S. are unknowingly purchasing clothing made by other women who are being exploited. All overtime at the Nicotex factory is mandatory, and 14 2/3-hour shifts, from 7:00...

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Sweated Labour, Dell, Transparency and this Blog

February 5, 2009
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  The issue of transparency is an important one. So, here’s a little blogging transparency … I write Social Alterations on my ‘Made in China’ Espresso Brown Dell Inspiron 1525.   The National Labour Committee released a report today titled “High Tech Misery in China: The Dehumanization of Young Workers Producing Our Computer Keyboards” Sure enough, Dell is one of the companies manufacturing products in the Meitai Plastics & Electronics factory highlighted in the report in Dongguan City, Guangdong China.   According to the report, the base salary at the factory is 64 cents/hour. Minus room and board, workers...

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green textiles not popular among shoppers

January 25, 2009
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  A recent report by The Boston Consulting Group, “Capturing the Green Advantage for Consumer Companies,” surveyed the green consumer purchasing habits of 9,000 shoppers across nine countries.   One section of the report showed that consumers vary their green purchases by product category (see Exhibit 6 in the report). While 14% have bought green before, but are not buying it now and 28% are buying green sometimes, 50% have never bought green. Only 8% of survey participants buy green systematically. As a result, ‘Textiles and clothing’ was listed as the third lowest category.   The report also states...

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