Supply Chain

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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The University of Delaware’s Sustainable Apparel Initiative (UDSAI)

June 4, 2009
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University of Delaware’s Sustainable Apparel Initiative offers ten policies for apparel brands and retailers to implement into their business practices. Click here to learn more about the policies and the initiative. Although all ten policies are crucial considerations for sustainable practices, “Policy 5: Consider and implement end-of-life strategies (recycle, renew, or reuse) when choosing materials, designing, and producing apparel”  pays particular attention to design through suggested best practices in both material and design assembly considerations. In the context of socially responsible fashion design education, how can these policies be integrated into your fashion curriculum? Early next week, Social Alterations will...

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“Defy them”

May 8, 2009
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New short film out of Amnesty International this week. Whether we like to admit it or not, there is a direct correlation between the fashion industry and torture. Social issues facing the industry today include: forced labour, child labour, harassment or abuse, nondiscrimination, health and safety, freedom of association and collective bargaining, wages and benefits, hours of work, overtime compensation (Workplace Code of Conduct, FLA). Source: Amnesty UK

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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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Compostmodern09 tweet along

February 23, 2009
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  Below is my tweet along for Compostmodern09, which took place on Sat. Feb 21st 09. This event was greatly inspiring, and I will be writing a post soon on the over all themes of the conference and where the convergence into sustainable fashion design comes into play. Stay tuned for that post (and some images as well).   ·  excited to be at #cm09 8:19 AM Feb 21st ·  #cm09 only 5000 days left. take it as fact. 9:55 AM Feb 21st ·  #cm09 Allan Chochinov ten rules applicable to fashion design. 10:23 AM Feb 21st ·  Michel...

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FIBERcast tweet along

February 23, 2009
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  The first FIBERcast, featuring Dr. Marsha Dickson and Mr. Doug Cahn, took place today, February 23, 2008. The broadcast was hosted by Dr. Hye-Shin Kim, of the University of Delaware, and focused on “Social Responsibility in the Apparel Industry”.   For those not following on Twitter, here are my live tweets of the event: searchable under #fibercast, #csr and #sr   ·  Dr. Marsha Dickson # fibercast: monitoring become the standard, but often does not provide solutions. new book http://tinyurl.com/aqb85w about 2 hours ago ·  #fibercast problems are complex and widespread/freedom of association/forced labour/discrimination/child labour about 2 hours...

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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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FEI Conference

January 27, 2009
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FEI Conference

  Fashioning an Ethical Industry: Putting Ethics into Practice March 11th, 2009   This is a one day conference that will bring together experts in ethical fashion, as well as students and tutors, to discuss the current state of the ethical fashion industry, and ways to put ethics into practice. There is no question this will be an excellent conference.   You can read more about this year’s conference and speakers here. To read a report on last year’s event click here, or to listen to a podcast, click here. Source: FEI

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ZARA and the right to freedom of association

December 17, 2008
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  A recent campaign from UNITE HERE Canada claims that the right to freedom of association is at stake for employees at ZARA, in Montréal, Quebec. According to a recent press release, “ZARA has engaged in conduct which may have violated the Québec Labour Code. This has included demoting two employees who led a union drive at ZARA’s downtown Montreal store, firing four employees who supported the union at ZARA’s Rockland Mall store, and holding anti-union meetings at three Montreal stores, in one case telling employees that joining a union is ‘treason’ against the company.”   Click here to...

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Message from the Asian Human Rights Commission on the 60th Anniversary of UDHR

December 17, 2008
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Many textile and apparel companies boast a commitment to operating within the legal frameworks of the countries in which they manufacture. It would seem only reasonable to expect as much (Congratulations! You didn’t break the law!). Considering the standard of human rights within such countries, should this fact be celebrated? December 10th marked the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this video, Basil Fernando, CEO of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), highlights the issue of “non-rule of law”. According to Fernando, the last 60 years of Human Rights has only worked to establish the...

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