Tag Archives: Responsibility

Oxfam Hong Kong launches new CSR report for the Garment Industry

Oxfam CSR Guidebook

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 support the garment sector in Hong Kong to further develop and implement CSR policy. In producing Good Fashion, Oxfam aims to raise awareness within the business sector on the importance of CSR and to encourage them to put CSR principles into practice.

The 71-page Good Fashion, which is divided into four sections, is a comprehensive guidebook containing practical tips for implementing CSR throughout the production process, such as merchandising and manufacturing. Good Fashion also includes CSR insights from various stakeholders, including workers, community organisations, union representatives, and other groups. Online resources and a simple checklist are also included for companies’ reference.”

You can download the full report in English (PDF) here.

Also, be sure to check out Oxfam Hong Kong’s previous reports. In 2004 they published Turning the Garment Industry Inside Out – Purchasing Practices and Workers’ Lives. They have also published two transparency reports: Transparency Report – How Hong Kong Garment Companies Can Improve Public Reporting of their Labour Standards (2006) and Transparency Report II: Have Hong Kong Garment Companies Improved Their Reporting on Labour Standards (2009).

Source: CSR Asia

Portland Fashion Week: Sustainable and Independent

Title: Portland Fashion Week: Sustainable and Independent

Location: Pearl District, Portland, Oregon
Link out: Click here
Description: As a longtime hotbed of creativity for modern art, design, and urban development, Portland is being unveiled as fashion’s best-kept secret.
On the runway since 2003, Portland Fashion Week is the second-longest running fashion
week on the West Coast. PFW stages the collections of the upcoming season through a
week-long series of high-production runway shows in downtown Portland, and exposes
independent designers to regional, national and international press, buyers as well as
style-savvy consumers.

Source: Portland Fashion Week
Start Date: 2009-10-07
End Date: 2009-10-11

Design Research Conference

DRC_ID_web_horiz_date

Title: Design research Conference
Location: Spertus Institute, Chicago, IL.
Link out: Click here
Description: The Design Research Conference (DRC), hosted by the IIT Institute of Design, brings together a growing community of design professionals advancing the role of design research in innovation.

The conference strives to spread knowledge through the discussion of compelling experiences and case studies, innovative methods and approaches, and the future and sustainability of design research.

Enthusiastic speakers interested in sharing their knowledge take the stage, enchanting the audience with best practices of design research and enthralling stories. The audience, two-thirds professionals and a third students, leaves with key takeaways: new ideas for further discussion and methods to throw into their own toolkits.

In its eighth year, DRC (formally About, With and For) will be more participatory in nature. Workshops, student presentations, twenty-minute lightning round TED style talks, and other group activities and networking opportunities will fill the two days.

Source: Core77 and IIT Institute of Design
Start Date: 2009-10-01
End Date: 2009-10-02

Designing Out Landfill; some notes and stats.

Thanks to Jo Angell at Puff and Flock for writing up some notes of the Designing Out Landfill Conference that took place on June 15th.  

It seems some highlights of the morning presentations included some interesting statistics.

Sophie Thomas, co-founder of Greengaged

  • UK households produce over 25 million tonnes of waste every year.
  • UK currently has 106 sq miles of landfill
  • One pair of shoes takes 8,000 litres of water to make
  • 1 computer requires 1.83 tons of raw materials to make

 

Kresse Wesling, founder of E&KO

Presented two case studies where 50% donated back to the material source.

  • bags from used fire hose pipes (West End belt worn my Cameron Diaz in June Vogue, p.95)
  • bags for Sainsbury’s from coffee sacks used to deliver the raw coffee

Nick Morley, Oakdene Hollins

  • 1 gallon of oil to make 1 kilo of polyester
  • ‘comingled collection’ bad for textile recycling through cross contamination
  • ‘diversion’ schemes good: Morley gave a shout out to Vancouver’s own Mountain Equipment Co-Op for encouraging their customer to sell and trade their used MEC products with other customers online.

 

Casper Gray, Director of Wax, Sustainable design and research

Suggested possible causes for the death (end of life) of textiles:

  • Fashion
  • Boredom/change
  • Bad fit
  • Wear
  • Damage
  • Loss

Other Causes:

  • Off cuts and errors (during manufacturing)
  • fabric samples

According to Angell, Gray “implied that designers could have a stronger role in improving these aspects.”

Click here, for the full write up at Puff and Flock, a London based textile collective, that it’s a great resource for critical textile design thinking.

Source: Puff and Flock

New Book: Textile Futures Fashion, Design and Technology

Textile Futures Fashion, Design and Technology

New book out December 2009 by Bradley Quinn.

Textiles connect a variety of practices and traditions, ranging from the refined couture garments of Parisian fashion to the high-tech filaments strong enough to hoist a satellite into space. High-performance fabrics are being reconceived as immersive webs, structural networks and information exchanges, and their ability to interface with technology is changing how the human body is experienced and how the urban environment is built. Today, textiles reveal their capacity to transform our world more than any other material.

 

Textile Futures highlights recent works from key practitioners and examines the changing role of textiles. Recent developments present new technical possibilities that are beginning to redefine textiles as a uniquely multidisciplinary field of innovation and research. This book is an important tool for any textile practitioner, fashion designer, architect, interior designer or student designer interested in following new developments in the field of textiles, seeking new sustainable sources, or just eager to discover new works that reveal the potency of textiles as an ultramaterial.

Source: Puff and Flock and Amazon.com

CSR Asia Summit 2009

Title: CSR Asia Summit 2009
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Link out: Click here
Description:

What is the CSR Asia Summit?

Running for the 7th time in 2009, the CSR Asia Summit is our annual flagship event which aims to be the most innovative and challenging conference on CSR in the Asia-Pacific region. Amidst the global economic crisis, CSR is more important than ever. With the theme “Sustainable Business as the Road to Recovery”, the event will explore key CSR issues and strategies to demonstrate leadership in times of turbulence. The topics will be focused on Asia and bring new insights for businesses, governments, NGOs and other CSR practitioners.

Who will attend the Summit?
CEOs, directors and managers from various sectors and industries across Asia including extractive, manufacturing, apparel, electronics, utilities, logistics, information technology, agriculture, risk consultancies, service sectors and financial and educational institutions
CSR/ Environmental/ Community Investment/ SRI/ compliance directors and managers
Companies, NGOs and governments looking to update themselves on the latest CSR developments
Start Date: 2009-10-27
End Date: 2009-10-28

Source: CSR Asia Summit 2009

Biodiversity and Brand Logos

It is not uncommon to associate particular brands with certain animals.  Puma, Ecko, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Spyder and Osprey, just to mention a few.  In an effort to enlist brands in the fight to protect biodiversity and endangered species, Save Your Logo, a non-profit based in France is working with enterprises as partners to preserve the animals and plants that feature as their logos.  This is an innovative way to engage brands by appealing directly to their most important asset, their brand logo.  Kudos to Lacoste for being the first brand to sign up for this global initiative.

 

 

 

“For over 75 years a crocodile has been the LACOSTE logo. Now the brand will actively support projects selected by the GEF to safeguard or protect the endangered crocodile, alligator, caiman or gavial species, whose loss would jeopardize the biological balance of their natural habitats.

These action plans will help to conserve biodiversity and fight against the disappearance of these species, some of which are now reduced to just a few individuals: Alligators in China, Gavials or Crocodiles of the Orinoco River in the Amazon.”

Granted, it may not work for all but it certainly targets a large segment of the apparel market.

Film Screening of White Gold: the true cost of cotton by the Environmental Justice Foundation

The trailer for the film “White Gold: the true cost of cotton” has been added to the ‘Videos’ section of Social Alterations, so check it out, and make sure to book your free ticket to the screening of the film, here.

Title: Film Screening of White Gold: the true cost of cotton by the Environmental Justice Foundation
Location: London
Link out: Click here
Description: “Uzbekistan is the third biggest exporter of cotton in the world. Its booming cotton industry generates over US$1billion annually, but the industry, which largely supplies the European market, is underpinned by a system of state-sponsored forced labour, particularly of children.”

PANEL

Lucy Siegle, journalist, author and presenter (chair)

Joanna Ewart-James, Anti-Slavery International

Juliette Williams, The Environmental Justice Foundation

Steve Grinter, International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation

Source: EJF

Date: 2009-06-09

Sustainable Brands ’09

Update: Can’t make it to Sustainable Brands ’09? Follow Mario Vellandi @mvellandi on twitter as he tweets live from the event! Also, make sure to check out the live twitterboard or search #sb09.

Title: Sustainable Brands ’09
Location: Monterey, Conference Centre, Monterey CA
Link out: Click here
Description: \’The Sustainable Brands Conference is the preeminent event for discussing the rapid rise of sustainability as a driver for revenue growth and brand equity in the 21st Century.\’
\’Downturns form the perfect backdrop for shaking things up, and this one is no different. At SB\’09, you\’ll learn from the leaders as you gain perspective, ideas and best practices for turning sustainable innovation in to revenue growth and brand equity in the years to come.\’

Start Date: 2009-05-31
End Date: 2009-06-04

Designing Out Landfill

Title: Designing Out Landfill
Location: London
Link out: Click here
Description: \”On 15th June 2009 the Technical Textiles and the Materials and Design Exchange sectors of the Materials KTN will host a high profile conference focusing on the innovative solutions that clothing designers & brands have developed in order to reduce landfill waste. This one-day FREE event entitled ‘Designing Out Landfill’ will be held at the The Institute of Materials Minerals and Mining,1 Carlton House Terrace, London,SW1Y 5DB and features speakers from major retailers, brands, manufacturers and product designers […] What will the event cover?

Listen to how product designers approach these challenges, Learn how large organisations remain profitable whilst maintaining ethical products and a strong brand image. Hear how to develop new products from landfill. Discuss ways of promoting land-fill products into traditional retail markets and hear about the impact of new initiatives and how to become involved in projects.\”

Source: CSF

Date: 2009-06-15