TODAY (20 November 2015), BESTSELLER’S ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT IS LAUNCHED. READ ABOUT THE INITIATIVES BESTSELLER HAS TAKEN TOWARDS BECOMING A MORE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS AND THE RESULTS ACHIEVED SO FAR.
Brande, Denmark, 2015-11-23 — /EPR Retail News/ — In the Sustainability Strategy ’20by20’ BESTSELLER has defined 20 broad goals, which will guide the sustainability work towards 2020. In the Sustainability Report 2014/15, BESTSELLER presents the results of the work carried out so far and addresses some of the issues and challenges BESTSELLER meets on the way.
“In general we are satisfied with this year’s results. We have been working hard within a wide range of fields, and we have made good progress on most of our goals, but we acknowledge that there is still a lot of work to be done.” says Mogens Werge, Sustainability Director in BESTSELLER.
The core of BESTSELLER’s sustainability work is to ensure responsible supply chain management in all production countries, and this year 669 audits have been carried out by external and own auditors. As of 31 July 2015, 95% of the factories are in compliance with BESTSELLER’s Code of Conduct, and the rest are under remediation.
“We are very satisfied with the factory compliance level, and we believe that the collaboration between our suppliers, our own local sustainability colleagues and third party auditors has been essential for creating these positive results.”
Besides BESTSELLER’s general work with the audit programme, a lot of resources have been dedicated to meeting the requirements of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety. By the end of the financial year, all BESTSELLER’s 47 supplier factories in Bangladesh had been assessed according to the standards of the Accord.
“None of our suppliers’ factories had immediate risks to remediate, but some important issues, like missing or inadequate sprinkler systems, were found. Our suppliers are now working in close collaboration with our local sustainability team in Bangladesh to remediate these issues.”
BESTSELLER has also joined a social dialogue pilot project as well as engaged with the Danish union 3F’s local representative in Bangladesh to promote better workplace dialogue.
“By promoting the Scandinavian model for social dialogue we encourage workers and factory management to sit down together and discuss workplace related issues and negotiate better working conditions.”
Another important focus for this year was to provide consumers with more sustainable collections and increase the use of sustainable cotton (see below facts box).
“In the coming year, we will strengthen the collaboration with other textile companies. Within the industry network Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) we will focus on implementing the HIGG tool for assessing social and environmental impact of our business as well as on developing a common audit protocol,” Mogens finishes.
Read BESTSELLER’s Sustainability Report 2014/15 at www.bestseller.com/sustainabilityreport
Watch BESTSELLER’s sustainability film here.
FACTS FROM THE REPORT
• On 31 July 2015, 95% of the factories BESTSELLER collaborates with were in full compliance with BESTSELLER’s Code of Conduct, and the last 5% were under remediation
• More than 12,100 women in Bangladesh and India have benefitted from the HER Project – a workplace training programme that aims at increasing women’s health awareness and access to health services
• Today, 1/6 of all cotton used for BESTSELLER products comes from sustainable sources
• 25% of the cotton used for JACK & JONES and SELECTED HOMME products is Better Cotton
• This year, NAME IT has sold more than 4.9 million pieces of clothes made from organic cotton
• This year, VERO MODA has sold 1,500,000 pieces of GREEN ATTITUDE products which is an increase of 50% in comparison to last year
• At JACK & JONES, 24% of the jeans are now categorised as Low Impact Denim
SOURCE: BESTSELLER