- NEXT WEEK, LEADING FASHION COMPANIES AND SUSTAINABILITY PLAYERS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE GATHERED IN COPENHAGEN TO DISCUSS SUSTAINABILITY IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY.
- BESTSELLER CO-HOSTS ANNUAL MEETING IN SAC (SUSTAINABLE APPAREL COALITION)
Annual SAC meeting
BRANDE, Denmark, 2016-May-11 — /EPR Retail News/ — On 9 and 10 May BESTSELLER is co-hosting the annual membership meeting of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC).
SAC is an industry driven apparel, textiles and footwear alliance of brands, retailers, manufacturers, academics, affiliates, governments and NGOs that works on developing a universal approach to measuring sustainability performance. BESTSELLER has been a member since 2013.
The work within SAC goes far beyond local and international regulations, and we strongly believe that our joint efforts will take the industry to a higher level for the benefit of workers, suppliers, brands and the environment,” says Katrine Milman, CSR Responsible in BESTSELLER.
Easier for the consumers to make sustainable choices
The ultimate goal for the SAC members is to be able to publish the results of their work in an easy understandable and comparable way.
The first step towards this goal was the development of the HIGG Index, a self-assessment tool for measuring brands’ and suppliers’ ethical and environmental performance. The next step is to verify this data and develop some kind of common score card which will make it easier for the consumers to make a choice and compare the sustainability performance of brands.
“Today, we don’t have any label that covers all sustainability parameters which means that it’s difficult for us to measure and document our work. Therefore, BESTSELLER fully supports working towards developing a common score card that can help us communicate better with our customers,” says Katrine Milman.
Eliminating duplicated audits
Besides the HIGG Index, the agenda for the annual SAC meeting in Copenhagen also includes discussions about a joint industry audit protocol (the so-called Social and Labour Convergence Project) with the aim of avoiding duplicated factory audits. BESTSELLER is represented in a working group that is working on drafting the audit protocol:
“Today, many companies have their own social audit standards and methods, some with only minor differences, which means that suppliers spend a lot of time and resources on managing the many audits.We are very keen on finding new solutions for raising labour standards at industry level as we need a feasible way to go beyond compliance. It could be a converged standard – or at least an agreement to support existing standards. This will release more resources for BESTSELLLER and for our suppliers to focus on making actual improvements,” says Søren Albertsen, Global Supply Chain Manager in BESTSELLER.
During the week, Copenhagen will be the centre of technical discussions and development of sustainability tools, including the International Planet Textile Conference, and ending up with the Copenhagen Fashion Summit where columnists, journalists, designers and fashion brands will debate sustainability in thefashion industry:
“In BESTSELLER we look forward to taking part in the many discussions and events planned throughout Copenhagen next week. It’s an important debate for the future of sustainable fashion,” says Katrine Milman from BESTSELLER.
For more information, please contact Katrine Milman, CSR responsible, at +45 5215 2233
Read more about ’Copenhagen Fashion Summit’ here: http://www.copenhagenfashionsummit.com
###
