Have you got the right policies?
If you want to change your supply chain for the better, you need to get your suppliers involved. You cannot do it without them.
Policies are an important part of that process.
They are (if written correctly) a straightforward way to communicate your values, guiding principles and the actions involved with following them.
A lot of different policies exists and you can basically work with any policy you like.
Below we have assembled an overview of the policies we like to work with here in Sustainawear.
Not all of our customers use all of them, and some are more popular than others.
But they all share one important purpose: taking good care of the humans, animals and environment that might suffer in fashion’s supply chains.
Animal Welfare Policy
No animals should be harmed in the name of fashion.
A signed animal welfare policy makes suppliers commit to respecting the five animal freedoms and to treating animals with dignity and in accordance with international regulations and guidelines.
If there are any specific fibers or production processes you want to ban, include them here.
Child Labour Policy
Child labour should not have a place in any industry.
But sadly, it is still an issue in many places of the world. In addition to an effective abolition of child labour the policy should also describe the approach to remediation, if a child is discovered at any of your suppliers’ factories.
Anti-Slavery Policy
While one could hope that slavery wasn’t still an issue in the 21st century, it is sadly not so.
We must therefore work together in condemning all forms of slavery and exploitation of people in vulnerable situations, such as refugees. An anti-slavery policy is an important tool in that aspect.
Environmental Policy
It is not just animals and people that are in risk of being harmed in the production of fashion garments.
We must also take a precautionary approach to environmental challenges and have our suppliers commit to do the same.
Anti-Corruption Policy
Corruption is an issue all over the world. We must all stand against corruption no matter what form it takes. Corruption can be monetary, be in form of gifts, extortion or nepotism.
Chemical Policy
Instead of creating and sending out a new and updated Restricted Substance List (RSL) every year, we recommend you develop a chemical policy for your suppliers to sign.
In the policy you state which chemical restrictions they should familiarize themselves with, adhere to and stay updated on.
Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Policy
We cannot expect a successful sustainable development, if discrimination, harassment and social injustice in general remains existent in our supply chains.
We therefore suggest that you develop a diversity, equity and inclusion policy and ask your suppliers to sign and commit to its content.
Sending out all these policies is a handful, and it is possible that not all of them are relevant for you, so you need to pick the ones that are.
But developing all these policies can be a lot of work!
Therefore, we have made updated templates of all of them, and uploaded them to our e-learning platform, Sustainawear Community.