Sustainability Report 2021 - HVEG Fashion Group
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Sustainability Report 2021 Sustainability Report 2021 HVEG Fashion Group Page 1 of 19
Table of Contents
10. Challenges 2020 12
1. Introduction 3 10.1 Covid-19 12
10.2 Climate change & natural resources 12
2. Covid-19 statement 4 10.3 Sourcing genuine recycled & 12
sustainable materials
3. Market Update 2020 4 10.4 Traceability of cotton – cotton from 12
the Xinjiang province
4. HVEG Fashion Group 5 10.5 Improving working conditions in 13
the supply chain
5. Frame of reference - SDG’s 6 10.6 Working hours 13
6. Our team 6 11. Materials 14
11.1 Cotton and bamboo 14
7. Transparency / Our value chain 7 11.2 Polyester 15
7.1 amfori BSCI 7 11.3 Leather 15
7.1.1 Managementsystems 8 11.4 Plastics & packaging 16
7.1.2 Exceeding legal overtime limits 8
7.1.3 Hazardous working conditions 8 12. Our approach to carbon emissions 16
7.1.4 Wage-related violations 8
7.2 Bangladesh Accord on Fire and 9 13. Carbon emissions, 17
Building Safety chemical management & chemical waste
7.3 HVEG sociale audits and factory visits 9 13.1 Business Environmental Performance 17
Initiative (BEPI)
8. Complaints mechanism 10 13.2 Higg FEM 17
9. Highlights 2020 10 14. Water & sludge testing 18
9.1 Chemical Management 10
9.2 Using more recycled materials 10 Photo credits 19
9.3 Supplier training programme 10
9.4 Transparency and traceability 10
in the supply chain
9.5 VHead office relocation 11
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 2 of 19
1. Introduction
It is not an exaggeration to say that 2020 has been a challenging year. Nevertheless, we have persevered through
this unprecedented upheaval and are proud of the progress that we have made. We know that, going forward,
there is still so much more to do. To keep abreast of future sustainability challenges, we have to keep building
strong and strategic partnerships and continue working collaboratively with our supply chain stakeholders, as
well as society at large.
As a company, we recognise our responsibility to the environment. We constantly strive to minimise our negative im-
pact; to become more sustainable we monitor our processes and try to improve these when needed. I am proud to
say that our sustainable values are now firmly anchored in our corporate DNA and culture. This second Sustainability
Report serves as a tool to track our path towards sustainability, and to benchmark our progress both internally as well
as externally. The report is also an important part of our transparency commitment.
According to the United Nations, poverty and climate change are two of the most pressing challenges of our time,
which will affect many generations to come. While I have a great deal of respect for the complexity of both these phe-
nomena, I strongly believe that we can make a positive contribution towards both of them. As always, our partners
and customers will be key to ensuring we all meet our commitments. Together we can unlock potential and build
relationships that will benefit communities. By keeping focus and continuing to take a long-term approach, we can
make progress and achieve sustainable production in the markets in which we operate.
We hope you will appreciate reading this report. If you have an idea, suggestion, question or comment, please contact
us. We’d love to hear from you. Send a message to sustainability@hvegfashiongroup.com.
Mike van Snek
CEO at HVEG Fashion Group
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 3 of 19
2. Covid-19 statement 3. Market Update 2020
This report was written in the last quarter of 2020 when At the start of the year, no one could have foreseen that
the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis were reverber- a virus originating in China would greatly disrupt the
ating around the world. world. Thanks to the new virus, the activity at Chinese
factories slowed or stopped, stuttering the supply chain
Whilst countries, businesses and societies were facing and interrupting the flow of global business. The meas-
an unprecedented health and economic crisis, the tex- ures implemented by governments to stop the spread
tile industry was hit particularly hard due to a global col- of Covid-19, meant that droves of employees started
lapse in demand for garments. With contracts broken, working from home. From mid-March onwards, Europe’s
orders cancelled and shipments delayed, the industry busiest shopping streets emptied and regular life as we
was turned on its head and the systemic problems that knew it came to a standstill.
we were already facing were further magnified. The pan-
demic truly disrupted our entire supply chain and the Thanks to several economic support measures, govern-
livelihoods of the people working in it. ments managed to limit the amount of bankruptcies in
their countries. Nonetheless, Dutch garment retailers
Throughout these challenges, we created a strategy to were hit particularly hard, with sales plummeting by
get our partners and us through this crisis. We remained 41 percent in March and with 45 percent in April 2020.
close to them and tried to shield them as much as pos- To the contrary, many online stores were booming. Be-
sible from the negative impacts of the pandemic. We cause consumers were shunning physical stores and
stayed true to our commitment to address the urgen- had to stay at home, they started shopping online, mak-
cy of the climate crisis and meeting our SDG pledge. If ing e-commerce sales jump and brick-and-mortar sales
anything, Covid-19 has demonstrated to us how inter- fall. Covid definitely accelerated the shift to ecommerce:
connected and interdependent we all are; we are now compared to the first half of 2019, online purchases in-
even more adamant to continue our journey towards creased by 34 percent compared to the same period in
global equality, a circular economy and sustainable con- 2020.
sumption. Even though the future of the textile industry
is largely unclear, we are sticking to our long-term strat- With an unprecedented contraction of growth of 8.5 per-
egy and will manage to adapt to these rapidly changing cent during the second quarter of 2020, the scene was
times. We are confident that we will come out of this cri- set for the rest of the year. Even though the spread of the
sis even more focused and ready for the future. virus halted in the summer period, the growth of sales
in the third quarter could not compensate for the losses
already made. By mid-December the second lockdown
came into effect. During this time, only essential stores
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 4 of 19
were allowed to stay open. The fourth quarter of 2020 4. HVEG Fashion Group
therefore also ended in the minus. The Dutch Bureau for
Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) calculated that there was HVEG Fashion Group is a group of internationally op-
a decrease in GDP of 4.2 percent in 2020; the Economic erating fashion companies specialized in designing,
Bureau of ABN AMRO projected a contraction of growth developing, selling and producing Private Label collec-
of more than 5 percent. tions of women’s and men’s fashion, baby & children’s
clothing, leg fashion, underwear, accessories and optics.
The coronavirus has not only inflicted some serious eco- All HVEG Fashion Group companies have one common
nomic damage, it has also had a negative impact on con- identity and culture, summarized in our mission state-
sumer confidence. Due to fears relating to rising un- ment: sustainably achieving added value for our cus-
employment and economic uncertainty, consumer tomers through value-driven partnerships. We do this
confidence fell to a low of 31 percent in May. Since then, for strong European textile brands and retail companies
confidence has barely returned, still standing at 28 and for various distribution channels such as Fashion,
percent in September 2020. Sales volumes at garment Supermarket, Discount and Online Retail. Our offices
stores also fell sharply compared to the same period can be found in the Netherlands, Germany, China and
in 2019. Thanks to the high risk of infection in enclosed Bangladesh and are centrally managed from our office in
spaces and the wearing of masks, the traditional shop- Leusden. We have long-term cooperative relationships
ping spree became a no-go. The buzz of shopping just with our agents in India, Pakistan and Turkey.
stopped. Moreover, because of Dutch measures against
the coronavirus whereby people were advised to only
go outside to shop for essentials, 55 percent fewer con-
sumers came to the high street or shopping centre in
September in comparison to March 2020.
The economic recovery from the coronavirus pandem-
ic will depend on the vaccine rollout. The rate at which
countries will recover, including upticks in employment
and consumer confidence will depend on how quickly we
are able to bring the virus under control. We believe that
recovering from the ongoing pandemic well be a long
haul and expect the economy to slowly start making a
recovery by the second half of 2021.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 5 of 19
5. Frame of reference - SDGs 6. Our team
In order to formulate appropriate answers to major so- The HVEG Fashion Group CSR team consists of six
cial phenomena and the most important social themes people.
that we as an organization have an impact on, we have
aligned our CSR strategy with the 17 sustainable devel- They help to integrate sustainability within the organiza-
opment goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. These must tion by coordinating the CSR agenda, visiting and audit-
put an end to poverty, inequality and climate change. ing producers, consulting stakeholders, drawing up and
Within the framework of this sustainability agenda, we monitoring policy plans and evaluating whether the CoC
have selected four main themes on which we as an or- is being complied with.
ganization think we have the most influence.
They also provide all departments with the appropriate
These themes are: information on the groups’ CSR commitments, programs
• Clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), and implementation.
• Decent work and economic growth (SDG 8),
• Responsible consumption and production (SDG 12) The CSR Manager reports to the Buying Director and
• and Living on land (SDG 15). CEO. He is primarily responsible for CSR and gives the
CSR strategy form.
The Purchasing Department include CSR in their pur-
chasing decisions; Design and Merchandising Depart-
ments also integrate social and environmental objec-
tives in their decision-making processes.
Together, they can help the group achieve its goals with
regard to suppliers, waste management, CO2 emissions,
product design and packaging.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 6 of 19
7. Transparency policy on sub-contracting. Outsourcing is only permitted
Our value chain if HVEG Fashion Group has given prior approval and if
the sub-contractor has signed our CoC. One hundred
Transparency is the key to chain optimization. It helps us percent of our manufacturers have signed our code of
to set priorities, take smarter actions and give our cus- conduct.
tomer confidence in the products we produce. To make
more sustainable choices, we need to know where our 7.1 amfori BSCI
products came from, who made them and under what To enforce compliance with our CoC, we have a moni-
circumstances this happened. Chain transparency is toring and enforcement process in place. In addition to
therefore an important part of our sustainability policy our own monitoring activities, we value independent
and a strict condition before we enter into a relation- and unannounced social audits. These audits are based
ship with a supplier. Our ultimate goal is a supply chain on the guidelines of the amfori BSCI Code of Conduct.
that is 100% transparent. In 2020 we have made an in- Social audits are an important pillar for measuring hu-
ventory of our key tier 2 wet suppliers (tier 1 suppliers man rights and environmental impacts; they highlight
are those we do direct business with and tier 2 are the points for improvement within our supply chain. Amfori
ones who feed them); we also started auditing them. In BSCI is an international Social Compliance initiative that
order to manage potential supply chain risks, it is our is committed to improving working conditions within the
intention to visit the top 5 wet suppliers in our China and worldwide production chain. It refers to various interna-
Bangladesh in 2021. By 2025, all our active tier 2 and 3 tional declarations, including those of the United Nations
suppliers should be known; we should also have visited (including UNGPs), conventions of the International La-
the active key top 10 second tier suppliers in China and bor Organization (ILO) and OECD guidelines (the Organ-
Bangladesh and the top 3 second tier suppliers in all oth- ization for Economic Cooperation and Development) for
er sourcing countries. Besides supply chain monitoring, multinationals.
we risk assess our supply chain and focus on those sup-
pliers which carry the greatest risk. Working closely with our key strategic partners, the vast
majority of our products are produced in the Far East.
To ensure that our suppliers work in a sustainable man- Overall, we work with around 200 factories around the
ner and take responsibility for the working conditions of world that manufacture our products in 9 countries (Chi-
their employees and the environment, they must sign na, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malay-
our Code of Conduct (CoC). This CoC contains our rules sia, Turkey and the Netherlands). In 2020, 98% of our
of conduct and the norms and values on
which HVEG factories were BSCI audited; only a small number of our
Fashion Group is based. In the apparel industry orders factories is only Smeta, ICS or SA8000 certified. Because
are regularly outsourced - the so-called sub-contracting some of our products are CE marketed, they comply with
- so we ensure that our manufacturers comply with our CE medical certification. These producers are usually are
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 7 of 19
ISO certified. The top four of most identified issues that 7.1.3 Hazardous working conditions
emerged during the BSCI audits in 2020 concern PA 1 A supplier is required to provide a safe and healthy work-
(Social Management System and Cascade effect), PA6 place environment for workers. When it comes to the fa-
(Decent Working Hours), PA7 (Occupational Health & cilities that we use, these are generally clean and well
safety) and PA5 (Fair Remuneration). maintained. They can however exhibit a few minor safe-
ty issues that are easily corrected. The most common
7.1.1 Management systems safety violations that we found in our facilities include
In order to standardize processes and adopt best in- a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) provided
dustry practices, suppliers are expected to implement to/worn by employees, a lack of or misplacement of fire
and maintain a good internal management system that extinguishers, locked or obstructed isles and exits, lack
not only meets lawful requirements, but also allows for of emergency lighting, failure to conduct bi-annual evac-
the systematic work with environmental responsibility, uation drills, and machinery lacking guards/shields on
working environment and working conditions. In case moving parts.
suppliers do not fully understand the requirements that
they need to fulfil, this can form a barrier for continuous 7.1.4 Wage-related violations
improvement. We have found that weak monitoring sys- The BSCI standard investigates whether a supplier is
tems can result in inappropriate job behaviour and per- paying a living wage to workers. Wages must cover the
formance, loss of productivity and an increase of oper- basic needs of staff and allow for discretionary spending.
ational costs. On the environmental side, weak systems In China, the legal required minimum wage varies from
prevent good chemical & waste management as well as province to province; it is up to the auditor to determine
water & energy conservation. whether or not the factory is paying its employees in
accordance with the minimum wage laws in their prov-
7.1.2 Exceeding legal overtime limits ince. The most common violations we find are related
We find that excessive working hours and overtime are to working hour records which are not kept up to date.
most common during peak seasons when suppliers Suppliers do not always provide their workers social in-
have to meet tight deadlines for several orders at a time. surance or other benefits mandated by law either. Final-
Regretfully, not all of our suppliers prepare well for peak ly, unjustified deductions or overtime wage adjustments
season, which might mean that they do not comply with are sometimes made.
overtime requirements. Employees are not always aware
about the fact that they are legally protected against ex- In order to tackle these structural top four core themes,
cessive overtime either. Finally, employee attendance we support our suppliers through coaching and extra
records are sometimes found to be at odds with pro- training. All our factories must have at least a BSCI C rat-
duction records. ing; 11 percent of our active factories currently have a B
or A rating. It is our goal that by the end of 2025 at least
20 percent of our active factories have an amfori A or B
rating.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 8 of 19
7.2 Bangladesh Accord on In 2020, our CSR teams visited:
Fire and Building Safety • 60 factories in China
In addition to amfori BSCI, we are signatory of the Bang- • 133 in Bangladesh
ladesh Safety Agreement (Bangladesh Accord on Fire • 12 in Pakistan
and Building Safety). This is a legally binding agreement • 0 in India and 02 in Turkey
to provide safe workplaces for employees in Bangla-
deshi clothing factories. The Accord includes independ- Due to the Civid-19 pandemic and the consequent travel
ent safety inspections of factories and public reporting restrictions, after January 2020 our Dutch CSR team was
of the results thereof. In addition, the Accord supports no longer able to travel to in Pakistan, India or Turkey
safety training for all employees and setting up safety where we have no offices. This does however not mean
committees within factories. This guarantees safe work- that our monitoring and enforcement activities stopped
ing conditions within our factories. In 2020, all functions in these particular countries; our agents continued do-
of the Accord office in Bangladesh were transferred to ing site inspections via pre-arranged and unannounced
the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), a Bangladeshi visits. By continuously monitoring our suppliers, we con-
not-for-profit company created and governed by global tribute to the realization of Sustainable Development
apparel companies, trade unions, and manufacturers. Goal 8 of the United Nations.
By 31st May 2021, this transition will be completed. At
the factories where we are active, by the end of 2020 97
percent of the initial points for improvement were imple-
mented. That is above the Accord average of all factories,
which is 93 percent. It is our goal to ensure that 100 per-
cent of all areas of improvement have been implement-
ed by the 31st of May 2021.
7.3 HVEG sociale audits and factory visits
We are well aware that social audits only represent a pic-
ture of a given point in time, a snapshot of a company’s
performance. Because social audits are performed on
an annual or bi-annual basis, it is difficult to monitor and
evaluate suppliers on long-term goals. In order to con-
tinuously improve our supply chain, our CSR teams rou-
tinely visit and audit our suppliers, not only to follow-up
on the issues found in BSCI audits, but also to support
them in the improvement process. Through these visits
and audits, we compile customised improvement plans
or Corrective Action Plans (CAP). If a factory is not willing
to improve or comply with the remedial measure stipu-
lated in our CAP within the required deadlines, it will no
longer be allowed to produce for us.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 9 of 19
8. Complaints mechanism 9.2 Using more recycled materials
In order to minimise our environmental footprint, we
In addition to our own and the above mentioned inspec- have increased the amount of fabrics and materials that
tion reports, we actively make use of complaint mecha- use less virgin materials, water, energy and chemicals.
nisms. These inform us about infringements to worker This means that the share of sustainable cotton and
rights & entitlements and in case of health and safety recycled polyester in our garments has increased. On
violations. The independent mechanisms allow factory the accessories side, we partially replaced conventional
workers – but also local stakeholders and NGOs – to acrylic with recycled polyester. The same trend was vis-
lodge complaints. They protect factory workers and give ible on the accessories and optics side where we intro-
access to justice and remedy. We currently make use of duced new products made from recycled and industrial/
two mechanisms: amfori-BSCI and Bangladesh Accord. post-consumer waste.
In addition, we also engage directly with factory workers
during our regular factory visits. If a complaint reaches 9.3 Supplier training programme
us during one of these visits, we will immediately follow In line with our ambitions and in liaison with amfori BSCI,
this up with factory management and ensure that the in 2020 a group of our nominated suppliers were given
complaint is remediated. additional - tailor-made - training to build on their foun-
dational knowledge and learn more about topics such
as due diligence, audit reports, remediation plans, griev-
9. Highlights 2020 ance mechanisms and risk assessments. This will help
them to further improve their level of social and envi-
9.1 Chemical Management ronmental compliance and cascade the new skills learnt
In the textile industry, chemical management strategies along their supply chains.
have often relied on Restricted Substances Lists (RSL).
These focus on restricting the chemicals present in or on 9.4 Transparency and traceability in
a finished product. However, the biggest pollution to the the supply chain
environment is caused by wet processing (dyeing/wash- We are transparent to our customers about our supply
ing/printing). For this reason, in 2020 we started mon- chain. This year we have started sharing information on
itoring our biggest suppliers on the use of hazardous some of our tier-2 and 3 suppliers. By mapping and mon-
chemicals at the beginning of the manufacturing and itoring our entire supply chain, we can get a better insight
production process. By gathering and analysing their into the overlap that already exists and identify the most
water and sludge test reports, we can begin to under- significant risks of adverse environmental- and human
stand the chemicals used in the production of our goods rights. Even though we have started monitoring some of
and start implementing sustainable chemical manage- our biggest tier-2 suppliers by means of factory inspec-
ment best practices across the value chain. tions in 2020, the control that we have over our entire
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 10 of 19supplier base is unfortunately still limited. We therefore
need to increase the cooperation with our stakeholders
to gain more leverage, and drive sustainable change in
our global supply chains.
9.5 Head office relocation
Our new head office in Leusden, the Netherlands, has
high operational energy and water efficiency due to fact
that it utilises solar PV panels, rainwater harvesting and
is equipped with electric vehicle charging posts. The of-
fices are kitted out with a smart LED lighting motion sen-
sors, which means that we are now able to use 85% less
energy. The upholstery (carpets and rugs) is made from
recycled materials and the majority of the office furni-
ture is WELL-certified. By setting performance standards
for design interventions, operational protocols and poli-
cies, the WELL Building Standard tries to foster a culture
of health and wellness. The relocation helps us with con-
tributing to the realization of Sustainable Development
Goals 6 and 8 of the United Nations.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 11 of 1910. Challenges 2020 and China. This means that we have to continue ex-
ploring new sustainable fabrics and fibers and keep re-
10.1 Covid-19 searching new technologies. In 2020, we produced more
There still is significant uncertainty about the Covid-19 garments made from recycled fibers, decreasing our en-
pandemic, how it will evolve and what the overall long- vironmental impact by reducing waste.
term economic effects will be. However, the pandemic
has already thrown a spotlight on the supply chain in- 10.3 Sourcing genuine recycled &
terconnectedness and challenges associated with global sustainable materials
sourcing. Because the textile industry its operations are As a B2B company, our biggest challenge is how to ac-
so globalized, it has proven to be extremely vulnerable celerate circularity and transform waste into garments.
to supply chain disruptions, such as workforce availabil- Since we are highly dependent on our customers, we
ity and production, as well as multimodal logistics (re- cannot make textile production more sustainable with-
duction in transport, service frequency and changes in out their help. Only through collaboration and embrac-
routing). Moreover, given the non-essential nature of ing technological innovations, can we transform the in-
garments and the fact that consumers around the world dustry. With regard to new technologies, there currently
are potentially facing new lockdown situations, the need is a shortage of recycled and/or sustainable textile ma-
for new products might prove to be limited. Finally, from terials that make use of tracking and identifying technol-
a human rights due diligence perspective, the pandemic ogies - such as finger printing or block chain technology.
has meant that it is sometimes difficult to support fac- These technologies make it possible to track the origins
tory workers, keep them and their workplaces safe, mit- of fabrics and fibres, thus guaranteeing the quality of
igate risks and maintain close working relationships with the materials used in the manufacturing processes. Re-
our suppliers. The pandemic has truly highlighted the gretfully, materials sometimes turn out not to be the real
fact that we need to continue building an economically thing and/or tampered with, which might negatively im-
and environmentally resilient business; as an industry pact their environmental credentials. The ability to track
we need to pull together and address the challenges we fabrics and fibre origins would help us manage our sup-
are all facing. ply chains better and establish greater trust between
customers and consumers.
10.2 Climate change & natural resources
The supply chain challenges related to climate change 10.4 Traceability of cotton – cotton from
are greater than ever. Rising temperatures and less reli- the Xinjiang province
able traditional seasonal cycles not only result in chang- Many of our customers already prohibited the purchase
ing consumer behaviour; shortages of natural resources of conventional cotton from Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan
such as cotton are also very likely. Locust swarms also and/or Syria in order to ban forced labor from their sup-
pose a threat to cotton crops in Africa, Pakistan, India ply chain. In 2020, cotton from the province Xinjiang in
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 12 of 19China was included, since more than 1 million Uighurs further improving and building their working conditions.
are believed to be held in internment camps in this re-
gion. Even though we fully support these initiatives, it 10.6 Working hours
is still extremely difficult to ensure that the cotton we During the many compliance monitoring visits to our
use does not come from one of these countries: cotton producers, we still come across issues related to (the
goes through so-called “clearing houses,” where it is dis- registration of) working hours. Producers do not always
tributed on the basis of grading instead of origin. At this make use of time clocks, facial biometrics or fingerprint
point all information about the cotton is more or less technology for employee time & attendance manage-
removed. Without the right technology or innovation, we ment. This means that they might not correctly pay their
are often searching for a needle in a haystack. Although employees for the hours and overtime worked and –
we have tried to set up a strong procurement policy for in case of emergency – are able to ensure their safety.
our contractors, their contractors and subcontractors Furthermore, in a few exceptional cases, we have come
may not have the same systems, and this can hinder across manipulation of working hours registered. We
our investigation. We try to bridge this gap by building take these findings extremely serious and are working
strong relationships with our suppliers and partners and with our producers to take the appropriate corrective
by constantly insisting on more information. We are also actions.
investigating the possibilities of blockchain/fingerprint-
ing technologies, which can make the supply chain more
transparent and increase consumer confidence.
10.5 Improving working conditions in
the supply chain
Some of our producers solely rely on consulting compa-
nies to help them prepare for audits. By not having their
own in-house compliance manager, they do not have the
proper management systems in place to inform workers
about their rights, protect their health and safety and
ensure manufacturing quality on a continuous basis.
They simply do not have the right knowledge of (emerg-
ing) social & environmental compliance legislation
and trends. Rather than working on the fundamentals
themselves, they leave this to others and will therefore
always have difficulties fully understanding and moni-
toring their social and environmental compliance. As a
rule, this means that they never truly improve on their
due diligence responsibilities, their business practices,
nor their risk management. In a few cases, it has proven
difficult to persuade producers to take full responsibility
for their own compliance. We will however continue to
engage with these suppliers to try and have them take
full ownership for their business and support them in
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 13 of 1911. Materials
Our customers use a wide mix of materials for their
products. We want to enable our customers to buy more
sustainable products and reduce their carbon footprint
by offering them more sustainable materials and using
more sustainable production processes. For this pur-
pose, we work with our suppliers to source in a more
sustainable way. We hereby focus on the materials that
we source in the highest volumes. In 2020, all our staff
members were regularly informed about material risks
and the sustainable alternatives that can be used. We
also started monitoring our materials for the first time.
Regretfully, we have not been able to trace all materi-
al compositions yet, but we are looking to improve this
considerably for next year.
11.1 Cotton and bamboo
A big part of our cotton is organic, recycled or Better From an environmental point of view, recycled cotton not
Cotton Initiative (BCI) sourced. In our effort to reduce our only decreases our environmental impact; it also pro-
material impact, we joined the collective BCI movement vides a second life to garments. Approximately 765,000
to make global cotton production more sustainable and liters of water can be saved per ton of cotton being re-
help farmers find more water-efficient and productive cycled. The majority of the organic cotton used for our
methods of cotton cultivation. BCI takes a mass-balance products is certified in accordance with the Global Or-
approach: an end product may ultimately not physically ganic Textile Standards (GOTS) and the Organic Content
contain BCI cotton. Because we only started measuring Standard (OCS). In 2019, we started the process of be-
the percentage of our total sustainable cotton turnover coming GOTS and OCS-certified, ensuring that we can
in the middle of 2020, we cannot yet provide proper data track the processing of our organic fibres chain deep.
for 2020. We will however be able to do so in 2021. 2020 Another milestone we reached in the advancement of
was also the first year in which we made recycled cotton environmentally sustainable textiles, is that the bam-
available to our customers. Recycled cotton is a great boo fiber we use for our Bamboo Basics products now
sustainable option, as it avoids the use of pesticides and comes from a closed-loop production process. This pro-
chemicals and requires far fewer resources (energy, wa- cess transforms FSC bamboo into cellulosic fibres with
ter, dye) than conventional or organic cotton. high resource energy efficiency and low environmental
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 14 of 19impact, significantly reducing water consumption. Final- within the leather industry and encourage our partners
ly, towards the end of 2020 we have introduced hemp in to do the same. In 2020 one of our biggest leather suppli-
our denim products. Compared to cotton, hemp cultiva- ers passed the LWG audit and another one is expected
tion requires less water and pesticides. Through these to do so in 2021. In 2020, we introduced a couple of sus-
actions, our work is consistent with Sustainable Devel- tainable materials in our belt & accessories collections,
opment Goal 15, which focuses on the importance of such as vegetable tanned- and vegan leather. Because
sustaining strengthening biodiversity and ecosystems vegetable tannins come from renewable resources such
on land. These initiatives also contribute to the realiza- as trees - whereas chrome is mined and only used once
tion of Sustainable Developments Goals 6 and 12. in leather processing- we decrease the use of chemi-
cals in production. Non-petroleum based vegan leather
11.2 Polyester - such as made from pineapple leaves, apple peels or
Beyond cotton and bamboo, the remaining materials mushrooms – help us bypass the use of animals. More-
we use in our garments include polyester. With regard over, they are non-toxic options that do not harm the
to the latter, we are also innovating new synthetic fibre- planet. Beside the introduction of vegetable tanned- and
and fabric strategies of which we believe they can lead to vegan leather, we also introduced belts made from re-
more sustainable products with reduced environmental cycled leather and recycled PET. Last but not least, we
footprints. In 2020, we introduced two new polyester introduced recycled leather products. Recycled leather
fibres to our collection: Repreve and Polylana. Both fi- is made from traceable pre-consumer leather wastage
bress are made from recycled materials, including plas- and has the same look and feel as traditional leather. By
tic bottles. What makes these fibres unique is that they reusing leather off-cuts we reduce the demand for vir-
use blockchain technology, enabling brands and con- gin leather & the harmful production process it requires,
sumers to identify the fibres used across each produc- whilst simultaneously reducing the amount of waste that
tion and distribution step, creating an unmatched level goes to landfills. Because we only started measuring the
of transparency. Because we only started measuring the percentage of our sustainable leather turnover in the
percentage of our total recycled polyester turnover in middle of 2020, we cannot yet provide proper data for
the middle of 2020, we cannot yet provide proper data 2020. We will however be able to do so in 2021. In 2020
for 2020. We will however be able to do so in 2021. Us- we also started a project to recycle the leather cut-offs
ing recycled polyester helps us reduce our dependence from our own leather belt factory in the Netherlands.
on petroleum as a source of raw materials and reduce This process is still ongoing as the production facility
greenhouse gas emissions by 8% compared to virgin that will produce the recycled leather from scraps in
polyester fabrics. With these initiatives we contribute to Europe is currently still being built. We are hoping that
the realization of Sustainable Development Goal 12 of we will be able to introduce leather made from our own
the United Nations. scraps by the end of 2021. These initiatives contribute
to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 6
11.3 Leather and 12 of the United Nations.
On the accessories side, significant progress has been
made on the leather front. Leather production is not
only linked to some serious sustainability issues, it also
presents challenges with regard to traceability and ani-
mal welfare. We are therefore working with the Leather
Working Group (LWG) to promote sustainable practices
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 15 of 1911.4 Plastics & packaging 12. Our approach to carbon
In our eyewear collection, we have also embraced a emissions
greener approach to manufacturing by introducing Rpet
and RA30 (recycled PMMA). We started researching re- Climate change is one of the greatest societal challenges
cycled metal frames - also recycled copper -and looked of our time. Mitigating climate change will require funda-
into replacing our Polycarbonate or Acrylic eyewear mental changes to the way that we deliver products and
lenses by recycled options. Regretfully this is still work services to our customers. In 2020, we have therefore
in progress. We made a start with rethinking our plastic placed a particular emphasis on the potential for ener-
packaging whereby we not only want to use less, but also gy efficiency to reduce CO2 emissions. By monitoring
that the material we do use can be composted. With re- our entire value chain more closely, as well as already
gard to the packaging materials that we use for our eye- existing processes, we believe that our producers can
wear, we have been able to make a reduction. Instead help accelerate the transition to a low-carbon energy
of using polybags, we now use a smaller amount of FSC industry. Our carbon emissions program focuses specif-
paper or nothing at all. When it comes to our contact ically on the use of energy & water, greenhouse gases
lens solution, we were able to reduce our manufacturing (GHG), emissions to air, wastewater/effluent, waste man-
and logistical footprint by shifting the production back agement, pollution prevention and chemical use of our
from China and Taiwan to Europe. With these initiatives tier two wet suppliers. 2020 is the first year in which we
we contribute to the realization of Sustainable Develop- started collecting data on our producers’ environmental
ment Goal 12 of the United Nations. performance.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 16 of 1913. Carbon emissions, chemical
management & chemical waste
13.1 Business Environmental Performance 13.2 Higg FEM
Initiative (BEPI) On the accessories side, the number of producers that
All of our business partners must observe the applicable have joined the Higg Facility Environmental Module (Higg
environmental laws and regulations of their country of FEM) has increased by 50 percent. The Higg FEM tool can
operation. They must be in the possession of the correct be used by our manufacturers to understand the impact
environmental permits, registrations and licenses and they have on the climate through their energy use and
comply with local and national regulations concerning emissions. In 2021, we will continue to engage our sup-
the use and disposal of hazardous chemicals. In order to pliers to further strengthen their sustainable chemical
mitigate carbon emissions in the supply chain, improve management practices. With this initiative we contribute
the chemical management of our main wet suppliers to the realization of Sustainable Development Goals 6
and respond to Detox concerns, we need to get a good and 15 of the United Nations.
insight in the energy, water and chemicals used in the
production of our products. In 2020, we therefore start-
ed working more closely with the amfori Business Envi-
ronmental Performance Initiative (BEPI), as it offers tar-
geted optimization possibilities to drive environmental
improvements in our supply chain. In 2020, the majority
of our key tier 1-production locations joined the BEPI
initiative; the remaining ones will join in 2021, by which
time we are hoping to be able to better measure the
progress made. From our first limited findings, we can
however already discern that between 2018 and 2019
our Bangladesh producers reduced their CO2 emissions
by 24.06 percent. When it comes to our producers in our
other sourcing countries, we will be able to provide the
first details at the end of 2021. It is our goal to reduce
the use of hazardous chemicals during the production
of our products and eliminate the use of priority haz-
ardous chemicals in our production processes by 2030
latest. With this initiative we contribute to the realiza-
tion of Sustainable Development Goals 6 and 15 of the
United Nations.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 17 of 1914. Water & sludge testing
As part of our commitment to the Detox and ZDHC initi-
atives (Zero Discharge or Hazardous Chemicals), it is our
aim to ensure good chemical management in our wet
production processes. In order to reach the goal of zero
discharge of hazardous chemicals, we do not only share
our Restricted Substances List (RSL) and Manufacturing
Restricted Substances List (MRSL) with our suppliers; to
establish a baseline understanding of chemical use and
discharge in 2020, we started collecting
wastewater- and sludge discharge testing reports. This
will help us map the chemical use across our manufac-
turing suppliers and measure our overall chemical foot-
print in the coming years.
By monitoring our key wet suppliers, we can support
safe and responsible chemicals management and elim-
inate the use of priority hazardous chemicals as identi-
fied by Greenpeace and ZDHC. We define hazardous as
persistent, bio accumulative, toxic, carcinogenic, muta-
genic and toxic to reproduction or endocrine disruption.
By collecting the wastewater and sludge test reports of
our key tier 2 suppliers, we can determine whether the
output water is indeed safe enough to be discharged
and has no detrimental effects on the environment and
human well-being.
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 18 of 19Photo credits Pexels:
Jcomp
Anna Shvets
Ariful Haque
Cottonbro
Mali Maeder
Scott Webb
Archie Binamira
Magda Ehlerss
Claudia Schmalz
Valentin Antonucci
Nav Photography
Samuel Silitonga
Sustainability Report 2021
HVEG Fashion Group Page 19 of 19You can also read
