Femnet e.V.

01.07.2022: News from KW 26

Studies and Co.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "Strategy to Prevent the Importation of Goods Mined, Produced, or Manufactured with Forced Labor in the People’s Republic of China" (PDF): On 23.12.21 the President signed Biden the bill for the "Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act", which covers all imports from the Chinese region Xinjiang banned in the United States (see News Update of KW 2). The law has been in force since 21 June. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been tasked with developing a strategy for implementation to prevent the importation into the United States of goods mined, produced or manufactured in whole or in part using forced labour in the People's Republic of China. The American Law Firm Jenner & Block answered 10 questions on implementation of the law.

Global fashion agenda "The GFA Monitor - Progression to a Net Positive Fashion Industry": The GFA Monitor presents guidelines according to the five sustainability priorities of the Fashion CEO Agenda: Respectful and safe working environment, better pay systems, circular systems, resource responsibility and intelligent material selection. Each priority includes expert knowledge of GFA's Impact Partners, including: Fair Labor Association (Fla), that Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP), Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Apparel Impact Institute and Textile exchange. The GFA is convinced that by implementing these priorities, the industry will make progress towards a living wage and fair remuneration for all, a significant reduction in the consumption of conventional raw materials and a reduction in emissions. The indicators and benchmarks currently being discussed for the planned focus topics of the Textile Alliance fall significantly short of the solutions presented in the Monitor, especially in the area of wages.

Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) "Imapct Report 2021" & "Detox fashion radar": According to the impact report of ZDHC More and more suppliers are sticking to the ZDHC-Limits of the Manufacturing Restricted Substances List (MRSL), which prohibits the use of certain toxic chemicals in production. This is especially true in Asia, where most ZDHCPercentages are resident. The five best performing countries were: Bangladesh, India, Turkey, China and Italy. For 98 % of the processing suppliers within the Community, none of the ZDHC MRSL restricted substances detected in their effluents. In addition, it has ZDHC the Detox fashion radar introduced, which ranks fashion brands based on the degree of their implementation performance. The radar was launched with the most powerful fashion brands that have reached the highest level of success of the program. These include, among others. C&A and the H&M Group. However, more precise figures that would show why these brands are particularly successful are not disaggregated in the report or in the radar.

Better cotton "2021 annual report" (PDF): Reported in the report Better cotton on the successes and challenges of the 20/21 season. In total, 4.7 million tonnes of cotton were produced in 24 countries. Better cotton License harvested (overview on page 8). This represents about 20% of the world's cotton production. It is striking that the volume fell for the first time since 2010. This is loud Better cotton various challenges such as weather fluctuations, changes in the Better Cotton programme, market conditions and socio-political challenges.

News

Follow-up Higg index: The sustainability organisation Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) In response to recent allegations by the Norwegian Consumer Protection Board Norwegian Consumer Authority (NCA) (See last week's news update) and in a Statement The Transparency Programme, which is aimed at consumers, is based on data from their Higg Materials Sustainability Index rest, pause and revise. H&M In the meantime, all "Higg Sustainability Profiles" have been removed from the website. One Examination of Quartz shows that the sustainability information on H&M products based on the SAC/Higg tool was misleading and misrepresented for at least 136 products.

State of the economy: This Consumer climate in Germany has fallen to a record low due to the consequences of the Ukraine war. The consumer research company GfK The index score for July was minus 27.4 points. In particular, the cost of living increased by almost 8% (especially energy (+38%) and food (12.7%)) pressed the mood. Inflation is currently at 7.6% (in May it was 7.9%). According to a survey of IFH Colognes have 27% of Germans "great fear" of not getting along with the money. Rising energy prices and the threat of gas shortages are also a major concern for the economy: The Ifo business climate fell by 0.7 points month-on-month to 92.3 points. The Industrialized States Organization OECD has its Forecast for the growth of the global economy revised significantly downwards due to the war in Ukraine. Instead of 4.5% so far, growth of only 3% is now expected in the current year.

Green button 2.0: The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has the following Documents on the Green Button Standard 2.0 published: Requirements for corporate due diligence processes and conditions for product promotion (PDF), Process and requirements for the recognition of seals (PDF, meta-seal approach), List of approved fibres and materials (PDF). The documents on the statutes and the certification program will follow shortly.

Countries of production

India: FashionUnited Report about the Indian trade unionist Rukmini Puttaswamy (Garment Labour Union) recently with FEMNET He was on the road in Germany, including around the 17th. The Bremen Solidarity Prize. In the interview reported Rukmini on the biggest challenges for textile workers: low wages, prohibition of trade unions in factories and sexual and verbal harassment. She says, "Especially when a union is formed, they tell the workers that the factory will soon be closed." Clients would also not support trade union work, but, on the contrary, threaten the management "If there is a trade union in your factory (...) we will no longer accept orders from you". What brands do is basically on paper. PublicEye Reports on the Failed mediation between five NGOs and pesticide manufacturers Syngenta. Suffered in autumn 2017 in the Central Indian District Yavatmal Hundreds of farmers and agricultural workers are poisoning cotton fields with pesticides. 23 of them died. The NGOs filed a complaint with the Swiss National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECDThese were followed by four mediation sessions. The case ended without agreement. Syngenta He continues to deny any responsibility.

Bangladesh: At the beginning of June, it held an exlposion in a depot of goods, which primarily stored clothing, in Sitakunda (close Chittagong At least 49 people died. A fire in a private warehouse spread to several containers filled with chemicals and triggered the explosion. The authorities in Bangladesh accused the operator of a container warehouse of not informing the fire brigade of the presence of chemicals, so that the fire could not be extinguished with appropriate precautionary measures and many firefighters died in the explosion.