News about Our Work - © FEMNET 24 May 2023 “Zalando has a lot of catching up to do with social sustainability” On the occasion of the virtual general meeting of the online retailer Zalando on 24 May 2023, Dr. Gisela Burckhardt, Zalando stockholder and CEO of FEMNET e.V., asked critical questions. However, concrete answers to this were largely absent. "They have always been anxious" - this could be a wording, if one wanted to draw a benevolent conclusion from today's general meeting. In the questions of some stockholders, the board members took notes and also responded to inquiries, but the explanations rarely went beyond the often read standard answers. In addition to Gisela Burckhardt, the umbrella association of critical shareholders also took part with a speech on topics beyond the financial key figures. Many of the questions also coincided with FEMNET's interests, such as compliance with supply chain due diligence. A clear statement on criticisms or improvement efforts? Misrepresentation! What stood out, however, was: Especially in terms of social sustainability, the company is weakly positioned. No strategy for living wages In her questions, Gisela Burckhardt focused on the core topics of social justice and sustainability. ‘Although Zalando is generally committed to living wages for workers in the producing countries, it has no strategy for how the company wants to get there’, criticises the FEMNET CEO. ‘You have to know what the wage share in the FOB price is for that.’ Here, Zalando had to fit in at HV, the company does not have this information. The reaction of the two CEOs and founders, Robert Gentz and David Schneider, to the questions was thin. Zalando supported multistakeholder initiatives such as ACT, but was aware that this was not the only way forward. Therefore, you consult with experts about different benchmark methods. A decision on this is planned for 2023. In addition, they will begin to demand wage-related data from private label suppliers. There were also only vague questions about the gender pay gap as well as trade unions and works councils at producers. Data on this is not yet available to them, but they are aware of the urgency and want to start this year – but initially only in high-risk countries. "There is still a lot to do here," said Dr Gisela Burckhardt. A complaint system that hardly anyone knows The Board members were also unable to provide satisfactory answers to the question of the complaints system. Such a system has been in place since 2022, but not a single complaint was received last year. They had asked their suppliers to make the system known, for example, through posters. There were no further explanations, such as about responsibilities on the ground, or how to check the implementation. "The fact that there was no complaint shows that the system is not known to the workers at all. On the contrary, it would be positive if complaints were received, as this shows that the workers have confidence in the complaint system", according to Gisela Burckhardt. Zalando is under observation here, as the mechanism must work due to the requirements of the German Supply Chain Act, which will be in force from January 2023, according to the CEOs. Greenwashing instead of sustainability The questions about the Zalando sustainability filter or the recycled content of clothing to clothing were similarly spongy. Most of the 11 sustainable criteria are superficial. For example, the term ‘100% ecological materials’ refers to the ‘restricted’ use of synthetic pesticides, fertilisers and genetic modifications – i.e. their use is not prohibited. ‘With its spongy formulations, Zalando deceives consumers. This is clear greenwashing’, according to Gisela Burckhardt. When asked about recycling, the Zalando board admitted that no textile-to-textile share is currently possible, they are still in the initial phase, but are constantly working on an improvement. “This is actually a consumer deception”, Gisela Burckhardt comments on the answer, “because consumers think the word “recycles” is the recycling of clothing. Instead, plastic, such as PET bottles, is recycled into clothing’. Especially beautiful coloring A conclusion of the Annual General Meeting, which is unfortunately not surprising: "Zalando has a lot of catching up to do in terms of social sustainability, and other companies are already there," says Gisela Burckhardt. “When Zalando speaks of sustainability, the company primarily means improving its environmental performance, but here too, there is a lot of colouring and consumers are deceived, the sustainability filter is no good.”
