News - The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textiles Partnership)

36 textile alliance companies complete trial run for supply chain law

Civil society members look positively at established process but criticise exits of some companies

Civil society press release in the NGO Textile Alliance

Berlin / Bonn / Munich. As part of the new review process, the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles is examining its member companies for the first time for the implementation of human rights, environmental and corruption-related due diligence obligations. The Supply Chain Act provides for similar obligations. As part of the review, independent experts have analysed the information provided by the companies and requested improvements in accordance with an OECD-compliant risk analysis and remedy. It became clear: In terms of risk analysis and measures, some companies still have a lot to do to comply with future legal requirements. As of today, the released reports will be made available to the public on the Alliance's homepage. More reports will follow in the coming weeks.

"Companies that have started implementing due diligence obligations on the basis of a risk analysis and a roadmap have at the same time prepared for the requirements of a supply chain law. In no case is this sufficient, as previous reporting and audit systems are only partially tools for ambitious compliance with the UN or OECD guidelines and the Due Diligence Act", emphasises Berndt Hinzmann from the INKOTA network.

The members of civil society are critical of those companies that have left the textile alliance since the start of the review process, including Peppermint Holding, Kaya & Kato, Trigema and Wilox hosiery. These companies refuse to provide comprehensible and comparable public reporting on existing risks in their supply chains and on measures already taken and planned in the future. Gisela Burckhardt from FEMNET makes it clear: “Anyone who refuses to do so fails to recognise the forward-looking importance of due diligence in building resilient supply chains with respect for people and the environment. It now shows who is willing to engage.”

Nevertheless, the civil society members of the Alliance do not want to give a free pass that the reports fully meet expectations for an ambitious implementation of due diligence obligations. "We too will only have access to the reports with today's publication. We will now examine closely whether the reports published today and in the coming weeks meet our expectations in terms of comprehensibility, ambition and coverage of the different risk topics," announced Alexandra Caterbow of HEJSupport. The analysis of all reports is expected to underpin the need for improvements, such as greater impact orientation or better participation of stakeholders from producing countries in risk analysis and policy development. However, the Alliance has taken an important step with this new testing process, on which it must now build.

This press release was written by the civil society organisations in the steering committee and does not necessarily represent the opinion of all civil society members.

Background information on the Textile Alliance

More information on the Sustainable Textiles Alliance: https://www.textilbuendnis.com.
The Textile Alliance has 22 civil society member organisations, which are represented by FEMNET, INKOTA-Netzwerk and the SÜDWIND Institute in the so-called steering group.

Contact persons:

Berndt Hinzmann,
INKOTA network, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,
Tel.: 0160 94 69 87 70

Dr Gisela Burckhardt,
FEMNET, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,
Tel.: 0152 01774080

Alexandra Caterbow
HEJSupport, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Tel.: 0179-5244994

 

Download the press release of 15.11.2021 (PDF file)