News - The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textiles Partnership) 03 June 2015 Many companies finally join the textile alliance Press release of the Clean Clothes Campaign on the accession of the leading associations and individual companies to the Sustainable Textiles Alliance The knot in the large textile associations has burst. The majority of the associations (the Handelsverband Deutschland (HDE), the Bundesverband der deutschen Sportarktikelindustrie, the Foreign Trade Association of the German Retail Trade (AVE) and textile+mode) as well as a large number of their member companies have joined the alliance. The basis for a broad impact of the alliance has now been created by the accessions. “As FEMNET and a member of the Clean Clothes Campaign, we welcome the accession of this large number of companies” said Gisela Burckhardt, FEMNET Board Member. It adds: “This provides a good basis. However, it is only now that the detailed work on the implementation requirements for each member of the Alliance with ambitious time targets of the action plan begins. This is because: Concrete improvements in social and environmental standards for workers in producing countries need to be felt.” Since the creation of the Textile Alliance on 16 October 2014, the underlying action plan had been slightly modified and revised at the request of the associations with the participation of all stakeholders (industry, politics, civil society), but the objectives themselves were not called into question. The revised Action Plan, on the basis of which the accessions have now taken place, is more process-oriented and focuses on pursuing objectives in order to achieve the Alliance's standards and objectives. An independent body under the supervision of the Steering Committee shall examine the progress of the individual members of the Alliance and make it transparent to the public. Berndt Hinzmann, INKOTA and member of the campaign for clean clothing, said: "The Federal Government has already established an element for greater transparency with the online portal "Siegelklarheit". ‘It will therefore be interesting to know which criteria will be used for reporting and how the impact assessment and target tracking will be determined’, adds Hinzmann to the reporting still to be developed in the context of the alliance. Some associations and companies also consider it important to prevent a simple jump on the train for "free riders". The concrete evaluation systems are now being developed within the alliance's multistakeholder process. These are the next steps that were also on the agenda after Action Plan 1.0. Gisela Burckhardt explained: "When drafting the action plan, we will insist on the development of meaningful review mechanisms in the Textile Alliance to assess the pursuit and achievement of the objectives by participating companies, because in the end, the credibility of the Alliance must be measured against whether improvements in human rights at work are achieved for the entire supply chain." In addition to individual companies, the campaign for clean clothing and its supporting organisations Christian Initiative Romero, FEMNET, INKOTA network and SÜDWIND are founding members of the alliance. Contacts with representatives of the campaign for clean clothing in the interim steering committee of the Textile Alliance: Berndt Hinzmann, INKOTA-Network/Campaign for Clean Clothes, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel. 0160-94 69 87 70Gisela Burckhardt, FEMNET/Campaign for Clean Clothes, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.,Tel.: 0152-01774080 Press release as PDF download The campaign for clean clothing in Germany is supported by 22 sponsoring organizations. It is part of the international Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC). It is committed to fair working conditions in the production of clothing and sporting goods. The CCC is an alliance of campaigns in 17 European countries with a network of over 250 partner organisations worldwide.
