Femnet e.V.

In Deutschland werden jährlich ca. 280 bis 360 Milliarden Euro für die öffentliche Beschaffung ausgegeben. Auch wenn nur Teile dieser Summe für Arbeits- und Dienstkleidung sowie andere Textilien ausgegeben wird, kommen einige Mengen zusammen: In kirchlichen Einrichtungen, wie Krankenhäusern, Alten- und Pflegeheimen geht es beispielsweise um Bettwäsche, Handtücher und Arbeitskleidung für Pflegekräfte und Ärzte. Diese Einkaufsmacht muss als Hebel für Menschenrechte in globalen Lieferketten genutzt werden.

Die Broschüre informiert über die menschenunwürdigen Arbeitsbedingungen in der globalen Bekleidungs- und Textilindustrie. Ferner gibt sie Hinweise über Möglichkeiten der öko-fairen Beschaffung bei Kommunen und kirchlichen Einrichtungen.

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Transparency about supply chains in the garment and footwear industry is a rapidly growing trend. The complex network of global suppliers that apparel and footwear companies use to produce their goods is much less opaque than only a few years ago. Knowing factory details enables workers, labor organizations, human rights groups, and others to swiftly alert apparel company representatives to labor abuses in those factories, giving companies an opportunity to intervene—sooner rather than later— to stop and rectify abuses. It also facilitates brand collaboration and collective action to stop, prevent, mitigate, and to provide a remedy for labor abuses.

In 2016, nine human rights and labor rights organizations, together with global unions, formed a coalition to improve transparency in garment and footwear supply chains. The coalition reached out to more than 70 companies with own-brand label products, urging them to publish on their websites a list of the names, addresses, and other details of at least the factories involved in assembling, embellishing, and finishing their goods (called tier-1 factories).

After the coalition’s first report in 2017, the 2019 report now shows a significant increase in the number of companies that have published the details of their tier-1 supplier factories (35 percent of 200 brands). The report presents different levels of progress, identifies barriers for supply chain transparency and takes a closer look at the cases of online retailers. In addition to that, the coalition summarizes company transparency practices, points out the advantages of technology and gives general recommendations.

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In June 2019 the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a new Convention and Recommendation to combat violence and harassment in the workplace. While the convention recognizes the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment and is accompanied by a Recommendation that provides advice and guidance against gender-based violence (GBV), it is still a long way to put these into practice to effectively address and mitigate GBV. Ratification of the convention and, most importantly, implementation of measures to prevent and reduce GBV at the workplace and beyond are urgently needed. When looking at the garment industry, the importance to address GBV from different angles becomes evident. While both evidence for GBV as well as solutions to address abusive behavior at work exist, responsible stakeholders, including governments, brands and retailers as well as factory management, are often still reluctant to address violence and harassment proactively.

The present study is part of the Multi-stakeholder partnership to decrease gender-based violence against women in the garment industry of Bangladesh and India and therefore meant to collect facts and figures on the prevalence of violence and harassment in Bangladeshi garment factories. From this data as well as earlier studies and initiatives to combat GBV, the report analyses the situations in which workers are likely to become a victim of violence and harassment, with case studies that clearly illustrate the practices and structures that are currently fostering abusive behavior against workers. The report is the outcome of a joint project between the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity (BCWS) and FEMNET in Germany, that set out to bring brands and retailers, suppliers as well as workers' rights organizations in Bangladesh to one table in order to establish a meaningful and sustainable dialogue on how to jointly address GBV in the garment sector of Bangladesh.

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A Levi Strauss & Co. study, initiated in 2013, looked at three products: a pair of Levi’s® 501® jeans, a pair of Levi’s® Women’s jeans, and a pair of Dockers® Signature Khakis. This latest study benefited from the latest advancements in life cycle assessment scientific methods, tools and data collection processes and gives greater insight into the two biggest impact areas (cotton cultivation and consumer care) by expanding the scope of data collected.

This presentation dives deeply into the findings related to a pair of Levi’s® 501® medium stone wash jeans. The goal is that these findings will help LS&Co. and others in the apparel sector take more effective and holistic approaches to our industry’s environmental impact.

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Extreme Wetterereignisse in immer häufigerer Zahl, die Zunahme von Treibhausgasen in der Atmosphäre, der massive Verlust von Tier- und Pflanzenarten – der Klimawandel ist eine globale Menschheitsfrage und eine der größten Herausforderungen unserer Zeit. Seine Auswirkungen werden immer spürbarer. Dass ein Umsteuern unvermeidlich ist, darin besteht weitgehend gesellschaftlicher Konsens.

Doch die Transformation hin zu einer (nahezu) emissionsfreien Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft ist mit einer ganzen Reihe von Herausforderungen verbunden. Zunehmend rücken die ökonomischen und sozialen Kosten dieses notwendigen Transformationsprozesses in den Fokus. Dabei wird Klimaschutz oft gegen Wohlstand, wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und Arbeitsplätze ausgespielt. Teils werden sogar interessensgeleitete Zweifel gesät, um den Eindruck zu erwecken, die Wissenschaften seien, was den "menschengemachten" Klimawandel angeht, uneins.

Die Autor_innen knüpfen an diesem vermeintlichen Zielkonflikt an, indem sie die Konfliktfelder aufzeigen und zehn zentrale Kritikpunkte faktenbasiert analysieren. Sie widerlegen Behauptungen, die sich hartnäckig im öffentlichen Diskurs halten, und bestätigen, dass in Deutschland in einigen Sektoren noch enormer Handlungsbedarf besteht. Vor allem aber zeigen sie, dass eine zukunftsorientierte Energie- und Klimapolitik im Einklang mit Wohlstand und sozialem Fortschritt möglich ist. Vorausgesetzt es werden die richtigen Maßnahmen ergriffen.

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