15 Sustainable Supply Chain Management of Clothing Industry …
203
15.2.1 EU
SSCM has been taken up in several different streams of European policy arena,
including development and environment. In development arena, European Commission’s communications related to corporate social responsibility from 2001 and 2011
brought up SSCM as part of responsible business practices, which also help companies to minimise risks in the long run (European Commission (EC) 2001b, 2011). In
environmental policy discourse, supply chain issues appear in relation to management
and verification of information on environmental impacts arising from products’ life
cycle. For instance, European Commission’s green paper on integrated product policy
from 2001 provided examples of initiatives where information collection methods
related to materials in automotive and electronic sectors are standardized across the
supply chain (EC 2001a). In the early 2010s, the necessity of collecting information
on the life-cycle environmental performance was brought up to facilitate comparison
of environmental footprint of products and organisations (EC 2013).
While the aforementioned examples of policy documents related to SSCM do not
address clothing industry specifically, the Commission staff’s working document on
sustainable garment value chain from 2017 specifically addresses the responsible
management of garment supply chain (EC 2017b). The document listed a number
of global guidelines and principles related to responsible business practices developed by entities such as the UN, OECD and ILO, the implementation of which the
EU promotes. It also highlights the EU’s existing commitment of financing various
bilateral, regional and global programmes and projects related to the reduction of
environmental and social impacts arising from garment supply chain. The document sets out three priority areas (women’s economic empowerment, decent work
and living wages and transparency and traceability in the supply chain), and also
three areas of intervention (provision of financial support, promotion of social and
environmental best practices, and consumers’ awareness raising).
Other voluntary policies addressing the upstream environmental impacts of
clothing industry include EU eco-labelling scheme and green public procurement.
In addition to a number of criteria related to environmental impacts from production process, requirements specific to fibre types, restricted chemicals and the like,
the latest eco-labelling criteria document for textile products from 2014 included
criteria related to social issues such as protection of various workers’ rights (EU
2014). The development of “model” criteria for textile products (EC 2017a) at the
EU level is also an EU’s attempt to enhance the integration of green criteria in the
public purchasing of textile products in Member States.
In addition to these voluntary policy measures, several EU laws do provide specific
mandates in relation to, among others, clothing sector. The so-called REACH Regulation (Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006), since 2006, mandates registration, evaluation,
authorization and restriction of chemicals put on the EU market, depending on the
risks the chemical in question may pose to human health and the environment. The
Regulation in its Annex XVII lists chemicals whose use and/or sales (including products containing such chemicals) are restricted, unless meeting the conditions specified
203
15.2.1 EU
SSCM has been taken up in several different streams of European policy arena,
including development and environment. In development arena, European Commission’s communications related to corporate social responsibility from 2001 and 2011
brought up SSCM as part of responsible business practices, which also help companies to minimise risks in the long run (European Commission (EC) 2001b, 2011). In
environmental policy discourse, supply chain issues appear in relation to management
and verification of information on environmental impacts arising from products’ life
cycle. For instance, European Commission’s green paper on integrated product policy
from 2001 provided examples of initiatives where information collection methods
related to materials in automotive and electronic sectors are standardized across the
supply chain (EC 2001a). In the early 2010s, the necessity of collecting information
on the life-cycle environmental performance was brought up to facilitate comparison
of environmental footprint of products and organisations (EC 2013).
While the aforementioned examples of policy documents related to SSCM do not
address clothing industry specifically, the Commission staff’s working document on
sustainable garment value chain from 2017 specifically addresses the responsible
management of garment supply chain (EC 2017b). The document listed a number
of global guidelines and principles related to responsible business practices developed by entities such as the UN, OECD and ILO, the implementation of which the
EU promotes. It also highlights the EU’s existing commitment of financing various
bilateral, regional and global programmes and projects related to the reduction of
environmental and social impacts arising from garment supply chain. The document sets out three priority areas (women’s economic empowerment, decent work
and living wages and transparency and traceability in the supply chain), and also
three areas of intervention (provision of financial support, promotion of social and
environmental best practices, and consumers’ awareness raising).
Other voluntary policies addressing the upstream environmental impacts of
clothing industry include EU eco-labelling scheme and green public procurement.
In addition to a number of criteria related to environmental impacts from production process, requirements specific to fibre types, restricted chemicals and the like,
the latest eco-labelling criteria document for textile products from 2014 included
criteria related to social issues such as protection of various workers’ rights (EU
2014). The development of “model” criteria for textile products (EC 2017a) at the
EU level is also an EU’s attempt to enhance the integration of green criteria in the
public purchasing of textile products in Member States.
In addition to these voluntary policy measures, several EU laws do provide specific
mandates in relation to, among others, clothing sector. The so-called REACH Regulation (Regulation (EC) No. 1907/2006), since 2006, mandates registration, evaluation,
authorization and restriction of chemicals put on the EU market, depending on the
risks the chemical in question may pose to human health and the environment. The
Regulation in its Annex XVII lists chemicals whose use and/or sales (including products containing such chemicals) are restricted, unless meeting the conditions specified