The WWF- UK recent report, ‘Deeper Luxury’ looks at the environmental damage caused by the production of the world’s top brands.  The report examined the top ten holding companies and ranked them according to their own sustainability reporting, as well as the way they have been judged in the media and by non-governmental organisations. Luxury brand, Bulgari were ranked the worst for environmental and social performance.

New research is proving that there has been a massive rise in the number of people boycotting budget clothes shops due to concerns of exploitation of foreign workers in sweatshops.

Findings by the Co-operative Bank’s Ethical Consumerism Report 2007 published that £175m worth of business was lost due to shoppers boycotting the likes of Primark last year.  The ‘value’ clothing market is estimated to turnover £8bn a year, however 2006 saw a 20% increase in clothing boycotts as a number of consumers are associating low cost clothing as an indicator of poor labour conditions.

In its report the Co-op said that ethical consumption as a whole rose by 9 per cent to £32.3bn.  One of the fastest-rising sectors was fair-trade food and drink, which spiked 46per cent to £285m as awareness of the Fairtrade mark grows.

NARVA: The Estonian textile factory Krenholm, located in Narva, has stopped cotton purchases from Uzbekistan following suspicions of the use of child labour.  On Monday, the textile and clothing design company Marimekko, one of Krenholm’s most significant Finnish customers, announced that it would stop buying cotton products from Krenholm, following Swedish reports that the factory is using cotton that comes from Uzbekistan, where child labour is being used in cotton harvesting.

A programme broadcast by Swedish Television (SVT) last weekend claimed that a number of suppliers of the Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz may have been using cotton picked by school-age children in Uzbekistan. The report also mentioned the Swedish-owned Krenholm factory in Estonia, which manufactures cotton products for Marimekko. Krenholm is owned by the Swedish Boras Wäfveri Group.

Approximately one-fifth of Krenholm’s turnover comes from Finnish customers.
Krenholm has asked all its international suppliers to provide it with a certificate which guarantees that their cotton has not been bought from farms using child labour.

Krenholm buys its cotton on the global market, from America and Central Asia, through international suppliers. Just some eight per cent of the factory’s cotton has come from Uzbekistan.

Nobody can guarantee that the production of raw material is 100 % ethical, say some experts who are responsible for purchases in certain Finnish trading companies. 

Source: www.bharattextile.com 

Gap Inc the clothing brand has made a pledge to draw up plans to introduce relabelling its garments to allow the consumer to directly track online exactly where they are made.  Gap (UK) are the first high street shop to lead the way in producing a fully licenced Soil Association organic embroidered baby range and are the first high street retailer to carry the SA logo on its garments.  This is a really big step forward as it demonstrates their willingness of transparency.

The UK government is taking action to focus on identifying sustainable consumption and production and clothing is an area that has been identified as a major priority.

It has been reported that in 2006, UK clothing and textiles produced up to two million tonnes of waste, 3.1 million tonnes of CO2 and 70 million tonnes of waste water.  Defra are spearheading the campaign and have commissioned Environmental Resources Management (ERM) to conduct a project to map the sustainability impacts of clothing and interventions to address these impacts. The study is nearly complete with the final report expected to be published by the end of 2007.  Defra will collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders to develop practical and effective actions to address the environmental and social impacts arising across the clothing life cycle.

British Councils are ready to ban the use of plastic bags and London could become the world’s largest plastic bag free city in 18months.  After overwhelming public support, the 33 London councils are meeting to decide to either ban plastic bags or impose a hefty tax on hundreds of millions that are given away by retailers every year.  Over 90% of people asked by London councils said they wanted a complete ban or would support a 10-15p levy on every bag.

The treasury is said to be unlikely to consider taxation and the authorities are expected to press for a law-enforcing ban.  The authorities do not have the power to enforce the ban themselves so there will be a private bill in parliament required. 

More than 17billion plastic bags are handed out by supermarkets a year causing nearly 60,000 tonnes of plastic going into landfill.