One of Primark’s suppliers is under investigation for allegedly using illegal workers and paying staff less than the minimum wage.TNS Kitwear, which supplies 20,000 garments to Primark every week, has been accused of employing illegal immigrants from Inida, Pakistan and Afghanistan and paying its workers £3 per hour, just over half the minimum wage.  Staff also allegedly worked 12-hour days, seven days a week.

Primark has reported that it is one of the few companies defying the economic downturn, with this allegation brought to our attention it is clear why! 

‘Pants exposed: Know what’s in your knickers’ is a short film highlighting the main problems within the textiles and fashion industry. Made by sisters Jenny and Verity White, they write: ‘Morethanprettyknickers has one aim: to change the textiles industry for the better! We want to see standards raised at every level of production from growing to sewing, from cotton to bottom! We want to see fashion become a sustainable business driven by the demands of well informed shoppers who give a damn about where there stuff comes from. We have made a film with the intention of raising awareness: we believe that knowledge is power and that given the option consumers can and will change the face of the fashion. The humble pair of pants is our flagship garment, by finding out what it takes to make them we discover some uncomfortable facts about what goes in to our underwear…’ 

To see the film visit: http://www.morethanprettyknickers.com/ 

Source: The Soil Association  

David Hordle, Head of Plan A Delivery, Marks & Spencer talks to the Independent about the success of integrating the companies strategy ‘Plan A’ to reduce its carbon footprint.

April 2007, we put a Plan A Champion in every store – that’s 650 altogether. In addition to their day jobs, they help to spread the message across the store teams. One commitment is to make our offices carbon neutral by 2012. In terms of energy efficiency, one of the key drives is a 25 per cent reduction per square foot in store. So for two years we’ve run an energy-saving competition for the stores, as well as volunteer awards recognising people who go the extra mile.

A travel share scheme was launched last year, too, encouraging car pooling, using the train or walking to work. We also encouraged employees to reduce their carbon footprint by putting Plan A on their home page and linking up to a Carbon Calculator. Store teams can see how much energy they’ve used on an hourly basis.

We’ve opened three eco stores this year and are sharing that learning across the business, with employee engagement. Saving energy ticks the box for the environment, and it also ticks the box for finance too. We initially thought Plan A would cost money, but it’s cost neutral.

Source: The Independent  

The environmental priorities of the incoming American President couldn’t be more welcomed.  The end of 2008 saw him appoint two of the world’s most respected climate scientists, John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco to his team as scientific adviser and head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration respectively.  

They will join the incoming Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, who is another prominent advocate of the need to tackle climate change, and the Labour Secretary, Hilda Solis, who sponsored a Green Jobs Act in Congress last year.

But what will the new administration’s environmental orientation mean in practical terms?  Some expect Mr Obama’s anticipated fiscal stimulus package to include a heavy emphasis on creating new jobs, more observantly though he has unquestionably laid down a signal of intent: the struggle against runaway climate change will now enjoy the full-heated support of the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet.

According to our friends over at www.treehugger.com it was…

“Green has gone mainstream—there’s no doubt about that now.  Celebrities touting their ‘green’ lifestyles, corporations announcing “green” initiative after “green” initiative, and politicians publicly calling for “green” legislation and policies all relentlessly graced the airwaves and internet pages throughout 2008. But was last year the year when eco-verbiage finally came to be much too much?

According to the renowned word watchers at Lake Superior State University and the thousands of people who nominate their picks of overused and misused words each year, the answer is yes.”