Fair Wear Works – Sustainable textile purchasing in companies

Are you interested in making a contribution to environmental protection and human rights with your company and in changing your textile purchasing?

The GNF and FEMNET will support you in the transition and offer you information material or information events for your employees and trainees.

Project goal

Textiles are often produced under inhumane conditions. Low wages, forced overtime and lack of building safety are the norm in most factories. Enormous water consumption, chemicals in rivers and a share of 8% of global CO2 emissions make textiles a highly critical product also from an ecological point of view.

This is where the joint project of GNF and FEMNET comes in: The awareness of companies and their employees for the social and ecological relevance of responsible textile purchasing is to be raised. We show companies which problems occur along the supply chain, which solutions are available and how social and ecological criteria can be integrated into the company's own purchasing guidelines.

Whether workwear, merchandise or underwear - many companies have a need for textiles. Sustainable criteria in the purchasing strategy can positively influence working conditions and environmental impacts along the supply chain. Companies thus make an important contribution to responsible business.

Target group

Companies of all sectors and sizes that purchase, for example, workwear, promotional items or flat linen. We are also happy to inform members of trade associations about the possibilities of sustainable textile procurement.

Project measures

- At the beginning of the project, the need for counselling and the previous purchasing practices of companies were surveyed.
- Production of information sheets, e.g. on abuses in the clothing industry, existing ecological and social labels.
- Development of training modules for companies (e.g. overview of the most common laws, standards and labels, step-by-step guide to changing textile purchasing, good practice approaches of companies).
- Conduct training and information sessions for staff and trainees.
- Organise a one-day conference with speakers from business, academia and civil society.

Offer of support until the end of 2022

Would you like your company to contribute to the protection of the environment and human rights worldwide? Have you ever thought about the textiles used in your company? Whether it's workwear in industrial service or trade businesses, bed and table linen for hotels and restaurants, or merchandise articles: it's impossible to imagine many industries without textiles. The manufacturing process of all these textiles is known to involve considerable social and ecological risks.

By making conscious purchasing decisions within the company, buyers can help to reduce these risks. The range of textiles produced in compliance with minimum ecological and social standards is increasing and the market now offers sustainable alternatives.

Within the framework of the project "Fair Wear Works", FEMNET e.V. and the Global Nature Fund (GNF) support companies in reviewing their previous textile purchases and making them sustainable in the future. The project partners offer free initial advice, impulse or information events until the end of 2022.

In addition, market research to identify sustainable product alternatives for required textiles can be carried out on request, or companies can be individually supported in their implementation.

Interested companies of all sectors and sizes that procure textiles indirectly are addressed.

Contact

We will be happy to find a suitable offer for your company. Thanks to public and private funding, our information and advisory services are free of charge for your company..

Stefan Hörmann
Global Nature Fund – Büro Bonn
Phone: +49 228 184 86 94 11
E-mail: hoermann@globalnature.org

Bettina Faust

Global Nature Fund – Büro Bonn

Tel.: +49 172 9765732

E-Mail: faust@globalnature.org

Project Partner:

Sponsored by ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL with funds from the:

With the kind support of:

Contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The project aims to make a concrete contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Official project title:

Project period:

Project partner:

Sponsor:

Eco-fair textiles in companies

January 2020 - December 2022

FEMNET- feminist perspectives on politics, economy and society e.V.

Funded by ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL gGmbH on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the German Postcode Lottery.
With the kind support of Fairtrade Germany.