Ecotextile Talks MCL News and Media

Fresh from his high-profile appearance at a recent US Congressional-Executive Commission on China hearing, Scott Nova, Executive Director of the Workers Rights Consortium in Washington DC, gave Philip Berman a hard-hitting interview questioning the reliability of social compliance audits in China. 
Scott says about auditing companies working in the Xinjiang region:
"I'm sure there are some that are actually claiming that they can conclusively demonstrate the absence of forced labor in the region, but no auditor should be working there. It's incredibly disreputable. Even aside from the fact that you can't conduct a methodologically credible audit there, what you were doing by operating there, Is you are enhancing the ability of the Chinese government to keep doing what it is doing to the Uyghur people because the best hope the Uyghur people have is that this economic boycott will convince the Chinese government that it is in its interest to chart a different course in terms of its treatment of the Uyghurs."
Scott and Philip discussed the impact of the Ughur Forced Labor Prevention Act, in stopping goods made using forced Labor coming into the US. 
Interestingly, Scott said that since the Act has come into force, "to our knowledge, nobody has overcome that rebuttable presumption," that goods coming from that region were not made with forced labor. 

We followed up this point with Scott after the podcast - as it appeared that a number of goods had been seized by US customs under the law and Scott told us:
"On UFLPA seizures, there are two different phases of the process. In the first phase, CBP 'targets' shipments that it thinks have content from the Uyghur Region. Some of the targeted shipments are released because CBP determines they don’t have such content. If CBP does confirm there is content from the Uyghur Region, then the shipment is denied entry to the US, based on the presumption that all goods with content from the Uyghur Region were made with forced labor. That is the second phase. At that point, an importer can attempt to rebut that presumption by showing that no forced labor was actually used. No company has successfully done so. The released goods to which you are referring were released in the first phase, based on where the content was from."
It's a fascinating and broad-ranging conversation, with Scott and Philip discussing several issues around this topic, in particular:
Why, according to Scott, impartial factory audits are so hard to carry out in the Xinjiang region? 
Does he think the issue is confined to just this province?
Whether we should trust any social audits in China?
And what does he think this all mean for any company wanting to do business there?
You can read much more on this issue online at Ecotextile News where we most recently reported that a court ruled that the UK National Crime Agency’s (NCA) refusal to investigate forced labour links to cotton imported from China was unlawful.
This comes after cotton exports from the region continue to surge despite legislation in the USA.
 
 
 

In the final edition of our four-part podcast series, produced in partnership with Cascale, formerly the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, we discuss the need for collective action and pre competitive collaboration to deliver real impact. 

Regular host Philip Berman is joined by Joyce Tsoi, senior director of the decarbonization program at Cascale, and Magnus Dorsch, Head of Corporate Sustainability, at online retail portal About You. 
Topics covered
2 minutes What inspires Joyce and Magnus in their work?
4 minutes What is pre-competitive collaboration, its importance generally and for Cascale
5 minutes Its importance for About You and their Fashion Leap for Climate project
7 minutes Where is the mutual benefit of a project like Fashion Leap for Climate? 
8 minutes What are the challenges of pre-competitive collaboration, and how has Magnus managed them? 
9 minutes How does Magnues collaborate with manufacturers for About You’s private label? 
11 minutes Cascale’s collaboration with manufacturers.
13 minutes Magnus’ challenge of working with small manufacturers 
14 minutes Joyce and Magnus discuss Cascale’s Manufacturer Climate Action Programme - MCAP
 What do manufacturers think about the programme?
Discussion about science-based targets
20 minutes What challenges do manufacturers face in decarbonising?
21 minutes Particular issues with manufacturers sourcing renewable energy in South East Asia.
22 minutes Could manufacturers be focusing on energy efficiency as a first step? What about biomass?
24 minutes Magnus discusses what About You is doing to become more energy efficient and source more renewable energy. They are setting examples as a form of social signalling.
27 minutes Magnus and Joyce leave us with inspiring end messages! 
30 minutes End


 
 
 
 

We sit down with Sean Cady, vice president of global sustainability, responsibility and trade for VF Corporation and also elected board director for Cascale, and Andrew Martin, executive vice president of Cascale for our latest podcast on decarbonising the fashion supply chain.
This third of a four part podcast series, features a deep dive into how best to tackle carbon reductions in the global apparel industry and take a closer look at Cascale’s shift from tools to programmes.

In the second of a four part podcast series in partnership with Cascale, formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, we look at the potential impact on the textile industry of revolutionary new EU laws on green claims and eco-design. 
Regular host Philip Berman is joined by Elisabeth von Reitzenstein, senior director of public affairs at Cascale and Baptiste Carriere-Pradal, co-founder of the 2BPolicy consultancy.  
You can sign up to Cascale's public affairs newsletter, that Elisabeth mentions in the podcast, here.
You can get in touch with Baptiste's consultancy company here.
 
 
 

Welcome to a new four part podcast series in partnership with Cascale, formerly known as the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, about the big challenges facing the industry, and Cascale's role in co-creating solutions at scale. 
The first episode is about Measuring for Impact with host Philip Berman in conversation with: 
Quentin Thorel, the Group Head of Sustainability of CIEL Textile with its HQ in Mauritius. 
Ciel Textiles supplies fabrics and garments to some of the most iconic fashion brands in the world such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Armani, Hackett, Barbour, Levis, Tommy Calvin Klein, Lacoste and the list goes on and on…
It employs 23,000 people in four countries, Madagascar, Mauritius, India and Bangladesh and since 2019 has used both the Higg Facility Environmental, and Higg Facility Social & Labor Modules across all of its sites.
And Jeremy Lardeau, Senior VP of the Higg Index at Cascale who oversees the strategic direction and development of the Higg Index suite of tools. 
Sustainability data and measurement are critical to drive meaningful action, so we ask whether Higg Facility tools (Higg FEM and Higg FSLM) can help users to improve the way they make sustainable decisions, and whether the Higg FEM 4.0 update has brought necessary changes to the tool? We also discuss why the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) has changed its name to Cascale.
 
 

In the second episode of this podcast series, produced in partnership with the Apparel Impact Institute about its Climate Solutions Portfolio (CSP), we take a look at the tool it's built to help decide who should get the funding, and what a winning application looks like. 
As a quick re-cap, the CSP aims to find, feature and fund any initiative, project or piece of tech with the potential to reduce energy use and/or greenhouse gas emissions at scale in the industry.
And it has up to 250,000 dollars per year to award to projects that have the data to show they have the potential to make an impact.
In this episode, Ecotextile News correspondent Phil Patterson and environmental scientist Linda Greer explain how they developed a tool they call the 'Ready Reckoner' – to objectively compare the overall CO2 savings of different innovations and solutions across all parts of the textile manufacturing process.
Phil Patterson told host Phil Berman that he's come up with a punchier, and more colloquial nickname for the tool.
“Apologies for my language, but it's a bit of an ‘eco bullsh*t detector’ because there's lots of innovation out there but there are lots of people overclaiming the benefits that their solutions can deliver."
“What we’ve created is what we call a gas map of the entire supply chain, which is essentially looking at where greenhouse gases emissions occur, allocating a percentage of those emissions to individual processes within the supply chain.
Patterson and Greer talk in detail about how the tool can be used, and how it can be improved in the future as better data becomes available.
And most importantly they both drop some big hints on what they are looking for in applications, with lots of do's and don'ts.
Applications are open from 1 to 31 March, 2024.
To find out more about the Portolio, do check out its dedicated site where you can also contact their team if you need help with your application.