Brands answer Greenpeace claims

LEEDS – Brands such as Nike, Adidas, Abercrombie and Fitch, H&M and Puma, amongst others, have defended themselves against the Greenpeace ‘Dirty Laundry’ report, through a series of official statements released by the pressure group, but do promise further scrutiny. By Rosie Wilson. The Greenpeace report, released in mid July, claimed to expose the pollution of waterways in China by textile dyeing companies working with leading Western brands. Both the Youngor Textile Company, situated on the Yangtze River delta, and the Well Dyeing Factory, situated on the Pearl River delta, have been accused of dumping chemicals and dyes into the surrounding rivers, including PBTs (persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic substances); which although not yet illegal in China, are banned in many parts of the EU and generally accepted to be hazardous. Many of the official statements issued by the companies deny responsibility, claiming that they used the Youngor Group as a cut and sew facility alone. Hannah Jones, VP of sustainable business for Nike, stated, “in answer to the specifics outlined in your letter, Nike Inc. Currently sources from two factories in the Youngor Group co.” She continued, “These factories are cut and sew facilities. They do not have manufacturing processes that include use of the chemicals.” H&M, Puma and Adidas also claimed to use the company solely for cutting and sewing garments. Lacoste, Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch, however, did not deny they used Youngor for dyeing. This said, both Abercrombie and Fitch and Lacoste insisted that they had required Youngor to comply with their own Code of Conduct. Christopher Chenut, CEO of Lacoste claimed, “As you may know, Youngor is one of the major textile companies in China with a strong reputation. Not only (have) they signed our code of conduct (...) but they also provided us with evidence of their due diligence to respect local laws.” For Gap, Kindley Walsh Lawlor, Vice President of Social and Environmental Responsibility reported, “Gap Inc. recognizes that the fabric mill stage of an apparel product’s lifecycle involves water – and chemical – intensive process, and we are working to reduce the social and environmental impact of the dyeing and finishing of products.” In addition to the letters sent to Greenpeace, both Nike and Adidas have issued formal responses to the ‘dirty laundry’ report on their corporate websites. However, in the week following, Puma issued its own press release online, and appears to be first in actively offering a solution to the issues raised in the report. Also responding to the Greenpeace urge to ‘detox’, Puma not only claims that it will be entirely free of hazardous emissions across its global chain by the year 2020 (http://safe.puma.com/us/en/) but that the Action Plan for this process will be released within eight weeks (since 26/7/11). Greenpeace launched its ‘detox’ campaign because it claims that brand owners are best placed to make environmental change to the textile supply chain through “their choice of suppliers, the design of their products and the control they can exert over the use of chemicals in the production process and the final product.”