Sustainability TAB

Reemi is a social enterprise and non-profit that exists to see humans flourish everywhere, with 100% of their profits going towards helping others. Reemi focuses on women's health because they believe it is under-prioritised in the garment industry, even though the majority of workers are female. For Reemi this begins with menstrual health, providing educational and sustainable products that work for all cultures.

A recent study reported that 73% of Bangladeshi factory workers missed an average of six days of work per month (resulting in unpaid days) due to menstrual issues.
“We believe in partnering with local organisations - building on from what they are already doing and complementing their work with what they tell us they need, so we can achieve greater goals together”.

Reemi wants every person to have access to menstrual health education and sustainable, culturally appropriate and affordable products.

They are developing innovative products and avenues to educate, helping provide access to environmental and culturally appropriate, hygienic solutions.
“We’re so inspired and encouraged that you and your team have gone the extra mile to really see us fly in 2020! We want to tautoko what you are doing at AS Colour - as I’ve seen firsthand just how good your factories are and the significance of investing into long term relationships with factory owners.
I want to applaud and thank you for going beyond the factory four walls and investing in the lives of garment workers. Community creates change and we’re stoked to welcome AS Colour into your whānau”. - Emily & Ashleigh of Reemi.
Click here to read more about Reemi.

The Amfori BSCI platform provides a single point for all supply chain performance information. By sharing monitoring activities’ results, we reduce effort, save money and increase consistency in the buying and supply process. Amfori BSCI offers a range of practical auditing tools to help manage our risk and effectively monitor our supply chain.

In 2018 we took the decision to join the wide reaching Amfori BSCI initiative, which incorporates all of our Code of Conduct including Environmental Sustainability. Through joining this program, we will be in a better position to support our suppliers with tried and tested training programs and we will have access to world class standards and tools to improve our own processes of supply chain mapping, monitoring, and remediation. 

As a relatively small brand, it is at times hard to apply leverage with suppliers. Through joining this organisation we should be able to learn from and communicate with global like-minded brands that are able to apply both more leverage as well as resources into transforming the industry.

The Amfori BSCI Auditing Integrity Programme aims to maintain transparency and reliability in our monitoring process. Assisting us with the challenges of the future, the programme provides a comprehensive, robust and independent acceptance process for audit companies to engage with amfori BSCI activities and ensure excellence in audit quality at the audit company and auditor level

Is Our Cotton Sustainable?
This is our ultimate goal, but the cotton industry still has a long way to go to
achieve this.
Australian cotton is used in 30% of our products. Australian cotton farmers claim to be the most efficient in the world, achieving in the last 10 years a 40% increase in their water productivity and 90% decrease in the use of pesticides. We are now collaborating directly with the Cotton Australia industry body to educate ourselves, as well as to track their progress in achieving their goal of becoming the producer and supplier of the most environmentally and socially responsible cotton in the world.

Traceable GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard) licensed organic cotton is used in approximately 8% of our products. Organic cotton is grown without toxic chemicals, using growing systems that replenish and maintain soil fertility while using less water. The main benefit of an organic cotton product is that crops aren’t treated with pesticides, insecticides, herbicides or genetic modifications.
These toxins are harmful for farmers and workers, us as consumers, and entire wildlife eco-systems. Ultimately, organic cotton is the most sustainable product and therefore our preferred material. However, we recognise that to increase demand we need to educate our customers, and therefore encourage our retail staff to promote the benefits of organic cotton.

Better Cotton Initiative
The Better Cotton Initiative exists to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for
the sector’s future. BCI aims to transform cotton production worldwide by developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity.

AS Colour is committed to improving cotton farming practices globally with the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI).

Through joining the community we will be contributing to the training of farmers and encouraging the worldwide shift to more sustainable cotton production.

To achieve this mission, BCI works with a diverse range of stakeholders across the cotton supply chain to promote measurable and continuing improvements for the environment, farming communities and the economies of cotton-producing areas.

BCI aims to transform cotton production worldwide by developing Better Cotton as a sustainable mainstream commodity.
Better Cotton is not physically traceable to end products.

However, BCI Farmers benefit from the demand for Better Cotton in equivalent volumes to those we ‘source.’

AS Colour is committed to sourcing 50% of our cotton as Better Cotton by 2023.

Our four specific aims:

• Reduce the environmental impact of cotton production
• Improve livelihoods and economic development in
• cotton producing areas
• Improve commitment to and flow of Better Cotton
• throughout supply chain
• Ensure the credibility and sustainability of the Better
• Cotton Initiative

Testing for harmful substances

OEKO-TEX® is one of the world’s bestknown labels for textiles tested for harmful substances. It stands for customer confidence and high product safety.

OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 certified, ensures that products are free from
dangerous substances—chemicals like pesticides, heavy metals, formaldehyde,
and undesirable surfactants. The certification is designed to ensure the effect the dyeing industry has on the environment is minimised and the
garments are safe for consumers as well as the people who make and sell them.

100% of our products from Bangladesh are certified by OEKO-TEX and 95% of our China Dye houses are also certified by OEKO-TEX® Standard 100.

The OEKO-TEX® Standard 100 is a testing certification for numerous harmful chemicals, even if they are not yet legally regulated. The certification of products in accordance with OEKOTEX ® Standard 100 is that all parts of an article meet the required criteria.

• Important legal regulations, such as banned Azo colourants, formaldehyde, pentachlorophenol, cadmium, nickel, etc.
• Requirements of Annexes XVII and XIV of the European Chemicals Regulation and their safe use REACH European Chemicals Agency ECHA
• SVHC Substances of Very High Concern Requirements from the US Consumer Product Safety
• Improvement Act (CPSIA)
• Discussions and developments that are considered to
• be relevant are taken into account as quickly and
• effectively as possible through updates to the STANDARD
• 100 by OEKO-TEX® requirements.
• Numerous environmentally relevant substance classes.

For a comprehensive list of substances restricted
under REACH – Click here.

HOW WE SOURCE

We are proud to share that we have ranked third highest in the Ethical Fashion Report 2022 among 581 other brands that were assessed.

We have been included in this report for the past 5 years, continually improving our work in the 5 key ethical and sustainable performance areas:

– Policies & Governance
– Tracing & Risk
– Supplier Relationships & Human Rights
– Worker Empowerment
– Environment Sustainability

While we are incredibly proud of our positioning in the report, it will not deter our efforts to continually improve and strive to tackle the issues the fashion industry face. See more details on our Social Responsibility efforts.

COVID-19 & our factories.

The global coronavirus outbreak has created unique challenges to businesses as well as individuals, families and communities globally. As most of us have never experienced a health crisis of this scale, navigating the disruption to our supply chain will be an evolving challenge.

Our suppliers in our sourcing countries, Bangladesh and China, are fundamental to our success. Not surprisingly however it is often the most vulnerable people who reap the worst effects in crises such as the world finds itself in today.

We had multiple orders across our supply chain at varying stages in production as this pandemic unfolded. AS Colour has upheld the commitments we had made to our suppliers during this time. As always we are accepting longer/delayed lead-times to our orders without penalty.

By keeping all our production agreements in place we are maintaining the incredibly important relationships with our suppliers and the continuous financial injections for the textile workforce in these compromised countries.

With the continued support and responsive training from Amfori we have raised our standard due-diligence to assess where and what risks have increased during this time to identify areas we could continue to help.

We select like minded suppliers.

The key to our sourcing is finding the right people with the right values. Whilst auditing factories and developing our management systems and policies is important to providing an ethical sourcing framework, more important is to find and work with factory owners and management who share our values, operate a culture of dignity and respect, are in for the long term, and who like us we are willing to embrace change and continuous improvement.

We have a strict on-boarding process.

We seek out the best factories in each product specialty and may interview up to fifty factories before selecting one to make our products.

Available capacity is also key to this conversation. It is important that we gain insight into their production planning for us to understand how they can accommodate any new business without the need for overtime and subcontracting.

Their latest social compliance audit is requested and submitted to our ethical specialist to review. In most cases, this requires further discussion to understand their goals around continuous improvement as well as their ability and willingness to take on the BSCI expectations if they have not already. Final approval for any new supplier must be signed off by our Managing Director, after which our Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct are submitted for the supplier to sign and return.

Only after this process do we place orders. Initially, these would be considered trial orders with a longer than normal lead-time to accommodate the learnings which are inevitable in a new relationship.

We build leverage and long-term relationships.

As a relatively small player in a large global market we approach this in two ways: Firstly we target medium-sized factories who work with like-minded ethical brands with whom we can join forces to encourage change.

Secondly, we strategically build our business with smaller factories to become the significant influencer - occupying the larger percentage of their business. 96% of all our clothing products are made by 9 factories, two of which have been working with us since we first started sourcing from overseas. One of these is in Bangladesh and one in China.

Within our factories, we fully occupy designated production lines taking responsibility for constantly feeding these lines ensuring stability and realistic targets for the workers.

While this commitment helps to ensure better quality for our customers, it also enables factories to strategically plan their business growth with us. However, we are transparent with our suppliers that business growth is not guaranteed.

Continuous improvement in key performance criteria including social and environmental goals are taken into consideration, and we aim to manage their business growth to reflect this.

We have only disengaged one factory due to non-performance issues. This reduction was monitored and transitioned over a two-year period.

We research to understand risks.

Understanding the specific risks of sourcing countries is essential before entering new markets, whilst ongoing research is also essential to ensure continued awareness of these risks throughout the supply chain. We have developed our own risk matrix, taking advice and best practice tools from organisations such as Amfori.

We have strategically kept our sourcing very focused, operating from a small number of factories in only two countries - China and Bangladesh - where we have nine strategic partnerships over the two countries. These long-term relationships have enabled us to gain a better understanding of each other’s business operations, challenges and risks, and importantly our different cultures, which have also evolved over time.

Regularly traveling to these countries has meant we have witnessed both the positive and negative impacts of our industry, which of course continue to make us mindful of our own impact.

The Rama Plaza tragedy was a big wake up call for many, and naturally, our customers contacted us with their concerns. As a result, we immediately increased our due diligence, spent more time on the ground to build on our local knowledge of risks and solutions, and further reviewed our sourcing strategy. We are confident with our approach, assured that our suppliers meet Internationally accepted standards, and we are encouraged by the progress they are making to improve further.

The majority of our factories are participants in the Bangladesh Accord and have completed or are on track with any remediation work. The one factory, which has not been involved with the Accord; recently moved to a new building, has all the necessary certificates and is awaiting an audit. None of our factories have had any critical Safety issues which would have required them to be terminated by the Accord programme or temporarily closed down. Witnessing the shocking poverty in Bangladesh has made us more determined than ever to ensure a positive impact.

To us, “doing the right thing,” means staying in this market which relies so heavily on the fashion industry. We are very much of the view that the best way to drive change is a balance of leverage and commitment, and believe that collaborating with like-minded brands working in the same factories will be the most effective course of action. For this reason,

We ensure clarity of expectations.

We have always been very clear of our expectations of suppliers through regular face to face meetings as well as through our written Code of Conduct and Policies. Suppliers must be able to meet our minimum expectations and have the mindset and capacity to continuously improve on our key performance areas as outlined in our Code of Conduct and our audit requirements.

We are committed to continuous improvement and expect the same of our suppliers. We expect Transparency of Supply Chain, and on signing our Code of Conduct, the factories are contractually agreeing to cascade our / BSCI responsible sourcing standards throughout their supply chain. For us, this means; their fabric suppliers, their dye houses, spinners, and raw material sources, so that our expectations and standards are known and implemented throughout. We expect transparency of their production and have a zero tolerance to subcontracting.

This ensures we know exactly where our products are being made and that all locations comply with the AS Colour quality requirements and ethical values. Our purchasing practices were developed to ensure this is feasible, and our online and final inspection processes and auditing methodology ensure compliance

We adhere to structured purchasing practices.

The AS Colour team are very conscious of the impact purchasing practices can have on the people who make our clothes. The open dialogue we have with our factories has always encouraged feedback on the challenges to their businesses, and for sure the most significant issue they always raise is the pressure exerted on them by fast fashion buying cycles.

For this very reason, our factories have always been appreciative of AS Colour business because we are NOT a fast fashion company. The fact that we continue to invest our time and resources into learning about their world, and the reality of production lead-times. The fact that we respect that not all their workers want to work overtime. The fact that we understand the true value of quality, and cost of a product. These factors have definitely all contributed to the long-term success and sustainability of our supply base.

Our consistent on-time six weekly order placements support these principles:

• Capacity planning is a key feature of our process, and in general, we aim to occupy dedicated production lines to enable greater transparency of work, more control over working hours and of course a more consistent quality.

• Holidays and weekends are accounted for with the expectation that overtime should not be required.

• Penalties for late deliveries are a rarity due to the fact that our agreed lead-times are generous compared to the industry benchmark, with the majority of our orders being delivered as contracted. We also believe that penalties inflict further pressure, plus are not in the spirit of partnerships where the focus should be on understanding the addressing the root cause rather than on punishment.

• Adherence to our processes are governed by our Managing Director, who has established these principles himself, continues to have a hands-on approach recognising that it always has been, and will continue to be pivotal to the success of the business.

• During the twice-yearly factory visits by our Production Manager, we discuss supplier performance against our defined criteria, as well as encourage dialogue around industry best practices. Many of our suppliers work with leading global retailers whose experience we can learn from to improve our own performance.

How we negotiate.

In line with our values, we expect our team to be fair and respectful operators. Our knowledge and awareness of impacts on price are now well established, and our relationships with suppliers long standing. As a result, we can conduct open and honest negotiations and account for and agree to any price increase requests.

“AS COLOUR asks for good fabric quality + good sewing quality, meanwhile AS COLOUR is willing to pay a reasonable price to get a good quality product”.

China Supplier Feedback Taking this one step further - open book / transparent costings are becoming a reality due to the trust and respect we have developed with our strategic partners. This transparent approach enables us to firstly to ensure price negotiations do not negatively impact labour costs, and

How we train.

For us to help our suppliers meet our ethical aims, we need to ensure that our designers, buyers and production team are helping them to do the right thing. This is key to the success of our ethical trading strategy. We are fortunate that we are a small and relatively stable team with a company culture that prioritises and fosters business ethics and an inclusive community ethos.

All employees involved in the buying process are encouraged to travel to learn and to develop their relationships with suppliers. We have employed an Ethical Sourcing Specialist who holds weekly training sessions with the team to build on their knowledge and awareness. To date they have covered subjects such as; Human Rights Issues by country, Importance of a Comprehensive Code of Conduct, How to read Audit Reports, Gender Equality Issues, Child Labour Remediation, Effective Grievance Mechanisms, etc

Our factories.

We hand-pick factories with safe, fair, legal and humane working conditions. At AS Colour we seek out the best factories in each specialty. We may interview up to fifty factories before selecting one to make our products. Each factory is based on a certain fabric and an assured production capacity. All our factories get a regular order every six weeks, giving them certainty around work and income. We choose to work closely with fewer factories that we know well. Importantly, all AS Colour’s products are produced under safe, fair, legal and humane working conditions throughout our supply chain

Code of conduct.

Ensuring compliance and commitment to social responsibility. AS Colour’s Code of Conduct forms the principal part of our commitment to social responsibility throughout our supply chain. It guides us in conducting business to the highest standards of business ethics and respect for human rights. We require each of our factories to comply with the Code as part of their contracts. In this way we ensure they adhere to standards that meet or