British outdoor brands Rab and Lowe Alpine, owned by Equip Outdoor Technologies UK Ltd., are now an approved member of Fair Wear Foundation. Fair Wear is an independent multi-stakeholder organization that works with garment brands, garment workers and garment industry influencers to improve labour conditions in garment factories.
For Equip brands Rab and Lowe Alpine, they see this is an important milestone within their corporate responsibility strategy, underlining the brands’ commitment to improving their ethical, social and environmental standards and their responsibility towards their stakeholders and community.
Debbie Read, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager at Equip, explains: “As brands, we want to do our best to ensure social and environmental sustainability and also be meaningful, open and transparent about what we do. Being a Fair Wear member strengthens our commitment to improve the lives and working conditions of those on the factory floor. Especially now that Covid-19 is having a significant impact on lives and businesses it’s our responsibility to continue to ensure that we are protecting all the people in our supply chain.”
Matt Gowar, Equip CEO, states: “We have always used the best technical suppliers to manufacture our products and we strive to develop long term, trusted relationships with them regardless of where they operate across the globe. We demand our partners provide safe working conditions, treat their employees fairly and with respect. Becoming a member of Fair Wear makes sense as we’ll use their support to strengthen our overseas partnerships and monitor, evaluate and improve working conditions across our global supply chain. We are looking forward to a strong and collaborative partnership with Fair Wear and other member brands to make garment production fair for everyone.”
Alexander Kohnstamm, Executive Director at Fair Wear Foundation, adds: “We’re happy to welcome two new strong outdoor brands. Equip is seriously committed to working on better labour conditions for the people who are making their clothes. During their first Performance Check, we will check Equip’s efforts. It’s positive to hear that they’re already investing in equal and sustainable relations with their suppliers, a crucial step towards improved labour conditions for garment workers.”
The overall aim of Fair Wear membership is to constantly improve labour conditions along the full supply chain. Every year, the brands’ efforts are reviewed by measuring how well they have assessed, identified and resolved issues with their suppliers in the past year. In a first step, Equip will now prepare for the first Brand Performance Check which happens after the first year of membership.
Afterwards, a roadmap for further action is drafted which guides the brands through their next steps.
Logos courtesy Rab/Lowe Alpine
