guybabineau.com
home / about / channel surfing in the sea of happiness / contact
No ‘good guys’ in the apparel industry? Don’t believe it! by Guy Babineau
At Mountain Equipment Co-op, ethical sourcing is a basic value. We’ve all heard the stories: kids working 12-hour shifts in stifling sweatshops; workers spending their days on dangerous machinery and their nights packed into decrepit dormitories; women beaten or fired for trying to start unions. Mention the apparel industry and the names Gap, Nike or Adidas soon come up, followed by tales of low pay, sub-standard working conditions and greedy execs cracking the whip while counting their coins. Smaller manufacturers and retailers are deemed guilty by association. According to Behind The Label, an international non-profit organization that claims to represent clothing workers around the world, “There are no good guys in the apparel industry.” Really? None?
There seem to be at least two at the Vancouver headquarters of Mountain Equipment Co-op: Denise Taschereau, the company’s manager of so- cial and environmental responsibility, and Naomi Ozaki, senior manager of production.
With sales of $169 million in 2003, 1,000 employees, nine stores across the country and second stores planned for existing large markets, MEC is Canada’s largest purveyor of outdoor gear and apparel. People wear MEC’s outerwear, tops, pants, shoes and underwear around town as well as on the hiking trail because they are comfortable, well-designed and made using environmentally sensitive materials and methods.
“In the media, the bad news always floats to the top. The positive things people are doing get lost,” said Taschereau.
Somewhere else, her job would probably fall under the auspices of Corporate Social Responsibility and she would report to the head of marketing, communications or business development. Here, Taschereau answers directly to the CEO, indicative of the co-operative’s commitment to responsible, community-minded business practices.
Corporations like Gap and Nike have been prompted by exposés to implement monitoring strategies aimed at improving working conditions at their supplier factories. MEC’s own initiatives in this area have evolved over a long period and without media pressure.
Mountain Equipment Co-op is a retail chain — and a collective. Since it opened its doors in 1971, two million members — almost one in 15 Canadians — have paid $5 to join the co-op, in the process acquiring shareholder status, a say in how the company is run and a little green card to put in their wallets.
Green is a big color at MEC and a core value. From using organic cotton in its clothing, to corporate stationery printed with non-toxic inks on 100 percent recycled paper, to the reclaimed and refurbished fixtures and furnishings at head office, the message is sustainability. There’s even an employee composting program.
“We care about the quality of our products. The factories we use have to have a certain level of technological capability but it [ethical outsourcing] is part of our overall values,” said Ozaki. She emphasized MEC’s interest in building ongoing relationships.
The co-operative’s stores carry a range of brands, including MEC-label products that account for 60 percent of annual sales. Designed and developed in- house by outdoors enthusiasts with a focus on performance and value, clothing items — fleece, soft shells, waterproof-breathable outerwear, insulated outerwear, organic cotton, trekking clothes, outdoor athletics and kids clothes — as well as sleeping bags, tents and packs, are technically innovative. They are engineered to withstand wear and tear, and employ top quality fabrics from Polartec, Gore-tex and Schoeller, among others. All the manufacturing is outsourced on a Canada-first basis. Approximately 40 percent of the apparel is produced offshore.
MEC has developed processes and protocols, supported by third-party verification, to audit and improve factory conditions both at home and abroad before it signs any contracts.
“Our stuff can’t just be good, it has to look good, feel good, be cool and have functionality,” said Taschereau. “You can’t sell a product just because it has good values. But how you make your money is just as important as what you do with it. It’s a nuanced and complex issue.”
An in-depth study by The Center for Ethical Concerns at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia determined that 85 percent of American consumers would pay more for clothes that are sweatshop-free. Yet, as Taschereau indicated, most people make purchases based on price and quality first, good intentions second.
The China Syndrome
As December 31 fast approaches, all eyes are focused on Asia, and particularly on China, whose import demands were largely responsible for last year’s 200 percent increase in global shipping.
“We spent our 2001 AGM talking about China until one in the morning,” said Taschereau.
Her smile was bittersweet. That was the year MEC received a ‘Sweaty’. The mock award, presented by a group of consumer activists, recognized MEC’s fence-sitting on a range of outsourcing issues. Members were not amused. MEC had introduced a formal Sourcing Policy in 1997. In 1998, a Vendor Code of Conduct outlined MEC’s expectations concerning working conditions and environmental responsibility. In 2000, the company implemented a Supplier Team Evaluation Process (STEP). It includes a 30-page survey pertaining to health and safety, employment practices and environmental responsibility. Factory walk-throughs are conducted, and department heads are interviewed.
“There are at least two people on each team, and it takes one or two days,” said Ozaki.
Team members are trained in the audit process, as well as the cultural sensitivity to carry it out effectively. They speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese and French. The same STEP audit ap- plies to factories in Canada and abroad.
“We don’t see the big abuse problems,” Ozaki continued. “Those would have been weeded out during our preliminary sourcing, before we even visit a factory. But we do see problems with payrolls, employee standards, and less serious health and safety violations. Most of the time, we can go in and help them set up a payroll system, or develop an employee handbook.” Factories can also turn to MEC as a resource on how to improve in other ways.
Subsequent to that heated 2001 AGM, Verité, a non-profit social auditing and research organization based in Massachusetts, was brought on board to perform independent follow-up audits on a ‘spot- check’ basis. MEC revised its Sourcing Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct to conform to the ILO’s core labor standards. Prior to 2003, MEC’s buyers conducted the STEP audit. Today, a specific division is responsible for its implementation
MEC currently works with 17 factories in Canada, seven in China and 11 in a scattering of other countries. The company’s STEP report for 2003 is an eye-opener. Audited countries included Canada, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan and Portugal. Deficiencies were categorized as Major, Moderate and Minor, and rated numerically. O indicated that there was no deficiency. The country with the highest number of deficiencies in all three categories? Canada.
Taschereau pointed out that Canadian factories don’t have much to gain by spending pots of money on improvements because they don’t have the steady business to warrant such an expenditure. Conversely, China is up to the task.
“We’ve seen very positive results in China,” said Ozaki. “We went into one factory there and came out with a checklist of deficiencies. The next time we went back, there were lounges, an Internet café and all kinds of employee incentives.” She admitted that, in the interim, the owner’s two sons, educated in the West, had taken over the business.
As China changes, so does the West. Recently, companies like Gap and Nike have embraced the challenge of proactive, ethical outsourcing. Both have initiated and published, factory surveys as an important first step.
Taschereau acknowledges that MEC is too small to effect widespread change. “If Gap, Adidas or Nike walks into your factory and says ‘this is the new law of the land in terms of worker rights and human rights,’ a factory isn’t going to turn them away. But a mid-sized company like MEC can lead by example. Better pay and a healthier work environment can translate into reliable suppliers and improved products; the kind consumers want to pay for.
Taschereau put it succinctly. “I think that the conversation should be, here are the companies that have the courage to change things; what are they doing?”
A Little Company that Can
Small companies with low production runs don’t wield the clout of multinationals, so it’s it hard for them to influence change abroad. But a few astute labels have tailored their methodologies to meet this challenge. Roach Clothing, a subsidiary of Race Face Performance Products, which The National Post called one of Canada’s 50 best privately-managed companies, is one of them. Fifteen percent of the company’s sportswear is manufactured in Canada, the rest in China.
Headquartered in New Westminster, BC, Roach produces a wide range of X-treme biking gear and apparel. Situated in an epicentre for pro and amateur mountain bike enthusiasts, it has developed a loyal, young customer base. The ‘cool’ quotient of Roach’s clothes has a street cred beyond the dirt trails. Kids wear them on the street, too.
“I was talking with some other buyers over dinner in Hong Kong, and we agreed that it’s really about building relationships,” said Jeff Crook, Roach’s apparel operations manager.
By relationships, he means, on one hand, the old- fashioned power of the grapevine: making connections with people who can share advice and recommendations. But he’s also talking about cultural sensitivity and respect.
“It was trial by fire,” Crook admitted about his first forays to the East. “Over time, I learned what to look for.” Today, his factory ‘audit’ is experiential. “I spend some time going through the factory and I can pretty much tell when I’m done if it’s a place I want to do business.”
“For the past two years we have worked really hard to improve the Asian-sourced component of our ap- parel lines. This means sourcing and partnering with professional factories who treat people well and build quality goods.”
The result? Roach’s revenues have been rising about 15 to 20 percent per season.
Cover story in Canadian Apparel. © Guy Babineau 2004
< home