Below are just some of our Environment & Fair trade ethical policies and they are constantly evolving and improving as we play our part in helping sustain our world:
1. Child Labour is simply not tolerated, and we ensure that our suppliers do not use children in the workplace using both permanent inspection staff on site, and also by sending out British staff during the year.
2. Equality in the workplace - Men and Women are both employed, and paid equally.
3. Benefits for our workers - We ensure workers are protected in the workplace, and there is insurance cover in place. We also ensure the factory meets all domestic government safety guidelines, and provides a comfortable environment for our workers.
4. Education for Worker's Children is provided, and we plan on increasing funding for this wherever possible.
5. Training - We ensure that all workers are given excellent training, including the traditional skills such as hand tye-dying, and specialist clothing embroidery, for all workers, taught by a master craftsman. By designing and manufacturing these items, we ensure that these traditional clothes and garments making skills are not lost, but built upon to benefit our workers.
6. Environmental Protection - We insist that the factory uses fabrics sourced locally to help boost the economy there (both fashion & non fashion based), and ease poverty, as well as reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions from transport.
7. CO2 Emissions Reduction - We ship by sea to the UK, rather than air wherever possible. This greatly reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
8. We use clothing dyes that are non-toxic, and not harmful to workers or the environment, including AZO free dyes.
9. We always pay our suppliers on time to help their cash flow, and enable them to pay their workers on time and meet these ethical commitments.
10. Sustainable - We use sustainable materials wherever possible to be environmentally friendly. For example our Mail Order catalogues are printed on the highest quality paper stock from FSC approved sustainable forests using organic vegetable based inks (please recycle it when finished with it or hand it to a friend!). Also we use corn starch instead of plastic on our poly-wrapping of our brochures. These are 100% biodegradable unlike plastic. We also encourage recycling whenever possible, and follow this policy in all areas of our business.
Our main factories are members of the AEPC, which is the senior regulator of fashion exporters in India, and plays an important role in ensuring our ethical standards are constantly maintained.
They are also SEDEX Certified. SEDEX, the Supplier Ethical Data Exchange, is a not for profit membership organisation dedicated to driving improvements in responsible and ethical business practices in global supply chains.