FAQ
THE ENVIRONMENT
What actions do you take to ensure compliance with your environmental policy?
In order to apply our policy to real market conditions, we have established a number of detailed guidelines, purchasing requirements and procedures that control our purchasing and how we operate.
What activities have the greatest environmental impact?
Transports and production. The greatest environmental aspects of production are water consumption and the utilization of chemicals. For transports, emissions of greenhouse gases cause the greatest impact.
How do you address these issues?
We have no production plants of our own, and work instead with suppliers that manufacture our proprietary products. In cooperation with our suppliers, we strive to reduce the environmental impact of production activities. This is achieved through environmental demands that apply to production processes and the products.
To reduce emission from transports, we strive to achieve a zero-vision for air freight transports, which are used only in extremely unusual situations. Transports from Asia are shipped by sea. Trucks should be used for transports from other locations in Europe. Emissions can be reduced through careful planning and more efficient logistics.
How do you address the climate issue?
We want to accept our responsibility to reduce climate-impacting gas emissions. We try to use less energy and better energy. During 2008, we will focus strongly on a study of our energy utilization and emissions. This will provide information for the formulation of a strategy and clearly defined actions to reduce emissions.
Are you able to control the environmental impact of your suppliers?
We have imposed demands for many years based on the chemical guidelines issued by the Association of Textile Importers. The guidelines either do not allow or limit the utilization of several particularly harmful chemicals. The guidelines enable us to impose environmental demands on our products.
For proprietary production, we visit all our suppliers on a regular basis. In our Code of Conduct, certain demands are placed on environmental control of the production processes, which are also evaluated when our suppliers conduct their production audit. Based on our chemical guidelines and onsite visits, we are able to assess the environmental situation, but there is still scope for substantial improvements. Thus this remains a priority issue.
Do you have organic clothing today?
JC has its proprietary Crocker jeans and t-shirts that carry the Swan environmental label. JC’s shops also carry some external brands, such as Levi’s and Wrangler whom can offer organic jeans.
Polarn O. Pyret offers a wide range of Swan labelled garments, such as the whole assortment of our basic, striped collection.
The Swan label means that the ecological raw material and the entire preparation process have been examined and approved by Swan.
Is any of the rest of your product offering harmful?
All of our products are safe to use. Our chemical guidelines pertain to both our proprietary production and to external brands. We conduct regular tests of our proprietary production to ensure compliance with our demands concerning chemicals.
How do you work with external brands?
Our chemical guidelines apply to our entire product offering. We also expect the suppliers of external brands to accept their responsibility and continue to promote environmental issues.
How can customers reduce their environmental impact?
A large part of the environmental impact of clothing lies in the way it is used, in the form of washing. This means energy consumption, water consumption and the utilization of detergents. Not washing so frequently and not overdosing detergents usage are some ways that help to reduce the environmental impact. Washing instructions that specify temperature settings are based both on product quality and environmental concerns.
One alternative to not washing is to air your clothes out periodically by hanging them outdoors.
ETHICS
Do you have a particular code of conduct?
Polarn O. Pyret observes the code of conduct BSCI (Business Social Compliance Initiative) and has been a member of BSCI since 2005. JC, J-store, Brothers and Sisters have had their own code of conduct since 1998. In 2004, JC, Brothers and Sisters became BSCI members and have since observed BSCI’s code.
How do you monitor working conditions among your suppliers in Asia, for example?
All suppliers of Polarn O. Pyret, JC, Brothers and Sisters must sign the BSCI code of conduct. Checks to ensure that the code is being observed are conducted via our own and external, independent control procedures.
Can you guarantee that your proprietary products are not manufactured by children?
The BSCI code of conduct forbids child labor. Should we ever encounter cases of child labor in manufacturing processes, we would take appropriate action to deal with the particular instance.
Have you any control of processes further down in your proprietary production chain?
We demand that our suppliers check production among their sub-suppliers and we follow up these demands whenever we suspect that this is not the case. We have production offices in China, Hong Kong and Turkey that take charge of monitoring procedures in each market. As regards the organic and Swan labelled collection at Polarn O. Pyret and JC, we exert control all their way down to the fiber level.
ANIMAL WELFARE
What is your approach regarding the use of animals for the extraction of wool, leather and hides?
We feel all animals should be treated well and protected against unnecessary suffering and illness. Whenever this occurs we will investigate the matter and look for alternatives or change the rearing methods. Whenever possible, we intend to demand information that confirms acceptable animal welfare.
Do you disapprove of fur farming?
We feel the rearing of animals solely for their fur is an unnecessary waste of resources. However, we do not disapprove of the processing of fur, hide and leather as a by-product of food production. Real fur and fur-based features are not sold in any store of Polarn O. Pyret, JC or Brothers and Sisters.
Real fur or fur-based features may appear among non-proprietary brands in our stores within the concept department stores.
What do you do to ensure animals are not mistreated?
Whenever possible, we attempt to influence the situation for the better or select alternatives that are superior from the viewpoint of animal welfare. We do not personally engage in raw material procurement but instead work with our suppliers to address these issues.
Do you select products that have been tested on animals?
Animal-based testing should be avoided as much as possible. Very few cosmetic and hygiene products are tested on animals today, although such testing may still occur when legislation requires safety assessment of new ingredients.
QUALITY
How do you monitor the quality of your proprietary products?
All orders for each model are tested at our joint laboratory, as well as by accredited laboratories in line with the quality manual for each concept. No production can start up ahead of the quality requirements being met. During the production process, random checks are conducted at the supplier to monitor quality. For example, tests are conducted for washing, shrinkage, colors, chemicals, burls, child safety, zips, flame resistance and durability.
How much do your proprietary products shrink during washing?
We demand that no woven garments shrink more than 2%, or 5% in the case of knitted goods. There are exceptions occasionally, but this information is displayed on the washing instructions.
Is nickel present in metal features on products?
No, we do not permit nickel in our proprietary products.
What action can I take if I am dissatisfied with the quality of any of your garments?
Since we are very grateful for all customer feedback, we appreciate if you take the garment to the nearest store handling the particular concept and explain the reason for your dissatisfaction. We can then deal with the problem and learn for the future.
PRODUCTION
Which units at RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS pursue their own production?
The proprietary brands of Polarn O. Pyret, JC, Brothers and Sisters are produced by the respective suppliers.
How many suppliers do you use for your proprietary production?
Polarn O. Pyret has 44 active suppliers.
JC, Brothers and Sisters have approximately 70 joint suppliers.
Where are your proprietary products manufactured?
In terms of procurement value, production for JC, Brothers and Sisters is distributed as follows:
China: 43%
Turkey: 21%
Italy: 9%
Baltic States: 8%
Bangladesh: 4%
Korea: 1%
Others: 14%
While for Polarn O. Pyret, distribution is as follow:
China: 46%
Latvia: 18%
Turkey: 11%
Thailand: 11%
Lithuania: 4%
Korea: 3%
India: 3%
Russia: 2%
Sweden: 1%
Portugal: 1%
Do you own any production facilities?
Neither Polarn O. Pyret nor JC, Brothers, Sisters have their own manufacturing units.
Do your proprietary products show where they have been manufactured?
Polarn O. Pyret’s garments display the country of manufacture.
In the case of JC, Brothers and Sisters the country of origin is not explicitly shown on the garments. Since an increasing number of customers contact us and inquire about where a garment has been produced, we are looking into the possibility of displaying the country of manufacture on the washing instructions. At the moment, the washing instructions carry an order number, through which it is possible to track where the garment was manufactured.
NONYLPHENOL ETHOXYLATE
Is wearing clothes that contain nonylphenol ethoxylate harmful?
Wearing clothes that contain nonylphenol ethoxylate is safe. Nonylphenol ethoxylate can be transformed into an environmentally hazardous substance when the wash water enters the wastewater system. That is why RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS does not accept the use of this substance in our production.
Is there any Nonylphenol ethoxylate in your products?
We do not allow Nonylphenol ethoxylate in our production. We have communicated this to our suppliers. Earlier analyses performed by us have shown presence of Nonylphenol ethoxylate, in some cases above 100mg/kg. We hope this problem does not remain, but we will keep doing following tests.
Why have you set a maximum limit of 100 mg/kg; shouldn’t it be 0?
Our principal message to the suppliers used for our production is that we do not permit the use of nonylphenol ethoxylate in production. To check this, chemical analyses can be performed. A content level exceeding 100 mg/kg probably means that the substance is an active additive in production. For content levels under 100 mg/kg, it is not certain that the substance has been added actively; it could be the result of contamination of the product.
How do you know which environmentally hazardous substances exist/are used?
When subjecting our suppliers to demands, we comply with the list of banned chemicals compiled by the Textile Importers Association in Sweden. We also use our own internal quality manuals and conduct our own chemical tests to monitor compliance with our demands. In matters such as these, we work in harmony with the suppliers used for our own production.
MULESING
What is mulesing?
Mulesing entails the removal of strips of wool-bearing wrinkle skin from the hindquarters of merino lamb as part of efforts to prevent fly larvae from feeding on the tissue and thus injuring the animal.
Does RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS use wool from merino sheep in its garments?
Merino wool is used in the type of garments for which a fine wool grade is demanded and is a very common grade of wool. Since mulesing came to RNB RETAIL AND BRANDS’ attention, we have started to steer the purchasing of merino wool required for our own production to markets and suppliers that can offer animal husbandry that matches better with our own view of animal welfare.
Why did RNB not react to this practice earlier?
We were not previously aware of mulesing and its implications.
Do you not have an animal welfare policy?
We have had a policy governing animal fur and hide products for a long time. This is now being formulated into a Group-wide animal-welfare policy.
What are you doing ahead of the autumn?
When the concept of mulesing came to our attention, we halted all orders for garments that had not already been placed and tried to steer them towards markets and suppliers that can offer alternatives that are currently superior to traditional mulesing without pain relief. All suppliers used for our own production have been contacted and informed of the problem.
Work on our own production in order to phase out wool from sheep that have undergone traditional or routine use of mulesing is proceeding in stages, because certain orders had already been placed when the concept became known to us. As our knowledge of the problem has increased, we have been placing more stringent demands, whereby a guarantee that the wool comes from sheep that have not undergone traditional mulesing without pain relief is required before we continue to purchase Australian wool.