14 DAY TRIAL // In the aftermath of a rather aggressive campaign put together by the environmentalists working with Greenpeace, for the sole purpose of convincing Levi Strauss & Co. to “Detox Fashion,” said company finally agreed to set new and green-oriented standards for its working agenda.
Seeing how Levi's is presently considered to be the world's biggest denim brand, it is quite likely that having thousands of potential customers asking that the company immediately investigate how its supply chain impacts on the environment also had a say in the matter.
As Greenpeace pointed out, some of the Mexican and Chinese factories that provide Levi’s with the raw materials it needs in order to manufacture its clothing lines are guilty of polluting the natural ecosystems in their proximity.
Up until now, the company has refused to assume responsibility for this status quo, most likely because its management team considered that whatever happened in Mexico and China stayed in Mexico and China.
In other words, as long as its stores do nothing to harm the environment, there is no need to bother about minor issues such as supply chains.
“Today's commitment from Levi's is great news for people power and the environment. Levi's will begin requiring its largest suppliers (each with multiple facilities) in China, Mexico and elsewhere in the Global South to disclose pollution data as early as the end of June 2013,” reads the official website for Greenpeace.
Furthermore, “This means that's those living near all these facilities gain crucial access to information about discharges into their local environment – a basic right that up to this stage they had been denied.”
Having convinced Levi's to embrace their viewpoints concerning a company's responsibility to monitor not just its own activities, but also those carried out throughout its entire supply chain, Greenpeace also wished to “scold” fashion brands such as Calvin Klein, GAP and Victoria's Secret for failing to embark on a similar course of actions.
“Competitors that have so far failed to take responsibility for the pollution created along their entire supply chain are looking increasingly exposed. These include familiar big brands names such as Calvin Klein, GAP and Victoria's Secret,” Greenpeace says.