How the Group takes a Good look at our supply chain

15th July, 2019

The Group launched their ethics and sustainability platform, The Good in September 2018 as a way to share with customers the work the business is doing in an effort to make a positive difference to their environment, people, products and supply chain.

The Good focuses on four key areas:

Made with Good: collaborating with partners to make the stuff you love, sustainably.

Doing Good for our people: empowering our network of suppliers, garment workers and farmers through policy and education.

Taking Good steps towards green: believing that big change starts with us, we are on a continuous journey of improvement to reduce our impact on the environment.

A Good look at our supply chain: Creating transparency in our supply chain from start to finish.

Each of these focus areas exist to enforce the Cotton On Group’s ethical approach to doing business.

Through continuously taking a Good look at our supply chain, the business prioritises an open and transparent approach to its business operations. This includes, but is not limited to, our Ethical Sourcing Program which holds our 14 Rules to Trade, implemented in 2009 to guide and govern the sourcing, manufacturing and supply of our products globally.

Over the past 10 years, the Group’s Sustainability team have worked diligently to ensure that their suppliers abide by the standards set by the business which guarantee the protection of their worker’s rights and ensures full traceability and transparency over how products are made and by who.

We take a zero-tolerance approach to any form of modern slavery, including forced labour upon our factory workers. Before partnering with a supplier, we ensure that they understand how to adhere to our 14 Rules to Trade, which covers important issues like worker conditions and if breaches are identified they are dealt with accordingly.

In 2016, we proudly commenced disclosing our supplier base publicly and actively pursuing a goal of end-to-end mapping of all suppliers, including raw materials. Our responsibility to how our products are made, the people who make them and the materials used extends across the 1,900 factories we use and the 170,000 workers employed at them.

Discover more about our Ethical Sourcing Program here and how we’re oversharing in a Good way, here.