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| Issue date:26/05/2010 |
| ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel - May 2010 Issue |
| Source:Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel |
| May Chan |
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| China is trying to earn international recognition and support for its corporate social responsibility initiatives which are gaining momentum at home,reports May Chan |
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| A total of 10 CSR reports under the Chinese standard of CSC9000T were released by Chinese textile manufactures last year |
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In resonation with the 11th Five-Year-Plan unveiled by the Chinese government, the Office for Social Responsibility of China National Textile and Apparel Council (CNTAC), spearheaded by lead researcher Liang Xiaohui (梁曉暉) is stepping up efforts to achieve mutual recognition between the green compliances in China and abroad.
Speaking at the Planet Textile seminar in Hong Kong in mid-March, Mr Liang explained that a Sino-Europe meeting between the CNTAC and FTA to cross-audit the two systems – Europe’s Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), and China's CSC9000T, which was introduced in year 2005.
This is a follow-up to the 2008 agreement signed at the Sino EU supply Chain summit, which agreed on hastening the mutual recognition of the two systems.
"CSR is a very much internationalised issue," Mr Liang said. "We have been talking with many brands to work together to form some kind of alliance." But he admitted that until to date, there was a lack of positive feedback to the CSC9000T standards from both international brands and CSR institutions, though he claimed that the auditing results of the CSC9000T and BSCI were almost the same.
"We have been talking to some brands (about integration of the two systems), but feedbacks are not very positive. We now make more efforts to CSR institutions, and try to reach the brands through them," he said.
The CSC9000T standards, introduced by the CNTAC in year 2005, has been implemented in over 210 textile companies, most of which are privately owned. The latest version of the CSR codes, updated in 2008, included new elements such as environmental protection and fair competition, as compared with the 2005 version, which Mr Liang commented as "mostly focused on labour rights protection".
The new elements cover quality and safety of products, anti-corruption along the business and supply chain, and environment protection practices, with reference to the changes in China's relevant laws and regulations.
On the other hand, CNTAC is also expecting fourth the release of CSR annual reports in China since 2006. In 2008, it has released the China Sustainability Reporting-Guidelines for Apparel and Textile Enterprises (CSR-GATEs), which offers guidelines on "what to tell and how to tell" in CSR reports. CSR reports is not a must according to CSC9000T, but if such a report is made than it must be in accordance with the CSR-GATEs, which requires mandatory third-party verification.
"Reporting in China is a hot topic," Mr Liang said. "It helps companies in branding and marketing efforts."
"Last year, there were over 600 CSR reports form all industries, among these only 33 reports were verified. And of the verified reports, 10 were from the textile industry. So quality from the industry is very high compared with the others."
"Most of the companies said reporting is very good promotion for brands, and it can also contribute to their marketing."
"We are trying to implement CSC9000T to 500 companies by the end of 2011. It is less than 1% of the overall industry. But we have a theory behind this: the coverage of industry. Although only 500 will implement CSC9000T, and 100 will be reporting according to CSR GATES, but many will be key players. In terms of employees and turnover, the coverage will be big," he added.
Indeed, of the 10 verified (most by Bureau Veritas China) CSR reports released by the textile industry in June 2009, there included both stated-owned and private enterprises. Half of them are listed in stock exchanges in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Mr Liang at the CNTAC noted that there could be obstacles to implementing CSR codes in the industry, for instance, because of lack of industry people who will back up the efforts of CNTAC in gearing up the company management in textile industry.
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The CSC9000T codes not only evaluates the CSR performance of the company in terms of hardware, technology, and management, but will also offer advices and follow-ups in the progress of improvement, and investigate how well the changes have been incorporated into the management system of the company. CNTAC has been conducting field surveys into the industry to get an in-depth understanding of the technological level, capacity building and management of textile and apparel enterprises in the fields of environmental protection and fair competition. It has also been offering training to the companies, including joint-training programs in collaboration with BSCI.
"Research and development takes time. It is not something that if you invest 1 million yuan today and you can see the results tomorrow. In our dialogues with the Western countries, we have been talking about the possibility of skills and technology transfer, but if this is going to be hindered by political and commercial obstacles, China will have a hard time achieving its CSR goals."
He also appealed to the brand representatives at the conference: "The future of CSR along the supply chain is to try to build up trust. We would like to say that auditing is necessary, but auditing cannot solve the problem. Only trust that builds up long-lasting relationship between you (retailers) and the suppliers will work."
Some CSR pioneers in Chinese textile industry
The 10 enterprises releasing their reports in June 2009 shared to the press about their experience in implementing CSR efforts.
Zhou Mingjiang (周鳴江), chairman of Jiangsu Hongdou Industry (江蘇紅豆), a listed high-end apparel manufacture and retailer, said creating wealth (in the society) is the social responsibility of entrepreneurs and it is crucial to appropriately use this wealth. In 2008, the group donated RMB 25 million in total. To protect the nature, it also promoted the conservation of yew trees, which can absorb air pollutants like sulphur dioxide.
On the other hand, Jodoll (喬頓), another listed high-end apparel manufacturer and retailer, manufactured and freely distributed to the public 100,000 eco-friendly shopping bags in 2008 in response to China government's call for reduction in plastic bags.
Jodoll president Liang Huiguang (梁輝光) shared that it's important to embrace a "win-win" mindset in formulating business strategy, and ensure that the "reduce, reuse, recycle" measures were implemented concretely.
Zhou Mingjiang (left) of Jiangsu Hongdou Industry and Jodoll's Liang Huiguang |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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| Copyright © Adsale Publishing Limited. Any party needs to reprint any part of the content should get the written approval from Adsale Publishing Ltd and quote the source "ATA Journal for Asia on Textile & Apparel", Adsale Textile English Website - www.AdsaleATA.com. We reserve the right to take legal action against any party who reprints any part of this article without acknowledgement. For enquiry, please contact Editorial Department. |
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