Adidas’ slavery buster hopes apps can help give workers a voice
Adidas has pinned its hopes on eradicating slavery from its supply chain on a new app. The company already has “worker hotlines” available to 300,000 factory workers in China, Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia . However, Adidas found that the hotlines were not doing enough, and is rolling out an app to encourage workers to anonymously report issues. Aditi Wanchoo, who was hired 18 months ago in a new position created by Adidas to combat modern slavery, said the aim is to introduce such a system in all of the company’s 105 primary factories in the next five years and then look at cascading this down to second-tier suppliers. Last year campaign organisation KnowTheChain ranked Adidas top out of 20 firms for its efforts to eliminate forced labour and human trafficking. (Eco-Business)
Environment
Zara and H&M back in-store recycling to tackle throwaway culture
Brands including H&M and Zara are stepping up in-store recycling initiatives, which allow customers to drop off unwanted items in fashion “bins” in high-street shops. Companies such as Adidas and luxury group Kering agreed at this month’s Copenhagen Fashion Summit to set 2020 targets for garment collection. H&M says it has collected about 40,000 tonnes of garments since launching its scheme in 2013, which it passes on to its partner recycling plant in Berlin. The company is aiming to increase collection of unwanted clothes to 25,000 tonnes a year by 2020. There has been some criticism of the scheme, however. Dilys Williams, director of sustainable fashion at the London College of Fashion, warned that such programmes could “encourage a guilt-free consumption attitude”. (The Guardian)
Tesco to slash carbon footprint with refrigerant retrofit
Tesco could reduce its carbon footprint by 40%, after agreeing to convert refrigerants across 1,200 UK stores to a new model. The supermarket chain announced that it would convert to the new refrigerants over the next three years, with 60 stores already retrofitted with the system. The potential reduction, which is equivalent to removing 70,000 cars from the road, comes just days after Tesco pledged to deliver 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Tesco has also had its goal to become a zero-carbon business by 2050 approved by the independent Science-Based Targets Initiative. Tesco joins more than 250 companies, representing almost $5 trillion in market value, to sign up to the scheme. In October last year, nearly 200 nations signed the Kigali Deal, pledging to cap the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in refrigeration. (Edie)
Corporate Reputation
GM in lawsuit of deceit on diesel truck emissions
General Motors (GM) has been accused of programming some of its heavy-duty pickup trucks to cheat on diesel emissions tests. According to the suit, when the trucks are driven outside of the emissions testing conditions, the vehicles emit four to five times the pollutants than are allowed. Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, the law firm filing the suit, alleges that GM intentionally deceived customers by marketing the vehicles as “clean” diesel trucks and seeks to force the company to buy the vehicles back and compensate owners for economic losses. The suit follows major legal cases against Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler. GM has denied the allegations but news of the lawsuit on Thursday sent GM’s shares down by 2%. (New York Times)
British Airways could face £100m compensation bill over IT meltdown
British Airways (BA) could face a bill of at least £100 million in compensation, additional customer care and lost business, resulting from an IT meltdown that affected more than 1,000 flights over the weekend. The IT glitch, which grounded flights at Heathrow and Gatwick, is believed to have been caused by a power supply issue and there is no evidence of a cyber-attack. There have been accusations that the meltdown was due to staff redundancies last year. Mick Rix, the GMB union’s national officer for aviation said, “This could have all been avoided. BA in 2016 made hundreds of dedicated and loyal IT staff redundant and outsourced the work to India.” (The Guardian)
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