Ethical clothing in practice

You'll find that many clothing companies now publish a "code of ethics" that's circulated through their supply chains. Campaigners argue that this isn't enough without independent auditors to monitor the use of codes in factories. So some companies - including New Zealand's The Warehouse - now employ specialist international auditors.

Campaigners claim that fraud is a major problem in social audits. And it's also easy to pull the wool over the auditor's eyes. The International Consumer Research and Testing organisation (ICRT) was told by one Indian worker on piece-rate pay: "Whenever social auditors come to this factory, we are given a holiday."

Auditing an international supply chain is a massive and costly task. There may be many different components, different factories and complex layers of importers, contractors, sub-contractors and home workers in an international supply chain. Levi's jeans, for example, are made in 740 factories in 53 countries.

Some companies try to strike a balance between clothing campaigners (and some consumers) and economic considerations. Contradictions result. Oxfam International applauded Reebok for improving trade union rights in Asia, only to find that Reebok strongly opposed the establishment of trade unions in its US distribution centres.

Increased costs

On top of this, ethical clothing costs more to source. New farming techniques and fabrics require effort and investment; and switching to ethical factories can rack up costs. Even companies with small supply chains find it hard.

Kiwi fashion designer Kate Sylvester stated in a 'Sunday Star Times' article ethical production "is enormous, like Pandora's Box. You lift the lid a little bit and all this stuff comes roaring out. If we were to say overnight, 'OK that's it; we're going to be completely green and ethical', the business would go under."

Attention to detail

Many businesses make a small nod towards ethical fashion such as a supply-chain code of conduct. But how do you know if a company is committed to sustainability? The answer is in the details.

In 2007, Untouched World was invited to attend United Nations' workshops in Germany as an example of corporate sustainability. The company has since been awarded a UN certification.

Untouched World's story isn't one of overnight success. Its "ecopossum" material (a blend of wool and possum fur) was first used by the company in 1992. Sixteen years later, owner Peri Drysdale still pays a premium for wool from select stations that don't use mulesing to prevent fly-strike (mulesing is a painful process that cuts wool and skin from a sheep's hind-quarters).

As for the possums - it's an elegant use of a pest.

The same attention to detail stretches from the materials used by Untouched World to the small group of factories in Portugal and China that make around 5 percent of the company's clothing (the rest is manufactured here).

The decision to manufacture clothes overseas isn't taken lightly. Recommended off-shore factories are visited personally. They're then used on the condition that Untouched World's management is allowed unscheduled and chaperone-free access to all factories and staff.

And that's the point. "It's important to get past the concept of sustainability as an added extra to an organisation and move the concept into the DNA of the organisation."