Ginners for the first time ever have been provided with a code of conduct by CottonConnect to help them raise standards and align with best practices in the crucial process of ginning across the cotton supply chain.
- The new Responsible Business for Gins Code of Conduct follows the successful implementation of CottonConnect’s codes of conduct for sustainable cotton farmers, regenerative cotton farmers, and sustainable linen farmers.
- CottonConnect has been working for six years with its ginning partners on health and safety (HSSE) practices and improvement programmes, raising awareness among gin owners, supervisors, and workers about good practices and environmentally sustainable operations.
- More than 100 gins in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh collaborated alongside to assess and address potential issues and develop a framework for improvement.
THE CODE: The Code takes gins on a journey of improvement, working with CottonConnect to make changes in three areas:
- Social – which includes adherence to best practices such as preventing child labour and forced labour, and improving workplace health and wellbeing.
- Economic – which puts in place improvements in management.
- Environment – with a focus on reduction in GHG emissions and promoting a safe working environment.
BENEFITS: The initiative provides a number of benefits.
For gin managers:
- Improvement helps gins increase productivity and lower accident rate and associated costs.
- It supports them to be compliant with the best standards and policies relevant to the sector.
- Helps factories build better credibility with brands and earn a reputation of being responsible supply chain partners.
- Reduces attrition in factories and creates a more engaged workforce.
For brands and retailers:
- Builds credibility for brands and manages potential reputational risks associated with unsafe practices in ginning.
- Addresses issues of child and forced labour in one of the significant supply chain links for brands.
- Provides reassurance that gins working with the Code of Conduct can become ‘partners of choice’ for brands, offering reliable services.
GIN IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME RESULTS: Implementing the Code supports gins’ adoption of the best standards and policies relevant to the sector, including providing a hygienic working environment and promoting statutory rights for gin workers.
- Compliance also helps to close the awareness gap regarding industry standards amongst the gin owners, supervisors and workers.
- The CottonConnect goal is also to support retailers to have more transparent and ethical supply chains. Improving standards at gins is part of that.
- A fully sustainable supply chain must include the ginning stage. It will also help brands comply with new regulations governing claims about green credentials. Implementation of the new Code, and compliance with its framework, will be independently verified.
Aggregated results from health and safety programmes in gins in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and China in 2021–22 show an improvement in health and safety indicators, including:
- Compliance with safety aspects increased from 67.3% to 88.7%;
- Adoption of precautionary measures increased from 51.0% to 100%;
- Usage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by gin workers increased from 36.2% to 93.3% ;
- Availability of proper WASH facilities for gin workers increased from 95.0% to 97.6%.
WHAT IS GINNING? Ginning is a simple but critical mechanical process that is the link in the textile supply chain between the farmer and the spinner.
- Requiring specialist machinery, it is the process of separating the cotton boll from the seed.
- Gins are also responsible for cleaning and washing cotton before transporting it to spinners, the next level in the supply chain.
- Ginners fulfil the important role of linking farmers to clothing industries. Their significance in cotton’s value-chain is frequently overlooked by brands and policymakers and their underperformance undermines the success of the wider sector.
