In all, 105 Sustainability Pledges were submitted to the UNECE Secretariat between April 2021 and February 2024 on specific actions to advance traceability and transparency in garment and footwear value chains.
- These came from 97 companies and organisations (i.e., actors), involving over 800 partners and 27 countries across five continents. In a few cases, more than one Pledge was submitted by the same company, organisation or initiative.
- About 79% of the Pledges are related to both traceability and transparency, while 10.5% are equally related either to transparency or to traceability. This demonstrates that most of the pledging companies and organisations understand that traceability and transparency are intertwined and must be combined to reach sustainability goals.
- The numbers have been revealed in The Sustainability Pledge 3-years monitoring report, published in Wednesday at an event organised to mark three years of The Sustainability Pledge initiative in Milan, Italy.
MORE NUMBERS: Among the organisations which submitted Pledges, 34% represent academia/civil society organisations/networks and communities; 41% service and support; 20% suppliers/producers/retailers; 5% intergovernmental organisations, international organisations.
- The 97 actors who submitted Pledges represent a total of 250,373 employees. Of the total number of Pledges submitted by companies, including suppliers/producers/retailers, about 62% were submitted by SMEs.
- Roughly 55.6% of the pledging companies and organisations are based in Europe, 14.8% in North-South America, 18.5% in Asia, 7.4% in Oceania and 3.7% in Africa. These figures are consistent with the location of multi-stakeholder policy dialogues and subregional workshops organised by the UNECE between 2021 and 2022 in Milan (Italy), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Santiago (Chile), Cairo (Egypt).
- In Europe, the top countries in terms of number of Pledges are Italy (18), the United Kingdom (13) and Germany (9). As for North-South America, 6 Pledges were submitted by companies based in the United States of America and 4 by companies based in Chile. In Asia, 1 Pledge was submitted by a company based in India, 1 by a company based in Israel, 1 by a company based in Uzbekistan. In Africa, 5 Pledges were submitted by companies based in Egypt. Lastly, in Oceania, 2 Pledges were submitted by a company based in Australia.
- Additionally, 12% of the Pledges were initiated by public-private initiatives, 10% by civil society organisations, and lastly 5% of the Pledges stem from public initiatives.
- Each submitting company and organisation was invited to select the most relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in connection with their commitment.
- On average, SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production is the one with the highest level of involvement in the Pledges, followed by SDG 17 - Partnerships for the Goals, SDG 13 - Climate Action, SDG 9 - Industry Innovations and Infrastructure, and SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth.
THE CONTEXT: The clothing and footwear industry is a major contributor to environmental degradation and global warming. This sector is also known for poor working conditions that often violate human rights. Many workers, especially women, young people, homeworkers, and migrants, often operate in conditions below international standards.
- Despite this, the demand for clothing and footwear continues to grow annually. To address these issues, it is essential that the sector leads the environmental and social transition to improve the lives of people and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5, 8, 13, 15 and 17.
- Through collaborative work with over 800 experts, policymakers, businesses, members of academia and NGOs, UNECE has developed a set of policy recommendations, guidelines, and standards to enable industry players to authenticate their sustainability claims.
- They allow all actors in the sector, including consumers, to improve transparency and traceability across the value chain, from field to factory to store, through a free open-source framework. These systems have been put to the test in pilot projects, exploring the supporting role that innovation and advanced technologies, such as blockchain and DNA traceability, can play.
WHAT THEY SAID:
The Sustainability Pledge has demonstrated our ability to trace products from their origin to the end consumer. This represents a crucial step towards creating a more sustainable and accountable apparel and footwear sector. I call on all players in the industry to join our Community of Practice to contribute to the collective effort to implement transparency and traceability at scale.
— Tatiana Molcean
Executive Secretary
UNECE
