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Hanes response on corporate and social responsibility
Most of the custom screen printed t-shirts & sweatshirts Kustom Imprints sells are printed on Hanes Brand. Occasionally we have had customer inquires if our shirts are made in a sweatshop free environment. While they already know the Kustom Imprints print shop facility is sweatshop free, they would like to be assured the garments are manufactured in a sweatshop free company as well as produced environmentally safe. The below text is Hanes Brands Inc. response to those questions..
Hanesbrands Inc. strives to be an ethical and responsible organization in the many countries throughout the world in which we operate. Our corporate social responsibility initiatives are managed in four overlapping categories:
Global Business Practices
We have a well-developed ethics and business practices program with specific guidelines contained in our Global Business Standards. These Standards detail the responsibilities we have to all of our stockholders, including consumers, shareholders, business partners and local communities. We have a world-wide network of Business Practices (ethics) Officers and have conducted live training of all 50,000 of our employees.
Facility Compliance
All our products are manufactured in safe and responsible facilities. We have recently joined the Fair Labor Association (“FLA”) and embrace their standards and those of the Worldwide Responsible Accreditation Program (“WRAP”). We work to ensure our facilities meet our high expectations by WRAP certifying our owned facilities and major contractors and independently auditing “short-term” suppliers using internationally recognized audit firms. In 2007, we conducted more than 450 audits, about 25% of which were unannounced.
Environmental Compliance
Our goal is to minimize the impact our business has on the environment. This policy is implemented everywhere we do business through our world-wide Global Environmental Management System (“GEMS”) program. This comprehensive program ensures that environmental awareness and best practices are fully integrated at all of our facilities. For example, as part of this program:
Our textile production facility in Bonao, Dominican Republic, has implemented a state-of-the-art biological water treatment process. This process is so effective that the effluent waste from the facility is more than 50% below the regulatory limit for biochemical oxygen demand.
In Nanjing, China, the energy-intensive textile plant we are building will be located close to existing electrical generation facilities. A by-product of the generation of electricity at these facilities is steam and hot water that is often wasted. HBI will acquire the normally wasted steam for manufacturing purposes, thus reducing fuel consumption and the resultant greenhouse gas emissions.
Community Engagement
Our corporate philanthropic mission is to focus on the “fundamental needs” of the communities in which we work and live. We provide flexibility for local management and employees to identify and serve the needs most prevalent in their local communities, recognizing that “fundamental needs” vary from culture to culture and place to place. Along with the millions of dollars HBI and its employees have donated over the years to the United Way and the Arts Council at our Winston-Salem, N.C., headquarters, here are two recent examples of the dozens of programs and projects we engage in every year around the globe both proactively and in response to specific needs:
In December 2007, more than 200 HBI employees converged on Hogar San Rafael, a home and school for orphan children in the mountains of Villaneuva, Honduras. We identified the home, which urgently needed new amenities and furnishings, as a place where we could make a tremendous difference.
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