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DOING THE RIGHT THING UPDATE 2012-2013 www.george.com
Doing the Right thing UpDate 2012-2013
www.george.com
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www.george.com Doing the Right Thing
SecTion 1ReviSiTing ouR commiTmenTS anD TaRgeTS
SecTion 2ouR Social impacTS
SecTion 3SuSTainabiliTy aT The heaRT of ouR buSineSS
SecTion 4communiTy SToRieS
SecTion 5how we’Re peRfoRming
SecTion 6ouR Team
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“in 2011 – a year that saw the 21st anniversary of george’s launch – we issued a document called Doing the Right Thing. The purpose was to demonstrate the steps we’re taking to look after the interests of the people who make our clothes, increase clothing quality and productivity in the supply chain.
This is a fundamental part of how we do business.
when our customers choose george products, it’s important that they know they’re not only getting unbeatable quality and value for money, but that this doesn’t come at an unacceptable cost to workers. That’s why we’re now releasing this Doing the Right Thing update – to highlight the ongoing efforts we’re making to achieve our goal and ultimately, we hope, to push the global fashion industry in a more sustainable and ethical direction.
Key developments to the document this year include the accelerating roll-out of our lean programme which aims to retrain workers, increase wages and streamline production processes. we’re really excited about the potential of lean to transform our own operations and to create a best-practice blueprint in efficient, ethical manufacturing for the wider fashion industry.
other highlights include our work to explore the industry leading Standard minute value within our open costings; implementation of workers’ rights training; a financial literacy programme with geosansar; new Tickled pink clothing banks to raise money for breast cancer charities; and our work with the better cotton initiative to help deliver long-term economic and environmental benefits.
we’re also proud of our ongoing efforts to promote female empowerment in our supplier factories and communities through walmart’s women in factories Training programme and our partnership with business for Social Responsibility’s health enables Returns project (heRproject).
The clothing industry is a highly complex environment, made even more complicated by shifting economic forces and volatile commodity prices. Doing the Right Thing is very much a journey – much of this work is pioneering and we don’t profess to have all the answers yet – but working in partnership with our stakeholders, fellow retailers, suppliers and ngos, we hope this update will demonstrate the steps we’re taking to ensure customers can keep choosing george clothing with a clear conscience.”
Andrew Moorechief merchandising officer george at asda
intRoStill Doing the Right thing...
george was established in 1990 as the first supermarket clothing brand in the uK. Since then, we’ve stayed true to a set of beliefs that recognise the importance of value, quality, trust and doing the right thing. we’re committed to george being recognised as a trusted and innovative leader in ethical sourcing and environmental protection, based on our core beliefs.
These are our commitments
To meet these commitments, we employ a team of ethics specialists, both at our headquarters in the uK and on the ground in the countries where our clothes are made. Their role is to ensure continuous progress towards our ethical and environmental goals, including monitoring results of the 400+ independent supplier audits we commission each year. we have now scaled up these audits to include second tier suppliers such as laundries, embroidery units and packaging suppliers.
george’s key targets for its ethical supply chain and sustainability programme:
• LEAN: with 15 factories in bangladesh already enrolled in
this programme, we plan to roll-out lean across factories in
china, india and Sri lanka by the end of 2013 – by the end of 2015, our goal is for all core value lines (cvls) to be manufactured by factories operating under lean
• Training: over the next three-to-five years, we aim to train a minimum of 10,000 workers in lean through the george Supplier academy programme, one of the largest of its kind in the world
• Female empowerment: more than 7,000 women have been engaged to date – we are aiming to reach 15,000 women across our supply chain by the end of 2015
• Financial empowerment: Through our partnership with geosansar, we’re aiming to help hundreds of workers open their own bank accounts by the end of 2012 and thousands of workers by the end of 2015
• Education: 200 children have already been enrolled at the Jamgara george School in Dhaka, our charitable joint-venture with the hope foundation, and we’re aiming to reach 250 by the end of 2013
• Childcare: working with phulki, we aim to offer work-based daycare facilities to working mothers across 10 factories by the end of 2013 and 20 sites by the end of 2015
• Reducing waste: Specifically focussing on recycling at least 45 million coat hangers, zero instore clothing waste to landfill and reducing our supplier transit packaging by 20%
• Standard Minute Value last year we stated that from 2013
we will require global suppliers working on core volume lines to share open costings on human labour with full transparency on worker pay, incorporating workers’ rights.our programmes are
helping them make that change, and mean suppliers
are on track to meet that requirement.
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Section 1 Doing the Right Thing
SeCtion 1ReviSiting oUR CommitmentSanD taRgetS
www.george.com
I. high quality at an affordable price
II. Style that lasts – in durability and design
III. Customer involvement and influence within the business
IV. a sustainable approach from factory to wardrobe
we aRe DoingThiS ThRough
LEAN manufacturing
Standard Minute Value
Engagement through local NGOs and unions with international expertise
on workers rights
our buyers and sourcing teams are committing continuous and increasing business to our lean factories as part of the total transformation. Another key focus area has been the introduction of the 5S methodology. This simple, five-step process is designed to help suppliers and their employees understand and implement key elements of LEAN: • ‘Sort’ – Separating and eliminating unnecessary material• ‘Store’ – a place for everything and everything in its place• ‘Shine’ – cleaning, eliminating dirt, make like new• ‘Standardise’ – procedures, process and responsibilities• ‘Sustain’ – making compliance an automatic habit
We’re supporting LEAN through the George Supplier Academy training programme, which equips workers with the skills they need to spot and prevent issues in the supply chain:• This programme will help standardise quality control processes across the globe • over the next 3-5 years, we aim to train and accredit a minimum of 10,000
workers, making this programme one of the largest of its kind in the world• lean benefits the wider clothing industry, as the factories make products
for a number of different fashion brands, not just george, so standards are being raised across the industry
1. LEAN Manufacturinglean represents the cornerstone of how george does business with its suppliers. in 2009, we launched a lean pilot programme across four factories in bangladesh, working in partnership with the DTZ, the german government’s department for overseas development.
These pilots aimed to:• Retrain workers and increase wages• improve and re-engineer production flow• Reduce both product damage and downtime• change the way we partner with, and plan commitment
and production with these factories
The success of these LEAN pilots convinced us to roll out the programme across our wider supply chain: • last year, our scalable model was introduced across
more factories in bangladesh – accounting for 62 per cent of the garments we buy from bangladeshi suppliers, some 63 million units
• Through efficiency gains and increased business, one george supplier has also invested in a completely new factory, where lean will be implemented from day one
lean is empowering workers in a really positive way. many of them have never received this type or quality of training before, and have said they feel far more valued as a result of the development opportunities provided through the programme.
while we have seen great successes in our programme, we recognise that it is not for everyone. ultimately, lean is a holistic programme with regards to factory transformation and relies heavily on the engagement and support of suppliers’ senior management.
as with any productivity programme, there is a natural assumption that increasing efficiency means that less people are needed to do a particular job. addressing this perception is high on our agenda and we are working hard with our factories to ensure that no workers are losing their jobs as a result of the migration to lean and that suppliers are instead re-investing efficiency savings into additional production lines. we track staffing levels in the factories and to date we can confidently say that no workers have lost their jobs as a result of lean – quite the opposite, in fact, as suppliers want to retain these now multi-skilled employees.
Section 2 Doing the Right Thing
SeCtion 2oUR SoCial impaCtS
p7www.george.com
We have trained thousands of workers on LEAN manufacturing to date and plan to train thousands more. We’ve also produced supporting material to help spread the 5S message across supplier sites, from posters and t-shirts to specially-commissioned short films.
feedback from suppliers involved in lean underlines the many benefits being delivered by this programme. highlights to date include:
Top three success areas to date. A high number of workers agree that:• ‘The work environment on lean is better than any other area’ • ‘floor management and supervisors’ approach to us is much more
positive than before’ • ‘we have been voluntarily selected to work on lean and are happy to
be involved with this project’
Key learnings and focus areas. Lower numbers of workers agree that:• ‘i know how to calculate my incentives’ • ‘The incentive amount is attractive to me’ • ‘i prefer a group incentive rather than an individual incentive’
lean is just one example of how we’re addressing the misconception that keeping prices affordable for customers can only be achieved by operating an unethical and unsustainable supply chain. The focus we apply to sourcing and streamlining manufacturing enables george to offer unbeatable prices while securing a better deal for workers. we have also invested in additional headcount, both offshore and in the uK, to support the roll-out of lean.
george is working with professor Doug miller, emeritus professor, worker Rights in fashion (northumbria university), to conduct a full before-and-after study to map the impacts of our lean programme on each factory we use. The findings of this research will be important in shaping our future approach.
we are collecting worker feedback on a regular basis, to understand where we can make improvements and are working with third parties to ensure the research is transparent and impartial.
Progress report on factories in LEAN
These charts show the range of improvements delivered to suppliers so far. This information covers those nine supplier factories that have so far been fully-enrolled onto lean and completed at least one full phase of lean. we are currently re-visiting the lean programme with 6 of our original factories as part of our phased transformation of change, putting into practice our learnings from the initial roll out of the programme.
Through preventative maintenance and more efficient use of machinery, we have seen significant increase in the volume of product that each machine is being used to produce.
Section 2 Doing the Right Thing
a 37%improvementin efficiency
a 22%reduction inabsenteeism
a 17% increase in worker wages
a 5% reduction in labour turnover
37% 22% 17% 5%
p9www.george.com
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Working together in teams, workers take pride in ensuring the quality of the garments they produce is right first time. In turn, these quality gains are helping factories save money that canbe reinvested into worker wages and capital investments.
Section 2 Doing the Right Thing
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Workers are also telling us that, through LEAN, they feel more motivated to come to work and earn incentives and bonuses.
Due to training, multi-skilling and incentives, we are seeing increases in the average wages that the factories pay.
p11www.george.com
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Sewing efficiency is a key measure as it embodies the transformation through LEAN. We are seeing significant results in this area.
Because workers feel empowered they are less likely to move to another factory.
3. Workers’ rights, freedom of association and working with NGOs
we recognise the need to create sustainable mechanisms for workers’ rights and grievance handling despite freedom of association remaining a challenging industry-wide issue. george is conducting surveys across the factory base to assess what is being used, such as workers’ welfare committees and joint council forums. lean project factories provide suggestion boxes to empower workers to feedback on anything from work environment to grievances. in addition a grievance policy is being adopted by factories as best practice. To ensure this is firmly in place and is managed effectively, we have built in management systems and hR practices which are then being effectively communicated through the training given to workers. additional training is being scoped out with local trade unions, ngos and industry experts to help improve worker-management dialogue.
Health & SafetyTo help improve worker health and safety across our supply chain, we have carried out a comprehensive screening of all george supplier factories against local standards. where facilities have failed to meet these criteria, we have helped suppliers relocate their operations to safer factories. we have also delivered health and safety training to factories through the bangladesh labour foundation, a local ngo. we plan to roll out training over the next six months on hR and workers’ rights, again in partnership with local stakeholders.
building safety and fire safety standards in factories remains a top priority for us. our teams have visited more than 400 factories to conduct fire risk assessments and continue to do so to verify that appropriate fire safety andevacuation measures are in place in all supplier factories.
Promoting financial literacy george works with geosansar, a social enterprise that provides access to financial products and services to workers in partnership with local banks. it promotes inclusion and enhanced quality of life through benefits such as security of cash, interest on their savings, access to their own personal banker and other financial products like insurance, enabling transfer of salaries to employees’ bank accounts on a regularbasis, helping to give a greater sense of ownership of their money. geosansar also provides training and education on topics including cash management and financial products. The aim is to provide thousands of bank accounts by 2015.
benefits of this approach include boosting worker incomes, promoting social inclusion and improving financial literacy, helping the ‘unbanked community’ to feel part of growing economies.
EMPOWERING WOMEN empowering the women who work in supplier factories and communities is a priority for george. we are involved with two programmes that focus on female empowerment. more than 3,000 women have been positively impacted by the women in factories Training programme and more than 4,000 lives have been
improved by heRproject to date. by the end of 2015, we’re aiming to reach 15,000 women across our supply chain.
Women in Factories Training Programmelaunched in 2012 by asda’s parent company walmart, the aim of this five-year initiative – run in partnership with local ngos including caRe in bangladesh and Swasti in india – is to help female workers gain personal confidence and understand their strengths, ultimately empowering them to change their futures by giving them tools to achieve greater success at their jobs and live happier lives. it aims to empower 60,000 women across 150 factories supplying walmart and other retailers across india, bangladesh, china and central america.
as part of george’s involvement in the women in factories Training programme, we have initiated training for 4,889 workers across seven of the 14 factories in the programme.
HERprojectworking with business for Social Responsibility (bSR), the health enables Returns project aims to empower women and improve lives through health and education programmes in the workplace.
priority areas for heRproject include:• advising female workers to improve knowledge of
rights and resources available for pregnancy, child care, family planning, hygiene and health
• focusing on communication between women to dispel myths and misconceptions around women’s health
and hygiene • Supporting and encouraging women’s health as a
priority within the workplace
in 2011, three george supplier factories in bangladesh participated in heRproject engagement and training. we have now engaged more factories and rolled the programme out into vietnam, with the aim of engaging 10,000 female workers. by 2015, we hope to have 25,000 workers participating.
and our work with bangladeshi ngo phulki helps improve family life, promoting the rights of women and children and providing access to in-factory childcare:
• This enables mothers in the garment industry to combine work with caring for their young children
• it develops crèche facilities that help mothers nurse their infants during working hours
• Three george supplier factories in bangladesh participated in phulki engagement and training in 2011 – we aim to have 10 factories involved by 2013 and
20 by the end of 2015
Section 2 Doing the Right Thing
p13www.george.com
2. Standard Minute Value as part of george’s commitment to doing the right thing, we continue to pioneer the concept of ‘Standard minute value’ and Doug miller, emeritus professor is working with us on this industry leading standard.
although workers in the factories we source from are not directly employed by us, we recognise we have a shared responsibility with other retailers to these workers to protect and promote their welfare.
as part of this pioneering approach, the george team works directly with factory owners and insist that cost prices to george buyers include accurate labour costs upfront.
• Thisapproachhelpsfactoryowners more accurately define the amount of work that goes into each garment produced – ultimately ensuring that workers are paid more
•Wearefinalisingaseriesofstandard costing templates for
our buyers, removing the subjective element of garment costing
•Wearescaling-upeffortsaroundStandard minute value in 2012 and rolling-out this approach through our supply chain
RSPCA Award Winner
george has been recognised
with one of the uK’s most
prestigious animal welfare
accolades - the RSpca’s good
business large company award.
it is the third year running that
george has been recognised at
the awards.
ISO 9001in march 2012, george became the first major clothing retailer in the uK to gain international iSo 9001 certification, recognising the stringent quality management systems we’ve introduced across international supply chains. certification lasts for three years and we’ll continue to work closely with third-party auditors throughout
this period, ensuring george maintains progress in this area.
Better Cotton Initiative
along with asda’s parent company walmart, george
is a member of the better cotton initiative (bci) – a
cross-industry body aiming to reduce the impacts
of the industry by developing markets for a new
mainstream commodity – ‘better cotton’ – which
has the potential to deliver long-term economic
and environmental benefits across the supply chain.
examples of bci’s work includes:
• establishing global standards for better cotton
production
• focusing on financial profitability for farmers
• promoting social improvements for farming
communities and cotton farm workers, including
women’s empowerment, through farmer training
and best practice conducted by local in country
implementing partners
• Reducing the impact of water and pesticide
use on human and environmental health and to
improve soil health and biodiversity
• increasing traceability along the cotton supply
chain
george is developing a business plan and strategy
for delivering better cotton into stores; identifying
a natural supply route for better cotton into the
george supply chain; and preparing to conduct a
bulk trial of better cotton into a george product
category in 2013.
alongside cotton,
george also has
processes in place to
ensure full traceability
and animal welfare for
all leather, wool and
fur products.
Section 3 Doing the Right Thing
www.george.com
Reducing waste, improving liveswe donate all returned or damaged george clothing to newlife foundation, either for resale, recycling or use in other industries. This approach reduces waste while helping to fund medical research and specialist equipment that improves the lives of disabled and terminally ill children. our partnership with newlife foundation has raised over £500,000 to date.
Through working with our charity partners, we are also helping to raise money with clothing banks in our asda car parks. Thanks to the generosity of customers donating unwanted clothing, they raised more than £1.7 million last year and we hope to continue this with the recently rolled out clothing banks for Tickled pink, which supports breast cancer care charities.
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George Environmental Auditsenvironmental issues are an increasingly important consideration and we recognise the need to encourage factories to deliver training and build awareness of this area. it is essential that factories understand the need to protect their local communities from pollution and conserve valuable resources including water. Training is delivered to all factories to ensure local regulations are being met in line with industry standards. we also monitor a number of criteria to assess their impacts, including:• waste management• water management• energy use and greenhouse gas (ghg)
emissions• biodiversity• environmental policy• emergency training for environmental incidents• noise pollution• management of hazardous substances
Case study
newlife storiesNewlife Foundation for Disabled Children supports families across the UK. George donates returned and surplus clothing to Newlife in a unique recycling and retail operation to raise funds for the charity.
Hannah Antoniohannah is a 17 year old from South Devon and has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, scoliosis and is unable to talk.
newlife funded a £5,117 hi-tech communication aid, allowing her parents mike and Kim to discover hannah’s sense of humour.
mike said: “when hannah was younger we thought that mobility was the most important issue, but as she has got older we have realised that it is her ability to communicate with the outside world that shapes her life.
“for hannah to be able to communicate with her peers without us being around is amazing. She has a lot of able-bodied friends through her membership of the local Rangers group, and she also helps out with the younger Rainbows.”
mum Kim adds: “we want to thank everyone who has done so much to make hannah’s dream come true. we have been overwhelmed by the love and help we have received.”
Alana RangerTwelve-year-old alana Ranger has cerebral palsy and epilepsy which affects her limbs. She is a full-time wheelchair user, but her chair provided by statutory services doesn’t allow her to lay flat.
her mum louise says: “we desperately needed another, lightweight wheelchair with a supine facility. we applied to newlife and the model they funded is absolutely fantastic. it has helped us in several ways: it is much lighter to push, it allows her to rest properly when she has had a seizure.
“we have been able to take alana to many more places – theme parks, farms, the zoo... we go out most weekends now and the best thing is i can take her out on my own, something i couldn’t do before.”
here, we speak to two of the families who benefit from newlife:
SeCtion 3SUStainaBilitY at the heaRt oF oUR BUSineSS
Valuing our clothes
working with wrap, george chairs the in use group, part of Defra’s Sustainable clothing action
plan that focuses specifically on the customer phase of the garment lifecycle. we are working to
make it easier for customers to reduce the environmental impact generated by washing and drying
clothing at home. george is also a member of the Reuse and Recycle group, which focuses on
diverting clothing away from landfill. for the past four years we have continued to maintain the
in-store zero clothing waste to landfill standard.
www.wrap.org.uk
Supplier packaging guideour sourcing team is preparing a new packaging guide which will be rolled out across all george factories to cover 4,000 different product styles:
• Standardising packaging across these lines will help suppliers streamline their operations and reduce costs• another major new initiative will see george become the first value fashion retailer to no longer singly-package its ‘white products’ (e.g. underwear garments) in transit from factory to store, creating significant reductions in waste• we plan to recycle 45 million coat hangers this year and to encourage colleagues to participate we are working on closed loop recycling, creating new products out of damaged hangers. we’re also running a store incentive scheme where colleagues will be able to win money for local community projects of their choice
HOPE and Ashulia Schools
Through the asda foundation this year we have been able to support a second school in bangladesh, the ashulia School. 2011’s Doing the Right Thing highlighted the work george is doing in partnership with hope foundation worldwide to promote education in the communities where our suppliers operate. our flagship project, the Jamgara george School, was established in march 2009 in ashulia, a suburb of the bangladeshi capital Dhaka. 200 children currently attend hope school, and 125 attend ashulia.
examples of activities at the school include a cultural programme organised by the asia foundation to mark the occasion of international women’s Day; special classes to mark bangladesh’s independence Day; a special programme around international literacy Day; a football training programme; and free school bags for poorer students.
The Jamgara george School has also organised a health awareness programme for parents. a medical technology specialist from the uS embassy in Dhaka came to see 57 parents at the school, providing services including blood tests, vaccinations, blood sugar analysis, height/weight measurements and free food for their children.
The school’s computing facilities are made available to students’ parents in the evenings, providing access to help them pursue vocational courses and qualifications.
george and its partners now also sponsor pupils to go on to work in the george or factory offices to help improve skills and opportunities.
Jamgara Industrial Centre of HOPE
alongside the Jamgara george School, we help to fund a vocational training centre for adults, the Jamgara industrial centre of hope. it provides skills training in areas ranging from literacy and iT, to tailoring and beauty.
Vocational studentcase study: Josna Akter
“before i joined hope in october 2010, i was a housewife. now i have successfully completed a three-month tailoring course, which included training in home fashion and machine embroidery. This has enabled my husband and i to start a small grocery and tailoring shop, earning money to supplement his work as a tea seller. we’ve also been able to employ two seamstresses who completed the sewing course at hope. There is no longer any poverty in our household and my dream is to open a large tailoring shop that can employ local women and make a difference in our community.”
Section 4 Doing the Right Thing
SeCtion 4CommUnitYStoRieS
p17www.george.com
we source from these countries
• bangladesh• india• Sri lanka• china• Turkey• britain• bulgaria
• italy• portugal• Romania• cambodia• indonesia• mauritius• pakistan
• Taiwan• Thailand• vietnam• united arab emirates• egypt• morocco
Traffic Light System
Green no issues/low risk
yellow minimal issues/medium risk. for example, missing eXiT sign on fire door, incomplete first aid box. The site is required to develop a corrective action plan and a re-audit is scheduled for one year’s time.
Orange major issues/high risk, for example non payment of overtime, excessive working hours. The site is required to develop a corrective action plan and is reauditedwithin six months.
Red factories we do not use. The site has 30 days to appeal before being delisted.
NB. where a site is graded orange three times within a period of two years, that site will be delisted for up to a year. audits are then carried out continuously on all production sites. george will not take on any new factories until they are graded as yellow or green.
Section 5 Doing the Right Thing
numbeRS of facToRieS
43% 28% 30%
36% 31% 33%
23% 39% 37%
10% 44% 45%
10% 55% 34%
9% 75% 16%
1%
1%
8% 79% 13%
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Ethical performance to date
george has worked hard to promote the welfare of workers in the countries from which we source. There is a rigorous programme of independent, unannounced audits, conducted against the criteria provided by the ethical Trading initiative (eTi) base code – a voluntary system that addresses issues including child labour, forced labour, working hours, freedom of association and wages.
we currently use 616 factories, through 21 countries across the world, and conduct approximately 500 ethical audits where they are graded using a traffic light system. all factories used by george suppliers must be audited before they are approved for production. Two independent auditors conduct interviews with workers, site inspections and document reviews.
audits are conducted as part of walmart’s global supplier programme, the largest and most rigorous programme of its kind in the uK. we are making good progress towards our targets. our higher risk areas are being managed through training programmes we have in country including supplier development and violation correction programmes where dedicated support is given to factories to get back on track. in addition to this factories have received further training on environmental issues, machine and chemical safety training. we have also been delivering training to our uK buyers on ethical sourcing through an eTi trainer. To date 300 george colleagues have been trained and all new starters undergo a compulsory induction training on ethical trade.
we work with a number of industry experts, including ethical Trading initiative (eTi); association of Suppliers to the british clothing industry (aSbci); better cotton industry(bci); british Quality foundation and SaT Ra Technology.
SeCtion 5hoW We’RepeRFoRming
p19www.george.com Disapproved industry audit orange yellow greenKEy
1. Paul Wrighthead of Quality and ethical
my first job was as a Sewing machine mechanic in castleford for 11 enjoyable years. The owners of that business shaped the way i believe that business should be done - that through respect for your workforce you get a motivated team and that extremely efficient lines deliver high quality products. and that, to me is the value/quality equation. i take their ethos that no matter what role you play in the business, if you have talent and diligence you have the opportunity to progress, and i wouldn’t be working for george today without their support and encouragement. i’ve made it my mission to help george suppliers identify the talent already under their own roof, and respect their workers. i spent five years running factories in morocco and portugal, which has given me the opportunity to understand how different cultures approach situations, and in fact, it’s the same the world over - show people respect, tell them why and value everyone’s contribution and the payback is ten-fold. That’s why at george we’re really focused on the individual. our continued progress on lean, Standard minute value and our work to deliver training courses across the globe is industry leading and the team’s work is delivering real change to thousands of people within our supply chain - the people that deliver fantastic quality and value to the george customer.
2. Indira Chauhan Senior ethical Sourcing manager
i was born in uganda, where my grandparents owned a cotton mill, so from an early age i was exposed to the realities of poverty in developing countries. after my family was forced to leave the country, surrendering the business and all our possessions due to civil war, we settled in the uK but my upbringing really reinforced the importance of doing the right thing and making a positive impact on workers’ quality of life. i graduated from Demontfort university in 1990 with a degree in textile and knitwear technology bsc (hons)before working my way up in the uK clothing industry, eventually being appointed as george’s senior ethical sourcing manager in 2005. my priority in this role is to ensure that george is recognised as a trusted and innovative leader in ethical sourcing and environmental protection, maintaining our reputation for providing safe and fulfilling environments for workers around the world. as part of this work, i’ve been closely involved in driving our efforts around lean, as well as pioneering female empowerment programmes and launching the first hope School in Dhaka. most of all, i want to get the workers behind our sewing machines to believe in themselves by giving them the same kinds of opportunities that i’ve been so lucky to have in my own career.
3. Matthew Parrylean programme manager
i’ve worked for george for two years and moved into the ethical team in the summer of 2012. it’s an amazing team and it’s genuinely exciting being involved in projects that help so many people across the world. i know that i’m privileged to be involved and i take the impact that i can have seriously. i’ve been in retail for nearly 19 years in various different positions and i’m really fortunate that in one of my last roles i studied lean and Six Sigma and trained as an industrial engineer, this really helps me to understand and drive the lean programme while ensuring it remains a balanced and holistic programme. each time we look at a set of results from one of our lean factories one thing always stands out and that’s the increase we are making to workers’ wages, through our work with factory owners and programmes to train and empower workers within our supply chain. it’s this that motivates me every day, knowing that the decisions we make really do change people’s lives for the better all over the globe.
4. Catherine Watkins ethical and Sustainability manager
after working for george for five years as a fabric technologist and colour trend manager, i made a career change into the george ethical team two and a half years ago, due to my personal interest in helping to improve the social conditions for the workers and their families within our supply chain. This has given me the amazing opportunity to support the ethical process by doing the right thing. i am also an active member of the george friends of hope School committee. as part of my role i work towards reducing the environmental impact of george clothing. collaborating with other brands and retailers i chair the in use group for the Sustainable clothing action plan focusing on clothes during customer’s wear and laundering. i really enjoy my job and find it very rewarding knowing that i am helping to make a positive difference to the day to day lives of people and the environment on a global scale.
Section 6
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SeCtion 6meet Some oF the team
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