Sustainability Statement

OUR VALUES: PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

At Pongees we care about human rights and the environment. We:

1. promote business practices which seek to protect the health and safety of our staff and those working in our supply chain;
2. comply with (and promote compliance in our supply chain with) applicable laws and regulations relating to sustainability and the protection of the environment. 

Our fabrics are produced by suppliers around the world including in China, India, France, Italy and the UK.  Our suppliers are some of the leading producers in their particular textile fields.

We set out below our values in relation to three key areas: the workforce, the environment and sourcing.

OUR VALUES

The Workforce 

We believe that everyone should be treated with respect and work in a safe environment.  

We promote the following employment standards in our supply chain:  

• That employment is freely chosen
• That working conditions are safe and hygienic
• That child labour is not used
• That Living Wages are paid
• That working hours are not excessive

The Environment

Our goal is to reduce the impact of our operations on the environment.

As part of this, we comply with applicable environmental laws and regulations and have in place internal policies and procedures in relation to waste minimisation, the re-use, recovery and recycling of materials, and the treatment of effluent and waste water.  

We also promote such values in our supply chain.

Sourcing

We recognise the planet’s reducing and irreplaceable resources, and our focus is on advocating sustainability and endeavouring to reduce the impact of our business on the environment.

We encourage the following practices in our supply chain:

• Having a written environmental/sustainability policy appropriate to the size and nature of the supplier’s business
• Compliance with applicable legislation and regulations related to the protection of the environment and the handling of dangerous and hazardous materials
• Increasing the proportion of input materials and components which are obtained from sustainable sources.

We require that our suppliers:

• Disclose the material characteristics and health and safety information of the products that they supply to us in compliance with the relevant trading standards legislation, such as Oeko-Tex and REACH regulations
• Produce on demand Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) certification for the dyestuffs and chemicals used in the production process

*REACH is the Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals

** OEKO-TEX offers various certificates and services to verify the safety of products and their production processes for health and the environment