Limiting Chemical Footprint - Snickers Workwear Best Practices
Limiting our chemical footprint
As with all textile production, chemicals are needed to make materials for our products. In the quest to minimise our total chemical impact, and not just for the finished products, we believe it is important to manage our supplier operations in ways that safeguard the environment, factory workers and consumers. Itās not easy to fully track every link in the textile production chain, but a structured approach leads us to our goals. Furthermore, we recognise that we have a responsibility to create awareness among our suppliers regarding our mutual chemical footprint.
Chemical management
Snickers Workwear is part of the Hultafors Group. In order to ensure compliance with chemical legislation, we have developed a Group-wide Restricted Substance List (RSL), which all suppliers in our production process need to sign. Our aspiration is to work only with nominated suppliers for all materials and trims used in our products. This increases transparency and control of the components in our products, and secures compliance. Proactive chemical management benefits both the people who work within our supply chain and the users of our products.
Premium materials for premium products
We select the most suitable components for each product, without compromising on chemical compliance. Our own supplier assurance process takes us a long way. In addition, we often work with materials that are certified according to OEKO-TEX Standard, a global uniform testing and certification system, or suppliers that hold the independent Bluesign standard, which is a textile industry certification focusing on legal compliance in relation to environmental health and safety.
Members of Sweden Chemicals Group/RISE
To stay updated on the latest chemical and environmental issues, we are members of the Swedish Chemicals Group at RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden). Through our membership, we have access to the latest in legislation and research around textile chemistry, chemical databases as well as support and help in managing legislation. The support of this institute is forward-looking, which means that we gain insight and can adapt to new legislation well before it takes effect.
Members of the Swedish Textile Importers' Association
We are also members of Swedish Textile Importersā Association, a trade association for Swedish companies working in textiles, leather goods, clothing and shoes. This body provides us with trade-related legislative information, chemical support and other information related to how we can progress our sustainability efforts.