Codes of behaviour and quality marks

How do you know whether a fashion manufacturer is practising CSR? There are many different ways of finding out. Quality marks such as Eko tell you whether cotton is organic or not. The Eko mark is monitored by an independent organisation. Many companies have drawn up codes of behaviour, which provide guidelines for such things as the working conditions in the factories where the clothing is made.

The codes may apply to entire branches or individual enterprises. Existing international norms are often used as frames of reference, and there are independent monitoring mechanisms as well. In the Netherlands, for instance, the Fair Wear Foundation is based on ILO norms http://www.ilo.org/ A few international initiatives are SA 8000 (for the certification of factories and suppliers) http://www.sa8000.com/, the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) http://www.ethicaltrade.org/ in England and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) http://www.fairlabor.org/ and Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) http://www.workersrights.org/ in the United States.

If you were to visit a textile factory in India, for example, you might see the various codes of behaviour hanging on the wall that are employed by Western companies. These codes of behaviour often differ from each other on minor points, which sometimes makes it extremely complicated for the factories. Recently initiatives were taken to coordinate the various codes of behaviour and, if possible, to develop a common code.