Case study: How Gildan promotes high ethical standards among its contractors and suppliers

What are the material issues the company has identified?

In its 2020 ESG Report Gildan identified a range of material issues, such as economic empowerment, climate change and energy, diversity, equity and inclusion, operational waste management. Among these, promoting high ethical standards among its contractors and suppliers stands out as a key material issue for Gildan.

Stakeholder engagement in accordance with the GRI Standards              

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) defines the Principle of Stakeholder Inclusiveness when identifying material issues (or a company’s most important impacts) as follows:

“The reporting organization shall identify its stakeholders, and explain how it has responded to their reasonable expectations and interests.”

Stakeholders must be consulted in the process of identifying a company’s most important impacts and their reasonable expectations and interests must be taken into account. This is an important cornerstone for CSR / sustainability reporting done responsibly.

Key stakeholder groups Gildan engages with: 

To identify and prioritise material topics Gildan engaged with its stakeholders through the following channels:

What actions were taken by Gildan to promote high ethical standards among its contractors and suppliers?

In its 2020 ESG Report Gildan reports that it took the following actions for promoting high ethical standards among its contractors and suppliers:

• Implementing a Code of Conduct
• Before taking on new contractors, Gildan follows a rigorous due diligence process wherein it fully evaluates their ability to comply with its quality standards, cost structure, and the principles of its Code of Conduct, which aligns with internationally recognised standards and is divided into 12 principles that state Gildan’s position on fundamental labour rights and business practices. Gildan does this through mandatory audits conducted either by its internal auditors or, in some instances, by a third-party auditor.

• Promoting compliance
• Upon entering a relationship with a third-party contractor, Gildan’s regional social compliance teams work with contractors to educate and assist the development of sound labour practices, effective labour compliance management systems, and policies and procedures, and to implement remediation where required. Gildan’s auditors regularly assess its third-party manufacturing partners for compliance with its policies and guidelines in its Social and Sustainable Compliance Guidebook. In the event of a non-compliance, Gildan’s regional compliance teams work with its third-party contractors to develop a management action plan (MAP), ensuring appropriate mitigation is put in place to prevent recurrence. Progress on each MAP is tracked through Gildan’s Corporate Social Responsibility data platform. If a contractor facility is not able to demonstrate improvements within Gildan’s prescribed timeframe, Gildan reserves the right to terminate its relationship with them. In 2020, 100% of Gildan’s contractors worldwide were trained on its Social and Sustainable Compliance Guidebook.

Which GRI Standards and corresponding Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been addressed?

The GRI Standards addressed in this case are:

1) Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria

2) Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria

Disclosure 308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria does not correspond to any SDG.

Disclosure 414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria corresponds to:

• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender Equality
• Targets: 5.2
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• Targets: 8.8
• Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions
• Targets: 16.1

78% of the world’s 250 largest companies report in accordance with the GRI Standards

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References:

This case study is based on published information by Gildan, located at the link below. For the sake of readability, we did not use brackets or ellipses. However, we made sure that the extra or missing words did not change the report’s meaning. If you would like to quote these written sources from the original please revert to the following link:

https://www.genuineresponsibility.com/media/documents/reports/bgildan-2020-esg-report.pdf

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