【Detox,Campaign】夏天 Campaign

　　A group of top international apparel and footwear brands have reported progress toward ending the discharge of hazardous chemicals from their supply chains in China.
　　On July 30, Adidas, C&A, H&M, LiNing, Nike and Puma jointly released an online report outlining their progress and accomplishments in the second quarter of this year on their project The Roadmap to Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC), which began in November 2011.
　　Early this year, G-Star and Levi Strauss & Co. joined the group in vowing to eliminate all hazardous emissions from its supply chains by 2020.
　　
　　Green commitment
　　The whole story started in July 2011, when Greenpeace, an international NGO committed to environmental protection, discovered a Chinese conglomerate, which supplies Nike, Adidas, Puma and other leading brands, had discharged hormone-disrupting chemicals and other toxins into the country’s major waterways.
　　Its findings are based on a yearlong investigation, in which wastewater samples were collected from factory discharge pipes and sent for analysis in laboratories at Exeter University in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Samples from two major plants were verified to contain a range of persistent pollutants.
　　“China is the world’s largest textile manufacturer,” Yong Rong, head of the Policy and Public Affairs Unit of Greenpeace Beijing Office, told Beijing Review. “If the major tex- tile groups are all involved in the hazardous chemical discharge, the whole situation must be very severe.”
　　The research findings provide a snapshot of the kinds of toxic chemicals that are being released by the textile industry into waterways all over the world, and are indicative of a much wider problem that is having serious and far-reaching consequences for people and wildlife.
　　On July 13, 2011, Greenpeace released a 115-page report titled Dirty Laundry, which details its yearlong investigation into two Chinese factories—the Youngor Textile Complex and Well Dyeing Factory, based in southern Guangdong and east Zhejiang provinces respectively.
　　The Youngor facility, for example, is one of China’s leading integrated textile firms and boasts some of the country’s most advanced technology for dyeing, weaving and printing. However, it was found to have discharged nonylphenol, an endocrine disruptor, which can have an adverse effect on the liver and sperm count.
　　Greenpeace said that Nike, Adidas, Puma, H&M and Lacoste had confirmed a business relationship with Youngor though all denied making use of the plant’s wet processes, which are likely to be responsible for pollution discharges.
　　The Greenpeace report also mentions several major consumer brands and retailers with business connections with the factories. The companies became the main targets of the organization’s zero-toxic discharge campaign.
　　“We’re calling you out because when it comes to sportswear, you’re the front-runners, the top dogs, the pace-setters; you have the greatest impact on the supply chain,” says the report. “We think you can take this race to a whole different place, and team-up with your suppliers to eliminate all toxic chemicals from your supply chain and products.”
　　Yong called on the foreign firms to insist on higher standards throughout their supply chains. “They have a moral obligation to phase out hazardous chemicals not just in the final product sold to first-world consumers but also in the industrial processes that affect workers and environment in developing nations,” she said.
　　“These companies are doing business with a polluter. We are not accusing them of being evil, but we are challenging them to take the lead in eliminating toxins,” Li Yifang, Senior Campaigner of Greenpeace Beijing Office, said.“These chemicals were detected in small quantities, but they are hard to break down so in nature they tend to accumulate to dangerous levels.”
　　According to Li, there is no safety limit for these chemicals because they accumulate.“Many were found in fish during an earlier study of toxins in the food chain in the Yangtze River, China’s longest waterway. Although the chemicals are not yet illegal in China, they are banned in the EU and many developed nations,” Li said.“So we ask them to phase out over a reasonable time frame. That would send a signal to the whole industry.”
　　On July 23, 2011, more than 600 people in 29 cities in 10 countries across the world participated in a choreographed striptease activity. They took off Adidas and Nike sportswear and sported “Detox” temporary tattoos to call on the brands to eliminate the release of hazardous chemicals from their products as well as supply chains.
　　Three days after this activity, Puma made a public statement, saying it recognizes the urgent need for reducing and eliminating industrial releases of all hazardous chemicals and is committed to “eliminating the dis- charges of all hazardous chemicals from the whole lifecycle and all production procedures that are associated with the making and using of Puma products by 2020.”
　　On August 17, Nike followed suit and on August 31, Adidas announced its commitment in the campaign. H&M, Li-Ning, C&A joined later. Last November, the six companies announced the joint roadmap to ZDHC.
　　“We share the general concern about discharges of hazardous chemicals into the environment,” said a spokesperson for H&M.“That is why we run a set of activities and procedures to limit and eliminate hazardous chemicals and improve overall environmental standards throughout our value chain and the entire industry.”
　　The path forward
　　The ZDHC initiative is ambitious—it sets a new standard of environmental performance for the global apparel and footwear industry. Greenpeace has promised to issue progress reports every quarter in 2012 and annually from 2013 to 2020.
　　In April, the group of ZDHC brands held a conference in Brussels, Belgium and invited other potential brands that were interested in joining, as well as leading chemical companies, international labs and service providers that are essential to achieving the goal. At the conference, participants conducted a system mapping exercise, which further supported the analysis of the joint roadmap and clarified paths forward.
　　A technical committee will soon assemble with relevant stakeholders in the chemical industry to map technical solutions and develop research plans. In the meantime, the group of ZDHC brands expects more companies to join in the campaign to eliminate hazardous chemical discharges.