Levi's Promotes "Disinfection" Program Committed to Eliminating Supply Chain Harmful Substances

The world's largest denim brand company, Levi Strauss & Co., issued a public statement on December 12 stating that it has recognized the urgency of stopping the release of toxic and hazardous substances and promised to eliminate all toxic and hazardous substances in the supply chain and products by 2020.

Levi's specific commitment includes asking 40 suppliers located in Mexico, China and other places to disclose open waste water discharge information before 2013, 15 of which will take the lead before July next year. This means that residents in the vicinity of contaminated waters have access to information on pollution, which is a basic right that they had never obtained before.

Levi's also decided to phase out products containing perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) by 2015. PFC can increase clothing breathability and stain resistance. David Love, Levi's supply chain director, called this a major challenge because there is no substitute for PFC. In addition, Levi's will step up enforcement of the ban on alkyl ethoxylates (APEO) present in fabric detergents.

According to the Greenpeace official website, Li Fang, director of the agency's pollution prevention program, said that he welcomes Levi's joining the non-drug camp. "As the world's largest denim brand, Levi's has a huge impact on the detoxification of global fashion brands. We hope that the United States Brands such as Tesbonwe and Calvin Klein are facing the pollution problem and do not passively avoid it."

Since last year, Greenpeace has published a series of reports on the existence of toxic and hazardous substances in fashion brands and polluting the natural environment.

Last year, the organization revealed that the clothing suppliers of adidas, Nike, Li Ning and other brands used and emitted toxic and hazardous substances, causing pollution in the Yangtze River and the Pearl River basin in China.

This year, the "Trends and Pollution" series of reports was released. November's "Trends and Smears: Survey of Remnants of Toxic and Harmful Substances in Global Fashion Brands" pointed out that Zara, Metersbonwe, Levi's, Calvin Klein, Benetton, Jack Jones, Only, Vero moda, C&A, Diesel, Esprit, Gap, Armani, H&M, and Vanke Eslite have used a variety of toxic and hazardous substances in their products, including carcinogens, in their products.

The “Flood and Pollution Stream: Textile City Pollution Report” published on December 4 pointed out that the wastewater discharged from two textile industrial parks in Shaoxing County, Zhejiang Province and Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, was detected as toxic and hazardous substances with reproductive toxicity and carcinogenicity. There are dozens of international fashion brands such as Levi's, Zara, and Calvin Klein in the industrial park.

On December 5th, Greenpeace International released a report entitled "Toxic Threads: Under Wraps", which is a series of "Trends and Smells" series, exposing Mexico's apparel suppliers Kaltex and Lavamex to dump industrial wastewater into rivers. Kaltex and Lavamex are suppliers of fashion brands such as Levi's, Calvin Klein, Guess, Gap, Wal-Mart and LVMH.

Levi's became the fourth company to join the "disinfection" program following Zara, Mango and Esprit after the "Trends and Contamination" series of reports. It is also the Joint Road-map for Zero Discharge of the road since last year. The 11th company of Hazardous Chemicals, or ZDHC).

Esprit announced its participation plan on the 7th of this month and promised to publicly disclose the emission information of 30 Chinese suppliers by the end of 2013. It is the second Hong Kong-listed company to make non-toxic production commitments after Li Ning. Previously, Nike, adidas, Puma, C&A, H&M, Marks & Spencer and Li Ning have signed the ZDHC “disinfection” plan agreement.

John Deans, promoter of the International Greenpeace "disinfection" program, thinks ZDHC is a good start, but the progress is too slow. "We hope that companies such as Calvin Klein, Gap and Victoria's Secret can join the plan and make a commitment as soon as possible."

Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret, who are not aware of the frequency of contamination, are under pressure to continue poisoning under various circumstances, or they have to move closer to 11 fashion brands and “disinfect” to clean their minds and bodies and set foot on the moral high ground.