Not just a label, Bluesign is about finding solutions to both today’s and tomorrow’s social and environmental challenges, avoiding risks and creating critical mass to enact positive change across the supply chain.
The more common associations with Bluesign might include the environmental benefits of a cleaner production. Some might point out the health benefits of safer workplaces and products free from harmful chemicals. A few might know about the additional financial incentives of efficient energy and materials use. And these would all be correct. But this is just the half of it.
Precaution pays off
Making a mess is easy. Cleaning one up a headache. Hiding it? These days, it’s virtually impossible. This is just as true for carbon emissions, hazardous chemical leaks and social non-compliance in factories as it is for a pasta sauce stain on a white shirt.
In the business world, messes come at a cost, both to society and a company’s bottom line. Precautionary departures from the status quo are therefore not only up-front expenses, they can represent investments with quick returns. The challenge, of course, is that there are so many potential risks to keep up with:
“I think that the ROI for brands right off the start is that they don’t have hire experts in environment, chemistry and textiles to keep tabs on these risks,” explains Jill Dumain, CEO of Bluesign.
“And say a brand could devote salaries to one or two such employees, this is nowhere near what you’d get with Bluesign that is now 80 experts strong.”
Confidence in supply chain
And these experts dig deep. While many may get as far as becoming familiar with their textile mill, Bluesign goes the entire length of the supply chain – from the product right down to the chemicals manufacturer – to ensure its benchmarks are met.
One byproduct of this diligence is traceability, which helps improve communication between a business and its suppliers and improves quality control. Another benefit is that it exposes risk:
“The better you know your supply chain, the better you’re able to be proactive and see where your problems lie,” explains Jill, who continues:
“Traceability also enables a company to be as transparent as they like to be in order to meet increasing consumer expectations.”
Pre-competitive team players win
It’s one thing to come up with a good idea. But as many lone wolves have discovered, it’s another thing entirely to see an idea implemented across the supply chain. Here, the conflicting goals, scales and markets of actors often see important social and environmental projects watered down or withered out entirely.
“The collective efforts of an industry are always going to be stronger,” shares Jill, who continues:
“Gathering actors behind shared initiatives is the strongest way to effect change across the supply chain”
By creating a pre-competitive space of approved System Partners, Bluesign is able to bring brands and suppliers together around shared goals – helping to build a sufficient scale and to find solutions that benefit everyone.
“With nearly 700 Bluesign System Partners from across the world,” explains Jill, “finding the right brand or textile mill partner from within the community to realize your company’s goals is honestly just not that hard.”
Bluesign Announces Amazon Partnership
Bluesign is participating in Amazon’s Climate Pledge Friendly, a new program to help make it easy for customers to discover and shop for more sustainable products. Customers will now see the Climate Pledge Friendly label when searching for 25,000 products to signify that the products have one or more of 19 different sustainability certifications that help preserve the natural world.
Amazon evaluated hundreds of external sustainability certifications and chose organizations that certify products that have demonstrated environmentally related sustainability benefits. Bluesign is proud to be one of the third-party entities verifying Climate Pledge Friendly products.
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