Collaborations & Memberships

Environmental risks, social inequality and the need to provide healthy food in an increasingly complicated and unpredictable world will continue to be a challenge. The size and complexity of these issues mean they cannot be addressed by any one solution or any one organisation. We need concerted, collaborative effort involving scientists, businesses, investors, governments, NGOs and consumers to tackle the world’s most pressing issues. In comparison to many others in our industry, we are not a big buyer of many of the products we sell. And we don’t always have the buying power on our own to make the changes we’d like to see.

Partnership has always been at the heart of how we do business. This is because we know we need and contribute to outside knowledge and expertise to help us achieve shared objectives and mutually beneficial economic, social and environmental outcomes.

Commitments and targets

Our ambition is to accelerate change by leading with others. We’re committed to working collaboratively with suppliers, civil society, the science community, governments, customers and other businesses.

Approach

The following summarises our key collaborations and memberships of relevance to our Clothing & Home business. We outline the main reasons why we’re involved with each of these organisations.

Organisation	Type	Member Since	Status	Why we're involved
Consumer Goods Forum	Industry Association	2014	Participating company, member of the Board, Co-Chair the Retailer College, and Co-chair the Sustainability Steering Committee	To help drive global efforts to tackle deforestation and forced labour
Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)	Industry Association	2015	Participating company	To drive measurable improvement in sustainability performance in apparel
Sustainable Clothing Action Programme (WRAP)	Industry Association	2007	Founding member, participating company, and member of the Steering Group and Technical Working Group	To improve the sustainability of clothing across its lifecycle
Textile Exchange	Non-Profit Organisation	2004	Participating company	To promote sustainable practices in the textile value chain
British Retail Consortium	Industry Association	1992 (and prior to this the British Retailers Association)	Participating company, member of the Policy Board and represented on several Working Groups including Environment and Responsible Sourcing	To help drive and shape the retail agenda whilst making sure our own business priorities are represented
Ethical Trading Initiative	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	1999	Participating company and have been a member of the Board	To drive continuous improvement of working conditions in global supply chains
Supplier Ethical Data Exchange (Sedex)	Non-Profit Organisation	2004	Founding member, participating company, and member of the Board	To drive continuous improvement of working and environmental conditions in global supply chains
Global Social Compliance Programme (GSCP)	Industry Association	2010	Participating company and have been a member of the Board	To drive continuous improvement of working and environmental conditions in global supply chains
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2013	Participating company	To support the implementation of health and safety measures to help ensure a safe and sustainable ready made garment industry in Bangladesh
ILO Better Work	Tripartite Organisation	2007	Partner company – Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia	To improve worker-management cooperation, working conditions and social dialogue in global garment and footwear supply chains
BSR	Non-Profit Organisation	2008	Participating company and participant in HERproject including HERhealth in Vietnam and Kenya; HERrespect in India; and HERfinance in Bangladesh	To empower low-income women working in global supply chains through workplace programmes promoting health and financial inclusion
Fast Forward	Industry Association	2016	Founding member and participating company	To tackle exploitation and mistreatment of workers in UK supply chains with a focus on identifying risks of modern slavery
Institute of Human Rights and Business Responsible Recruitment Leadership Group	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2016	Participating company	To drive positive change in the way that migrant workers are recruited
Race to the Top, Vietnam	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2016	Participating company	To improve working conditions and higher environmental standards in apparel / footwear industry in Vietnam
Life and Building Safety (LaBS)	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2016	Participating company and steering committee member	To improve worker safety in the ready made garment industry by effectively preventing the most pressing risks related to fire, electrical and structural building safety and evacuation
WWF Global Forest and Trade Network	Non-Profit Organisation	2004	Participating company	To improve global standards for sustainable timber
Canopy	Non-Profit Organisation	2014	Member of Leaders Working Group in the Fashion and Textile Leaders for Forest Conservation Working Group’s ‘Fashion Loved by Forest’ initiative	To improve the sourcing of wood-based fabrics
Tropical Forest Alliance	Industry Association	2014	Founding partner, and participating company	To support a move away from commodity-driven deforestation
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2006	Participating company and member of the Board	To improve global standards for sustainable palm oil
Leather Working Group (LWG)	Industry Association	2005	Founding member, and participating company	To improve environmental conditions in the global leather supply chain
Better Cotton Initiative (BCI)	Multi-Stakeholder Initiative	2009	Pioneer member, and participating company	To promote more sustainable cultivation of cotton globall
Forum for the Future	Non-Profit Organisation	2001	Pioneer Partner and participating company Participant in Cotton 2040 initiative – and member of the ‘Building demand for sustainable cotton’ Working Group	To promote and accelerate sustainable business practice and drive demand for more sustainable cotton
Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)	Industry Association	2011	Participating company	To reduce the impact of harmful substances associated with clothing and textiles
Ellen MacArthur Foundation	Non-Profit Organisation	2013	Participating company – Circular Economy 100 founding member and members of the New Plastics Economy and Circular Innovation Working Group	To promote the transition to a sustainable circular economy
On Pack Recycling Label	Non-Profit Organisation	2009	Founding member, participating company and member of the Board	To promote simple, consistent and UK-wide recycling messaging on packaging

Collaborations & Memberships

Find out more about the organisations we've joined or collaborate with