Contributor Announcement January 2022

As of January 2022, we welcome five new contributors to the ZDHC Community. 

‍As a Brand:

JCPenney proudly serves customers at more than 650 stores across the United States and Puerto Rico, and at the Company’s flagship store, jcp.com. JCPenney is one of the nation’s largest retailers of apparel, home, jewellery, and beauty merchandise with a growing portfolio of private and national brands. Guided by the Golden Rule, JCPenney employs more than 50,000 associates worldwide and has served customers for over 119 years, playing a vital role in the communities it serves. For additional information, please visit jcp.com and follow JCPenney on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

As JCPenney continues its sustainability journey to better understand and minimise the impact of their value chain for the planet, the Company looks to the ZDHC Foundation as a partner to steer them toward clarity on how to best remove hazardous chemicals and enhance responsible sourcing and manufacturing practices. 

"The work to remove hazardous chemicals from the global apparel, footwear, and textiles value chain will only succeed through a collaborative partnership between customers and suppliers," said Phil Boyett, Responsible Sourcing Director. "We are pleased to join, leverage, and lend our effort to making consumer goods without harmful chemicals."

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Decathlon is a French sporting goods company founded in 1976 with one mission: to sustainably make the pleasure and benefits of sport accessible to the many. There are around 1697 Decathlon stores in nearly 1000 cities in 60 countries and regions. Decathlon employs nearly 100,000 collaborators and works with more than 1000 suppliers.

Since its first Restricted Substance List in 1998, Decathlon has been acting actively regarding the chemical risk, to guarantee the safety of users, coworkers, suppliers’ workers & the environment during the manufacturing, transportation, handling & use of Decathlon’s products.

Nowadays a dedicated team supported by a worldwide network on the field is involved in chemical safety management, ensuring better control of input, process, and output management in facilities.

To go further, it is necessary for Decathlon to be aligned with the main actors in the industry and to have access to the most advanced tools to reduce chemical impact in the value chain.

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“Decathlon would like to engage its value chain in a more sustainable way to manage chemicals and to draw tomorrow's ethics and its requirements. As a contributor,  Decathlon will act to reduce the impact of apparel and footwear industries on the environment and on human health to be aligned with Decathlon's purpose: to be useful to people and to their planet.”

-Melany Auger, Chemical Safety Manager

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As VCA Chemical Industry:

Sudeep Industries is a fast-growing company that meets all three ISO standards namely:  ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 45001. They are certified by a UKAS accredited body and have reached ZDHC Conformance Level 3. Currently, their products can be found in more than 20 countries around the world, which also includes some of their leading European customers. 

Sudeep Industries believes that their collaboration with the ZDHC Foundation as Contributors will act in support of their environmental journey in becoming a branded quality supplier in the Dyestuff industry. Their milestone is to be recognised as one of the leading sustainable suppliers within the Indian industry.

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“We are speeding up our growth while supporting [the] ZDHC community.”

-Manish Thakkar, Head-Technical

As VCA Textile, Footwear, Apparel and Leather Industry: 

Echotex Ltd started garment manufacturing in 2008, and textile production in 2009. Echotex is a vertical setup with knitting, dyeing, digital printing, screen printing, washing, laundry, and garmenting facilities. 

Planet, People, Product, and Partners are at the heart of Echotex’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Gazipur, Dhaka. Their unique focus on efficiency, productivity, and worker welfare has enabled them to become an industry-leading production partner. Pioneering ethical practices help to safeguard and improve the wellbeing of their growing workforce, while sustainable production processes produce excellent quality products without compromising the environment or their values.

Echotex was the first of its kind in Bangladesh to establish a modern effluent treatment plant (ETP), treating 100% of their wastewater to a standard far above the minimum requirements. Within 6 months of its operation, Echotex received the Bangladesh government’s highest recognition with the National Environmental Award 2010.

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"Investing in [the] planet and [the] people before profit is key to both our mission and vision. When Echotex becomes a ZDHC Contributor our transparency shall increase, as would our learning, and we shall prove our full commitment to the removal of hazardous chemicals from our production processes. This shall enable us [to manage] chemical compliance and [reduce] our impact on human health and the environment to a far greater extent. One can always do more, and we shall continue to strive to do more in [the] future."

-Quais Shafiq Hassan, Managing Director

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‘To lead breakthrough innovation in fashion. To grow towards a happier future for the industry and the planet.’ This is the mission of Framis Italia, the leading provider of innovative, high quality and fully integrated heat-bonding applications and solutions in the clothing industry for forty years.

Since Framis Italia produces a material that derives from chemical synthesis, therefore, in order to create a circular process that does not produce or release harmful residues, they must ensure no hazardous pollutants are incorporated in their products from the very beginning of the production process. Thanks to the implementation of the ZDHC MRSL, Framis Italia will be able to benefit from a structured method that periodically measures the level of application in a transparent manner.

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“Since we are representing a long segment of the supply chain, [by] joining the ZDHC Roadmap to Zero Programme we would have the chance to build a solid and real sustainability asset. This asset could be offered to our customers as the necessary added value that they will increasingly have to maintain towards consumers and investors.”

-Francesca Salotto, CEO Framis Italia Spa