Over the past two years, we’ve been working on the implementation of sustainable chemical management according to the ZDHC Foundation’s Roadmap to Zero Programme. Our goal is to ensure that all the wastewater discharged into the environment does not become a threat to it. Our suppliers – users of ZDHC Guidelines, Platforms, and Solutions, are held accountable to use only those chemicals that meet best practice standards in relation to human health and the environment. All factories involved in the implementation work need to have internal capacities to manage chemicals and emissions responsibly. Monitoring the quality of the wastewater allows us to control and ensure that production processes involving water are going as planned. Our suppliers provide us with wastewater test results twice a year to confirm that all the requirements set by the most recently applicable ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines are fulfilled. The vast majority of the results we receive are good. If, on the other hand, the results are not good, we support our suppliers in taking all necessary measures to improve the current situation.

Treated wastewater from the factory can be returned to the environment or to a centralized effluent treatment facility run by e.g. the local government or an industrial park area. It can also be re-circulated at the factory. We are aiming for the entirety of our jeans production to meet the requirements set by the ZDHC Guidelines by the spring-summer 2023 season.