Textile industry: Can social responsibility solve industrial problems?

On July 13 and August 23, Greenpeace, the international environmental protection organization, released two “fashion poisons” reports one after another, and the environmental issues of the textile and apparel industry attracted many controversy. How should I treat the report? Can corporate social responsibility solve industrial problems? The reporter interviewed Dr. Zhong Hongwu, director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The greater the responsibility of the brand, the greater the textile and apparel industry has a longer industrial chain. From the cultivation of raw materials, spinning, weaving, printing and dyeing, sewing and finishing, all of these links may cause environmental pollution, especially the industrial chain. The upper reaches of the company are often polluting "large". However, if problems arise, social ties will blame the brand enterprises, especially large brand enterprises.

“Environmental protection is a problem that needs to be paid attention to in the entire industry chain in the circulation market. This is logically established, but the ultimate focus is still the brand enterprise. Brand enterprises should use their influence to promote the 'greening' of all aspects. Promote the "greening" of the entire industrial chain." Zhong Hongwu believes that the brand enterprise is the source of "greening" of the industry.

He said that leading companies in the industry are more capable and more obliged to lead the “greening” of the entire industry. The bigger the brand, the greater the ability, the bigger the goal, the greater the responsibility. In real life, people have the mentality of catching up with Others. This is a reasonable thing. Big brands will certainly suffer some pressure while enjoying glory. Some new responsibility issues will inevitably first point to large enterprises, and benchmarking companies have the obligation to lead the positive evolution of the industry.

When the issues of some big-name clothing companies are publicized, what should they do? Zhong Hongwu believes: "Once the problems of the enterprises are revealed, they should do a good job of research and interpretation. If there is no problem with their own products, they should give a reasonable reply to the public and guide consumers to shift from product safety to psychological security, not Simply show that your product's production process conforms to national standards;if there are certain problems with your own products, companies should organize relevant teams to conduct in-depth research and actively improve, and companies should also go beyond the industry's actual standards to conduct more in-depth research work. Responsible brand companies should guide society to better development."

Domestically and externally, due to the “comprehensive aspect”, the social responsibility work of the Chinese textile and garment industry started earlier, and the overall awareness is relatively high, which belongs to the middle and upper level.” Zhong Hongwu said, “Compared with other industries, the internationalization of the textile and garment industry was early, With a high degree of extroversion, it has been processing international brands for a long time, which has, to a certain extent, promoted the social responsibility of Chinese textile and garment enterprises. When the focus of social responsibility of many domestic companies is still on the donation, the social responsibility of textile and garment enterprises The focus of work has been on substantive issues such as labor rights and production environment."

Judging from the industry's social responsibility work, the China National Textile and Apparel Association initiated and initiated a national-level textile and apparel enterprise social responsibility management system, namely CSC9000T (China Social Compliance 9000 for Textile & Apparel Industry), which is based on relevant Chinese laws and regulations and related international practices. , China's national conditions in line with the Chinese textile enterprise social responsibility management system. It has two versions in 2008 and 2005. In 2008, it added a new chapter on environmental protection. Zhong Hongwu said: “This is a guide to social responsibility provided by the China Textile Industry Association for the industry. This is considered more advanced in various industries in the country.”

Although industry associations have a guiding role in the entire industry's social responsibility work, it is still difficult to play a strong role in the entire industry. How to put environmental protection in social responsibility into practice instead of staying in shouting slogans?

Zhong Hongwu told reporters: "They have to think of ways to cause external factors."

From the perspective of internal factors, companies should first broaden and deepen their understanding of the concept of social responsibility, rather than simply dealing with the media and staying on the surface. Second, companies should see the value of social responsibility. In fact, if an enterprise has put social responsibility in place, It is of great importance for companies to create their own unique brands and gain the trust of consumers.

External factors mainly include the supervision of the state and consumer awareness, companies should be put more pressure. Zhong Hongwu stated that NGO (the English abbreviation for the non-government organization refers to the associations, societies, associations, charitable trusts, non-profit corporations, or other legal entities that are not considered as government departments under a specific legal system. For-profit non-governmental organizations. Actually it plays a very important role in supervision. This is a mainstream phenomenon in the West. With the development of the society, professional organizations in a certain field will put forward higher requirements for the industry, and such professional organizations will slowly influence the legislation through group movements. This kind of thing is also gradually appearing in China.

However, we must see that foreign NGOs can play a role mainly because they can influence consumer behavior. In some advanced Western countries, consumers’ sense of responsibility is very strong. NGO activities and related reports will affect the reputation of the company. Consumers will make choices and “poise with their feet” for poorly performing companies. Exerted great pressure. The environment for responsible consumption in China is not mature. Many consumers are very sensitive to prices, but they do not care about the social responsibility issues such as labor rights and environmental protection of manufacturing companies. This has to a certain extent weakened the effectiveness of China’s NGO actions.