Activewear and swimwear manufacturer Active Apparel Group (AAG) committed to a structured approach to reducing environmental impact, across its global operations, through an environmental management system (EMS).
This EMS – which is built using the ISO14001 framework – incorporates environmental policy commitments and has set targets and strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations across the U.S., China and Australia.
Through a third-party audit of its greenhouse gas emissions, AAG has identified the following areas of focus to reduce impact:
- Reducing scope 1 energy use.
- Cutting air freight.
- Reducing water use across its business.
- Ongoing collection and management of production waste.
- Increasing reliance on sustainable materials.
- Continued collection of greenhouse gas data for ongoing improvement.
“AAG has set time-bound and measurable goals in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Daniel Hawker, the CEO of AAG. “We know the majority of the fashion industry’s emissions occur in the supply chain. As manufacturers, we take on this responsibility – we want to not only reduce our own operational emissions but enable our customers to understand and manage their own scope 3 emissions.”
“We want to be part of the solution in moving the industry towards a decarbonized future,” he continued.
AAG’s EMS is designed to be embedded within the operations of the business, with functional ownership of targets established and education of the team prioritized to deliver results on reducing environmental impact.
The EMS is part of AAG’s ongoing Responsible Business Strategy – a company-wide commitment to driving continuous improvement across the areas of governance, social and environmental impact. Other initiatives include:
- Living Wage Audit by Bureau Veritas (AAG pays 100 percent living wage).
- Materiality Assessment.
- Supply Chain Traceability Project.
- Circularity.
- Waste Management.
- Third-party audits such as SMETA, Gold WRAP, the Supplier Qualification program and its Modern Slavery statement.