FIT hosts seminar on sustainability in supply chains

More than 70 industry executives attended the latest of a series of seminars at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, co-hosted by Setlog Corp.: “Sustainability in the global Supply Chain- still a step too far!”

Joan Volpe, Director of Professional Studies at FIT and Ralf Duester, President at Setlog Corp., welcomed the attendees. “Decreasing your air freight proportion from 50% to 5% can save up to 5,569,128 lbs carbon-dioxide per year!” said Duester, presenting a ‘Green Logistics’ model successfully realized in Europe.

To comply with today’s social standards, Anita Househam, Policy and Legal Adviser of the UN Global Compact, stated their 10 principles to a more sustainable and inclusive global economy, split into the four areas Human Rights, Labor, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

Niklas Kirwel, Vice President at Setlog, presented Setlog’s new Vendor Management Tool for CSR and VR (Vendor Rating). “The various CSR initiatives such as WRAP or Fairwear do a solid job in gathering important information, but effectively managing this information is the challenge, we are told. That’s why we applied our extensive workflow and event man-agement expertise to supply this application. You will only get real accountability and com-pliance from your vendors, if you a constantly follow-up!”

How to navigate the supply chain efficiently and authentically was explained by Marci Zaroff, President/CMO at the Portico Brand Group, and Founder of Under the Canopy & FASE. Core aspect of her speech was how ‘Organic Fashion’ should become a part of every-one’s lifestyle. “Reduce – what you can buy; Repair–what you can; Reuse – what you have; Recycle – everything else; Reimagine – a sustainable world” were some examples she gave on how all of us can change the world in small steps.

Rick Horwitch, Vice President, Strategy and Solutions Business Development, at Bureau Veritas described how to manage Social Responsibility in a fluid global sourcing environ-ment. He posed questions such as “do you know if vendors truly meet your requirements and have the capabilities, capacity and processes in place? “ You can and will, if you estab-lish the right policy, trainings, education and communication and support that with the help of an Information Management System like Setlog. Transparency is inevitable for a success-ful CSR management.

The seminar’s conclusion was given by Professor Bernard Kahn of FIT emphasizing the ben-efits of requiring not only general audits, but building an internal and external sensibility about Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Setlog