Chemical Management: Are Your Clothes Safe?
PLANET STORIES
HanesBrands was one of the first companies in the apparel industry to have a comprehensive chemical management program, helping us design and manufacture products using safer and more sustainable chemicals.
Owning much of our supply chain has allowed us to directly oversee the use of chemicals in our research and development, as well as production processes.
Since 1991, all chemicals that enter our owned facilities and are used by us to manufacture our products must receive prior corporate approval to ensure they meet regulatory requirements and our own high standards. We also require our suppliers to have chemical management systems and to agree contractually to abide by our comprehensive Restricted Substances List. We audit against this requirement as part of our human rights and responsible sourcing audit protocol.
As part of the hazard and risk-based chemical approval process, HanesBrands has contracted with the chemical management software provider Sphera. We use the Sphera system for our owned facilities to house facility chemical inventories and to scrub all new chemicals against global regulations and against a range of restricted substances lists. Our own Restricted Substances List is based on the American Apparel and Footwear Association list, whose creation was led by HanesBrands and other industry peers. Our Restricted Substances List also incorporates Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) requirements, and we maintain a separate Restricted Substances List specifically for packaging.
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