Stakeholder engagement Connecting with our stakeholders to drive change

1. We identify stakeholders to understand their relevance to our objectives and material issues.
2. We prioritise our most important stakeholders.
3. We analyse each stakeholder and take their perspective into account to determine the appropriate level of engagement.
4. We maintain an active dialogue with our most relevant stakeholders to understand their views.
5. We include our stakeholders in the implementation process of new strategies and programmes.
6. We incorporate their feedback where appropriate to help us continually improve our strategy.

Our key stakeholder groups

We have identified a number of stakeholder groups across focus areas that include sustainable sourcing, the circular economy, our environmental impact, safe and fair working conditions in our supply chains, inspiring and enabling our customers to act sustainably, and engaging our employees. While this list includes many stakeholder groups we engage on a regular basis, we invite anyone to start a conversation with C&A on any topic. Contact us here.

Partnering for change

The United Nations’ 17th Sustainable Development Goal recognises the value of global partnerships in creating sustainable development. Our partners are critical to helping us develop and achieve our sustainability ambitions and goals. We work with them to inform our strategy and to amplify our work, which aims to drive change across the broader apparel industry. 

C&A Foundation (now Laudes Foundation)

Our most significant partner has been C&A Foundation, which in 2020 became part of the newly launched Laudes Foundation. Together, we continue to deliver groundbreaking projects that make a real difference. Fashion for Good – the world’s first collaborative innovation platform for sustainable fashion — is one recent example: this industry-wide initiative was launched by C&A Foundation, with C&A as one of its first brand partners. Fashion for Good drives the transformation of the fashion industry towards a circular fashion system with the support and collaboration of its leading brand partners. In 2019, we continued our support of Fashion for Good in their mission to transform the apparel sector by supporting the Fashion for Good Accelerator Programme for start-ups and the Scaling Programme to encourage adoption of innovations, as well as contributing to the creation of guides and toolkits, for use in developing Cradle to Cradle Certified^TM apparel and in the Fashion for Good Experience — an interactive museum for sustainable fashion innovation.

Read more about Laudes Foundation and the 2019 C&A Foundation Annual Report

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC)

The vision of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is of an apparel, footwear, and home textiles industry that produces no unnecessary environmental harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities. It plans to achieve this by promoting supply chain transparency and pioneering assessment tools. Our industry focus as one of the founding members of the SAC has led C&A to become one of the main drivers of an update to the Higg Module – a key sustainability tool – which will benefit the apparel sector as a whole. Industry convergence by way of the widespread adoption of the Higg Module is key to the success of the SAC.

Read more about SAC

Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC)

The ZDHC programme aims to advance towards zero discharge of hazardous chemicals in the textile and footwear value chain to improve the environment and people's wellbeing. The ZDHC programme includes a collaboration of 28 signatory brands, 81 value chain affiliates, and 17 associates. Together, we are working to support implementation of safer chemical management practices. C&A was an early signatory to the programme and a founding member of the ZDHC academy.

Read more about ZDHC

ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation)

ACT works to ensure living wages for garment workers in key sourcing countries. Now in its second phase, the multi-stakeholder initiative is establishing programmes and developing responsible purchasing practices for the industry. C&A is a founding member.

Read more about ACT

Dutch Textile Covenant

In 2016, we joined the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile (also known as the Dutch Textile Covenant or the AGT), led by the Government of the Netherlands, industry federations, labour organisations, and civil society. The covenant works to address the most pressing issues in textile-producing countries, such as preventing child labour and improving conditions and wages in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Turkey. The AGT 1.0 is scheduled to conclude at the end of 2021.

Read more about the Dutch Textile Covenant

German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textilbündnis)

Since 2015, we have played an active role in sharing best practice and developing the agenda of the German Federal Government’s Partnership for Sustainable Textiles. This multi-stakeholder initiative seeks to improve social, economic, and environmental outcomes across garment industry supply chains. In 2018, as part of our commitment to the partnership, we updated our roadmap and progress toward our stated goals.

Going forward, we would like to see such national initiatives coordinated at a higher level and incorporated in one Europe-wide initiative that coordinates national efforts and creates convergence in actions and resource allocation for greater impact.

Read more about Textilbündnis

Social and Labour Convergence Project (SLCP)

In our effort to support common industry standards to address current challenges, C&A is part of the Social and Labour Convergence Project (SLCP). This is the most thorough effort to create a converged assessment framework that promotes collaboration, reduces the number of audits suppliers receive, and frees up resources that will be redirected to support remediation and prevention throughout the supply chain. More than 200 members, including brands, multi-stakeholder initiatives, audit firms, and NGOs, support SLCP in its journey. We are coordinating efforts with other 15 brands to scale SLCP for greater positive impacts.

During the year, the SLCP expanded from its Light Operations programme to full operations at approximately 1,200 facilities. C&A's participation expanded in 2019 to 25 facilities, nearly double the previous year. We expect to include 150 facilities in the SLCP programme during 2020.

International partnerships summary