Hello,
Setting the standard
in ethical sourcing.
Doing the
right thing.
We’re confident we’ve developed the most sustainable and ethical supply chain in our industry, backed up by strong independent accreditations. Since 2006, we’ve been a member of Sedex (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange), one of the world’s leading ethical trade service providers, as part of our commitment to improving the working conditions in global supply chains.
Our work so far has resulted in us becoming the first UK schoolwear supplier to set Sedex 4-Pillar as the minimum audit standard for all our suppliers to comply with. This means all our suppliers are independently assessed to the highest requirements in crucial areas such as fair pay, labour standards, health & safety, business ethics and environmental impact.
To find out more about our supply chain achievements and commitments, view our latest sustainability report.
What we're striving for...
One:
Achieve greater transparency of the environmental impacts of our supply chain.
Two:
Continue to measure our full Scope 3 carbon footprint on an annual basis and work closely with suppliers to help them measure their carbon footprint.
Three:
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, water usage and waste across our supplier factories. All suppliers are required to comply with Banner’s new supplier standards.
Four:
Better understand our raw materials footprint with full traceability of our end-to-end sourcing operations, including the sourcing of yarn, trims from the mills and dye houses.
Five:
Reduce plastic packaging and remove single-use plastic from our global supply chain, working with academic experts at Heriot Watt university to accelerate this journey.
Six:
Expand our overseas supply base by opening up the tendering process to more factories and engaging with new ones that meet our new standards. This process incorporates an increased emphasis on sustainability. Points awarded for sustainability have increased from 9% to 20% of the total points available.
Seven:
Implement secondary sourcing on more products to reduce risk and continue to manage fabric supply and quality for our customers closely.
Eight:
Maintain the same level of accountability in terms of ethical and environmental standards for our retail supply chain.
Better cotton
At Banner, we are dedicated to improving cotton farming practices globally with Better Cotton. Their mission is to help cotton communities survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment.
Better Cotton is sourced via a system of mass balance and is not physically traceable to end products.
We are committed to sourcing 50% of our cotton as Better Cotton by 2025.
Between 1st January 2022 – 31st December 2022, we have achieved a 21.52% Better Cotton uptake, so we are almost halfway towards achieving our 2025 goal.
Accreditations &
memberships
We’re proud to hold the following accreditations and memberships, which demonstrate our commitment to becoming an even more environmentally and socially responsible business. They mean a lot to our customers and us.
We have changed our company articles of association to meet the legal requirement to become a B Corp, to recognise that we now operate for the benefit of people, the planet and the community, not just profit and committed to support The Better Business Act campaign.
