A new report has highlighted exploitation and some unethical behaviour in the footwear industry in Aotearoa with five Kiwi companies flagged with low scores.
The Tearfund research found no New Zealand-based companies had published an emissions reduction plan, weren't transparent on their factory locations and had made no public commitment to pay a living wage.
The worst scores - 0% - were given to Ngahuia Group, trading as Hannahs and Number One Shoes. The report said the company is new to the Ethical Fashion Guide, with neither showing evidence of a climate commitment or remediating exploitation.
Overland Footwear's Merchant 1948, Deuce and Mi Piaci brands scored 13% and only increased their score from zero because of the progress made in using sustainable fibres and trace raw materials.
Allbirds scored highest at 27% after making excellent progress on its climate commitment and good progress using sustainable fibres, the research noted. However, there was no evidence of remediating exploitation, listening to workers or paying the living wage.
Ngahuia Group chief executive Lesley Francis-Ziogas said in a statement it hadn't actively participated in the survey and had instead focused on its team amid the disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic.
"At the time, the business chose not to participate in the 2022 Ethical Fashion Report, rather turning our primary focus on looking after the wellbeing of our people and customers while also focusing on business operations and mitigating any further disruptions to the business.
"Sustainability is incredibly important to our business. We have made significant progress in the areas of packaging, recycling, volume reduction, and closely communicating with all our suppliers to ensure they employ more sustainable practices and do not use modern slavery," Francis-Ziogas said.
Director of Overland Footwear, Louise Anselmi, told 1News, "when invited to make our submission to Tearfund at short notice, we embraced the opportunity to use the outcome to help inform the basis on our Sustainability strategy.
"While our focus for many years has been building our internal culture and becoming New Zealand’s best workplace, for both NZ and AU teams as well as our China team, we recognize the need to increasingly turn our focus to the wider supply chain.
"We are keen to benchmark ourselves against peers in the footwear industry and the Tearfund report will help provide a continual focus for reducing our impact on the environment and making improvements in all aspects of our supply chain."
Tearfund, in collaboration with Baptist World Aid, researched 25 footwear companies representing more than 90 brands and measured their level of disclosure on human rights and environmental policies and practices in their supply chain.
The brands, including clothing, were scored out of 100 based on their performance in the 46-question survey that covers 18 indicators of ethical practice.
Popular brands which received a top score included Adidas, Bonds, Nike and Canterbury of New Zealand. Lowest-scoring brands include Mirrou, Billabong, JeansWest and Birkenstock.
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