Lidl have designed and launched the Project for Environmental and Resource Efficiency, or ‘PURE’, a training program in collaboration with GIZ (German Society for International Cooperation), a specialist organisation in sustainability; working alongside factories in Bangladesh and China that manufacture clothing and textile products.

This training program aims to educate and share practical solutions to everyday health, safety and environmental challenges in these facilities. The companies engaging in this scheme can use this training to help continually develop and enforce their own standards. By bettering the working conditions and environmental capabilities inside the factories, this can also create a greater impact on the local communities and surrounding areas.

‘PURE’ has three main goals:

1. Promote safe storage and handling of chemicals

2. Implement measures to reduce water and energy consumption

3. Improvement of waste and waste-water management

Lidl GB openly share all 650 company names and addresses of the facilities that manufacture our textile and footwear products on our website. This list is updated every six months and expresses our continued commitment and accountability to working alongside these facilities.This list can be reviewed here.

Lidl is committed to fair wages in the textile industry

As a major buyer of clothing, textiles and footwear, Lidl takes seriously its responsibility to promoting decent working conditions in manufacturing countries, particularly in relation to promoting living wages.

In November 2019, Lidl became the first discount food retailer to become a member of the “Action, Collaboration, Transformation” (ACT) initiative. ACT is an agreement between global brands, retailers, trade unions and governments to achieve living wages for workers through the process of collective bargaining. Through ACT, retail and brand members commit to adapting their purchasing practices to ensure higher wages for workers.

ACT focusses on global supply chains, where a company like Lidl does not have the direct ability to set wages. On average, workers in these industries earn between 42% and 55% of what is understood to be the living wage benchmark, leaving them vulnerable to further rights violations, such as forced labour or child labour. 

In order to achieve fair wages, Lidl, through its participation in ACT, ensures purchasing volumes within its textile supply chain are agreed for a fixed time-period, preventing manufacturers from moving production to countries with lower labour costs when the opportunity arises. In addition to this, Lidl commits to integrating the wage levels agreed through the collective bargaining process into its buying contracts, starting initially in the key sourcing countries of Cambodia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Turkey.

Through its commitment to ACT, Lidl is taking concrete steps to improve conditions for workers in its global supply chains, fulfilling its promise to customers of responsible and sustainable sourcing.

"The involvement of companies like Lidl is particularly important, due to its high buying volumes and great influence on suppliers in Asia. ACT members want to work together to improve purchasing practices, thereby enforcing living wages in the clothing industry and striving for necessary change." Frank Hoffer, Executive Director ACT

Learn more about ACT here.

Many of us do not consider how clothes and shoes are manufactured or what resources are needed to make our favourite basic essentials or high-fashion indulgences. Through every stage of the the clothing production process, chemicals are introduced to improve product quality, as well as making items unique and desirable. Chemicals are used to colour clothing and also to make them functional.

However, through textile supply chains it can be difficult to monitor overall chemical usage and therefore understanding effects this chemical-use can have on the environment and human health is crucial.

We recognise the urgent need to eliminate the industrial release of all hazardous chemicals. In response to this, since 2014 we have pledged to meet the goals of Greenpeace’s Detox Commitment, to eliminate the discharge of all hazardous chemicals (including PFCs and APEOs) from the whole lifecycle and all production procedures of apparel and footwear products no later than 2020. For us, this commitment provides the framework for a long-term vision.

Read more about the Greenpeace Detox Campaign here.

In 2019 Lidl launched a textile collection as a pilot project for the first time, which has been awarded the Cradle to Cradle Certified ™ (C2C) product standard in gold and silver. Together with the CHT Group, EPEA GmbH and the Beneficial Design Institute, Lidl has implemented completely biodegradable printing pastes for textiles.

The 'Cradle to Cradle’ concept describes the vision of a ‘waste-free economy’ in which raw materials are reused in closed cycles. Cradle to Cradle aims to drive intelligent product design that takes into account the full recycling of the product and its components, and selects chemicals and ingredients that are good for human health and the environment.

To be certified to C2C five considerations have to be implemented throughout production including:

• Material health
• Material reutilization
• Renewable energy
• Carbon management
• Water stewardship
• Social fairness

When manufacturing our Cradle to Cradle Certified ™ textile collections, all aspects are checked by independent experts for resource effectiveness and recyclability - from the effective use of raw materials to the use of chemicals to keeping water clean and the use of renewable energy.

Due to the risks associated with illegal deforestation and high-chemical usage for the production of generic viscose, Lidl have made the commitment to switching all own-brand textile products that contain viscose to LENZING™ ECOVERO™. This ensures our products are made from a more eco-friendly form of viscose, which has improved environmental standards in comparison to generic viscose and traditional manufacturing methods. For example, 50% less water is used during the production of LENZING™ ECOVERO™, chemicals are recycled back into the fibre production and the raw material comes from sustainably-managed forests and plantations.

Lidl has been working with LENZING™ since 2013 as a supplier of TENCEL™ modal and TENCEL™ lyocell. These more sustainable fabrics are used across various ranges including underwear, outer garments, sportswear and home textiles.

To find out more about this commitment, please visit our Timber & Wood page.