For Marimekko sustainability means respecting people and the environment in everything we do. Our value “fairness to everyone and everything” crystallises our sustainability thinking. We respect the human rights laid down in the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights in all our operations and we require the same of our suppliers.
Following reports about human rights violations in harvesting cotton in Uzbekistan, Marimekko joined in 2012 the Uzbek Cotton Pledge initiative organized by the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN). The signatories to the pledge committed to not knowingly source Uzbek cotton for the manufacturing of their products. During recent years international organisations have reported about the use of forced and child labour also in Turkmenistan’s cotton harvests. At the end of 2018 the Responsible Sourcing Network thus launched a similar pledge to stop using Turkmen cotton. Marimekko signed the Turkmen Cotton Pledge in February 2019 and committed to not knowingly source Turkmen cotton for its products. The Turkmen Cotton Pledge has thus far been signed by 62 other companies in the textile industry.
We believe that collaboration between various actors in our sector is the best way to bring about positive change. For this reason we are involved in many collaborative initiatives of the textile industry, including the Responsible Sourcing Network and the Better Cotton Initiative.
