Marimekko has strong values, which we call the Marimekko Spirit. One of our values, “fairness to everything and everyone” crystalizes our sustainability thinking and extends to our own personnel and our customers, as well as our partners around the world – for example, to workers who manufacture Marimekko products. The sustainability of our supply chain is important to us, as bringing joy to everyday life through prints and colors must not be at the expense of others.
We are committed to respecting human rights in all our operations. Our approach to human rights is based on the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). According to them, in addition that the governments have the obligation to protect human rights, companies have a responsibility to respect human rights and to avoid impacting human rights negatively in all their operations.
Respect for human rights is included in Marimekko’s Supplier Code of Conduct and the supplementing Product Policies. Supplier Code of Conduct includes strict principles for example against child labor and forced labor, the right for the workers to organize and the right to equal treatment.
Our due diligence approach for human rights is based on careful supplier assessment and selection as well as contractual obligations imposed on partner suppliers. Marimekko is a member of the European amfori BSCI initiative, which provides tools for monitoring and improving working conditions in global supply chains. Monitoring of suppliers is conducted through independent third-party audits performed mainly in factories located outside Europe, in countries considered higher risk, factory visits by Marimekko employees as well as questionnaires to suppliers for example regarding the origin of materials used. Corrective actions identified through monitoring are followed-up regularly with suppliers. Our relevant employees receive training on responsible sourcing practices and human rights topics.
We recognize that the risks of human rights violations in their supply chain extend from the suppliers with whom we have a business relationship, further, to raw material producers. We continuously develop our processes for assessing human rights impacts and risks, mitigating negative human rights impacts and, if identified, addressing these impacts. In the long term we aim at full transparency of our operations and supply chain, starting with raw materials.
Children’s rights are important to us, and we do not accept the use of child labor. We recognize that, for example, in certain cotton farming areas there is a risk for the use of child or forced labor. For this reason, we have joined the international Cotton Pledge initiatives by Responsible Sourcing Network. We do not accept materials, in particular cotton, from very high-risk areas. Very high-risk areas are defined in our Product Policy.
The amfori BSCI Code of Conduct and our Supplier Code of Conduct both include the principle of fair remuneration, sufficient to provide workers with a decent living and meet their and their family’s basic needs. The legal minimum wages set by various countries or wages based on collective agreements are sometimes not enough to meet this requirement. We at Marimekko are committed to promoting a living wage for the workers in our supply chain. As the issue is multifaceted and involves a range of stakeholders from businesses to legislators and local unions or other worker representatives, we believe that the best way to advance the objective is through collaboration. As a member of the amfori BSCI, we support their initiatives aimed at promoting the realization of living wages in supply chains. Read more about amfori BSCI’s approach.
It is challenging to ensure that human rights are fully respected through our value chain, but we are determinedly and persistently working on the transparency of our sourcing and on developing the production conditions together with our suppliers.
All documents related to our sourcing, such as a list of our partner suppliers, Supplier Code of Conduct and Product Policy, you can find on the guiding principles page.