Tailored Brands Inc. is in the midst of developing its first formal sustainability strategy, with plans for a phased-in approach over five to 10 years.
The men’s wear retailer provided an update on its plans in its just released 2018 sustainability report.
Executive chairman Dinesh Lathi, said, “At Tailored Brands, we are aware that we have a responsibility to serve a greater purpose, and we are committed to social responsibility and environmental stewardship throughout our company.” Lathi, who was non-executive chairman, became executive chairman in August 2018.
Tailored Brands in the report emphasized its transparency to stakeholders, which include investors, business partners and consumers.
“Consumers are looking to brands for more than just a product. This includes increased interest in where products come from and how they are made, as well as disclosures regarding other sustainability topics,” the company noted. Tailored Brands also said it received the Distribution Business Management Association’s 2018 Circle of Excellence Award in recognition of the company’s “sustainable supply chain management, commitment to social responsibility and environmental stewardship.”
On the supply chain component of its operations, the material priorities for the men’s wear retailer are a focus on human rights, worker health and safety and supplier working conditions. The company said it contracts with responsible vendors around the world to ensure products are “manufactured in accordance with acceptable environmental, legal and ethical standards.” The company also noted that in striving to be a “good citizen” of the planet, it regularly evaluates its supply chain processes to minimize environmental impact.
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M”We regularly monitor activity in this area through direct audits or through the use of [third-party] auditors,” the company noted. “In addition, we regularly review our vendor base and volumes from source countries and evaluate alternate source countries and emerging markets as well as develop contingency plans to react to various economic or geo-political barrier that may arise.”
Monitoring of its suppliers is based on the Supplier Code of Conduct the company developed. The Code includes compliance with local laws, rules and regulations, such as minimum wages and benefits, hours to be worked, no forced labor. Further, working environments must be safe and healthy. Corporal punishment is not allowed, and worker’s rights of free association must be respected.
The Code is posted in each supplier site, and auditors use it to make sure the standards set by Tailored Brands are implemented. “We will not partner with suppliers and factories that are unwilling or unable to work with us to achieve our compliance standards,” the company noted.
Tailored Brands uses recyclable totes instead of corrugate for internal movement of product inside the distribution centers, for one. And regionalization of its distribution network, it noted, allows “significant parts of the business to be shifted to other location in order to provide business continuity.”
As for overall operations, Tailored Brands’ corporate office in Houston, Tex. is LEED certified, and the company has also completed a route design and optimization for the distribution of merchandise to reduce the use of fossil fuels. It also uses green practices in dry cleaning of tuxedo rental garments for its Men’s Wearhouse, Jos. A. Bank and Moores businesses. The company said in 2018 it cleaned more than three million garments using the Green Earth silicone solvent.