Committees and Work Groups

Committee bringing together the leaders of the legal areas of retailers to debate and align legal issues in a national and regional scope. To strengthen the claims and topics developed in this groups, ABVTEX seeks to become close to Government and sector bodies.

This WG is mainly aimed at Social Responsibility in the Supply chain and its main objective is to develop the ABVTEX Program in supporting the formalization of companies and tackling slave-like and child labor. Given the growing importance of the issue of Responsible Sourcing, countless investment and effort has been made in recent years, such as:

Improvements in the Program Information System

Developing IT solutions to make the Program’s software platform more robust and optimize it with new modules, performance and reports.

New Regulation and checklist

To strengthen the Program, there are new and updated Regulations and a check-list.

Certification Diagnostics Project

In-depth research with structured interviews (qualitative and quantitative) with stakeholders involved in the Program. Benchmarking analysis with currently-applied practice by the best reference programs in the world.

Audit Training and Quality

Investment in audit management undertaken in the ABVTEX program aim to encourage qualitative improvement in the processes, both for greater control and tracking and for the auditors’ quality of work. Auditors’ training is given face to face and distance to align their understanding of Program criteria and requisites and the implementation of the Audit Manual.

Workshops

Signature company CEOs and representatives have come together to construct the strategic planning for the ABVTEX Program for the next five years. Auditors also take part in audit-alignment workshops.

Efforts regarding aspects of sustainability and product quality are visible throughout the textile chain:

Children’s Clothing Safety

Actively participated in creating the children’s clothing safety NBR (Brazilian Regulatory Standard) in 2015 (ABNT NBR 16365). Constant dialogue with the ABNT (Brazilian Association of Technical Standards) seeking to update the Standard.

Standardizing Body Measurements

Intensification of discussions on standardizing measurements. The group acted decisively in this issue by presenting proposals for improvement and participating in constructing specific standards, adapting them to retail expectations, together with other bodies such as ABIT and ABNT.

Chemical Substance Use Standard

The WG participated actively in leading this initiative and contributed technical knowledge to creating a voluntary Standard in the use of chemical substances to be adopted by companies in the Brazilian textile industry, applied to raw material and to finished products for local consumption.

Project: Continuous Improvement of Suppliers

This project is being structured within the WG with the aim of sectorial qualification for suppliers of member retailers in their productive processes and product quality systems.

This Work Group argues for reducing the bureaucracy of the import process and keeping the market open to international trade. It discusses relevant actions that could positively impact retailers’ international transactions and avoid the creation of new obstacles to importing fashion articles. The committee monitors issues that could impact the flow of goods imported by retail companies and provoke shortages in some types of products.