Treading lightly

Mary Rayner looks at whose toes the shoe shops are stepping on.

Despite pressure from campaigners, shoe shops are still dragging their heels over ensuring fair labour standards at supplier factories. Campaign groups have taken a two-pronged approach to tackle this, on the one hand investigating and publicly criticising instances of poor practice and, on the other, working with companies to develop codes of conduct.

Naming & shaming

Labour rights groups have continued to work hard at revealing terrible working conditions at 'sweatshops' in developing countries. Earlier this year, China Labor Watch produced a damning report on a Chinese factory producing for high-street stalwart Clarks. Allegations of verbal and physical harassment, fines, abusive treatment and non-payment of overtime were reported. (1)

The debate over buying Chinese goods is examined on the Eco Worrier page this issue. Evidence suggests that, as unionisation is effectively illegal in China, Chinese-made goods may have come from factories with little respect for their workforce. We found there is a real lack of country-of-origin labelling, making it hard for ethical consumers to make an informed decision. Office was the only one to disclose this information on its own-brand shoes. All stores with an ethiscore of 13 or lower stock goods from China.

Making progress?

The implementation of independently monitored codes of conduct, with provisions for collective bargaining, is the only way the footwear industry can convince consumers of its progress on workers' rights. Sadly, none of the high-street retailers covered in this report have taken this step.

• High-street retailers with no code of conduct: Russell & Bromley, Jones Bootmaker, Office, Schuh, Shoe Express, Stead & Simpson, Dolcis and PriceLess.
• Code of conduct, but no independent monitoring or provision for collective bargaining: Clarks, Ravel (both C&J Clark).

Ethical Wares, although a small company, receives the worst rating under Code of Conduct as it did not disclose to us where its footwear was made, and did not provide any information on provisions for workers' rights. Most of the footwear sold by My Vegan Shoes is made in China, and although we found short statements about workers' rights, again these did not include details on independent monitoring.

Vegetarian Shoes source almost all of their footwear from English or European factories, so receive a clear mark. Even better are Freerangers, Green Shoes and Guat Shoes, who make all of their shoes themselves. Although more expensive, they do reflect the 'real cost' of manufacturing.

Materials

The choice between seemingly ?natural' leather, and the corresponding animal welfare considerations, and man made, sometimes toxic, non-animal alternatives has always been a difficult one for ethical consumers. We take a brief look at the issues involved.

Leather

The skins of animals are the "most economically important coproduct of the multibillion-dollar meat industry" according to animal rights group PETA. (2) Cows are often subject to crowded, uncomfortable conditions and subjected to painful procedures. Transport and slaughter can also be a traumatic experience.

Feeding, housing and transporting livestock puts huge pressure on the environment. The tanning of leather - essential to keep it supple and waterproof - can be highly polluting too. Tanning is done by one of two main methods: 'chrome' or the traditional 'vegetable' method. Effluents released from chrome tanneries contain large amounts of pollutants, such as salt, lime sludge, sulphides, and acids. (3) Although more time-consuming, vegetable tanning involves the use of naturally-occurring materials derived from tree bark and various other plants. (4) Guat Shoes make a range in vegetable tanned leather.

Animal-friendly

The cheapest and most widely-available alternative is the plastic PVC. Greenpeace put it at the very top of their harmful plastics pyramid, saying it "is unique in its high chlorine and additives content, which makes it an environmental poison throughout its life cycle". (5) As PVC is linked to a wealth of environmental and health problems, we recommend avoiding it wherever possible. This can be a difficult task, due again to poor labelling. Many non-leather shoes are simply labelled 'Other materials', to cover a range of synthetic fibres. We'd like to see manufacturers legally obliged to label all goods made from PVC.

Many people are unhappy wearing PVC shoes as they don't allow feet to breathe. However, a material called 'lorica', produced from the plastic polyurethane (PU), does. It apparently has excellent wear properties, improving with age like leather. Freerangers, Vegetarian Shoes, My Vegan Shoes, Green Shoes and Guat Shoes all stock or make PU shoes.

Alternatives guide

Thankfully, there are some great alternatives to the high street out there. The highest scoring brands on the table (with ethiscores of 13.5 or higher) tend to carry out the majority of their sales online or through catalogues.

Links

• China Labor Watch - chinalaborwatch.org
• Greenpeace plastics pyramid - archive.greenpeace.org/toxics/pvcdatabase/bad
• PETA - cowsarecool.com 020 7357 9229

References

1 "The Kingmaker Company's Factory in Zhuhai, China: Stolen Wages, Unfair Labor Practices", China Labor Watch, 06/05
2 www.cowsarecool.com/cows.asp, viewed 18/11/05
3 www.cowsarecool.com/environment.asp, viewed 18/11/05
4 www.ldsleather.com/leather_tutorial.html, viewed 18/11/05
5 archive.greenpeace.org/toxics/pvcdatabase/bad, viewed 18/11/05
6 Caterpillar: the alternative report: 14/06/05
7 Burma Campaign UK website www.burmacampaign.org.uk: Coming Clean British Clothing Retailers and Burma, 16/12/03
8 Environment Agency Spotlight on Business Environmental Performance: Environmental Performance 2001
9 Clean Clothes Campaign newsletter: 17/12/03