Cellulosic Fiber Policy

I. Vision

Abercrombie & Fitch Co. is committed to being an environmentally responsible company. We seek to continually improve resource efficiency, protect the environment and respect human rights, while returning value to our customers, associates and stockholders. We encourage our associates, supply chain partners and customers to join us in supporting a more sustainable world.

A&F Co. is collaborating with industry partners to improve supply chain sourcing practices in a manner that will help protect endangered forests and impacted communities around the world.

This Policy outlines our commitment to the responsible sourcing of regenerated cellulosic fibers, such as viscose and rayon, through an enumeration of Policy Elements and Action Items.

II. Scope

By the middle of 2018, we commit to establishing due diligence processes and tracking systems in order to improve traceability and bring our global supply chain sourcing practices for each of our house brands into compliance with our Policy Elements by eliminating from our global operations those suppliers that fail to comply.

III. Policy Elements

A&F Co. strives to collaborate with its supply chain partners to:

  • Ensure that our regenerated cellulosic fibers are not sourced from ancient and endangered forests1 or high-risk sources2.
  • When reasonably possible in low risk areas, source regenerated cellulosic fiber from credibly certified forests/plantations and, in all high risk areas, source regenerated cellulosic fibers from forests/plantations that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
  • Avoid sourcing products from suppliers linked to illegal practices, corruption or from those that violate the rights of indigenous peoples and/or human rights3.
  • Work to eliminate sourcing from companies that are logging forests illegally, from tree plantations established after 1994 through the conversion or simplification of natural forests, from areas being logged in contravention of indigenous and local peoples’ rights, or from other controversial suppliers.
  • Work with Canopy and our suppliers to support collaborative and visionary solutions that protect remaining ancient and endangered forests in the Coastal Temperate Rainforests on Vancouver Island and the Great Bear Rainforest, Canada’s Boreal Forests, and Indonesia’s Rainforests.
  • Confirm supply chain partners are meeting vendor sourcing requirements through such methods as independent verification, including third-party certification systems, independent audits, declaration forms, information from credible third parties and/or others.

IV. Action Items

A&F Co. will work with stakeholders to assess its supply chain, procurement and verification systems and implement the following Action Items to achieve the above-stated Policy Elements:

  • Publish this Policy on our corporate website and communicate it to our supply chain partners through our Master Vendor Agreement.
  • Continue to map our cellulosic-based supply chain partners by requiring them to disclose their wood/pulp suppliers, country and forest/plantation of origin.
  • Develop due diligence tools and systems to identify supply chain partners that are not aligned with our Policy Elements – e.g., sourcing from ancient or endangered forests, committing illegal or corrupt practices or violating A&F Co.’s published Human Rights policy – and engage them to become aligned by the middle of 2018 or re-evaluate our relationship with them.
  • Establish performance metrics to measure our supply chain partners’ efforts to source cellulosic fibers in a manner that is aligned with our Policy Elements.
  • Publicly report the company’s progress on implementing the policy, for example, on our corporate website.
  • By 2020, shift to more environmentally and socially beneficial fabrics by sourcing new viscose and other manmade cellulosic fiber lines from sources shown to be lower risk and not coming from ancient and endangered forests.
  • Collaborating with innovative companies and suppliers so that by 2025, vendors commit to preferentially sourcing 50% alternative and innovative viscose fiber products if they are commercially viable.
  1. We define ancient and endangered forests as the Canadian and Russian Boreal, Great Bear Rainforest, Coastal Temperate Rainforests, tropical forests and peatlands of Indonesia and the Amazon Rainforest, with the exception of FSC-certified forest areas.
  2. High risk sources are defined using the UN-World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators.
  3. As defined within the ILO Core Conventions.