We are on a mission to keep cotton farmers safe —The importance of partnerships

No one is an island — therefore, we like to team up with many different organizations to increase our sustainability efforts.

The organizations we have chosen to partner with have their specific aims aligned with Nudie Jeans’ sustainability work. Our daily operations’ most crucial networks are our memberships with STICA, RISE, Fair Wear Foundation, and Textile Exchange. But we also have topic-specific organizations such as Chetna Coalition for the organic cotton we source in India, Amnesty for the work on Human Rights, and most lately, the Supply Network Intelligence Program – Sag Salim for the cotton farmers in Turkey.

Sag Salim is a unique project that Outland Denim (Australia) has started together with the Precision Solutions Group (PSG) and denim supplier Bossa — and we are among the first brands to join! It is a grievance program that allows cotton farmers and cotton pickers in the Izmir-Aegean region in Turkey to hand in complaints (basically all cotton we buy from Bossa, Isko, and Orta comes from this region). All complaints are handled by the PSG, which collaborates with local organizations.

This system creates visibility in a part of the supply chain that we have not had before. We can get insights as to whether there is any risk of non-compliance on the cotton fields, for example, if the farmers have received the correct payment or not. A project like this, where all stakeholders can work out the best solution for remediation, is a practical step of implementing the policy we have on Human rights and anti-slavery.

We are very excited about this and hope that this will further strengthen our sustainability work and impact Turkish laws and regulations.