Partnership Policy

At OMNES, we are dedicated to operating a responsible and transparent business, making every effort possible to ensure our work does not impact the environment or the people we work with in a negative way. We seek to align with likeminded companies and organisations who are also striving to make a positive difference in the fashion industry, and who want to show how it can be done differently. This means we are committed to working closely with trusted partners across our supply chain, and building transparent, honest, and mutually beneficial relationships.

Our Partnership Policy serves as our Code of Conduct, outlining the social responsibility, animal welfare and environmental management standards we expect to be upheld by any businesses, organisations, and suppliers that we work with. This is a journey of continuous improvement, and while these are the minimum standards we expect to be upheld, we hope that together we can exceed these expectations.

All suppliers must commit in writing to following our Partnership Policy in order to do business with OMNES. It includes a number of expectations divided by planet, people and product, summarised below.

Planet

Waste

As much as possible, suppliers should make every attempt to reduce, recycle, upcycle, or reuse any waste produced during the manufacturing process of OMNES garments. Waste that cannot be used in any other way should be disposed of responsibly.

Water

Suppliers should practise responsible water management; minimising water use wherever possible and ensuring no polluted water is released into local waterways.

Chemicals

Hazardous chemicals should be eliminated from the production process in line with current REACH standards. Procedures and standards for waste management, handling and disposal of chemicals and other dangerous materials, emissions and effluent treatment must comply with or exceed environmental laws.

Energy Use & Emissions

Suppliers should be working towards reducing their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, utilising renewable energy wherever possible.

People

We are dedicated to ensuring safe, fair and ethical working conditions for all workers employed directly or indirectly across our supply chain. We ask all suppliers to adhere to the following expectations, which are based upon the ETI Base Code - an internationally recognised code of labour practices founded on the conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

The points below apply to the whole supply chain, including sub-suppliers and subcontractors. This is also relevant to permanent, temporary, and agency workers, as well as piece-rate, salaried, hourly, part time, night workers, homeworkers and migrant workers. We expect our suppliers to ensure that this code is communicated to all stakeholders in the local language.

All suppliers will be asked to provide an in-date audit of their factory when requested.

Employment is voluntary

All work must be carried out at the worker’s free will, and our suppliers should guarantee there is no forced or involuntary labour including prison labour, indentured labour, bonded labour and any other forms of forced labour of modern slavery.

Child labour should not be used

We take a zero-tolerance approach to both forced labour and child labour. There shall be no new recruitment of child labour. All suppliers working for us must comply with our strict anti-child-labour policy.

Working conditions must be safe

All suppliers working with us must provide a safe and healthy working environment for staff that meets applicable laws and regulations. The supplier must ensure all employees feel safe and have not been subject to any discrimination whilst at work or during the hiring process.

Living wages should be paid

We are a Living Wage employer, meaning we pay all direct and contract staff the living wage rate for their region. We are proud of this commitment, and we encourage all our suppliers and contractors to consider implementing the Living Wage in their respective region.

Working hours are not excessive

The supplier will not require workers to work more than the regular and overtime hours allowed by the law of the country where the workers are employed. The regular work week will not exceed 48 hours. All overtime work will be consensual.

Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are respected

Workers, without distinction, have the right to join or form trade unions of their own choosing and to bargain collectively. The employer adopts an open attitude towards the activities of trade unions and their organisational activities.

Product

Animal welfare

We believe that animals should be treated humanely and with respect at all times, which is why we do not use animal skins, silk, fur, feathers, down, angora, mohair or horn buttons in our collections.

We do, however, prioritise natural fibres as we strive to select materials with the lowest possible environmental impact, and as such are in support of using wool. But the welfare of the sheep it comes from is paramount and we expect our suppliers to support us in ensuring high welfare standards by only using mulesing-free, Responsible Wool Standard (RWS) certified, certified recycled or certified organic wool in our collections.

Fabric sourcing

We seek to work with fabric mills that have signed up as part of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition – an organisation committed to measuring and improving social and environmental sustainability impacts. In designing our garments, we prioritise natural, recycled and deadstock fabrics wherever possible, and require globally recognised certifications to assure social and environmental standards.

Traceability

We push for traceability as far as possible, and expect suppliers to be able to specify the different partners in their supply chains, ideally back to where crops were grown. Many of the certifications we require are based on a chain of custody model which means traceability is easier.