Our goal is to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals used in the manufacturing processes and to replace them with safer alternatives. The ZDHC Manufacturing Restricted Substance List (MRSL) and Wastewater Guidelines as well as the ALDI Restricted Substances List (RSL) are key tools for this activity and form part of all relevant contracts with our business partners. These documents define substances, which should not be used at all or only to a limited extent for the production of merchandise intended for ALDI. While the ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines define threshold levels for chemical residues contained in wastewater and sludge generated by the production facilities, the ALDI RSL defines threshold levels for the finished products.

In the past five years, we have achieved a significant reduction in the use of hazardous chemicals through substitution and elimination. This has also lead to improved wastewater and sludge testing results, and better chemical management. In addition, we are actively removing non-compliant business partners and production facilities from our supply chain.  

The successful implementation of responsible chemical and environmental management practices requires the collection and analysis of large amounts of data, supported by ALDI’s internal production facility database. An internal monitoring, verification, and rating system for production facilities helps us to ensure compliance with our requirements for every order.

We receive production facility data prior to delivery of the merchandise and then perform a plausibility check. In 2019, results of the wastewater and sludge analyses for 99% of our wet-production facilities were made available to us. Suppliers upload these analysis reports to the publicly accessible Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) platform. Our Corporate Responsibility Units in Asia regularly verify the provided supply chain information and compliance with our requirements during onsite assessments. As an additional important step towards increased supply chain transparency, we require all suppliers to make their supply chains and environmental performance visible to us via the amfori BEPI (Business Environmental Performance Initiative) platform.

In 2020, we also started to publish our main production facilities for textiles and shoes on the platform of the Open Apparel registry (OAR). The platform provides a range of information, including country of origin for cotton, the name and location of suppliers responsible for each major production step, as well as information on product care, recycling and the textile cycle in general.

We are integrating the chemical management performance of our business partners into our annual Corporate Responsibility Supplier Evaluation (CRSE) for garment textiles. This process increasingly influences our buying decisions and provides guidance to our business partners for improving their social and environmental supply chain performance. The CRSE supports long-term relationships with those business partners who demonstrate a strong sustainability record and provides incentives for continuous improvement.

We strive to be proactive and transparent by maintaining open dialogue with our stakeholder groups through engagement in various partnerships, working groups and initiatives. Together we increase our understanding, select and develop tools that fit our approach and harmonise our requirements with other retailers to drive efficient improvement of chemical management practices across our supply chains. Through amfori’s Business Environmental Performance Initiative (BEPI), we align on diverse issues, including shared chemical management audit protocols. We also support common standards and training approaches through our engagement with the Leather Working Group (LWG) and the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles.

We regularly inform our stakeholders and the wider public through progress reports and updates on our next steps with respect to environmental and chemical management in our textile and shoe supply chains. This also included our international ALDI Detox Summit in 2016, which was attended by over 400 stakeholders including representatives from NGOs, scientific institutions, governmental organisations and business partners.

We want to understand all the different stages of the production process to help us increase our knowledge and capability to deliver better chemical management. We conduct internal and external training and workshops for Corporate Buying, Quality Assurance, Corporate Responsibility Departments, business partners and selected production facilities.

One example are the Advanced Chemical Management Training that we have been piloting in collaboration with our regional CR Offices in Dhaka and Hong Kong since 2019. This training is jointly implemented with other brands, the German development agency GIZ and our business partners and help production facilities improve their competencies through peer learning and individual support.

We support systemic change within society, which will affect our business, our product design, our suppliers, and also our customers. This change focusses on the promotion of more sustainable products and production processes as well as on responsible consumption behaviour. It ranges from banning hazardous chemicals, improving product lifecycles and increasing recycling efforts.