Three international fashion brands with a strong presence in Taiwan have been commended in Greenpeace’s 2016 Detox Catwalk report for their efforts to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their clothes, the group said yesterday.
The three brands — Zara, Benetton and H&M — are ahead of the field, leading the fashion industry toward a toxic-free future by setting credible timelines, taking concrete action and achieving on-the-ground implementation, Greenpeace said.
This year, the organization assessed 19 fashion and sportswear brands worldwide based on their efforts to achieve transparency across their supply chains by publishing their wastewater data and their lists of suppliers and seeking to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their products.
Zara, Benetton and H&M, which all have several stores in Taiwan, were named “Detox Avant-Garde” enterprises this year, it said.
The report showed that the other 16 fashion and sportswear brands assessed this year were not making fast enough progress.
Greenpeace said 12 of the Detox committed brands, including Mango, Adidas, Levi’s, Valentino and Puma, were still in “evolution mode” and needed to improve their performance in at least two of the three key assessment areas.
Greenpeace said the other four brands, including Esprit and Nike, were put in the “faux pas” category because they have not accepted individual responsibility for their hazardous chemical pollution or implemented the urgent steps needed to achieve the goal of eliminating hazardous chemicals from their products by 2020.
Chen Ling-yao (陳玲瑤), manager of Greenpeace’s pollution prevention project, said that more than 76 international brands and supply chains had committed to publishing their wastewater data and setting a timetable for phasing out the use of toxic chemicals in their products.
The publication of the Detox Catwalk is a reminder to those enterprises to remain committed to eliminating chemical pollution, Chen said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS