March 16, 2016

Mountain Hardwear

At Mountain Hardwear we value ethical, sustainable manufacturing practices and are committed to assuring that the partners with whom we do business share these values. We believe that a rigorous approach to social responsibility is an important step towards maximizing social value in the supply chain. We measure and manage our social impact through our Standards of Manufacturing Practices program (SMP) that is focused on three key pillars: Monitoring, Training and Engagement.

STANDARDS OF MANUFACTURING PRACTICES

At the heart of our Social Responsibility program is our Standards of Manufacturing Practices program (SMP). The SMP outlines standards that support our values of ethical, fair treatment of people and sustainable manufacturing practices in the following areas:

Forced Labor
Child Labor
Harassment or Abuse
Nondiscrimination
Freedom of Association
Wages and Benefits
Hours of Work
Health & Safety
Environment
Ethical Conduct

MONITORING, TRAINING AND ENGAGEMENT

Independent factories producing Mountain Hardwear products are monitored regularly with respect to our SMP standards in addition to local labor laws and International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions. we maintain a team of employees who are CR Specialists located within the countries where our products are manufactured. These employees conduct regular, unannounced audits of our suppliers to ensure compliance with our SMP. Conducting unannounced audits allows our staff to see factory conditions as they are on a typical day.

Our CR Specialists work hand-in-hand with our internal supply chain teams to provide input regarding the selection of new suppliers as well as on-going business decisions with existing partners. This enables us to make business decisions that consistently reflect our values.

We also provide training and capacity building programs designed to encourage suppliers to further develop skills to effectively remediate and enhance overall performance and compliance. We do this by partnering with service providers to offer consulting and workshops that teach suppliers techniques to enhance management systems in areas like:

Human Resources Management
Communications
Production Efficiency

In addition to working with service providers, we leverage industry partnerships to support and capitalize on resources developed by non-governmental and non-profit organizations. Better Work and HERproject are examples of such programs.

UN International Labor Organization (ILO) Better Work Program

Better Work is a unique partnership program between the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The program aims to improve both compliance with labor standards and competitiveness in global supply chains. Better Work involves the development of both global tools and country-level projects, with a focus on scalable and sustainable solutions that build cooperation between governments, employers’ and workers’ organizations and international buyers.