CSR Newsletter Nien Hsing Group
#1, Jan–Feb 2016
Nien Hsing Group CSR Newsletter 2016-1 1
Celebrate the
Year
2015 has been a year full of challenges and changes for the Nien Hsing Group, and with 2016 almost 2 months old already, we are excited for what the year has in store.
Not only have we kicked off our corporate social compliance on a high note; we are hard at work at developing and implementing some great new programmes. With direct and constant support from headquarters, we are actualizing key performance indicators for all our factories, tightening standards and quality, investing in capacity building, and extending our reach to workers’ communities through our worker well-being programmes. Allow us then to update you every couple of months on a few events and initiatives in the CSR realm at the Nien Hsing Group via this e-newsletter. A lot of hard work for the company and the factories lies ahead, and we are ever grateful for the support from all our partners, colleagues, friends and family. « Nien Hsing Group CSR Newsletter 2016-1 2
Higg Index With every new initiative comes new challenges, and the Higg Index has been no different. With a big dose (and at times a lot) of confusion over its purpose and how to proceed, we have finally gotten the hang of it. With the majority of the Nien Hsing Group factories completing the Higg Index in 2015, and a couple verified, we are extending the Higg Index to cover all our garment factories for 2016—the main focus currently still the Environmental Module. All related personnel at the factories have received training on how to complete the Higg Index, and all have been updated on the expectations for version 3 of the Higg Index later this year. The continuous nature of the Higg Index, coupled with the objective setting aspect, allows factories to monitor their current status and how they improve from one cycle to the next. «
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Worker Care
Chu Hsing Garments, Cambodia Nien Hsing (Ninh Binh), Vietnam
Worker Care—an ever increasing important concept. Having taken the concept from a mere idea, to implementation, the Nien Hsing group is proud of its Worker Well-Being Programme. Administered at company level, each of our factories will implement an “ownership model” at factory level to their existing projects. With “ownership model”, we envision factory management actively running the various programmes, focusing on improving communication between management and workers; and imparting skills and tools to our workforce focusing on improving their lives outside the factory gates—within their families and communities. Partnering with our buyers, Levi Strauss and Co. have actively assisted the company to jump start the WWB programme in two of our factories. In Vietnam at Ninh Binh the factory is working with Life Centre, and in Cambodia, Chu Hsing Garments with CARE— both programmes educating workers on numerous topics from HIV/Aids, nutrition, financial literacy to maternity care. With more of our partners coming aboard, and the programmes extending to our other factories, we will have lots more updates in the months to come! « Nien Hsing Group CSR Newsletter 2016-1 4
Energy Efficiency Vietnam is the most energy intensive country in the textile industry in East Asia, with electricity consumption more than tripling in the last decade and still on the rise. With this concern weighing heavily on the industry and its future, VF in partnership with the IFC have launched the Strategic Partner Energy Efficiency Programme end of 2015. With the focus on saving resources and energy consumption, the programme determines a factory’s consumption of energy through a thorough technical assessment of processes on site, after which intervention recommendations are made to help assist the factory in reducing the usage of resources and energy; while still remaining productive and competitive at an optimum with no loss to quality or production.
Nien Hsing (Thai Binh) factory is privileged to be chosen as one of the participant factories to this undertaking, completing the assessment in January of this year. Next, discussions on the findings will look at implementing intervention initiatives to reduce energy consumption—most probably starting with the low hanging fruit. With this just one of the numerous projects focusing on energy efficiency and conservation, the Nien Hsing Group is also involved with other projects that will improve production–, energy– and waste management systems. Commitment to these projects will reduce costs and increase competitiveness, reduce emissions and the environmental footprint—and create a better working environment for our employees. «
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Helping Hands
The more we learn, the more we have to give. Another great initiative this year from our CSR Department will be the cooperation with local training schools in Lesotho on health and safety—to allow for attachments to complete their practicals at our factories under watchful supervision from the CSR Team. Commencing in March, the programme will roll out with two candidates that will spend a month at the factories during which time they will be educated hands on in risk assessment, job safety analysis, housekeeping and emergency preparedness. This one month will allow them to get a practical feel for the theory they have been absorbing at their training centre for the last year. Formosa Textile has completed an internship programme in 2015 for local candidates in supervisor and management level, and now we are building upon this concept and taking it to the CSR division. Additional programmes and longer attachments period will be considered based upon the success from the pilot ending March 2016. In our next newsletter we’ll provide a complete update on how the programme went, and feedback from the attachments themselves. «
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For the Nien Hsing Group, 2015 will always be remembered as the year of change and challenges. Having faced the roughest winds, we have come out on the other side even more determined to set out and improve our social compliance to that of international standards. The first biggest change was that of a newly formed CSR Team/Committee, headed by the Chairman, Vice Chairman, General Manager and Vice President of the company. Following this was the appointment of a global CSR Director, overseeing all CSR activities at the factories, and responsible for policy formulation, setting objectives, and establishing a first-class in-company training programme.
Committing to
2016
Near the end of 2015, the CSR Committee sat down and formulated 7 Main Objectives for 2016, focusing on capacity building, standardization of CSR across our operations, and worker well-being focus. Apart from these 3 categories, we have committed ourselves to transparency, informing our stakeholders of our initiatives and their progress, as well as close partnerships and cooperation on areas of interest, such as worker well-being programmes. With a great foundation laid in 2015, we are embarking on probably one of the most challenging enterprises in the company’s history yet, but feel confident that with our committed team and professional staff we’ll achieve these goals and commitments. Finally, we will again and again extend our gratitude to our business partners, as it’s without you that we won’t have come this far. You’ve given us input, advice and boundless tools to help us up the ladder to a respected social responsibility status, and from here, we would like to walk side-by-side with you on the journey onward. «
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