NEW YORK – Denim industry event series Kingpins has revealed the next phase of its work to ensure all exhibitors comply with a set of mandatory environmental and social standards by end of 2020 to help drive positive change in the denim manufacturing sector.
Following on from its initial announcement in February that Kingpins will mandate corporate social responsibility standards for its exhibitors, the show has today revealed that these denim mills will also be expected to meet stringent chemical management standards aligned to ZDHC (zero discharge of hazardous chemicals) criteria over thee next 18 months.
Kingpins, which takes place this week in Amsterdam, says the reason it’s working directly with ZDHC Foundation is to, in the words of Kingpins founder, Andrew Olah, “move our exhibitors toward the future.”
Denim expert Miguel Sánchez, who is an advisor to Kingpins on this new initiative told Ecotextile News prior to the announcement: “We will have a private session with the Kingpins exhibitors on the first day of the show in Amsterdam next week for the official full introduction and to answer questions.
“We expect total support and engagement from them since chemical management in the denim industry was a recurring topic both when discussed at forum level – such as our Transformers conference – and when we had direct contacts with specific (exhibitor) companies. The leading mills have actually expressed their enthusiasm for having this important topic finally tackled in a transparent way.”
