Our vision is to become the most responsible workwear brand.
The Bisley.POSITIVE commitment touches on the positive steps that we can take as a
company to honour the key pillars of our business:
people, planet, product and prosperity.
We are on a mission to become leaders, fulfilling our responsibility
to positively transform our industry, and get the job done, so you can do yours.
Bisley have been shaping the Australian workwear industry for over 60 years.
We pride ourselves on being a big company, built on small company values. As we work to formalise our strategy and roadmap for Bisley.POSITIVE, we have outlined the steps that we have taken to date, to positively transform our business operations to be more responsible.
The development of Bisley.POSITIVE is our commitment to continuous improvement to drive excellence within our business.
As a global apparel company, we understand our responsibility to our value-chain partners. We pride ourselves on having longstanding and well-established relationships with our Tier 1 partners; our values and standards are built on these foundations, as well as acknowledged within our signed agreements.
Our efforts this year were focused on establishing a dedicated team to drive our Human Rights and Ethical Sourcing program.
In addition, our ESG team are constantly reviewing our sustainability work and product offering. This assists Bisley to build the foundations of ethical sourcing within the business through aligning with key experts, training, and research and development.
Solidifying our commitment and creating pathways for execution was a key priority this year and into the future. Through key stakeholder partnerships, we elevated our ethical sourcing work, transitioned to lower impact alternatives across areas of our operations and product, and became signatories to key industry programs.
We support the UN Sustainable Development Goals and have aligned our business activities and partnerships to the relevant global goals. Collectively, everyone at Bisley is focused on the Bisley.POSITIVE Goals. Our team actively works towards finding more sustainable solutions and advancements for our value chain.
Global Sedex partnership, including working with Sedex consulting and integrating IT reporting systems.
Continued with our Textile Exchange membership.
Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia, members of several working groups within BCSD Australia.
Transitioned packaging to 100% Ocean Bound plastic with Better Packaging Co.
Introduced synthetic recycled fabrications into our new ranges.
OEKO-TEX 100 was implemented into industrial fabrications.
Engaged with TrusTrace 2023 - rollout commencing July 23, prioritised by country of import (defined by current forced labour registration).
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Tier 1 Vendor Audits SMETA 4 Pillar ongoing and prerequisite for working with Bisley & PIP Global Safety.
Signatory of the WWF Business call for UN Treaty on Plastics.
Annual APCO reporting, committed to Australian Packaging Covenant
100% recycled hanger program
Electricity converted to renewable alternatives for Australian & New Zealand warehouses and Head Office.
Detailed ESG road map developed and integrated into Bisley.POSITIVE program.
Seamless Supporter
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Our team is focused on driving results, actively working with industry stakeholders to find lower impact solutions across our products and operations.
We have long been regarded as one of Australasia’s most trustworthy brands, providing consistent quality, performance and service that exceeds expectations, and this extends to our commitment to lead the industry in environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives.
Leading with integrity and transparency, our inaugural Impact Report is the culmination of decades of hard work by our team. It highlights our company’s commitments, achievements, and challenges in establishing our brand as a pioneer of technical innovation while also addressing our contribution to the social, environmental, and economic impacts created by the broader garment and textile industry.
This Impact Report was developed in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative Standards (GRI Standards) for reporting sustainability impacts. This Report provides a comprehensive summary of our ESG-focused initiatives and outlines our future goals under each of our company pillars of People, Planet, Product and Prosperity. The information presented within the report specifically relates to actions and initiatives undertaken during the financial year period from 1st February 2022 to 31st January 2023. Throughout this Report, references to products and expenditures on products/suppliers pertain specifically to all items that reached the Bisley distribution locations or were sent directly from suppliers to customers during the reporting period.
At Bisley, our ESG-focused initiative, Bisley.POSITIVE, stands as a testament to our commitment to driving excellence. As our industry faces major geopolitical, human rights, environmental, systemic, and health and safety challenges, we recognise the importance of taking a proactive approach and working collaboratively to make a positive impact as a responsible corporate citizen.
The whole team at Bisley Workwear are delighted to share this Report with you and invite you to use it as an indicator of our journey thus far. In humility, we also acknowledge that there is a lot more to do, and we all have our sleeves rolled up to take on the challenge. We will continue to get our job done, so you can do yours.
David Gazal
As a responsible brand on a collective impact journey, we have aligned ourselves to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Each strategic step is aligned with a specific goal, and provides us with a unified framework for reporting.
In 2022, we began transitioning our bags to certified recycled ocean-bound post-consumer plastics (with the exception of Fire Retardant garments that are transitioning late 2023). Better Packaging Co. work with coastal communities that are most impacted by the compounding effects of pollution and poverty, to clean up their beaches and riverways. This program provides economic development within these communities, as well as a more responsible packaging option for Bisley.
Better Packaging Co. is a certified B Corporation and Carbon Neutral, and the programme makes progress towards the UN Global Sustainable Development goals.
BlockTexx is a clean technology company that recovers polyester and cellulose (cotton) from textiles and clothing.
Our patent pending process, developed in Australia, combines chemical recovery technology and advanced manufacturing to produce high quality recycled materials of rPET pellets (PolyTexx®) and cellulose (CellTexx®).
BlockTexx is positioned at the end of the value chain, where raw materials and end-of-use solutions have the highest environmental impact.
The world leading, textile recovery facility ensures all resource recovery processes are achieved in Australia delivering onshore landfill diversion and new raw materials for Australian manufacturing.
Seamless is Australia’s national clothing stewardship scheme, which recognises that transitioning to a circular clothing economy is a shared responsibility.
By joining this amazing initiative, we’re joining forces with other responsible leaders across the industry to make clothing more sustainable. Together with all of the Seamless members and supporters, we’re committed to reducing the 200,000 tonnes of clothing waste that ends up in Australian landfill each year and achieving a circular clothing industry by 2030.
Seamless supporters are clothing industry stakeholders working together to transform how we choose, enjoy and recycle clothing in Australia.
We have begun transitioning our commercial and non commerical goods to remove virgin plastics, and replace them with solutions that are certified recycled, and recyclable.
Reducing our reliance on Virgin plastics is an initiative our sourcing team are continually working towards . We are replacing traditional plastics and polyesters with recycled content, or sustainable alternatives in our garments, packaging, trims, and components.
You can read more about THE BUSINESS CALL FOR A UN TREATY ON PLASTIC POLLUTION here: plasticpollutiontreaty.org
In 2021 Bisley introduced certified recycled polyester yarns into our product
range. Made from post-consumer plastic waste, these fibres divert pollution
that could otherwise end up in landfill or our water ways. Through careful
R&D, we utilise these fibres to develop our durable workwear range.
Transitioning conventional polyester to certified recycled options, lessens
our dependance on fossil fuels and diverts waste from landfills and waterways.
Shop the Recycle range here
Textile Exchange is a global nonprofit that creates leaders in the preferred fiber and materials industry. Textile Exchange develop, manage, and promote a suite of leading industry standards, as well as collect and publish critical industry data and insights that enable brands and retailers to measure, manage, and track their use of preferred fiber and materials.
With a robust membership representing leading brands, retailers, and suppliers, Textile Exchange is positively impacting the climate through accelerating the use of preferred fibers across the global textile industry.
We actively participate on the Hub with industry leaders to gain knowledge to assist us to improve our practices.
By benchmarking the industry and providing actionable tools for improvement, Textile Exchange is driving a race to the top.
EcoVadis ratings are evidence-based and are validated by a team of experts. EcoVadis assist Bisley to monitor and improve the sustainability performance in our supply chain. Covering four sustainability themes, Environment, Labour and human rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement.
This independent rating places Bisley in the top 25 percent of companies assessed by EcoVadis.
Every year EcoVadis rates 90,000 companies, in 160 countries across 200 industries.
As a global apparel company, we recognise that we are responsible for ethical conduct within our value-chain. All of our business partners must sign and demonstrate compliance with our Ethical Sourcing Policy, and participate in our ethical sourcing programs.
We have long-standing partnerships with our sourcing partners and factories, and are working collaboratively with them to take positive actions for society and the environment.
Our commitment to the Modern Slavery Act throughout our supply chain and domestic operations is a priority for Bisley.
Bisley Workwear - PIP (Protective Industrial Products), a global leader in Workwear and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), has partnered with TrusTrace, a global SaaS company with a market-leading platform for product traceability and supply chain transparency.
PIP is the first Workwear and PPE Company in the world to partner with TrusTrace and aims to inspire the industry in fostering sustainable practices.
PIP is committed to human rights, mitigating the risk of any abuses within the supply chain, and mapping the supply chain and gathering product-level data is a critical step in this journey.
We work with our independent auditor Intertek to conduct the audits to ensure we have full transparency and assurance of authenticity. We share this information with our customers and suppliers who are members of Sedex.
In addition, we partner with Sedex Consultancy to assist us with navigating international legislation. Sedex Consultancy has helped us frame, understand and write our Australian Modern Slavery Statement.
Our strong partnership is international in scope and we are working collectively to improve our sustainability profile.
Sedex is a membership organisation that provides one of the world’s leading online platforms for companies to manage and improve working conditions in global supply chains.
To ensure that our business practices are world standard, we offer elective training programmes providing all staff with the skills to elevate their career opportunities in the future.
The Bisley senior management team identified that we need ongoing and consistent training programmes in our business.
Our training platform will educate our team members on business ethics- such as price fixing, corruption, modern slavery, collusion and fraud- as well as, acceptable workplace behaviour, anti-bullying, sexual harassment, diversity and age inclusion.
The Business Council for Sustainable Development Australia (BCSD Australia) is the national peak body representing forward-thinking companies and organisations that are working towards the transition to a sustainable Australia. The BCSD’s mission is to accelerate this transition by making sustainable business more successful.
BCSD Australia are the Australian partner of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
Members believe that by integrating social and environmental impacts with financial results, business lowers its risk profile, makes better decisions, and creates the solutions needed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
Bisley is an active member and participates in multiple working groups to improve our environmental practices. BCSD Australia provide essential and critical knowledge and guidance on an ongoing basis.